The Scan Main Edition 21 June 2013 # 125

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Craven calls for remaking TEQSA

Greg Craven, vice-chancellor of Australian Catholic University and one of the architects of the higher education regulatory framework told a policy seminar  that the problems with the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency have resulted from significant flaws in design and process during the formulation of the legislation, rather than problems with the agency itself.  The one-size fits all approach of the legislation failed to recognise the “special” characteristics of universities that underpin their greater autonomy compared with other providers……[READ MORE]…..

Newer Australian unis rate highly

Innovative Research University members have cemented their position in the Times Higher Education ranking of the world’s top 100 universities under 50 years old, with all participating IRU members listed.  According to Barney Glover, IRU hair and Vice-Chancellor, Charles Darwin University that six IRU members and  seven other Australian universities are among the world’s top 100 universities under 50 years shows the benefit of the investment from Australian Governments in open and competitive research funding…..[READ MORE]…..

Sunshine Coast scores EIF funding

The Sunshine Coast TAFE has been awarded almost $47 million from the federal government’s Education Investment Fund to help build a new centre for health training.   The centre is expected to double the TAFE’s student capacity, with an extra 950 people undertaking studies there in its first three years……[READ MORE]…..

Not happy 3

Online news service Crikey reports that a $1 million “cash splash” by the National Tertiary Education Union to “help struggling federal Greens MPs” to hold their seats in September has split both the party and the union and led to claims of favouritism as fissures threaten to muddy the deal before a dollar has even been spent.   The decision was brokered this week at a fiery meeting of the NTEU’s 150-member national council in Canberra against the backdrop of a meeting of minds over Labor’s $2.3 billion in cuts to the sector to help pay for its Gonski reforms…..[READ MORE]…..

Deakin & Gordon target Melbourne’s west

Deakin University and Gordon Institute of TAFE have unveiled plans to offer dozens of tertiary and training courses in Wyndham and Werribee in Melbourne’s western suburbs by the start of next year.   Deakin has confirmed it is looking for properties to rent or buy in Werribee and Hoppers Crossing.   Vice-chancellor Jane den Hollander said the university was establishing a presence in Wyndham so it could bring higher education options to the area’s rapidly growing population….[READ MORE]…..

Nano research to advance optical IT

A research team at Swinburne University of Technology has overcome a fundamental law of optical science that could lead to faster and more energy-efficient optical computing.  It would allow Petabyte storage on a single disc or the equivalent of 10.6 years of compressed HD-TV video.  The new technique produces a focal spot that is 1 ten thousandth of a human hair, enabling more data to be written to disc, says director of the Centre for Micro-Photonics at Swinburne, Professor Min Gu said….[READ MORE]…..

New visa charges will do “incalculable damage”

The tourism and international student sectors are warning export revenue will be hit by a new $700 levy on visitors applying for a visa onshore for the second time, calling it a revenue grab.   Education leaders say the levy  it will do “incalculable damage”  to the international sector, which is only slowly recovering from the impact of other policy changes and the high dollar….[READ MORE]…..

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Not happy 2

18 June 2013     |      A special meeting of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) National Council has  voted to spend $1 million during the  election campaign to defend higher education in the September federal election…….[READ MORE]…..

Not happy

18 June 2013     |     Universities Australia has launched a print advertising campaign in over 80 regional and local areas around the country, aimed at informing residents of the potential consequences to local economies of the Government’s $2.8 billion in cuts to university funding and student support measures……[READ MORE]…..

Australian researchers call for non-partisan backing

18 June 2013     |     Australian research bodies have come together to urge non-partisan support for science and all forms of research, demanding that all parties make a commitment to the fundamental value of research in the physical, biological and social sciences, through to engineering and humanities. …..[READ MORE]….

Deakin launches “testbed” MOOC

18 June 2013     |     In a move aimed at buttressing its position as a leader in online education, Deakin University launched its first massive open online course (MOOC) on 17 June and plans to use it as a test-bed for redeveloping its full learning environment.)……[READ MORE]….

ASQA’s one in ten strike rate

18 June 2013     |     A Senate estimates committee has been told that the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), the national vocational training regulator, has deregistered or refused to re-register 127 providers since it commenced operations almost two years ago. This comprises about 8% of the 1600 Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) audited so far. Another 1000 RTOs are currently being assessed or have been “earmarked for audit”, chief commissioner Chris Robinson told the Senate Economics Legislation Committee….[READ MORE]….

Swinburne non-union agreement withdrawn

18 June 2013     |     An attempt by Swinburne University to certify a non-union agreement with a small group of newly appointed staff at its subsidiary Swinburne College, which offers courses in Foundation Studies, Pathways, and English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students, has failed……[READ MORE]….

Carlton uni town connects to city

18 June 2013     |     A  sprawling former hospital site in inner city Melbourne has been sold by the state government to Melbourne University for $37 million and is to be transformed into a ”living laboratory” for sustainability research as part of the university’s new precinct called Carlton Connect…..[READ MORE]….

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Comment & analysis

Growing Australian Higher Education:

Achieving Targets and Rethinking Provision

Higher education in Australia has been following a growth trajectory unmatched for the past 20 years. In this  paper for the ACPET Journal for Private Higher Education, Dan Edwards  (ACER and Monash University)  shows that, while the recent growth in university enrolments over the past few years has been facilitated by the federal government’s demand-driven funding policy in public universities, private providers have also been expanding and contributing to the overall national aims of increasing attainment.

With the 2013 initial university offer figures showing a slowing of growth in universities for the first time since demand-driven funding was announced, the role of non-universities in maintaining the growth trajectory for higher education, as well as helping to achieve key attainment and participation targets, is heightened. Edwards suggests that now is the time for considering the role that private providers and TAFEs will play in the Australian higher education sector in the coming decades.

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….the extension of demand-driven funding beyond public universities would likely have an immediate impact on student numbers.  With the improved regulatory procedures now in place through TEQSA, the potential for continued and considered expansion through non-university providers is significant.

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