26 December 2015 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… On account of other pressing matters in 2015 published editions of The Scan, with a completely refreshed front page heralded to subscribers by an e-newsletter, were down quite a bit – just 21 in 2015 compared to 40 in in 2014. Nevertheless, some 350 items were posted, which is about 8 a week in The Scan’s year, a little down on the 10 items posted a week last year. Traffic to the Scan website remained strong, down about 20% on last year’s figures. The Scan’s now extensive archive of nearly 3000 posts creates “organic” traffic: over one third of all Scan traffic now flows from search engines and referrals. Regular readers will have … [Read more...]
The Scan #175 11 December 2015
11/12/2015 by
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ News __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ VET FEE-HELP skewering system 11 December 2015 | Explosive growth in the VET FEE-HELP scheme has masked massive direct public disinvestment in vocational education and training. While a report by NCVER shows a notional growth of 1.7% in 2014 over 2013 (plus $141.0 million, from $8512.4 million to $8653.4 million), it’s all in VET-FEE Help payments: actual direct expenditure by governments, … [Read more...]
Universities Australia News
03/12/2015 by
A spirit of optimism has buoyed the sector in recent months. We anticipate a further boost to confidence with the Turnbull Government's release of its Innovation and Science Agenda. For this HIGHER ED.ITION, we’ve invited opinion pieces from some key figures across the sector. Stay tuned for others early next year. In one of his first opeds in the portfolio, Education Minister Simon Birmingham lays out some key challenges: how to fund higher education sustainably, how to stimulate even more excellence and innovation, how to expand the impact of publicly-funded research, and how to reach a consensus on the higher education needs of students, industry and institutions. In his contribution, … [Read more...]
Crackdown on rorters looming
01/12/2015 by
1 December 2015 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… As the Senate prepares to debate the Higher Education Support Amendment (VET FEE-HELP Reform) Bill 2015 to toughen up administration of the VET FEE-HELP scheme, the government has announced that VET providers with VET FEE-HELP will be hit with an emergency funding freeze next year to rein in unscrupulous providers and end widespread rorting of the student loan scheme, should the legislation pass. …………………………………………………………………………………….......…… The Senate Education and Employment Committee has recommended passage of the bill, although both Labor and the Greens propose amendments to toughen it up further. The committee report paints a … [Read more...]
Venting about VET
25/11/2015 by
Disheartened, disillusioned and downright angry ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 25 November 2015 | An RTO operator, who wishes to remain anonymous (fair enough), laments that the reputable "sprats", such as herself, are being caught up in the net intended to catch the "sharks" in the VET ocean. …………………………………………………………………………………….......…… I'm writing this article because I need to vent. The vocational education and training sector is so backwards sometimes and it just doesn’t need to be this way. Everyone’s quite familiar now with the tales of rorting and depredation on the part of some providers but this is a multi-faceted story so let me put it from another side. Now … [Read more...]
Birmingham releases “synthesis report” on HE reform
29/10/2015 by
The Australian | 28 October 2015 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… The Commonwealth government has released a synthesis report of the past seven reviews of higher education over the past 30 years rather than conducting a further separate review in the wake of its failed higher education reform package. …………………………………………………………………………………….......…… Education minister Simon Birmingham told the Australian Financial Review’s Higher Education Summit said that the government is under intense time pressures to come up with a new and revitalised higher education reform package after its the package devised by former education minister Christopher Pyne was rejected by the Senate … [Read more...]
Free public education: Gonski reforms are all but dead
28/06/2015 by
The Age | 26 June 2015 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… Free public education has existed for more than a century in Australia, and Abbott and Pyne know they cannot change that. So what are they really planning? If the Australian public ever needed proof that school funding is a mess or that the Gonski reforms are all but dead, we now have it. …………………………………………………………………………………….......…… Free public education has existed for more than a century in Australia, and Abbott and Pyne know they cannot change that. So what are they really planning? If the Australian public ever needed proof that school funding is a mess or that the Gonski reforms are all but dead, we now … [Read more...]
ACPET National Monday Update – Edition 609 – 22 June 2015
22/06/2015 by
In Focus The week that was... This week saw the inaugural roundtable on international education held in Canberra. It was an opportunity for the sector to meet with a range of Ministers’ whose responsibility intersects with international education as an industry. The roundtable was attended by the Hon Christopher Pyne, Minister for Education and Training, the Hon Julie Bishop, Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon Ian Macfarlane, Minister for Industry and Trade, Senator the Hon Simon Birmingham, Assistant Minister for Education and Training and Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash, Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for … [Read more...]
TDA Newsletter 9 June 2014
09/06/2015 by
Senate committee endorses South Australian training plan A Senate committee has endorsed the South Australian government’s plan for subsidised training and criticised the Commonwealth for threatening to withhold $65 million in funding to the state. The Senate Education and Employment References Committee report on the ‘Operation, regulation and funding of private vocational education and training (VET) providers in Australia’, says the South Australian government’s plan “reflects deep concern with the existing national partnership agreement on training”. “The response from the federal government, to effectively penalise South Australia for prioritising TAFE by withholding $65 million … [Read more...]
ACPET National Monday Update Edition 606 1 June 2015
02/06/2015 by
In Focus ACPET National Conference The ACPET National Conference is now looming, scheduled for 27-28 August, with the APIEF plus a practitioner PD day on 26 August. With such debate and contention around both higher education and vocational education, and some very significant challenges across the sector this is a critical opportunity for the industry to come together and develop a position on the reform agenda. .... As reported last week, the South Australian government’s subsidised training list, released on 22 May under the Workready program, walked away from a National Commitment to contestability and only 5000 of 51,000 new places will offer student choice. Last … [Read more...]