We offer here a metaphor of the university as an 'infinite game' in which we bring to life insight, imagination, and radical inclusion; and resist the 'finite games' that can lead us astray. We suggest that keeping the infinite game alive within universities is a much-needed form of academic activism. We offer four vignettes that explore this further: our responsibility to be 'critic and conscience of society' and how that responsibility must also turn inwards onto our own institution, the dilemmas of being a woman with leadership responsibilities in an institution that proudly shows off its 'top girls', the opportunities we have as teachers to 'teach the university' and be taught by our students, and the contradictions we face as activist scholars in our relentlessly audited research personas. We draw on the infinite/finite game metaphor, our own affective experiences as tenured academics, and feminist critiques. More...

Last week the government announced that it will cut the income support of approximately 410 refugees and asylum seekers living in the Australian community and provide them with 3 weeks to leave Government-supported accommodation under a ‘Final Departure Bridging E Visa.’ The announcement is targeted at people who were transferred from Manus Island and Nauru for urgent medical care and have since remained in Australia following the#LetThemStay campaign in early 2016. On the Monday following the announcement, 65 people had already had their income support cut and have been told that they have 3 weeks to leave their homes. More...

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) calls for a straightforward open parliamentary vote on marriage equality and condemns the postal plebiscite as unnecessary and divisive. More...

The NTEU is appalled by the Turnbull Government’s intention to impose restrictions on how public sector workers engage on social media.
The Australian Public Service Commission’s (APSC) review of its guidance for employees on ‘making public comment’ severely curtails employees’ rights to participate in public and political debates. More...

On campuses around the country today, during a designated National Day of Protest, staff and students rallied to urge the Turnbull Government to scrap planned cuts to higher education and increases in student fees. More...

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) notes the news today that the campaign designed to promote recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the Australian Constitution, known as Recognise, will be disbanded - after five years and several million dollars’ worth of government funding. 
This decision comes after years of grassroots community campaigning on sovereignty and treaties, in addition with the recent releases of the Uluru Statement and the Referendum Council Report both of which, while limited in their scope, highlighted a wide community rejection of mere symbolic recognition. More...

Following further negotiation meetings this week, James Cook University (JCU) management has again failed to table a reasonable offer, leaving National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) members with no choice but to escalate their industrial action with a ban on participation in the Townsville JCU Open Day on Sunday. More...

-          The Gender Pay Gap (GPG) in Australia is still stuck around 17%, and even across the education sector is 10%.
-          Women graduate from university into a 3.4% GPG, which widens out to 9.3% in just three years.
When we say women in higher education are Worth 100%, we are talking about more than the GPG. We are asking why there is still a GPG. More...

Members of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) employed at James Cook University (JCU) will take further industrial action next week, following management’s failure to resolve negotiations for a new enterprise agreement for staff.
In negotiations this afternoon, management at JCU continued with their out-of-touch proposals to cut staff conditions and provide salary increases that are well below predictions for inflation. More...

The trend is fewer and fewer decent jobs, with one in two new jobs in higher education now precarious. The ACTU’s claim that 40% of jobs in Australia are now insecure is disputed by the business advocates, but there is no disputing that 40% of the higher education sector are in insecure employment. The official government data supplied from the universities says so. The FTE actual casual and limited term workforce is growing at three times the rate of the (more) secure workforce. More...