The demand-driven university system is having mixed results on student performance and outcomes, a new Productivity Commission report has found. While the report found the new system has increased student numbers – particularly students from low socio-economic backgrounds – it ...
More »Dispelling the myths of the Ramsay Centre
Established in March 2017 through a bequest by the Ramsay Foundation, the Ramsay Centre’s objective is to reinvigorate the study of Western civilisation in Australia. The Centre aims to have its program taught in two to three universities initially, mainly ...
More »Four Corners program raises concerns about international student sector
Last night’s Four Corners program Cash Cows has sent shock waves through Australia’s $34 billion university sector. The program alleged that some Australian universities have become far too reliant on foreign fee-paying students to boost revenue, and have subsequently jeopardised ...
More »Government finally commits to tackling student mental ill health, which affects 1 in 4
"The anxiety that I had around transitioning from high school to university was pretty intense. I was the first person in my family to go to university, so I kind of didn't have that background knowledge from my mum and ...
More »IRU says current funding model stifles innovation, calls for greater research autonomy
The Innovative Research Universities (IRU) group wants universities to have more say in how they spend their funding dollars. They say that universities only get to fully determine how a fifth of their endowment is spent. Raising the issue yesterday at the House of Representatives Inquiry ...
More »New Zealand cuts funding to free degrees
Storm clouds have brewed in the land of the long white cloud. After the much-heralded announcement of 'free', that is, taxpayer-funded university in October last year, in its May budget, the Labour government froze funding. Perhaps following Australia's lead, the ...
More »The race to renovate and attract foreign investment: Opinion
Universities are increasingly investing in their campuses to attract foreign dollars. For as long as they have been in existence, universities have been in competition with one another for the best students and faculty. The earliest universities in the Middle ...
More »Budget 2018: Win for universities, loss for students
While metropolitan and rural universities alike are, for once, mostly pleased with the Budget, students feel neglected. Tertiary institutions praised, among other measures, the boost in research funding. At the same time, the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) lamented the ...
More »MYEFO funding freezes ‘actually cuts’: Universities Australia
MYEFO delivered a blow to universities - a lesser one than May's budget - but nonetheless, an affront. Alongside freezing per-student funding for two years, the government intends to cap student loans and demand repayment of them earlier. From 2020, it also ...
More »Regional unis request strategic overhaul
Despite rural, regional and remote universities being 'anchor institutions' – the economic and intellectual hearts of their respective towns – they're not recognised as such by the federal government. That's the key message of the Regional Universities Network (RUN)'s new National Regional ...
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