The central theme of new Netflix drama The Chair is timely and gets a lot right about racial politics in modern American academia. Smart, incisive, nicely written and acted, it’s a genuinely rewarding binge watch. As senior academic women ourselves, ...
More »German university in shock as students, staff turn blue after suspected poisoning
A German University is on high alert after a suspected poisoning left students and staff turning blue, with one victim temporarily on life support. Seven people at Darmstadt Technical University were displaying symptoms of poisoning, six of whom needed hospital ...
More »New study suggests AI shows promise in aiding autism diagnosis
Autism is a neurological condition affecting an estimated 150,000 Australians, with the disorder diagnosed in roughly one in 160 children. But in what could potentially be a major breakthrough, diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may one day involve a simple ...
More »Should ALL academics be required to publish? opinion
As competition to attract the attention of prospective students intensifies, the higher education sector finds itself grappling with the question: Should every academic be required to publish research? The academic world is a major source of discovery and new ideas. ...
More »‘Taliban II’ and Khmer Rouge: a few contextual analyses
‘Invitations’ from Two Regimes of 1975 and 2021 The new Taliban regime (‘Taliban II’) of Afghanistan has supposedly announced that they do not intend to take revenge against their former adversaries. A news item stated that they even invited those ...
More »‘This can’t be the new norm’: the effects of the pandemic on Australia’s academic landscape
A study on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected Australian academics and their respective institutions has just been released, highlighting some concerning findings but also some "silver linings". The study, published in the Higher Education Research and Development journal and ...
More »Sydney Islamic leaders band together, USYD’s Marie Bashir Institute launch series of videos to push the vax message
Sydney Islamic leaders have banded together to push their communities to get vaccinated as authorities struggle to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the city’s west. The NSW government on Thursday 19 August revealed the suburbs with the fastest growing ...
More »Having a mentally stimulating job could help stave off dementia
People with boring jobs have a higher risk of dementia according to researchers at University College London (UCL). An investigation of seven large cohort studies suggests that people with mentally taxing jobs have a lower risk of dementia, as proteins ...
More »Keeping it local: $20m plan to bring a university to the outback town of Mount Isa
It’s a perennial problem facing thousands of school leavers: should I stay or should I go? While many teenagers cannot wait to leave a small town like Mount Isa (population roughly 21,000), jumping into second-hand cars with their friends, giddy ...
More »‘We can‘t tolerate that’: UOW students expelled from dorms for COVID breaches
A handful of students from a top university have been expelled from their accommodation after they hosted dorm room parties during lockdown. The students have been removed from Campus East of the University of Wollongong (UOW) for breaching NSW Health orders by having two gatherings ...
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