Universities Australia | 28 November 2013 In its submission to the Commission of Audit, Universities Australia (UA) has urged commissioners to place their higher education focus on achieving efficiency through reducing the reporting and regulatory burden on universities. UA says that, with $3.3 billion worth of cuts to higher education made or announced over the past 12 months, universities have already done much of the heavy lifting in assisting the Government to realise its objective of bringing the budget back to surplus. UA chief executive Belinda Robinson says: While fiscal prudence is to be encouraged and we acknowledge the scale of the budget repair task, policy makers … [Read more...]
Harding to chair Univerities Australia
26/02/2013 by
UA News Centre | 26 February 2013 The vice-Chancellor and president of James Cook University (JCU), Professor Sandra Harding, will be Universities Australia’s next chair, taking over from the University of Melbourne’s Professor Glyn Davis. The announcement was made by Davis during an address to vice-chancellors at their meeting in Canberra ahead of the opening of Universities Australia’s 2013 Higher Education Conference on 27 February. Harding has been a member of the UA Board since January 2009 and has served as Universities Australia’s deputy chair for the past two years. Professor Harding was elected unopposed and will assume her new position on 2 May 2013. Harding has … [Read more...]
Controversial Defence Trade Controls legislation enacted
01/11/2012 by
2 November 2012 A controversial Defence Trade Controls Bill has now passed the Senate, following the rejection by the House of Representatives of an earlier Senate amendment (“amendment nine”), that would have exempted fundamental research from the restrictive provisions of the legislation. The legislation will give effect to a 2007 treaty between Australia and the US over trade in defence goods and services. A permit will be needed "if the researcher will be communicating information that is regulated by the Defence and Strategic Goods List to a person outside Australia" allowing the government to "assess the risk of providing that technology to a person overseas". Sections … [Read more...]
Sector responses
09/05/2012 by
Universities Australia Higher education reform on track Universities Australia has commended Minister Evans and the Government for its decision not to step back from its program of higher education reform, even under difficult fiscal circumstances. "This is a strong budget for the university sector," said Universities Australia Chief Executive, Belinda Robinson. "Over the past few years the Government has achieved a number of very significant outcomes in higher education. These include: indexation of base funding, streamlined visa processing for international students, the introduction of the demand-driven system, an increase in infrastructure investment, and funding to meet the … [Read more...]
The Scan 15 March 2012
14/03/2012 by
Control and click headlines and highlights to link to articles, Links may not work unless you or your organisation is a paid subscriber to the originating media outlet. Check with your communications people about subscriptions. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ UA conference: stepping into the unknown The impact of current reforms on universities and students cannot yet be known and there are questions around how truly “deregulated” it is in design. At least one certainty emerged from the excitement and trepidation expressed at last week’s three-day conference, however, and that was the … [Read more...]
