The Federal Election has come and gone but what has changed for universities? It is clear that the Coalition Government wants to introduce new laws to shackle unions and thus weaken our ability to improve and maintain conditions of work. The Government has a vision for industrial relations – albeit one it only talked about after the election – but its vision for higher education is less obvious, possibly because it doesn’t have one. More...

This edition includes analysis and discussion on the freedom of speech debate, universities caught profiteering from international students, more Ramsay Centre manoeuvrings, federal election post mortem, treatment of casuals in the workplace, bargaining updates, workplace health and safety, the climate and extinction catastrophes, and much more. More...

Media Release: TEQSA finds High Student : Staff Ratios and Heavy Reliance on Casual Academic Staff are Greatest Risks for Higher Education Providers
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) said today that the release of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency’s (TEQSA) first ever Key Risk Findings Report confirms that a heavy reliance on casual academic staff and high student : staff ratios are two of the factors presenting the greatest risks to Australia’s higher education sector. More...

A story appearing in the Nine (formally Fairfax) press today by Liam Mannix titled,   'Bad science': Australian studies found to be unreliable, compromised’ claims, based on the  Retraction Watch database, that hundreds of scientific research papers published by Australian scientists over the last two decades have been found to be unreliable or compromised. More...

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) today welcomed news that the Federal Government is considering supporting protections around academic freedom in the NTEU negotiated Collective Agreement with James Cook University, through funding legal support to Dr Peter Ridd. More...

In late June, the report of former Chief Justice of the High Court, and UWA Chancellor, Robert French, entitled Review into University Freedom of Speech was released. French had been commissioned by the Federal Education Minister to conduct an investigation into the ‘crisis of free speech’ on our university campuses – a crisis that was generated by conservative media commentary and a back-lash against several high-profile protests on campuses. More...

NTEU has a long and proud history of defending academic and intellectual freedom in the higher education sector. The only effective protections for academic freedom and intellectual freedom of university staff are the relevant clauses in enterprise agreements, negotiated and enforced by NTEU. More...

NTEU National Executive statement on inappropriate student enrolments, profiteering by universities and the rights and obligations of university staff to participate in public debate (Advocate 26 02)
From time to time, NTEU National Executive believes that a matter is so important that the policy that guides the Union needs to be restated in the context of the moment. The wash-up from the Four Corners report was one such occasion. More...

Practices in the higher education sector which seek to profit from international students without taking responsibility for their welfare and academic success are deeply concerning. We’ve had two decades of funding declines and university managements have responded with aggressively cost cutting and chasing alternative income streams. The result is rampant casualisation and an over-reliance of income generated from international student fees. More...

2019 is the UN’s International Year for Indigenous Languages and, as we saw in the previous edition of Advocate, some are choosing to highlight the importance of language preservation on campus. More...