There is much debate nowadays about the future of higher education. The relentless change seen over the last few decades has been turbo-charged in recent times through the growing involvement of business and corporations in the shaping of university futures – a process Marginson and Considine (2000, p. 3) have referred to as ‘the increasing interpenetration of economic capital into university education’. More...

To a large degree, Andre Spicer’s recent book on ‘business bullshit’ is about ‘the meaningless language [conjured up] in schools, in banks, in consultancy firms, in politics, and in the media’ (p. xii). Spicer is correct in mentioning business, but what he does not do is mention the following: it is this language that drives thousands of business schools. More...

Still, the common hallucination of a free market lingers on just like the fantasy of ‘homo economicus’ (p. 3) – the rational individual constantly calculating costs versus benefits. Furnished with these fictions, free markets have for long been highly concentrated. More...

In Creativity Crisis, Nelson argues fundamentally that the constructive alignment of learning (CAL) can have a deleterious effect on imagination and on creativity, particularly the latter’s function when learning is seen as doing in order to discover stuff. Seeing that constructive alignment continues to be the cornerstone of curriculum planning and teaching structuring in the universe of higher education, it is nothing if not a brave call. More...

The book commences with an outline of the Australian political party system, from federation to 2007. In this history, the ALP’s emergence as the single parliamentary party of the left stands out—a contrast with the major conservative party which, for nearly a century has usually had to seek coalition in order to govern at the national level (and in some of the states). More...

How do we know that we are beyond the Palmerian moment? The evidence is clear. It lies in the narratives that academics provide when asked about their daily experience of working in the university. We appear to be in a situation, rightly or wrongly, that fosters deficit narratives, narratives of coping, narratives of leaving, and narratives of despair. More...

How might we think about that institution called ‘the University’, at home and across the world? Because something like the institution we know is now found in every part of the world, and there are identifiable commonalities everywhere. Are the small quiet foundations of the University in Europe still relevant? What kind of institution has the University become. More...

Future gazing has become something of a hobby among higher education boffins. It’s more head-scratching than staring into the tea leaves and crystal balls, but the thinking caps are definitely on – well; sort of. More...

Speech at Australian universities is restricted in various ways. A few of them, such as student protests against visiting speakers, receive lots of attention. Others seldom do, such as defamation threats and cyber harassment. Self-censorship may be more significant than overt censorship. More...

The National Tertiary Education Union called on Victoria University to sit down with the Union and talk seriously about a new Enterprise Agreement that is acceptable to both staff and management at the University. More...