“Pressure from rising stars Korea and Singapore could soon squeeze Australia out of its third place in a prestigious ranking of publication rates in the Nature suite of scientific journals. The Nature Publishing Index for Asia and the Pacific released today …” (more)
[Jill Rowbotham, The Australian, 24 March]
“A scam involving a Perth university employee charging Indian students thousands of dollars for fake English test results stretched across the country, with one student flying from Queensland to obtain dodgy marks …” (more)
[Debbie Guest, The Australian, 24 March]
“In yesterday’s copy of The Australian there was an article about a new book by Frank Larkins, the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) at the University of Melbourne, in which he opines that there should be fewer PhD students, and that they should be full-time, on an increased full scholarship …” (more)
[SkepticLawyer, 10 March]
“It was recently announced that the Excellence in Research for Australia initiative will remain largely unchanged in the coming year, and will remain as an instrument used by the Australian government to determine the level of research funding available to Australian universities …” (more)
[Simon Cooper and Anna Poletti, University World News, 13 February]
“John Hearn and Alan Robson urge universities to refocus on the reality of individual missions, not rankings’ absurd lists. The 2010 world university league tables have brought to the fore long-held concerns about their integrity, veracity and credibility …” (more)
[Times Higher Education, 3 February]
“The first attempt to assess the quality of research conducted in Australia’s universities shows the oldest and most elite institutions filling the top eight spots …” (more)
[Julia Hare, The Australian, 31 January]
“Four Australian universities are scraping out mud and picking up debris this week after heavy flooding in the northeastern state of Queensland shut down some of the universities’ campuses. The Queensland government declared three-quarters of the state a disaster zone …” (more)
[Chronicle of Higher Education, 17 January]
“University rankings are likely to proliferate and become more specialised, creating the need for a new kind of meta-ranking service that sorts and rates comparative data …” (more)
[Julie Hare, University World News, 16 January]
“As flood waters continue to spread over a bigger proportion of the state of Queensland than the entire area of France and Germany combined, for John Price and his cattle dog cross Tike the evacuation centre based at CQUniversity in flood-bound Rockhampton has been a real blessing …” (more)
[Priscilla Crighton, University World News, 9 January]
“A Happy New Year to everyone. I will kick off the blog for this year with a question – what do you think will be the major challenges and opportunities facing higher education in Australia this year? …” (more)
[Macquarie University Vice-Chancellor’s Office, 5 January]
“Economist Bruce Chapman of the Australian National University said the Greens’ proposal was ‘inequitable’ and ‘regressive’, and would not help lower income earners. He said using revenue from the controversial mineral resources rent tax to fund free university for students was ‘arguably one of the least fair ways to use the money’ …” (more)
[Joe Kelly, The Australian, 29 December]
“Ireland’s economic woes will have a profound and devastating impact on the future of the country but nowhere will the pain be felt more acutely than in education …” (more)
[Irish Echo, 27 December]
“Universities have welcomed Canberra’s decision to lower entry requirements for overseas students applying to take courses in Australia. The decision is in response to collapsing demand in the international education market …” (more)
[Stephen Matchett, The Australian, 17 December]
“… The idea that university researchers work in relative isolation has never been more difficult to defend or more questionable …” (more)
[Graeme Harper, The Australian, 15 December]
“… Each year the ABC Board invites a prominent Australian or group of Australians to present six radio lectures expressing their thoughts on major social, cultural, scientific or political issues. Professor Davis’s Boyer Lecture series, entitled The Republic of Learning: higher education transforms Australia, will include six lectures exploring Australia’s higher education landscape …” (more, mp3s)
[ABC Radio, 14 November]
“Universities would gain if academics could focus on teaching and research, and be funded directly …” (more)
[Philip Clarke and Paul Frijters, The Australian, 8 December]
“Simon Marginson, a leading Australian academic, began a recent speech at the University of Virginia by describing how the wealthy monasteries of medieval England – supported by religious belief, great wealth and political connections – were completely destroyed by Henry VIII in less than 10 years …” (more)
[Macquarie Vice-Chancellor’s Blog, 6 December]
“A chief architect of the regulatory reform proposed to guarantee the quality of higher education in Australia has assured the heads of the country’s elite universities that they will not be buried in red tape …” (more)
[Simon Baker, Times Higher Education, 20 November]
“Foreign students will be included in a trial of biometric checks as part of a wider campaign to weed out potential terrorists. The move has raised concerns, with overseas student educators calling for it to be handled sensitively …” (more)
[Guy Healy, University World News, 14 November]
“For the first time in more than 14 years, an Australian minister for tertiary education has gone to China to try to head off a potentially disastrous collapse in the number of young Chinese studying in Australia …” (more)
[Geoff Maslen, University World News, 7 November]
Ninth Level Ireland 