Blog Archives

Beyond Zoom, Teams and video lectures — what do university students really want from online learning?

Beyond Zoom, Teams and video lectures — what do university students really want from online learning?

As any university student, lecturer or tutor can attest, the pandemic has turned learning and teaching upside down. So it’s important we understand what happens for students when their learning shifts online with little to no warning. Since 2020, there’s been a growing body of important research into the impact of online learning for educators. […] … learn more→

Harvard’s decision to ditch fossil fuel investments reflects changing financial realities and its climate change stance

Harvard’s decision to ditch fossil fuel investments reflects changing financial realities and its climate change stance

Harvard University will keep phasing out all investments tied to oil, gas and coal, it announced on Sept. 9, 2021. When Larry Bacow, the school’s president, announced this plan, he cast it as a response to climate change – part of a broader trend that’s gaining steam among many large institutions with endowments. “We must act now as […] … learn more→

Turnover is high in South Africa’s higher education sector: what could turn the tide

Turnover is high in South Africa’s higher education sector: what could turn the tide

“Why are my employees leaving my organisation?”. “What can I do to make my valuable employees stay at my organisation?”. “What makes employees stay in their employment?”. Employers have been asking these questions for a long time. Let’s be honest, hiring and firing, and continuously having to recruit, select, orient and train new employees is costly on […] … learn more→

Australian students say they understand global issues, but few are learning another language compared to the OECD average

Australian students say they understand global issues, but few are learning another language compared to the OECD average

More Australian 15 year olds feel they are familiar with global issues such as climate change, migration, causes of poverty and equality between men and women than the OECD average. But only 8% of Australian students say they are learning two or more foreign languages, compared to 50% of students across OECD countries. These are […] … learn more→

Revision – the “make it better” exercise

Revision – the “make it better” exercise

Occasionally I offer strategies that you can try to see if they work for you. If they do, and not everything works for everybody, then you can add them to your academic writing repertoire. Today I’ve got an exercise designed to support diagnosis of your own writing weaknesses. In the quiet of your own work […] … learn more→

Sustainability must start with universities if the fashion industry is to change

Sustainability must start with universities if the fashion industry is to change

With six weeks to go until COP26, the delayed 2020 UN climate change conference in Glasgow, many people are considering how their personal and professional behaviour can help tackle the climate crisis. This includes rethinking the extent to which we are defined by our consumption or our citizenship. Academics recognise the widespread consensus, demonstrated through a global […] … learn more→

Local, face-to-face support offers a lifeline for uni students in regional and remote Australia

Local, face-to-face support offers a lifeline for uni students in regional and remote Australia

For university students living out of reach of a campus and studying online, the growing presence of Regional University Centres is proving to be a lifeline in times of COVID-19. An early evaluation shows these centres in regional and remote Australia are highly effective in supporting students who have been historically under-represented at university and are at […] … learn more→

Should I stay or should I go? Academics facing this dilemma should ask themselves 3 questions

Should I stay or should I go? Academics facing this dilemma should ask themselves 3 questions

This year my partner and my brother both left academia. They are part of a nation-wide changing of the guard at most universities in Australia and many overseas. Over 17,000 Australian university jobs disappeared in 2020, Universities Australia estimated. It predicted more to come. By May this year an estimated one in five positions in higher education had been […] … learn more→

Becoming a student: the inclusive university, instructions for use

Becoming a student: the inclusive university, instructions for use

Since the law of July 22, 2013 , all universities must set up dedicated reception and support for young people suffering from chronic illness or disability, in the form of a multi-year master plan . They therefore have, at a minimum, an identified manager who carries this policy. But there are significant organizational differences from one establishment to another. Although each […] … learn more→

Recycling your thesis text – is it self plagiarism?

Recycling your thesis text – is it self plagiarism?

The term self-plagiarism is usually associated with re-using your own work, recycling slabs of material already published, cutting and pasting from one text to another, producing something which duplicates something that has already appeared elsewhere. Self-plagiarism is not the same as stealing someone else’s work and passing it off as your own, that’s plagiarism. Nor […] … learn more→