Pressures on doctoral programs from economic and public policy directions have seen substantial changes in recent years, for both better and worse. Jeremy Gilling reports.   A contradiction is emerging between new research imperatives that drive an innovative economy and ...

We need to develop and nurture a new way of understanding generic competencies, says Larry Smith.   It is now more than 15 years ago that I participated in a national committee, chaired by Eric Mayer, to develop a set ...

Vocational training has assumed a central role in the federal government’s economic crisis response, with $187 million of the budget surplus allocated to create yet another 56,000 training places and elevate the investment in the Productivity Places Program to $2 ...

The federal government takes every opportunity to talk up its Productivity Places Program (PPP). “In just over six months, more than 53,000 jobseekers have enrolled in the program, with 43,200 in training and over 11,000 having completed training,” education minister ...

Are there alternatives to training packages for remote indigenous communities? Many VET leaders are preoccupied with two looming challenges: preparing for contestable funding and anticipating the implications for VET from the Bradley review of higher education. For Aaron Devine, Charles ...

On 10 December each year, Stockholm City Hall transforms into the venue of a lavish dinner in honour of that year’s Nobel Prize laureates. With military precision, 1300 guests are waited on by 200 waiters, with five people employed just ...

Most countries can afford to be optimistic about the prospects for their international education industries despite the turmoil in financial markets, according to IDP research head Melissa Banks. OECD data over the three decades from 1975 shows continuing growth in ...

Six Australian universities didn’t manage to keep their heads above water in 2007, posting deficits ranging from $250,000 to $15.9 million. The University of New South Wales, La Trobe University, Central Queensland University, the University of Western Australia, Batchelor Institute ...

If student choice is the new mantra, then Melbourne is a relative cornucopia. Monash is the latest to stake its claim in the diversity stakes, joining Melbourne, Victoria and Swinburne universities in major rethinks of how they structure and offer ...

Charles Darwin University’s gamble at taking a non-union agreement to a vote, was met with a resounding no when it went to a ballot. The result of the count was 599 no votes, 213 yes votes and 60 informal votes, ...