US Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has stood by comments calling President Barak Obama a “snob” for wanting "everybody in America to go to college". The former senator said good, decent people worked hard every day putting their skills to the test and were not taught by "some liberal college professor who tries to indoctrinate". What Obama has actually stated is that everybody should have the opportunity to have a college/post secondary education and that a strong education system is central to securing a prosperous future. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ In his State of the Union Address in … [Read more...]
Monash’s Federation
29/02/2012 by
In November 2009 Monash University Council endorsed a “strategic directions” paper proposing that Monash move to a differentiated model along the lines of the University of Toronto "federation". Monash V-C Ed Byrnes has confirmed this direction will be pursued. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ The proposal involves retaining a single Monash umbrella for reputational and branding purposes. Differentiation would occur along curriculum, management and geographical lines. The ‘Central’ campuses would be clustered together as the core of research-intensive excellence. The Faculties would retain and strengthen budgetary … [Read more...]
The Scan 1 March 2012
29/02/2012 by
Control and click headlines and highlights to link to articles, Links may not work unless you or your organisation is a paid subscriber to the originating media outlet. Check with your communications people about subscriptions. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ TEQSA releases regulatory framework The Tertiary Education Quality & Standards Agency (TEQSA) has released its Regulatory Risk Framework, which sets out TEQSA’s policy and processes for identifying and assessing risk in the higher education sector. TEQSA says the emphasis of it’s risk management process under the framework” is on dialogue with … [Read more...]
British unis consider going “private”
29/02/2012 by
The Australian 28 February 2012 Officials of the Higher Education Funding Council for England have been discussing with the department for business a mechanism that could enable universities to become private institutions able to raise fees above the new $13,400 (£9,000) cap. Officials are exploring whether universities could keep state funding for research, but opt out of government cash for teaching and student loans. They would also escape much of the regulation imposed by the Office for Fair Access, which polices the social composition of universities’ student intakes. Universities would also have to negotiate loan schemes with the banks to enable them to offer loans on comparable … [Read more...]
Vic public & private providers unite on more effective regulation
28/02/2012 by
This post has been removed at the request of Campus Review … [Read more...]
UK: Politics jeopardising relationship between unis & colleges
28/02/2012 by
Guardian Higher Education Network 27 February 2012 With ministers warning universities against getting in the way of competition from further education (FE) colleges and actively encouraging such competition, Geoff Layer and Andy Westwood write that higher education in FE is neither new nor hostile. Further education (FE) colleges are a vitally important and specialist part of the UK higher education sector. Some 10% or so of higher education in England is already offered within FE colleges, with many long established and some offering unique specialist provision. Many more offer higher education in geographical "coldspots", where the nearest universities are a long way off. … [Read more...]
Inventing life: patent law & synthetic biology
28/02/2012 by
The Conversation 27 February 2012 With promises of improved medical treatments, greener energy and even artificial life, the field of synthetic biology has attracted both attention and significant government and commercial investment. There are however a range of ethical and legal issues in this emerging area. Civil society groups and technology activists have raised concerns about the risks synthetic biology may pose to security, public health and the environment. The ETC Group, for instance, is concerned that organisms made with synthetic biology (such as engineered bacteria) could be released into the environment, with unknown effects. They’re also concerned about potential … [Read more...]
