Academic value vs community impact
Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans is facing the challenge of reconciling two very different ways of gauging the worth of universities’ research – one which measures impact in the academic community and one which measures impact in business and the community at large.
Uni gets a head start on fund-raising
Are the alumni of your institution tired of your repeated pleas for cash? Here’s an idea to liven up those awkward fund-raising communications. It’s to do with having your founder speak from the grave . . . and relies on the shock value of his severed head.
Uni fees off the agenda
Universities Australia appears to have backed away from the thorny issue of student fee deregulation, with a draft of the peak body’s forthcoming policy paper steering well clear of the matter.
No extra cash for real world
Universities and business leaders have forced research that has real-world outcomes for industry on to the federal government’s agenda but Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evanshas warned there is no room in the budget for new spending.
Only an overhaul will enliven learning
The biggest threat to higher education institutions in Australia is the lack of effective facilities for teaching and learning on campus, write Geoff Hanmer and Richard Leonard of architecture firm ARINA Hayball..
Demand puts critics in their place: Glyn Davis
University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Glyn Davis says demand for entry to the university is at record levels but he’s not declaring his Melbourne Model experiment a success. He will leave that to those who follow.
Macquarie joins the business league
Macquarie Graduate School of Management has been awarded accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
Queensland TAFEs won’t become ‘crumbling relics’
The consolidation of Queensland TAFE colleges will result in modern campuses full of students, not “crumbling relics”, the state government says.
Education briefs
The Murchison Widefield Array, a $51 million radio telescope in Western Australia, was formally unveiled last week. It will detect low frequency radio waves from as far back as 13 billion years ago in the very early universe.
Lessons in corruption rife in China’s schools
For Chinese children and their devoted parents, education has long been seen as the key to getting ahead in a highly competitive society. But just as money and power grease business deals and civil servant promotions, the academic race here is increasingly rigged in favour of the wealthy and well connected, who pay large sums and use connections to give their children an edge at government-run schools.
Agony of applying for research grants
Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans has asked for a review of the time taken to prepare research grant applications following a plea from Australian Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt.
The latest developments in massive open online�courses
Where do you go to find student reviews of massive open online courses? Oddly, for courses that are online, it took a while for there to be a place where reviews of courses are aggregated.
