By Sue Thomson. There is no doubt that Australian education standards are slipping. International tests show that Australia has either stagnated or declined in maths, science and reading literacy. More...

By Emmaline Bexley. Having a degree has become a basic prerequisite for most careers. Those without a degree are more likely to be disadvantaged in career and economic terms. More...

By Kevin Donnelly. Seventy teachers from the UK were sent to Shanghai to study classroom methods to investigate why Chinese students perform so well. Upon their return, the teachers reported that much of China’s success came from teaching methods the UK has been moving away from for the past 40 years. More...

By Gareth Evans. There are a great many students who are enormously attracted by the idea of a diplomatic career. Or if not in the foreign service as such, certainly a job which takes you out and about internationally and gets you engaged with international policy issues, be they to do with peace and security, aid and development, trade or any one of the innumerable transnational policy issues – from climate change to people trafficking to managing health pandemics – which former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan once described as “problems without passports”. More...

By Stewart Riddle. A report released by UNICEF ranked Australia 24 out of 37 participating countries in education equality.
It is the latest evidence of a widening gap in educational outcomes between the most and least advantaged students. More...

By Geoff Sharrock. Since it began more than 25 years ago, the Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) has been generally safe for university students and cost-effective for governments. More...

By Timothy Higgins, Geoff Sharrock, Ittima Cherastidtham and Peter Noonan. The government’s proposed policies to make subsidy cuts to higher education and allow universities to set their own fees will result in big increases to federal debt, warns a report released by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO). More...

By Helene Marsh and Mark Western. The findings from the ACOLA review of the Australian research training system suggest that universities need to better serve the needs of doctoral graduates. The report provides recommendations for how to help better connect research students and graduates with industry. More...

By Stacey Fox and Megan O'Connell. Gearing up for an election battle over education, Labor’s policy pledges a substantial lift in funding through the final two years of Gonski, while the Liberals maintain that funding is not linked with improved results. More...

By Sue Thomson and Richard Teese. The best tool for understanding how equal or unequal the Australian education system is compared to other OECD education systems is the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). More...