Education
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Labor abandons public education
Nothing coming from Albanese and the Labor government offers any hope for public schools. Continue reading »
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A night with the Vice Chancellors – the export of education services. A repost from June 19, 2015
In 2015, education services earned an export income for Australia of over $16 b. p.a. Those export services were expected to increase to $31 b. p.a. by 2020 from about 600,000 overseas students. Education was our fourth largest export behind iron ore, coal and natural gas. It is our major services export, ahead of tourism. Continue reading »
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The ANU has sold out to the military industrial complex
Australian universities now self-identify as deeply integrated units within the agencies of the State, the Australian Defence Force, and industry. They have become part of an encompassing strategy of Sinophobia and Australian fantasies of long-range attacks on China. Continue reading »
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A story of how the market gods failed TAFE and what needs to be done
At both federal and state levels, the Market Gods Cult has failed to deliver. It’s been a tragic waste of human and economic potential. It’s time to resort to rationality in our TAFE arrangements. Continue reading »
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Australian studies in China: the ways ahead
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the formal diplomatic relationship between our two countries. It heralds the start of a new and mature bilateral relationship. I firmly trust that Australian Studies in China will further expand and flourish in the years to come. Continue reading »
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A chief advisor on higher education?
Australia has a Chief Scientist (as well as a Chief Economist, and Chief Meteorologist), why not something similar for higher education? Continue reading »
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Disability is not a hobby: our mutual obligation to society is paid richly and in full
Why shouldn’t my participation in the development of (disability) social policy through academic research and writing – voluntary or not – be viewed as a substantial contribution to Australia? I do not understand “mutual obligation” in the individualistic way that government and neo-liberal social policy interprets it. Continue reading »
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To understand the rise of China examine what we have in common
One hundred years ago in China the May 4th Movement announced that “Science and Socialism” would save the nation. In Australia, thirteen years prior, a workers party has already taken national government for the first time in history. Continue reading »
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AUKUS and the corruption of Australia’s Universities
Our universities have become the industrial brothel-keepers to the nation’s fevered national security imaginary. Continue reading »
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School education: designed to fail?
Education, more properly learning, has been subject to numerous inquiries and reforms. In Australia and elsewhere the policy debate is framed in the context of school and preparation for employment, a job. Intervention by governments over the last 50 years has been substantial and mostly unproductive. Continue reading »
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The ACT legislated to decriminalise possession of personal quantities of illicit drugs
By the time the ACT Legislative Assembly passed legislation on 20 October 2022 to commence the decriminalisation of personal quantities of all illicit drugs in October 2023, drug law reform was already well on its way around the world. Continue reading »
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Federal Budget: TAFE at the heart of Labor’s economic plan?
To understand the complete picture of what the Federal Labor Government has promised for TAFE and vocational education and training, you need to look at Labor’s election Plan for the Future, the outcomes of the Jobs and Skills Summit and now the Federal Budget. Continue reading »
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Asian languages in Australia: some hope amid the gloom?
The study of Asian languages in Australia is in an alarming state. But there are three small signs of possible improvement. Continue reading »
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The IPA launches campaign to harass teachers. Why???
The IPA has become a culture war factory with barely any research to justify the label “think tank” and the tax perks it claims. Their campaign to harass teachers, however, is utterly self-defeating. Continue reading »
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Schools in crisis; solutions in disarray
The school year looks like ending with observations and commentary that smack of both the disparate and the desperate. In just a few days, we have seen reminders of worsening problems, suggestions that might narrow the focus of schools. Continue reading »
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Classrooms of hope and inspiration: Why is Sky News so angry about them?
The usual suspects in their regular appearances on Sky News After Dark or on the hustings are horrified by what they think is going on in our schools. Yet seeing what is actually going on is heartening for the rest of us. Continue reading »
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Independent Schools: Aspiration for the few, desperation for the many
Local councils should have no role in setting enrolment caps which force private schools to turn away prospective students (and the fees they bring in). This was the claim put forward recently to the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) by a group of five principals of high-fee Anglican schools in Sydney, backed by the Association of Continue reading »
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Public Education – a test for the ALP
The ALP has to attend to the shameful state of public education. Attempts to shift the responsibility on to the Coalition may be appealing but the geneses of these conditions lies at the feet of Julia Gillard. There is no doubt Gillard cared about education; you could not doubt her commitment to improving the learning Continue reading »
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Massive shortage of early childhood teachers demands skilled migration reform
Increased availability of high quality and affordable early childhood education is central to the Albanese Government’s strategy to increase labour force participation rates, particularly participation of women. Continue reading »
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Despairing China teacher in the US encouraged by social voices
Bias confirmation is nearly impossible to overcome, and if reinforced by subliminal anti-Chinese racism, even more so. Continue reading »
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Global university rankings: what function do they serve?
Under the influence of New Public Management, Australia’s public universities have increasingly engaged in ‘management by numbers’ for ’performance measurement’. The accompanying proliferation of metrics has been used to discipline academics, bolster the ranks of senior managers and build tens of billions of dollars in assets. One of the more prominent metrics to which universities Continue reading »
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Productivity Commission review ignores repressive structure of Australian school system
The Productivity Commission’s interim report on school reform has conjured up some good ideas, but it ignores the regressive structure of Australia’s school system and how it acts as an anchor on school improvement. Continue reading »
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Is Hong Kong experiencing a ‘Teacher Exodus’? Time to correct the record
Is Hong Kong’s world class education system really seeing an exodus of teaching staff? Are reductions in staffing levels linked to political crackdowns and the COVID 19 Pandemic? Not so fast. Let’s correct the record. Continue reading »
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The private school dilemma – are toxic cultures of misogyny and racism inevitable?
Knox Grammar School, one of Sydney’s top private schools, has hit the headlines this week with several boys suspended or withdrawn after posting “misogynistic, racist and anti-Semitic comments” in an online private chatroom. Continue reading »
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Beggars in surplus: Australia’s university gangsters
With the election of a new government in Australia in May, the begging bowls were being readied by administrators in the university sector. Bloated, ungainly, ruthless and uneven in quality, the country’s universities, for the most part, had inadvertently made their case for more public funding harder. Continue reading »
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Senator Barbara Pocock: The unwelcome delegate at the Jobs Summit – Corporate Power
The massive shift in power to corporate Australia started with the election of the Howard Government in 1996 and continued under subsequent Labor governments. Continue reading »
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Neil Hauxwell: Toward a great TAFE revival
The most important outcome from the Jobs and Skills Summit must be some federal government leadership. Our Vocational Education and Training system, including TAFE, is in urgent need of a major reset. Continue reading »
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Chegg, cheating and Australian Universities
The note on Radio National’s Background Briefing on the morning of July 31 was sombre. A student, who did not divulge his real name (he is professionally pseudonymised as Ramesh), talks about services that aid him in his study. Aid is less accurate than do – given that he is working gruelling night shifts in Continue reading »
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It’s time to clean up the mess that is Australia’s higher education system
In recent Pearls and Irritations posts, James Guthrie, Adam Lucas and Alessandro Pelizzon have signalled the need for a Royal Commission into higher education in Australia. Their advocacy could not be timelier. Continue reading »
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James Guthrie and Adam Lucas: It’s time for a Royal Commission into the governance of Australia’s public universities
What is the core purpose of a university? Is it to share knowledge and engage in research? Or is it to make money? Our analysis of university management rhetoric versus financial reality for Australian public sector universities finds that they have drifted far away from their core mission to become property development and financial investment Continue reading »
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