Universities futures

A reasonably honest portrait of where the system is now

By Andrew Norton

On Wednesday, the Minister for Education Jason Clare, spoke at the National Press Club on the interim report from the Universities Accord Panel, chaired by Professor Mary O’Kane, who have been given the job of transforming Australia’s university sector. The report itself has ambitious long- term goals including parity of participation in higher education between

We Found Education Schools Across The Nation Are Victims Of Targeted Cuts But More Threats Are Looming

By Jo-Anne Reid

At every university around the country, academics in schools and faculties of Education have been hit hard.  Hundreds, maybe thousands, have lost their jobs. Many of them are people we know. Yet it is not easy to identify the particular staff who have ‘disappeared’ from classes, courses and schools of Education among the seventeen and

IS THE LECTURE DEAD?

Universities all over Australia are welcoming back students – but what will the learning experience look like? The Australian National University’s vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt told staff last week:: “We need our teachers to be more than just people who stand at the front of the lecture hall or before a video camera. We need them

COVID-19 has destroyed academic careers & stalled equity in our universities: Death knell or opportunity?

By Troy Heffernan

In mid-March, my university sent me and my colleagues home to work remotely for what everyone thought would be a week, maybe ten days. It was meant to be just enough time for Victoria to get on top of the virus that was increasingly in the news. More than 280 days later, most of us

Universities are investing in teaching at the expense of research. Here’s why we should fight it

By Lew Zipin and Marie Brennan

The will and vital capacity of Australian universities to support academics to combine teaching and research is under