Top Australian writers urge Albanese to abolish Job-Ready Graduates, calling their humanities degrees life-changing
“Earning a humanities degree was not only life-changing, in terms of opening up a world of knowledge otherwise beyond my reach, it also turns out to have been enormously productive – for me and many, many people around me,” said Tim Winton this week. “My little arts degree has created jobs and cultural value for over 40 years.”
Recent articles in Education
24 July 2025
Evans gobsmacked by ANU change plan
Former ANU Chancellor and Federal Minister Gareth Evans has expressed 'acute concern' at proposed changes in humanities and social sciences at ANU. In a letter delivered to the Vice-Chancellor and Chancellor this week, he says the university's distinctive national mission is being 'ignored or gravely under-valued'.
24 July 2025
Change proposals risk relegating ANU to middle-ranking regional uni
Well known historian and long-time ANU staff member, Frank Bongiorno, says he has never seen, such a lack of vision, such a vacuum of ideas, such general disorganisation, nor such cavalier decision-making about institutions and programs built up through hard work over decades in all his years at ANU. He outlined his concerns in this submission to ANU management.
24 July 2025
Cutting HECS debt is the least Albanese could do for young Australians. He should do more
It may seem an age since the federal election, but the new parliament has just convened for the first time. Anthony Albanese will be giving top priority to enacting his election commitments – “an honest politician? Really?” – and starting with his promise to cut uni graduates’ HECS debt by 20 per cent.
22 July 2025
The war on US science
The US was already having problems with the performance of US academic institutions in scientific areas when Donald Trump arrived with the mission to nobble universities.
20 July 2025
An open letter from the presidents of Gaza universities
Our campuses may have been razed, but our universities continue to exist.
19 July 2025
Slaying the juggernauts
Barbara Preston’s recent reflection on Australia’s school funding system offers a quietly devastating insight into the paradox of public education reform.
15 July 2025
Karmel, Gonski and the private school ascendancy
The 1973 Karmel report and the 2011 Gonski report helped drive Australia’s internationally exceptional private school ascendency.
14 July 2025
APU Media Release: Macquarie University announces plans to axe Sociology
Macquarie University announces plans to axe Sociology and cut jobs and courses in other humanities and social science disciplines.
11 July 2025
The ANU School of Music: Requiem for a Dream?
On 20 September this year, the School of Music at ANU (formally the Canberra School of Music) should be celebrating its 60th anniversary.
9 July 2025
Missed opportunities in Japan
John Menadue points to the lack of Australian interest and involvement in Asia.
3 July 2025
India’s state and central governments still aren’t speaking the same language
The first rule of discussing language policy in India is to leave any expectations of a calm conversation at the door.
27 June 2025
Don't talk or write about Palestine. It's a career killer
The new McCarthyism sweeps through the university sector at a terrifying pace. At the core is conflation of antisemitism with criticism of Israel, spurred on by the pro-Israel lobby that has convinced or recruited governments and large sections of the media.
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