Education
NSW teachers flag more industrial action
Striking teachers are considering whether to take further industrial action this school term if the NSW government refuses to listen to them.
Parental spending
I am writing in regard to our government’s budget decision to replace the education tax rebate with the Schoolkids bonus. According to the government, the payouts under the bonus will assist families who are doing it tough with the costs of their child’s education. My initial response was positive but now I have seen the bonus in practice I realise that there are deficiencies in its delivery.
UQ promises probity after nepotism scandal
The University of Queensland says new integrity measures will restore the school’s reputation after a damaging nepotism scandal last year.
Language studies a vexed business
The hard lesson of cuts in funding and declining student numbers is that not everyone accepts the business case for a greater focus on teaching Asian languages.
NSW teachers to strike
The NSW industrial umpire has told the state’s teacher federation to consider moving planned strike action to after school hours.
Cabinet cops a blast down south
The carbon tax is nothing but a socialist redistribution of wealth, according to Matthew Kaneda-Hession, who challenged Prime Minister Julia Gillard and much of the federal cabinet last night.
Vic TAFE cuts could top 2000
Ballarat University has detailed job cuts and course closures as tertiary education providers across Victoria count the costs of an “austere” state budget that stripped millions of dollars from TAFE colleges.
$A relief may be short-lived
Exporters and manufacturers may have taken succour from a drop in the dollar below parity but RBA deputy governor Philip Lowe says it’s not the start of a permanent downwards move.
Uni of Melbourne’s dean of dollars
As its enormous, and rather slick, new building suggests, the faculty of business and economics is probably the most powerful in the University of Melbourne. It makes flow the rivers of gold, as it educates the elites of China and South-East Asia, and stuffs its academic ranks with the cream of the global academy.
Mid-year enrolments hit record
Universities are offering a record of number of places at the mid-year entry point this year after the removal of enrolment caps.
‘Adapt to business needs’
Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans will tell universities to work more closely with business to align graduates with industry need.
Academia cuts to the commercial dollar chase
University commercialisation officers talk discuss the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in converting discoveries for use in society and the economy.
Education briefs
The University of NSW has launched a diploma designed to equip students with the practical knowledge and skills for work in the professions.
Funding cuts force tough trade-offs
Dual-sector universities face an increasingly precarious future as state-federal rows, budget cuts and greater competition for students make survival difficult, if not impossible.
Higher fees offset loss of numbers
Annual fee rises kept university income from international students rising despite a decline in new students last year.
Budget just chips away at loan debts
The student loan scheme is piling up debt, but the government is doing only trivial things about that.
UWA calls on miners to fund innovation
The head of Western Australia’s most prestigious university wants the state’s minerals and energy companies to commit 1 per cent of their pre-tax profits to an education endowment fund.
Australia 8th for higher ed
A new league table puts Australia’s higher education system in eighth spot globally.
French lessons
Well, excuse my French, but Tony Abbott could be onto something with this language thing.
European languages most favoured by students
For all of the talk about Asian languages, French and German are still among the languages most commonly taught in schools.
Sex ’n’ drugs ’n’ G&S – it must be law week
Legal groups and courts will celebrate “law week” around the country next week in a bid to demystify the law and raise public perceptions.
Budget 2012: Focus on skills
An additional $101 million has been allocated to improving skills training.
Small mercy not enough
Education groups will step up pressure on the government to address “unfinished business” by increasing per-student spending.
Changes to hurt single parents
Unemployed single parents will be able to collect $31,900 a year in government benefits following budget measures but will lose up to $3120 a year once their youngest child reaches the age of eight.
2012 Budget speech
The four years of surpluses I announce tonight are a powerful endorsement of the strength of our economy, resilience of our people, and success of our policies.
WA gets $1 billion
Will receive a further instalment of $1 billion to start, progress and complete a range of projects next financial year. Western Australia has received $3.7 billion from the federal government’s six-year $36 billion nation building program.
Students contribute $700m to surplus
The government has guaranteed funding for record university enrolments and will spend $54 million to improve maths and science teaching in schools, but students will still shoulder some of the burden for returning the budget to surplus.
Business to pay for strugglers’ benefits
Low to middle-income voters facing cost of living pressures have been the major beneficiary of this year’s budget at the expense of business and high-income earners.
Protests force redundancy rethink
Sydney University’s decision to review redundancy notices of at least 20 of the 100 academics slated to be cut follows a backlash from top international professors.
Skills funding directed where it’s needed
Skills funding, the centrepiece of last year’s budget, will be wound back for some businesses as the government clamps down on subsidies paid to employers for low-level training programs.
