Protest over Brazilian student’s taser death

03/04/2012 by
Roberto

New Matilda   3 April 2012 Around 150 people gathered in front of the Australian Consulate in Sao Paulo on the weekend to express their anger and sorrow about the death of Roberto Laudisio. The young Brazilian student died after being tasered by the police in Sydney on 18 March. He was accused of stealing a packet of biscuits.  The protesters, who were mostly students, put packets of biscuits in front of the Australian Consulate. They dressed in white T-shirts printed with Roberto’s face and "#betãoprasempre," meaning "Roberto forever."     NewsEXTRA Desk… … [Read more...]

Filed Under: International Tagged With:

My University website goes live

03/04/2012 by

Canberra Times    3 April 2012 A website which compares institutions on how satisfied students are, their staff numbers, dropout rates, graduate employment and even carparking goes live today (Tuesday 3 April).  The $1.5 million My University site is designed to ensure accountability in the new, student demand-driven system.  However there are concerns that blunt measures of student-staff ratios and attrition are misleading as measures of quality, and risk unfairly damaging university reputations, especially in the increasingly competitive international market.  Several senior educators have privately condemned the website as part of Prime Minister Julia Gillard's ''obsession with league … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Tagged With: , , ,

Atlantic Foundation winds down

03/04/2012 by

Australian Financial Review   2 April 2012 The nation’s most generous benefactor of university and medical research, Irish American Charles Feeney, is pulling out of Australia in line with plans to wind down his charitable trust by 2016.  The Atlantic Philanthropies will close its office inSydneyby 31 July.  Feeney, who has donated around $500 million in Australia and leveraged an additional $1.5 billion in government and private sector support, has no plans for further investments in Australia.  Atlanticwill spend itself out of existence in 2016, in line with the 80-year-old’s philosophy of “giving while living”.  It will close in 2020.  Queensland Universityhas been a particular … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General, Queensland University Tagged With: ,

Govt lifeline to troubled TAFE

03/04/2012 by

The Australian    3 April 2012 The Victorian government has advanced funds to a TAFE to help it through financial difficulties, as the state's TAFEs come under unprecedented pressure from an open training market on one side and an uncapped higher education system on the other.  Skills Minister Peter Hall told parliament the government had brought forward payments to an unnamed regional institute “to assist it to meet its current financial obligations”.  Mr Hall told The Australian that it was “just a matter of timing …It wasn’t a handout by any means – it was just bringing forward payments due to them in due course, to assist them with their balance.”  Although Hall declined to identify … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Vocational education & training Tagged With: , ,