22 November 2012 Reinstate funding to ensure TAFE’s can provide student support services and offer extra help to students with a disability, students from disadvantaged background or those requiring literacy and numeracy development. Providing an automatic right to government-subsidised training for redundant workers to re-skill, regardless of prior qualifications. Introducing a target of at least 10 per cent of the workforce on projects of state significance to be made up of apprentices. Properly funding extensive and rigorous auditing of training providers and the power to close down unscrupulous operators. Developing effective industry advisory bodies, whose membership … [Read more...]
Creativity under “short-sighted assault” in Australia – David Williamson
20/11/2012 by
NTEU Newsrooom | 16 November 2012 Playwright David Williamson says that creativity, the single most important driver of both economic growth and a rich and interesting life, is under short-sighted assault by both sides of the political divide in Australia. Williamson made the comments as part of the hour-long National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) Lecture presented to a packed audience at the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle. Entitled “Living dangerously: The future of creative arts education in Australian universities”, the lecture reflected on Williamson’s own career, traversed what is happening to the creative arts within higher education in Australia and put the … [Read more...]
UWS staff protest cuts
20/11/2012 by
NTEU Newsroom | 19 November 2012 Staff at the University of Western Sydney will protest over proposed staff and course cuts on Wednesday 21 November over staff cuts that will result from large cuts to the university’s 400 different units of study on offer. “The staff and unit cuts appear to be a panicked reaction by UWS to a drop in enrolments this year even though the university still has a large budgetary surplus. So far, the two worst affected areas are the School of Business where twenty-nine academics will lose their jobs, and the School of Humanities and Communication Arts where twenty-five staff will go. The NTEU says the ‘financial crisis’ appears to have been … [Read more...]
Regional universities pool resources
20/11/2012 by
RUN Newsroom | 19 November 2012 Regional Universities Network (RUN) vice-chancellors have signed an accord formalising collaborative arrangements in teaching and learning, regional policy development, research and research training, and international activities. The chair of RUN, vice-chancellor of the University of Ballarat David Battersby, says the Accord will boost the range of courses available to regional students by pooling teaching resources. Course units available at one university can be offered via distance education to others, broadening the scope of offerings available in a cost-effective manner:. It will enable [RUN universties} to enhance the role we play in … [Read more...]
