Federal education minister Dan Tehan in recent days announced an overhaul of the fee structures for undergraduate degrees – and the courses based in those degrees – to direct students towards ones it believes are more likely to get them a job. Student contributions for degrees in teaching, nursing, clinical psychology, English and languages will fall by […] … learn more→

When the California State University system decided to conduct all of its classes online this coming fall, administrators said it was to avoid the health risks associated with COVID-19. Many other colleges are making similar decisions as they move online. Wayne State University and Michigan State University are likely to go online – but may offer a hybrid of […] … learn more→

The future multi- annual research programming law ( LPPR ) is causing serious concern in the world of higher education. On the one hand, researchers , dissatisfied with the current situation, are asking for more resources, while rejecting the principle of a selective, therefore unequal, distribution of resources – selective distribution which, in fact, already exists. On the other, research administrators and policy makers […] … learn more→

Democratic presidential candidates are proposing bold new approaches to the federal government’s role in public education. Former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Cory Booker want to triple the US$15 billion spent annually on Title I, a program that sends federal dollars to high-poverty school districts. Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to go further and quadruple funding for that same program. She also wants to make quality child care […] … learn more→

With few exceptions, the various Democratic plans for public education share a common theme: more funding, less privatizing. Candidates Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders have promised to dramatically increase or triple current federal funding for low-income students and curtail charter school growth. Elizabeth Warren recently went even further, promising to quadruple federal funding for low-income students and end federal funding […] … learn more→

Education minister Dan Tehan met with university Vice Chancellors in Wollongong this week to discuss a new report on an upcoming funding formula for universities – performance-based funding. This report, and the proposed funding approach detailed in it, has been some time coming. In 2017, the government ended the policy of demand-driven funding to universities, introduced by the previous Labor government […] … learn more→

I can’t save you There are serious structural problems in universities worldwide. The number of permanently employed staff is shrinking. The number of precariously employed staff (casual, adjunct, paid by the hour) is increasing. I can’t change that. This situation isn’t getting any better. It gets worse. Unionism (like the National Tertiary Education Union in Australia) […] … learn more→