Monash scientists breakthrough on bug killer

01/08/2012 By
Structure of PlyC

The Age    29 July 2012   Scientists at Monash University have made a breakthrough in the hunt for an alternative to antibiotics - at a time when the World Health Organisation is predicting a bleak future in which current bug-killing drugs are so ineffective ''a child's scratched knee or a strep throat could kill again''.  The researchers, in collaboration with Rockefeller University and the University of Maryland, have published a paper revealing the structure and workings of PlyC, a protein that kills bacteria that cause infections from sore throats to pneumonia and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome.  PlyC is a viral protein - known as a bacteriophage lysin - that … [Read more...]

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A new course in the red heart

01/08/2012 By
Teachabout 2

The Age    31 July 2012 Teachabout is an organisation set up by University of Melbourne students and ex-students to run school holiday programs for children in remote communities.  It was established in 2010, with funding from the university and the Cybec Foundation charitable fund, by a group of students from Melbourne University's Trinity College who had visited Minyerri in the Northern Territory the previous year. But the Teachabout people wanted the program to be more than just a boredom cure. So our program has a twist...We incorporate literacy and numeracy into fun, engaging activities with a fundamental commitment to community involvement and cultural activities.  Our aim … [Read more...]

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Solomon Islands to set up a uni

01/08/2012 By
Solomon

  Campus Review  30 July 2012 The Solomon Islands Government has announced plans to open a university within 12 months.  Prime Minister Gordon Dary Lilo said a local university will relieve the financial pressures placed on families who are currently forced to send children abroad to study. The deputy director of the College of Higher Education, Dr Patricia Rodie, said an increasing demand for university study by the country’s citizens has forced the government to consider the need for a national university. Rodie said the decision was made due to the huge government expenditure each year on scholarships for Solomon Islanders who had to attend overseas institutes. She said the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: International Tagged With: ,

NSW “blueprint” to lift teaching standards

01/08/2012 By
Teacher

The Australian   30 July 2012     Australian Financial Review    30 July 2012 Aspiring teachers will have to study maths and science at school, and meet minimum entry scores, to qualify for a limited number of places in education degrees at university under reforms proposed by the NSW government.  University courses would also be assessed for the quality of graduates they produce, and employers could preference new teachers from those degrees with a track record of producing quality graduates. Universities have been criticised for low entry requirements for education degrees.  Teaching attracted the highest proportion of applicants with an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank … [Read more...]

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Funding per student increasing

01/08/2012 By
$ sign

Media release    30 July 2012 A report by accounting firm Ernst & Young shows that funding for university student places in 2013 will be 10.1% or almost $2,000 higher per student because of the Gillard Government funding reforms. The 10% increase is comprised of improved indexation, additional equity funding for the Higher Education, Participation and Partnerships Program; Sustainable Research Excellence funding; Reward Funding and Structural Adjustment Fund funding.  The Commonwealth has invested an additional $5.2 billion from 2010 to 2015.  Tertiary education minister Chris Evans says the findings address sector calls for the Bradley Review recommendation to increase in … [Read more...]

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Top unis keen to cash in on prestige

01/08/2012 By
Group of 8 logo

Australian Financial Review   30 July 2012 Elite universities would increase degree prices if they are allowed to operate in a deregulated fee environment, according to a departmental briefing paper to Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans. The paper advises that the Group of Eight universities was responsible for the greatest fee rises under the Coalition’s full fees for degrees policy, which ended in 2009. Go8 universities consistently charged substantially higher fees than other providers, an average of $20,461 per year in 2008 compared to $15,239per year across all institutions. As the government faces off against the Go8 over fresh calls for deregulation, the paper advises … [Read more...]

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Fees debate assumes cuts under coalition government

01/08/2012 By
Budget cuts 2

The Australian    1 August 2012 Debate within Universities Australia on the deregulation of student fees assumes the next election will deliver a Coalition government focused on budget cuts and that any funding increases must come from students.  At a UA workshop of vice-chancellors and their representatives in Canberra on 30 July, participants appeared to accept that the fees debate is not about ideology but about finding a pragmatic alternative to revenue streams in a tight fiscal environment.  Universities Australia chief executive Belinda Robinson says there is no capitulation on the sector's campaign for an increase in government funding. There are good arguments to be made … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Budget, Universities Australia Tagged With: , , ,

Campus Review 30 July 2012

01/08/2012 By
campus-review1

Mother's milk study sparks debate Midwifery experts are challenging research by the Australian National University that found exclusively breastfed babies had a higher risk of nut allergies.  The research found that the likelihood of developing a nut allergy was 1.5 times higher in children who were solely breast fed in the first six months of life, than in children who were exposed to other foods and fluids.  The study’s author and professor of general practice at the ANU Medical School Marjan Kljakovic sys that Despite breastfeeding being recommended as the sole source of nutrition in the first six months of life, an increasing number of studies have implicated breastfeeding as a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Campus Review, Research Tagged With: ,
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