The Age | 16 October 2012 "Even if I wanted to go to Australia, and I got the course I wanted, there is no way I could convince my mum and dad," a young Indian student told British Council researchers in Delhi last month. The student's parents are not alone in worrying about sending their offspring to Australia. The number of Indian students enrolled in our colleges and universities has collapsed over the past three years — from 121,000 in 2009 down to 48,000 by August this year — at an estimated cost to the national economy of more than $2 billion. Figures compiled by the government's Australian international education agency reveal higher education enrolments of … [Read more...]
My Skills website ‘soft launch’
16/10/2012 By
16 October 2012 The Commonwealth government has launched a My Skills website which is intended to provide information and data that allowing its users to consider which training provider best meets their needs and circumstances. The My Skills website will be updated as “new functionality and data becomes available”. To date, only TAFE public sector course and institute data is disclosed, and private colleges in receipt of public VET funding are shown but no data disclosed. MY Skills complements the My University and My School websites. … [Read more...]
TDA Newsletter 15 October 2012
16/10/2012 By
Senate refers VET FEE HELP arrangements to Education Committee Inquiry The Senate has referred an inquiry into the Higher Education Support Amendment (Streamlining and Other Measures) Bill 2012, to the Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Legislation Committee. The bill proposes to amend the Higher Education Support Act, to make changes to the VET FEE-HELP program – part of the $1.75 billion National Partnership Agreement. The amendments are designed to “strengthen the integrity and quality framework underpinning the HELP schemes, improve information sharing and transparency with the national education regulators, improve arrangements for the early identification of low … [Read more...]
OpenLearning launches into competitive MOOCs market
16/10/2012 By
The Conversation | 16 October 2012 The University of New South Wales’ massive open online courses (MOOCs) platform OpenLearning has signed on more than 1,000 students to a 12-week computer science and engineering course. But experts say its decision to offer private industry-focused courses, automated marking, and “wisdom of crowds approach” could limit uptake by major universities. OpenLearning was built by UNSW graduates Richard Buckland and Adam Brimo, who call it “a combination of Facebook and Wikipedia for learning”. The Australian company will be emulating Facebook and YouTube and taking on Coursera and Blackboard with a platform that allows … [Read more...]