Education
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Ziggy Switkowski: the corporatisation of Australian universities and Crown Casino
After a stellar career at the pinnacle of several large corporate entities, Ziggy Switkowski seems to have fallen to Earth after resigning as chancellor of RMIT university. Continue reading »
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Don’t forget the plight of Afghans in Australia
Further to Stuart Rees’ eloquent exposure of the Prime Minister’s cruelty toward those Afghans already in Australia on temporary visas, below is my letter to the Prime Minister arguing for a more humane and pragmatic asylum seeker policy. Pragmatic because times have changed – the boats are no longer coming – and because among those temporary protection Continue reading »
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ASPI’s proposal to further militarise and securitise the University. Part 2
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s recent proposal to enrol the science, technology, engineering and mathematics areas of the research universities as part of a national security establishment along the lines overseen by the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency is a regrettable initiative. Continue reading »
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ASPI’s proposal to further militarise and securitise the university – Part 1
It is now unambiguously clear that certain influential centres of government advice and government policy hold the university-as-institution in contempt. Continue reading »
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Our universities are in crisis.They are no longer fit for purpose?
The urgency of transforming university education, and indeed all forms of education, lies in the need to render them relevant to the deep global crises we now face. These crises are reshaping every society on Earth. Continue reading »
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Is equity on the Federal Government’s training agenda?
Is equity on the Federal Government’s training agenda? As the Government continues to make changes to vocational education and training resulting from economic issues highlighted by the current pandemic, the question arises as to whether educational opportunities and funding are being equitably applied. Continue reading »
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Private schools brawl to get their snouts deeper in the funding trough
A coalition of Independent schools complained (on the ABC 7.30 Report) that they are disadvantaged by the Morrison Government’s new funding model because their funding increase is not as big as others. They want yet another special deal from the Morrison Government as do many other Independent schools. Continue reading »
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The authoritarian academy: corporate governance of Australia’s universities exploits staff and students and degrades academic standards. Part 3
The corporatization of Australia’s public universities has been driven by government funding cuts and regressive changes to how universities are governed. The rationale for corporatization was that it would encourage universities to become more entrepreneurial by turning vice-chancellors into CEOs and governing bodies into corporate boards. The resulting hybrid has been very successful at promoting Continue reading »
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Coalition policies and corporatization of universities are premised on shifting costs to students and staff. Part 2
Australia’s tertiary education system is large, complex, and poorly regulated. Its government funding sources, governance structures and annual reporting requirements lack transparency and are inconsistent between and within jurisdictions. Distorted government priorities and discredited ideological fixations have created a dysfunctional system that devalues the work of academics and professional staff while imposing ever higher burdens Continue reading »
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COVID cuts highlight intellectual bankruptcy of Coalition higher education policies. Part 1
Australian universities are in crisis, a crisis that has been a long time in the making, but is becoming increasingly obvious as the country’s borders remain closed to international students and the rivers of gold that had flowed from them rapidly evaporate. Continue reading »
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Why the ‘Teflon’ University is coming unstuck
It’s often referred to as the Teflon phenomenon – the capacity to withstand any amount of criticism and proceed as if nothing has changed. Accusations, damning evidence and reports of wrongdoing simply don’t stick. Countless US presidents have been coated with this substance, as have entire Australian administrations, including the current Morrison government. Continue reading »
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Education department refuses to hold private schools accountable for taxpayer funding
Yet another damning report by the Auditor-General shows that the Commonwealth Department of Education continues to fail to fully hold private school systems accountable for how they distribute taxpayer funding. It also criticises the Minister for Education and the Department for failing to meet their parliamentary reporting obligations. Continue reading »
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Early childhood education, access and equity: lessons from China
As the much-touted childcare funding in the federal budget appears increasingly as an announcement, rather than a commitment, perhaps we should be looking to China to start developing long-term strategies to reform Australia’s early childhood education and care (ECEC) system. Continue reading »
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Australian engagement with the PRC: universities need more, not less
The current global political environment in the Anglophone world is becoming increasingly suspicious of involvement of any kind with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). For students and staff in Australian universities the likely resultant disengagement is not simply wrong in principle, it is dangerously misleading. Continue reading »
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Is the end nigh for the Australian public university?
The Morrison government has declared war on Australia’s public universities. They are accused of being hotbeds of post-modern rabble rousing and an unbearable burden on taxpayers. Government ministers and employers complain that graduates are not “work-ready”. The remarkable thing is the supine response to date from the universities themselves to these baseless and gratuitous insults. Continue reading »
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More transparency needed around Uni’s audit into ‘foreign interference’
The University’s approach to ‘foreign interference’ puts its Chinese staff at risk. There’s a tension in the idea of the modern university, between the essentially borderless nature of knowledge production, and the rival claim that universities should serve the “national interest”. Continue reading »
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Tudge fudges school results and funding
The Minister for Education, Alan Tudge, was fudging figures to denigrate Australia’s school performance at the The Age education summit last week. He claimed the UK as the new benchmark for education performance, but ignored serious flaws in the reporting of its results. He also fudged data on school funding and student results in Australia. Continue reading »
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Our Christian heritage and the culture wars
The culture war drum-beats are sounding again – pounded out by the usual suspects in the Murdoch media and among shock jocks and the Morrison Government. Continue reading »
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Childcare and the federal budget: what about the childcare workforce?
Changes to childcare in its role as a workforce support are expected to be made in the next federal budget. Childcare is more than workforce support and without reforming the present market-driven system it is unlikely recommended changes will deliver anything except minimal short-term relief to an ailing system. Continue reading »
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Can you teach people to be more empathetic? Yes and no
Empathy training is trendy in the corporate world. In light of the events in Parliament House in the recent past, empathy training has arrived there too. Rather than demanding that the Liberal National MP Andrew Laming resigns for his alleged misconduct, the Prime Minister has requested that he undertakes empathy training. Continue reading »
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Do we have an oversupply of degrees?
A recent edition of ‘The Conversation’ carried an article, by Small, Shaw and McPhail, titled ‘1 in 4 unemployed Australians has a degree. How did we get to this point.’ Continue reading »
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Investment in early childhood education provides greatest benefit
In Part 1 – Policy and Progress, I pointed out the problem of focusing on schooling and the myths of its contribution to economic growth. In Part 2, I emphasise the importance of teacher-led assessment and the fundamental importance of early childhood. Continue reading »
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Education shouldn’t be about contribution to the economy
The Coalition’s education policy deals only with schools, ignores the critical early years of life and the nature of learning and wrongly asserts a link between student education achievement and economic growth. Funding has produced gross inequity and no educational gain. Continue reading »
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Group of Eight universities concede to ASIO, restrict vital research engagement with China
China is provoking every country in its region. But that is no reason to cut off all contact, including scientific engagement, especially if we want to avoid war. Brian Toohey investigates another sphere in which academic freedom is being restricted by government. Continue reading »
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USYD’s war on peace in education
The University of Sydney looks set to close its Department of Peace and Conflict Studies. What is the broader significance of this? Does it matter? Continue reading »
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The gender bias of all-boys’ schools is obvious from the books they study in English
Fiction affects students’ social empathy. The English classroom can foster inclusion and develop appreciation for gender equity. While our private school system must denounce the most conspicuous elements of misogyny, we must also contend with the profound role that classroom learning plays in affirming or challenging a culture of oppression. Continue reading »
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Three school education policies for Labor
It seems just months since the last one, but the next election is already highlighting interest in policy development. What school education policies might a progressive sort of party like the ALP develop? They would have to pass three simple tests: they must address something that urgently needs fixing, they mustn’t scare the punters and Continue reading »
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Numbers don’t lie: Public schools underfunded by $60bn; private overfunded by $6bn
The Morrison Government has abandoned all pretence at funding private schools according to need and has washed its hands of ensuring that public schools are fully funded. Continue reading »
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Upturn in education? A few more lessons need to be learned
Tanya Plibersek’s contribution to Upturn, a better normal after COVID-19, is entitled ‘Lessons Learned: Education in recovery’. For school education in particular, the problems and the lessons learned go back many years. Achieving a better normal is not good enough; the pandemic didn’t so much create new problems as seriously highlight and worsen old ones. Continue reading »
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If there is no crisis in VET, why is it so difficult to tackle “acknowledged weaknesses”?
How does the Productivity Commission see vocational education and training: is it about quality training needed now by employers and employees and provided by TAFE during the Covid-19 pandemic, or about a competitive training market? Continue reading »
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