By Andrew MacDonald. The Turnbull Government proved desperate to avoid talking about its funding cut and fee hike plans for higher education during the 2016 election campaign. That reluctance to discuss the sector, however, did not extend to attempted smears on one of its high profile figures. More...

By Andrew MacDonald. To many, Simon Hunt is probably better known as Pauline Pantsdown. The NTEU member, lecturer, performer and activist stepped into the mainstream media spotlight in the late 90s, when his parody character and pop song I Don’t Like It, featuring cut-up sound bites of Pauline Hanson’s not-so-dulcet tones, struck a chord in the national psyche. More...

By Paul Clifton. We have read with interest the recent history of our amalgamated unions, National Tertiary Education Union: A Most Unlikely Union by John O’Brien but we are dismayed by the number of errors we have found in his description of events leading up to the amalgamation, particularly those relating to New South Wales. More...

By Paul Clifton. The Centre for Future Work is a new research institute, based in Sydney, set up to undertake progressive economic research into work and employment in Australia. More...

By Paul Clifton. My usual Advocate column writing strategy is: 1) Work myself into a froth of rage about something. 2) Release the words. More...

By Paul Clifton. This time last year the New Zealand finance minister and the tertiary education minister announced they would order the Productivity Commission to investigate tertiary education. They said tertiary education in New Zealand suffered from inertia. More...

By Paul Clifton. Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have been around for decades but have only recently reached the crucial transition point to commercial viability. When we see Google cardboard glasses on sale in airport shops or given away with newspapers, and virtual reality glasses on sale in Harvey Norman, we know their time has come. More...

By Terri Macdonald. The theme for this year’s Bluestocking Week was ‘A Feminist Agenda’ – a deliberately empowering call that drew upon the traditions of the bluestocking movement to challenge the sustained attacks levelled at women who contest male power and control today, be it on campus, in traditional and new social media platforms, in the political arena or more broadly in both culture and society. More...

By Terri Macdonald. While it has been said that unions reflect their industries, a quick glance shows the gender breakdown as reported by the NTEU to the Workplace Gender Equity Agency (WGEA) is significantly better than the sector. With low numbers of staff as fixed term or casual (less than 7 per cent of all staff), and women well represented across the different levels of the Union staff, the NTEU is better placed than not only universities, but many other trade unions. More...

By Jen T. Kwok. Australia still has its sights set on a last minute ratification of the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), as unions and civil society organisations rally around the country, and even as the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (FADT) announced another review. More...