higher education policy

How universities have become big business

By Ann Sardesai, Lee Parker and James Guthrie

Australian public universities have undergone extensive policy reforms since the 1980s, driven by neoliberal ideologies that emphasise free

Refugee Week: Why universities could – and how they should – offer refuge

By Tebeje Molla, Sally Baker and Verity Firth

Every year, a fraction of the world’s forcibly-displaced people get the opportunity to resettle in one of the main refugee-resettling countries, including Australia.  Refugees escape war and violence and search for a place to rebuild their lives. Access to and success in higher education supports refugee integration. However, while access to higher education is around

Universities Accord: Why this urgent deadline is mission (almost) impossible

By Andrew Norton

Every year Job-ready Graduates continues, with the top student contribution now above $15,000 a year, students charged this amount sink further into a debt that will take them many years, and potentially decades, to pay off.

We asked academics to be real about work. Here are our new findings

By Roxanna Pebdani

My children were two and three years old in March of 2020 when Sydney went into its first COVID-19  lockdown.  At the time, I was in an education-focussed leadership role but also still teaching and conducting research. I was supporting my colleagues as they pivoted to online learning at the same time as helping implement

O’Shea: All I want for higher education now and tomorrow

By Sarah O'Shea

Fresh from delivering a widely-applauded keynote at this year’s HERDSA conference, “Fragility or tenacity? Equity and participation in

Ditch the widgets. Start investing in their amazing futures

By Daniel Edwards

The cost of teaching a student from a low SES background is significantly higher than for more advantaged

Is this now the Federal government’s most bone-headed idea ever?

By Inger Mewburn

Apparently international PhD students in Australia now have to seek ministerial approval to change their thesis topic or

Teaching-focused academics: five ways to beat the struggle for identity

By Joy Whitton, Graham Parr and Julia Choate

An academic career centered on teaching should not be associated with a dead-end, or second-rate professional life. It

There are direct actions we can take now to make university access fair

By Sally Patfield

While in recent decades there has been a focus on improving equitable access to higher education, inequalities cannot be overcome by simply exhorting more young people to go to university. Policies must also address the disparities between students that affect their capacity to ‘choose’ higher education.  Australia has seen substantial growth in university enrolments since