Minister for Education and Training, Simon Birmingham, wants to “boost the employment prospects of graduates” and offer “better value for taxpayers”. There are challenges to doing so. More...

Just about everyone (including the government) agrees the government’s most recent higher education reform package would not have addressed the biggest issues confronting Australian tertiary education. The failure of the government’s Big Bang proposals announced in the 2016 budget to uncap fees and extend subsidies to private providers led the government not to change direction but to proceed far more modestly. Even that failed. More...

Since that time, we have seen 55% growth in enrolments from the poorest fifth of Australian households, 48% growth for regional and rural students, 89% for Indigenous students and 106% growth for students with a disability. More...

Donations from wealthy individuals and organisations have sustained universities since the Middle Ages. Today, the ambitions of universities extend well beyond governments’ preparedness to pay for them. Philanthropy – the donation of wealth towards the welfare of others – can provide an important contribution to the scientific and social advances universities aim to deliver. More...

Not-for-profit group End Rape on Campus recently released a report detailing horrific incidents of “hazing” in residential colleges. Hazing essentially describes the ritual humiliation of newcomers to college life. More...

The United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples insists:

Indigenous individuals…have the right to all levels and forms of education of the State without discrimination.

The Declaration contextualises this objective as embodying:

the right to the dignity and diversity of their cultures, traditions, histories and aspirations which shall be appropriately reflected in education and public information.

Culture counts in education. Culture influences the things people wish to teach and research. It frames the expertise they bring to the academy. More...

During the 1960s, the challenge from social critics was universities merely “credentialised” the pretensions of the elite, to validate their claims to positions and occupations of privilege on meritocratic grounds. More...

The esteemed residential colleges of Sydney University have recently gained intense public scrutiny for fostering cultures of sexual harassment, rape and hazing. The Red Zone Report, produced by independent journalists for End Rape on Campus Australia, presented a harrowing account of men’s tribalism, and elitism in Australia’s universities. More...