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Queensland TAFE Inc

As recommended in the Roche report on Queensland TAFE, the Newman government has introduced legislation to create a new TAFE Queensland as an independent statutory body.   Minister for education, training and employment John-Paul Langbroek said the new parent entity will come into being on 1 July 2013 to manage Queensland’s  13 TAFE institutes.   The government expects that under the new arrangements, Queensland’s TAFE institutes will be stronger and more responsive to the skills and training needs of students and industry.....[READ MORE]….

Quantum computing a step closer

A team of Australian engineers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has demonstrated a quantum bit based on the nucleus of a single atom in silicon, promising dramatic improvements for data processing in ultra-powerful quantum computers of the future.  Quantum bits, or qubits, are the building blocks of quantum computers, which will offer enormous advantages for searching expansive databases, cracking modern encryption, and modelling atomic-scale systems such as biological molecules and drugs.  When coupled together these qubits will give rise to exponential increases in computing speeds.  The world-first result, published in the journal Nature, brings these machines one-step closer, describing how information was stored and retrieved using the magnetic spin of a nucleus…...[READ MORE]….

Sydney Uni pulls plug on Dalai Lama

Sydney University is under fire after pulling the plug on a planned speaking event by the Dalai Lama.  Students at Sydney University scored a major coup when the Tibetan spiritual leader agreed to speak at their campus during his upcoming short visit to Sydney in June.  But the ABC’s 7.30 has obtained emails revealing the university, which has close links to China, went to great lengths to wash its hands of the iconic monk.  One of the organiser’s of the event said she was told conditions of the event were that the logo of Sydney University could not be used; there could be no media; definitely no Tibetans; no marketing could be done external to the university, and no external students.  “And then, on April 2, the event was cancelled.”…...[READ MORE]….

Sacked chairs slam funding cuts

The outgoing chairs of a number of the boards heads of Victorian TAFEs have been highly critical of the State government in their 2012 annual reports tabled in Parliament on 18 April.  The former chair of Holmesglen TAFE, Jonathan Forster, wrote in his report that last year’s funding cuts to TAFEs placed “considerable strain” on the institute and that the funding changes were implemented with “undue haste” and will result in a “significant increase” in fees and uncertainty for the sector....[READ MORE]….

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“Cut car funding not uni funding”

17 April 2013 | Swinburne University of Technology chancellor Bill Scales has condemned the federal ­government’s decision to make universities pay for higher school funding while spending billions propping up the car manufacturing industry. Scales says “on the face of it, this budgetary approach makes the government’s education policy look not only incoherent but schizophrenic”.....[READ MORE]….

Vic govt announces new TAFE board chairs

16 April 2013  | Victorian minister for skills Peter Hall has announced the chairs of Victoria’s 14 TAFE institute boards, saying they have been selected for their knowledge and experience, “providing TAFE institutes with improved ability to compete and innovate in Victoria’s competitive vocational training market”.....[READ MORE]….

Profiles of the new TAFE chairs

$14.5 billion for schools…

…if states sign up

14 April 2013 | The commonwealth and the states will be asked to contribute an extra $14.5 billion towards schools over the next six years under the Gonski education reforms to be unveiled in Canberra on Sunday 14 April 2013 by the federal government. The reforms, to be controversially funded in part by $2.3 billion in cuts to universities and another $520 million gained by capping education-related tax deductions, will depend on whether Prime Minister Julia Gillard can secure the support of the states and territories at a meeting in Canberra on Friday 19 April. Under the changes, the average school student will be $4000 better off over the next six years, an average of $1.5 million extra for each school.....[READ MORE]….

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Universities Australia chair Glyn Davis argues in this opinion piece first published in the Australian Financial Review that, until the sector can capture the imagination and support of the wider public, government will go on cutting universities to fund other programs.

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Unis need political clout

The weekend announcement by Tertiary Education Minister Craig Emerson of an “efficiency dividend” to university funding, and changes to student support, has left the sector shaken.   Taken with October 2012 mid-year economic and fiscal outlook cuts to future research funding, this budget round has been tough on tertiary education.

Australia already invests too little in tertiary education, ranking just 25th out of 29 advanced economies for public investment in universities as a percentage of GDP. In 2012, public expenditure per university student is $US7836 in Australia compared with an average of $US10, 906 across the OECD.

We need a political influence to mirror [the university sector's actual] economic and social contribution.   For the sector, this is the real challenge.

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So it is with Gonski. Gillard has not only divided the premiers, she has divided the education sector itself by ripping money away from universities, the one sector she had failed until now to alienate.

Nikki Sava – The Australian

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Comment & analysis

The money or the box?

As Australian government leaders gather in Canberra for the Council of Australian Governments to consider schools funding, opinion is divided about whether improving school performance  is about injecting more money or improving “values” and “school culture”.  Undoubtedly, the latter is important but you’re unlikely to get that without the former.   The experience of  primary school principal Kevin Mackay is, we think, instructive.

But Chris Ryan points out that despite substantial additional resources provided to Australian schools in recent decades has not resulted in improved student performance.  What’s more, he says, the Gonski Report is “fatally flawed”.

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A little extra is all they need

Dandenong North Primary School principal Kevin Mackay believes his school is proof that disadvantaged students produce great results when given the right support.

And he expects Dandenong North will be a major winner if the Gonski education reforms are introduced in Victoria.

We’re the test case to show that it can work, that putting money into disadvantaged schools can make a difference. We were at a stage in 2012 where the cost of our staff had reached a point where we were no longer able to pay.

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Gonski’s five fatal flaws

The Gonski Report offers many valuable insights for school reform  but considering it is being used to chart Australia’s future course on education, it is imperative that fundamental weaknesses within its assertions about funding are addressed.   These are its reliance on the relationship between student achievement and resources as well as assumptions about the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS), the centralisation of school systems, international test rankings and private school financing.

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If a poor child wants to do well in education then they should have chosen richer parents.

RW Connell – Schools and social justice

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In a just released discussion paper, the Group of Eight argues the case for a “differentiated university system”  and emphasises the national importance of  “research intensive universities”.  This is as you would expect, with the Go8 representing  Australia’s research intensive universities (an estimated 75% of research funding  went to Go8 universities in 2012).   Such differentiation is a fact:  all the data lead to an inescapable conclusionshow that, while the less research-intensive universities (that’s the majority of them) conduct research that is socially and economically useful, most are teaching focused rather than research focused.  There’s nothing at all wrong with that (see One size does not fit all) – but there still has to be room at the research funding trough for all universities, because that’s what primarily defines a university in Australia.

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The importance of  research intensive universities

Not all universities are the same: indeed, each university is unique in its history, culture and intent.  As the importance of higher education has increased the sector has diversified in response to government policies, the demands of the market and local, regional or national needs.  Taking a global view, some universities may specialise in certain disciplines, focus on educating certain professions, emphasise the use of distance education, or seek to attract students sharing particular characteristics.  Some focus on teaching, others may concentrate more on building their research capacity; some on creating domestic networks, others on developing international linkages.

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Zeitgeist

This is not so much about Gonski as about the state of the Federation – and a fine bit of analysis by New Matilda‘s Ben Eltham.

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Will we ever love Canberra?

The fractious state of the Federation

Today, we will no doubt see another example of the seemingly endless mutual antipathy between the states and the Commonwealth. The setting will be the Council of Australian Governments meeting, held, most appropriately, in Canberra.

The main topic on the agenda will be the federal government’s schools funding reforms. The Gonski reforms, as they have become known, are about evening up the complex and dysfunctional patchwork quilt of school funding system across the states and the territories. But that means they inevitably tread heavily on state powers. Primary and secondary education has always been a primary responsibility of the states and territories – one they have discharged with little help from the Commonwealth for more than a century. Non-government schools, including the extensive Catholic system, have also generally operated under state laws and regulations. Federal governments that have sought to improve schools funding – such as Gough Whitlam’s government in the 1970s – have thus had to negotiate every step of the way with the states to get anything done.

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Inquiry into TAFE

The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Employment is to inquire into and report on the role played by TAFEs in education and the economy and will be looking at current funding issues.

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NTEU edXpress #006 April 2013

The free subscription based e-bulletin from the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) with news and views on what’s happening on campuses around the country. It’s a cracking good read.

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