The Australian | 21 May 2015
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The Scan always checks The Australian’s offbeat but always insightful High Wired for its take on higher education issues. The edition of 21 May is a particularly informative one. Here are snippets.
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Cutting to the chase
Amid all the welcoming noises about education minister Christopher Pyne’s review of the research training sector, HW was relieved to see the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations finding a different narrative. They made the (obvious) point that the review comes as the government is cutting the research training scheme by 10 per cent — or $173 million — with universities to make up the difference by slugging students with fees.
Chasing to the cut
HW also notes ACOLA has been given until next March — 10 long months — to conduct their review. This is more time than Denise Bradley and team had to review the entire higher education system. Too late to inform next year’s budget and, if there’s not an early election, then into an election.
Real and imagined paranoia
RUN was quick to welcome the review and especially the “opportunity to outline the relevance of their research training to business and regional communities”. A sign of nervousness, perhaps? Is the relevance of RUN research training under question?
Election drum beating
UA is wisely positioning itself for an early election as VCs this week agreed plans to hammer out a joint “high level” policy position within four months — which neatly synchs with speculation that the PM could plumb for a September poll….Some sort of unified position, independent of either side of politics, is clearly needed now that the “consensus” position on the government’s higher education fee deregulation has fractured.
Keep it specific
The plenary also agreed to continue the “Keep it Clever” public awareness campaign.
Office of What?
One would think there might be a backlash brewing over Pyne’s decision to move the Office of Learning and Teaching into a university-based centre while slashing funding by one third – $16 million.
Don’t mention the war:
Elsewhere, responses from the various university groups has been far more muted, with no mention of the cuts.
Girl toys:
CalTech astronomer Shrinivas Kulkarni had a spectacular foot in mouth moment last weekend sparking a social media phenomenon. After saying that many scientists thought of themselves as “boys with toys”, irked female scientists have since been posting pictures of themselves with their own science toys.
