We see what you did there

“Demon barber Sweeney Todd is a cut above the rest,” Uni Adelaide promotes the Elder Con’s production of CMM’s fave Sondheim show.

The story so far

Has gone on for a bit so this is the last issue of CMM

Thanks to everybody whose ideas and hard work made it happen – and thanks to Stephanie Raethel, whose love and wisdom kept the press rolling for 9 years and a bunch of months.

There’s no more in the Mail

In Features for the last morning of CMM

Merlin Crossley (UNSW) on how the HE world CMM covered changed, and didn’t  @ HERE

plus Improving student learning for all learners must be at the heart of the Accord. A national resource to lift outcomes and benefits for all through relentless improvement in university teaching is the way to do it. Liz Johnson, Sally Kift, Jason Lodge and Siobhan Lenihan make the case for their proposed National Centre for Student Success, HERE.

Todays Headline Story

Staff sceptical about SA uni merger

Public university people across SA wonder about the proposed merger of Uni Adelaide and Uni SA

A poll by the National Tertiary Education Union of 1100 people at Flinders U, Uni Adelaide and Uni SA, found 21 per cent believe the merger will result in better education and 29 per cent that it will improve research.

Just a quarter support the merger overall.

The NTEU states 58 per cent of respondents aren’t union members.

Scepticism on research is especially significant given SA premier, Peter Malinauskas has long argued that size matters,  “the harsh truth is that each of our universities is too small and too under-capitalised to make it into the list of top international universities. They simply don’t do enough large-scale research to be recognised as world leading and that is holding our state back,” he said in 2019 (CMM June 6 2022).

But NTEU state secretary Andrew Miller counsels caution, “there is no turning back once this decision is made.

““Staff are demanding concrete evidence the merger will deliver better quality education and better-quality research; full stakeholder engagement; and complete transparency and public oversight protections throughout.”

“Getting this wrong could be catastrophic for SA.”

In which case Uni Adelaide VC, Peter Høj and his Uni SA David Lloyd are just going to have to announce a model that is right for everybody.

Because the premier wants the merger to happen – he has a plan for merger commission ready to go if the two unis don’t come up with a way.

Out of bounds: the treatment of women umpiring AFL

The growth in women playing AFL is not matched by numbers umpiring – there are reasons for that

In AFL umpires share rooms and resources, regardless of gender – which is one problem for women, as Victoria Rawlings (Uni Sydney) and Damian Anderson (community- researcher) discovered in focus-groups and interviews *

They found, in part:

* selection for games: it isn’t always on merit, rather there are, “discourses that consistently minimise female ambition, passion and skill and establish a ‘common sense’ attitude that boys and men are more deserving of success in umpiring”

* facilities: initiatives to give women their own change rooms were well intended,  but “they failed to make girls and women feel included in umpiring communities, and instead made them feel further excluded as a minority”

* gender-based harassment: includes two major forms, “relating to ability” and sexual harassment

“ While the AFL has indicated willingness to integrate women into the football world, there is considerable work to be done in the realm of officiating. The institutional and cultural misogyny demonstrated in this research indicates that these initiatives are at best optimistic in their current form,” they conclude.

The paper needs to be read throughout football – which is probably why the work “was supported” by the Australian Football League. Good-o but the 50 free copies provided by the publisher will surely not be enough to get the message out.

* Victoria Rawlings and Damian Anderson, “Girls and women in umpiring: retention and participation limited by hostile cultural contexts” Sport, Education and Society (June 13)

 

CMM goes the full Mr Ed

In a free webinar, Stephen Matchett and guests will discuss a decade of the movers, shakers and breakers who made HE news and how they did it

Future Campus editor Tim Winkler will keep things seemly.

Join us for an outsider’s perspective on the inner workings of university communications, the challenges of ten years reporting CMM and why the comms contests in education are going to get harder – all straight from an HE reporting horse’s mouth

Thursday 29 June 9-10am

Webinar – free

Sign up here (https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/have-i-got-news-for-you-tickets-660208520457)

Making things in Melbourne: once motors now medtech

The Vic Government is backing a $10.77m skills and device hub at Uni Melbourne, to develop training courses, degrees and internships in medtech

With admirable confidence the university announces, “ it will deliver up to a dozen investment-ready start-ups and 1,000 industry-based training places and support local companies to develop and manufacture medtech products onshore and expand exports to the booming global market.”

It will also “develop and deliver” training to meet medtech manufacturers’ needs

Partners in the project include, RMIT, Swinburne U and MTP Connect, the medtech and pharma partner in the Commonwealth’s Industry Growth Centres.

It’s another state government move to make Melbourne (as in the city) a global med research centre, with a ten year strategy which claims every $1 invested generates $3.90 in economic activity.

And it’s Labor to its surgical clogs. After WWII Ben Chifley wanted car-making in Melbourne, in response to the supply-chain shock of WWII. Now its medicines and med tech in response to Covid.

Appointments, achievements

Stephen Bartlett will become director of Uni Sydney’s Nano Institute. He moves from associate dean for research in the university’s science faculty.

Debjani Ganguly joins Australian Catholic U’s Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences. It’s a fractional appointment with University of Virginia.