By Bella Counihan and Sunanda Creagh. The Australian government’s recent proposed cuts to university funding and student loans will cost universities A$1 billion a year by 2017 and make it harder for people to balance study and work, the chief of the peak body for Australian universities said today.
Professor Sandra Harding, Vice-Chancellor of James Cook University and chair of Universities Australia, told the National Press Club today that a new study funded by Universities Australia showed over 80% of full time university students must find a job while studying. Read more...

The NTEU Indigenous Policy Committee will conduct the 2013 NTEU National Indigenous Forum on Thursday the 23rd & Friday the 24th May at the Brambuk Cultural Centre, Halls Gap, Victoria. The theme for Forum 2013 is: Bargaining – What do we want?
Indigenous Forum 2013 will have a focus on the current Bargaining Round, in particular, the National Indigenous Claim incorporating numeric targets for maintaining and increasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment in the Australian higher education sector.
A number of institutions have already finalised their negotiations for Round 6, while in the main, other institutions have either served their log of claims or are in the throes of negotiations.
While negotiations take place, the looming Federal Election in September presents the possibility for political change; we need to consider what this political change will bring and how it may influence bargaining outcomes?
This year’s Forum will also discuss the 2012 Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People (Behrendt review), in particular how the new membership of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Advisory Council (formerly IHEAC) will seek to implement the 35 Review recommendations.
Indigenous Forum 2013 offers delegates the opportunity to provide input into the future development of NTEU Indigenous higher education policy and strategies, relating to Indigenous employment, student income support, research, teaching and social justice issues.
Registration — All those attending Indigenous Forum 2013 must submit a Registration form to the National Office by COB 1st May 2013.  Due to the need to coordinate bus travel to and from the airport it is important to get your registrations in by the due date.

This gathering discussed the roles, functions, governance and reward systems as well as funding support for University-Industry-Community engagement in Malaysian public universities.
The Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia hosted and organized, along with AsiaEngage and the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Educationthismeeting, held on 9-10 January 2013 in Subang (Malaysia). The event was structured around individual presentations from the eight deputy vice-chancellors. The participant universities were Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi MARA, International Islamic University Malaysia, Universiti Malaysa, and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The feedback from the group discussions was very positive, and was presented to the Secretary General of the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia, Datuk Abd Rahim Md Noor, who was present at the meeting.
A report is now available with a more detailed summary. It is directed towards stakeholders across the ASEAN region who are in the process of institutionalizing university-community-industry engagement, in the hopes to move towards a more engaged ASEAN and Asia. For more information, follow this link. Read more...

By Miki Tanikawa. To encourage more Japanese youths to study abroad, a plan is in the works to offer scholarships to those taking short-term overseas courses, the Japanese education minister, Hakubun Shimomura, said during a visit to Washington.
The offer, which Mr. Shimomura said would be available as early as 2017, is tied to a series of education initiatives by Japan’s conservative government headed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is eager to make the country more competitive internationally. Read more...

By Dan Rivers. I found out that the May SAT test had been canceled across the whole of South Korea just a couple of hours after teachers were told. A chance conversation with a friend, who is a teacher at an international school here, revealed the scramble to organize alternative tests in other countries for young students hoping to get into elite U.S. universities.
The decision was taken after a widespread cheating scandal was uncovered -- a number of scams were being employed to give some unscrupulous students and their parents advance warning about the questions to be included in the test. Read more...

Vietnam should grant autonomy to higher education institutions if it wants to have world-class universities, two experts suggested in an online publication.
It should ensure independence for tertiary schools in addition to setting up centers of excellence, improving working conditions, offering competitive remuneration packages, and securing academic freedom, Professor Pierre Darriulat, a retired French astrophysicist with more than a decade of experience teaching physics in Hanoi, recently told University World News, a UK-based higher education news website.
Prof. Darriulat added that the Southeast Asian nation should take adequate advantage of qualified local young lecturers and Vietnamese talent living abroad for Vietnam to have excellent universities that can deliver an international-standard education. Read more...