Failed student sues for refund | Julie Hare | The Australian Higher Education | 19 June, 2013
A DISGRUNTLED student who failed a unit in his business degree is attempting to have his $969 HECS bill refunded.Christopher Miller, a former student at Southern Cross University’s Tweed Heads campus, says the unit in global marketing was so “educationally defective” in its assessment design that “the marks and grades given to the students cannot be validated and are a nonsense”.
Labor to slash red-tape burden | Stephen Matchett | The Australian Higher Education | 29 May, 2013
In a radical policy change Tertiary Education Minister Craig Emerson has neutralised higher education as an election negative while creating the possibility of a quality-based two-tier system. This morning Dr Emerson will release a new approach to quality control, which meets university demands for a lighter regulatory burden, which could gut Labor’s own creation, the Tertiary Education Quality Assurance Agency. While Dr Emerson is only announcing a regulatory review, measures included in the announcement make it clear he has heard and understood the concerns of Universities Australia and the Group of Eight and accepts that an estimated $280 million in annual compliance costs for universities to report to government is unacceptable. “The review will ensure more of the government’s record investment is directed at student tuition than administration,” he will say.
Southampton shows teeth and watchdog backs down | Jack Grove | Times Higher Education | 16 May 2013
Russell Group member successfully appeals against full QAA review
Labor tosses sector a few sweeteners | Julie Hare | The Australian Higher Education | 15 May, 2013
THE federal government has funded an additional 1650 postgraduate and enabling places in the budget despite a discussion paper on ways to address the irrationality of the current postgraduate funding system. The postgraduate places will be targeted at teaching, nursing and Asian languages.
Research heavyweights deny ‘ganging up’ | Paul Jump | 9 May 2013
A new grouping of southeast institutions accounts for a third of EPSRC-funded work
System exposes visa rorts as students ‘jump ship’ | Bernard Lane | The Australian Higher Education | 08 May, 2013
SOME Indian students are using the university-only streamlined visa system to get to Australia, and are then jumping ship to cheaper private providers, education agents have said.
Two well-regarded Indian agents, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the abuse appeared to be on a small scale now but was bound to increase as student arrivals gain momentum under the new system. “I think it is going to escalate in July because the intake will be bigger,” said a Melbourne-based agent.
Lower-grade foreign queue-jumpers a ‘myth’, data suggest | David Matthews | Times Higher Education | 2 May, 2013
The long standing suspicion that universities accept international studnets with weak qualifications to boost their income appears to be unfounded, according to research by Times Higher Eductation.
At some institutions, such as teh highly international London School of Economics, it is British students who have fewer tariff points.
VET hit by funds crossfire | John Ross | The Australian Higher Education | 01 May, 2013
The federal government has withheld about $300 million from the cash-strapped vocational education and training sector because it is in dispute with state governemnts for cutting similar amounts from TAFE. An estimated $187 of VET capital funding has not been passed on to the sector, even thought the education Investment Fund advisory board recommended about six months ago that a dozen projects should proceed.
Stalled progress on GPA may benefit from national push | Elizabeth Gibney | Times Higher Education | 25 April, 2013
Informal group admits reform will require more work than previously thought
Unis use ERA to hide truth, says union | Andrew Trounson | The Australian Higher Education | 24 April, 2013
THE academic union has put forward new evidence of universities seeking to “game” the Excellence in Research for Australia exercise and has called for a review of the quality audit.The report from the National Tertiary Education Union, released yesterday, also includes widespread concerns that universities are using journal rankings to measure the performance of staff despite the rankings having been dropped by the ERA because of concerns they were being misused.
