Category Archives: Australian universities

Australian universities reject calls for police to break up Gaza protests

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Group of Eight chief says campuses don’t want to see ‘escalation’ like what is occurring in the US

Vice-chancellors have rejected calls to shut down the pro-Palestine encampments at Australian universities, saying campuses don’t want to see an “escalation” of the kind that is happening in the US.

A snap meeting was held on Thursday between the Group of Eight (Go8) vice-chancellors, the Australasian Union of Jewish Students, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) and the secretary of the education department to discuss the safety of students and staff amid the protests.

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Majority of university chiefs in Victoria earn over $1m despite budget woes

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Federal government vows crackdown as institutions increased their vice-chancellor’s salaries amid job losses in the sector

More than half of Victoria’s vice chancellors are earning annual salaries of more than $1m, new data reveals, as the federal government vows to to crack down on excessive senior university pay packages.

The 2023 annual reports of Victorian universities, lodged on Wednesday, revealed six of Victoria’s eight vice-chancellors had their salaries boosted last year, including separate rises of more than $50,000.

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Australia politics live: Toyota boss says fuel efficiency standard ‘not a car tax’ as Labor defends secrecy around bill

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Renewed push to scrap activity level requirements for childcare subsidies

There was a lot of disappointment last budget when the government did not scrap the activity test as a way of making early child education more accessible and universal.

Zoe Daniel MP, Member for Goldstein

Georgie Dent, the CEO of the Parenthood

Sam Page, the CEO of Early Childhood Australia

Kate Carnell, the former Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman and former ACT chief minister

Natalie Walker, the deputy chair of Goodstart Early Learning

Sue Morphett, a businesswoman and the former president of Chief Executive Women

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Monash University criticised over $127,000 farewell party for vice-chancellor while students ‘sit on the floor’

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The university held the lavish event at the NGV for Margaret Gardner, now the governor of Victoria

University executives who spent more than $127,000 on a lavish sendoff for a departing vice-chancellor have been labelled out of touch.

Monash University threw the flashy party at the National Gallery of Victoria for Prof Margaret Gardner, now the governor of Victoria.

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Lowering cost of higher education critical to meeting Australia’s skills shortage, report warns

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Universities accord also urges government to dramatically scale up access to higher education for disadvantaged groups

Access to higher education among disadvantaged Australians must be dramatically scaled up and the financial burden of studying eased if the country is to meet acute skills shortages, a major report has found.

The highly anticipated universities accord final report, being released by the education minister, Jason Clare, on Sunday, was expected to lay out the blueprint for the tertiary sector over the coming decades.

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Academics in US, UK and Australia collaborated on drone research with Iranian university close to regime

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Exclusive: work by researchers from western universities and counterparts at Sharif University considered potentially ‘very dangerous’ by experts

Academics in the UK, Australia and the US collaborated on research related to drone technology with an Iranian university that is under international financial sanctions and known for its close ties to the military, the Guardian can reveal.

The collaborative research was described by one security expert as having direct military applications, while another called it potentially “very dangerous”. Iranian-made drones have been responsible for a number of deadly attacks in the Ukraine and Middle East conflicts, and their development is known to be a top priority for the government in Tehran.

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Australia news live: NSW police say neo-Nazis rallying in Sydney ‘may well be recruiting’; PM plays down being booed at tennis

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Paterson calls for ‘swift and decisive action’ against neo-Nazi groups

Over the weekend, NSW premier Chris Minns doubled down on his push to tighten anti-vilification laws after a group of neo-Nazis attempted to hold another rally in a public park.

I’d like to see swift and decisive action taken against these neo-Nazi groups who have no place in Australia.

I never thought we would see [something like this] in such a demonstrable way in a pluralistic country like Australia.

It’s the reason why the federal parliament, before Christmas, went to the extraordinary step of passing laws to ban Nazi symbols being publicly displayed, to ban the Nazi salute. And it’s critically important that those laws are rigorously enforced so that people understand there are consequences for this action.

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Adelaide hospital tackles ‘sexist’ and ‘humiliating’ behaviour of surgeons with eye posters

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Researchers report drop in incidents of incivility among staff at facilities with eye signs on the walls, but say further measures are needed

Researchers have found a unique way to tackle “sexist” and “humiliating” behaviour by surgeons in operating rooms across Australia.

It is “not uncommon” for surgeons to describe fellow medical staff in the operating theatre as “incompetent”, to roughly grab surgical instruments or to discredit nurses, says Rose Petrohilos, a junior doctor and intern representative for Bairnsdale Regional Health Service.

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‘I never expected to do this well’: top performing NSW students celebrate high-flying Atars

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Students across the state take to social media to share reactions to top marks while premier says results are ‘just a step on your journey’

When Charlie Ashton and his mates plugged his HSC marks into an Atar calculator, he assumed it was broken. There was no way he’d scored a near-perfect 99.90.

But there’d been no mistake. “I was pretty surprised,” said the student from Sydney private school Shore.

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Historians urge Australians to ‘be on the right side of history’ when they vote in voice referendum

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‘Historic injustices’ suffered by Indigenous people warrant a voice to parliament, open letter signed by more than 350 says

The “historic injustices” suffered by Indigenous Australians warrant a voice to parliament, according to hundreds of historians, with a new public campaign calling on voters to consider the nation’s colonial past when casting their ballot.

Historians from universities, libraries and museums are asking Australians to consider how people in the future will look back on this moment, saying the referendum campaign will be a “turning point” for the fabric of the nation.

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Labor to spend $37.8m to weed out ‘bottom feeders’ among vocational education providers

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The ‘compliance blitz’ aims to crack down on rorts in the sector with the establishment of an integrity unit

The federal government will launch a $37.8m “compliance blitz” to crack down on unlawful behaviour in Australia’s vocational education and training (Vet) sector as part of a suite of measures to clean up dodgy providers in international education.

Speaking at the National Press Club on Tuesday, the minister for skills and training, Brendan O’Connor, will announce the establishment of an integrity unit within the regulator to identify and address threats to Vet.

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International students in crisis not seeking mental health support, Victorian inquest finds

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Coroner examining five suicide deaths says tertiary sector faces difficult challenge in encouraging students to get help

International students in crisis are not accessing mental health support services they need, a Victorian coronial inquest into suicide deaths has found.

The inquest examined the deaths of five international students who took their own lives in 2020. The students were born in different nations, attended four institutions in the state and had various living circumstances.

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Why are university degrees in Australia getting more expensive, and how much will they cost?

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The consequences of the Coalition’s job ready graduate scheme mean the costs of some courses have ballooned up to 140% over the last five years

Pressure is mounting on the federal government to prevent ballooning course costs as figures reveal some humanities courses have become more than 140% more expensive in the past five years.

The costs are a hangover from the previous federal government’s controversial job ready graduates (JRG) scheme, which brought wide condemnation from the sector.

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Nearly all of Australia’s top universities dropped places in latest global rankings

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Just one Australian institution remains in the top 50 of Times Higher Education’s 2024 global rankings, with six in top 100

Australia’s top universities have tumbled in Times Higher Education’s (THE) 2024 global rankings, prompting a “red light warning” for the country’s tertiary sector.

Almost all of Australia’s top 10 universities dropped places in this year’s ranking, with just one institution remaining in the top 50 and six in the top 100.

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Female doctors vulnerable to sexual assault due to hospital work environments, expert says

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Dr Louise Stone says victims have spoken of ‘enforced closeness’ of long sessions in operating rooms and the ‘boys’ club culture’ of industry

Female doctors who have experienced sexual assault have spoken of work conditions they felt made them more vulnerable to harm from senior colleagues, an Australian researcher says.

“[They described] the enforced closeness that can occur in long sessions in operating theatres,” said Dr Louise Stone, an associate professor at the Australian National University.

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Australian students shun education degrees as fears grow over ‘unprecedented’ teacher shortage

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University application first preferences dropped almost 20% this year, compared with 2023

Graduating high school students are continuing to turn away from teaching degrees in huge numbers, early application data shows, as concern grows over “unprecedented” workforce shortages.

The data, provided to Guardian Australia from the Universities Admissions Centre, showed education degrees received just 1,935 first preferences this year, a 19.24% decline compared with 2023 and the lowest rate since at least 2016, when public records became available.

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‘Swiftposium’: Australia to host academic conference on Taylor Swift

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Event at University of Melbourne in February will explore singer’s influence on gender, mental health and urban landscapes

Australia is set to fulfil student Swifties’ wildest dreams when it hosts an international academic symposium in 2024 devoted to the global cultural and economic impact of Taylor Swift.

The three-day “Swiftposium”, hosted by the University of Melbourne from 11 to 13 February 2024, coincides with the singer’s Eras tour, which kicks off in Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 16 February.

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Police charge man with attempted murder of two women over ANU campus stabbing

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Police allege the man initially attacked a male student with a frying pan then stabbed two female students

The man alleged to have stabbed two young women during an attack at the Australian National University appeared in court on Monday charged with attempted murder.

Alex Ophel, 24, appeared briefly before the ACT Magistrates Court, wearing a grey tracksuit and white thongs, one day after he allegedly stabbed two 20-year-old women on the ANU campus, leaving one with critical injuries.

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Archaeology world mourns Damian Evans, who discovered medieval cities near Angkor Wat

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Tributes flow for ‘incredibly generous’ Australian Canadian researcher, who used space laser technology to uncover landscapes in south-east Asia

The world-leading Australian Canadian archaeologist Dr Damian Evans, who played a critical role in discovering previously undocumented medieval cities near Angkor Wat, has died from brain lymphoma.

Close friends confirmed Evans passed away on 12 September in Paris, where he was based working for the city’s École Française d’Extrême-Orient.

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Top Indigenous academic quits University of Melbourne law school role and alleges institutional racism

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Resignation of associate dean Dr Eddie Cubillo comes after he delivered speech on his encounters with racism at Melbourne Law School

A leading academic at the University of Melbourne (UoM) has resigned from his role heading Indigenous programs after public complaints over institutional racism at the faculty.

Dr Eddie Cubillo, a Larrakia, Wadjigan and Central Arrernte man, was working part-time as an associate dean and senior fellow at the university’s prestigious Melbourne Law School (MLS).

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