Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently announced a revamp of the vocational education and training (VET) sector to focus more on skills needed for work. Providing training for people “who need to upskill or reskill” was also a recommendation of an interim Productivity Commission report released last week. The same emphasis on skills is evident when it comes to […] … learn more→

My last post, where I called bullshit on the way we do the PhD seemed to hit a nerve. In fact, it got more hits in 24 hour period than I’ve ever seen before. Many people wrote in asking: how should I spend the remaining time in my PhD? Good question! I have a lot of thoughts. […] … learn more→

In the Republic of the Marshall Islands, people still go to stores and touch everything. Hugs and handshakes are common. We have unprotected intimate interactions with door handles. Yet, even here, on this series of 29 small atolls in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Covid-19 has raised issues for higher education that reverberate on […] … learn more→

Since February 2020 I have conducted Zoom conversations with eight early career researchers about their experiences. They all completed Humanities and Social Sciences PhDs from Australian universities in the last five years, and are citizens and/or residents of four different countries (Australia, Canada, Indonesia and the USA). Some are working as academics in universities, but […] … learn more→

In higher education, many voices have called for an ecological revival before the Covid-19 crisis. It is a question of students being able to understand in their training the challenges of the ecological transition imposed by climate change, the depletion of resources and biodiversity. More than 30,000 students signed the first call launched in 2018. A second collected more than […] … learn more→

A recent media report noted student teachers are facing delays in sitting a literacy and numeracy test they need to pass to graduate, due to the pandemic. The report noted a group of student teachers have petitioned education minister Dan Tehan to scrap the Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students (LANTITE) this year, and […] … learn more→

I haven’t taught research methods for a year or so. But right now I do wish I still was. I’m not asking for additional workload. Not at all. It’s just that there is so much potential for learning in the current pandemic. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m pretty unhappy with the kind of […] … learn more→

The idea of the university classroom as a private setting sounds incredible and yet, strangely, systemic racism and inequalities mean that a student can – sometimes out of desire, sometimes not – remain hidden, passing through the higher education system virtually unnoticed. So while some students aim to attract attention with the confidence that often […] … learn more→

During the Covid-19 pandemic, schools and universities around the world have been forced to convert in-person classes into online and digital courses. There is much to celebrate about how we, as educators, have pivoted quickly and effectively in this situation. Still, we need to consider how we can make educational experiences more resilient to future […] … learn more→

College was already a financial house of cards. Then coronavirus hit. In January 2020, while I was in New Hampshire canvassing for Elizabeth Warren, a campaign organizer urged me to tell voters why I supported her. For me, that was easy. “As a college teacher,” I said when someone answered the door, “I believe that […] … learn more→