This year’s global university rankings rankled many in the sector. The dissatisfaction was not confined to Australia, but here we did see vice-chancellors question the methodologies of the three major agencies, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), Times Higher Education (THE) and Shanghai ...
More »Sound advice on being a winner
With the Australian Teaching and Learning Council awards announced next week three former winners Mark Israel, Iain Hay, Lisa Emerson take a wry look at impacts on their careers Prepare an acceptance ‘speech’. Those who get to deliver an acceptance ...
More »Student disengagement has to be tackled
Educators need to think about doing things differently Along with the theory of relativity, Albert Einstein is credited with the much quoted dictum: “You can’t continue to do the same thing and expect different results.” It is also, I believe, ...
More »Research capability vital for changing VET sector
Australia is about to experience an explosion in the number and type of skilled workforce members it will need to achieve its economic goals over the next decade. The face of Australia’s workforce is set to change dramatically in the ...
More »TAFEs find client needs are changing
Students and industry best judges of sector success, John Mitchell discovers Attend any large VET conference nowadays and it is likely that key speakers will argue that if Australia is to be upskilled quickly then the public provider, TAFE, which ...
More »Time for renewal
Change is on the way in vocational education writes Robin Ryan. Those of us who have been predicting and proposing new ways of managing the sector’s institutional structures and policy settings are being rewarded with signs of significant change. A ...
More »No Plan B
Browne review has given UK universities an idea of the scale of cuts to their teaching budgets, but research remains the big unknown, writes John Ross. At the end of 2008, Denise Bradley handed over her recipe for higher education ...
More »Walking a tightrope
This week’s Browne review poses dangers for students. But it’s also treacherous territory for Britain’s new coalition government, writes John Ross. Next week, British higher education finds out just how much money it’s going to lose over the next few ...
More »The Spanish are coming
John Ross discovers there could be spin-offs for Australian Education from this armada Spain’s World Cup football campaign, according to the commentators, was constructed around the “third party” strategy. Other teams raced down the right or left wing and looked ...
More »Effective self regulation
For one vocational education expert AQTF is the minimum standard in a competitive marketplace John Mitchell finds Fortunately, the immediate future of quality in vocational education is in the hands of a pillar of contemporary VET, Kaye Schofield, the interim ...
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