As the dust settles on the government’s proposed changes to VET-FEE HELP, we should be reminded of the need for proper consultation prior to broad reforms. VET-FEE HELP, Australia’s vocational loans scheme, has always typified my idea of the Aussie ...

What keeps vice-chancellors awake at night? If Dr Julie Rowlands, a Deakin University expert on higher-education governance and author of the book Academic Governance in the Contemporary University, is correct, it’s strategic planning, their institution’s reputation and the budget – ...

Introducing a 15 per cent fee for HELP loans is preferable to the federal government choosing to cripple the demand-driven system, the Grattan Institute has said. Andrew Norton, Grattan's higher-education program director, recently completed a report that argues for a ...

Australia’s training system has a long and proud tradition but it will need to adapt to rapid changes to provide what the country and its workers need for the future. We can look back fondly and see an Australian apprenticeship ...

Listing countries that rank higher than Australia on the Global Innovation Index – it’s a favourite of those pushing the innovation bandwagon. On this list, Australia is placed 19, though there is constant political rhetoric stating that it could, and ...

While our universities speak of liberalism and the spirit of enquiry, they are using the uncapped, demand-driven enrolment system to churn students through their packed faculties, leaving thousands to graduate onto the dole with high HECS debts. Law graduates are ...

Donald Trump’s election to the White House and the UK’s Brexit from the European Union has accelerated Australia’s pivot to Asia, the vice-chancellor of the University of New South Wales has said. Professor Ian Jacobs said that universities switching their ...

The innovation debate has been hijacked by the tech start-up space, the federal assistant minister for industry, innovation and science told a conference. Speaking at the University of New South Wales’s Innovation Summit, Craig Laundy said discourse on how to ...

Federal opposition leader Bill Shorten has written to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, urging him to personally intervene and fix supposed shortfalls in the VET student loans program. Shorten said that Turnbull policy’s approved course list is overly simplistic and “would have extreme ...

Deciding on a collective noun for a group of chancellors was one of the pressing issues discussed at the recent Australian Financial Review Higher Education Summit. Eventually, Monash University chancellor Simon McKeon, University of Queensland chancellor Peter Varghese, La Trobe ...