CMM’s “what a surprise” correspondent reports the Commonwealth Ombudsman has tweeted a reminder for students from overseas that they must maintain “satisfactory attendance” in their courses

It’s a visa condition the Ombudsman announces, pointing to a helpful fact sheet.

So why now? Apart from general ombudefficiency perhaps it has something to do with the Commonwealth allowing student visa holders to work as many hours as they want, (CMM January 20).

Pre pandemic there was a 20 hour a week ceiling, increased in 2020 and ’21 (July 10 2021). The no-limit rule is up for review this month, but students who have got used to the money may not be inclined to work less so they can study as much as they are supposed to.

In Features this morning

The ranking season is soon to start so Angel Calderon (RMIT) explains what’s in the big ones and suggests how Aus unis will do this year. Love them or loathe them, unis use rankings for selling and strategising and the astute Angel delivers the detail to make sense of the spin.

plus Paulomi Burey (Uni Southern Queensland) on the case for HASSing STEM. “Perhaps there is value in a renaissance approach to learning, where development of wider interests and expertise are encouraged,” she suggest. Hers is this week’s contribution in Commissioning Editor Sally Kift’s celebrated series, Needed now in teaching and learning.

It’s not just appointments ministers hope happen before caretaker kicks in

Word is Cooperative Research Centre Round 23 grants are decided. This is quick-smart indeed, the six shortlisted bid teams were only interviewed last week.

The six are * Care Economy * Sovereign Manufacturing Automation * Intelligent Manufacturing *  Antimicrobial Resistance * ONE Basin (as in Murray-Darling)  and * Plastic Waste

Four of them are said to be funded.

In December Acting Education Minister Stuart Robert told the Australian Research Council he wanted it to have an advisory committee “with substantial research end-user and governance representation”

Fears that this meant fewer researchers, more business-people and no HASS reps at all were misplaced. The advisory committee, announced yesterday, is researcher and research-governance rich.

Chris Moran (DVC R – Curtin U) is chair, Members are, * Calum Drummond (RMIT) * Mark Hutchinson (Uni Adelaide) * Mark McKenzie,  (Council of Small Business Organisations Australia)  * Mirjana Prica (Food Innovation Australia) * Michelle Simmons UNSW) * Deborah Terry Uni Queensland) * Maggie Walter (Yoorrook Justice Commission)

The humanities miss out but the social sciences are represented by Uni Queensland VC Professor Terry who is psychology scholar and Professor Walter, who is a sociologist.

The March decision to end journalism courses is spiked

The private HE provider has reversed its decision to withdraw its bachelor and dip. The Tuition Protection Service reports the college has told students, “they can stay enrolled and continue/complete their journalism course as planned.”

Macleay’s original decision upset students and attracted attention from regulators, who pointed out the college’s legal obligations (CMM March 14, 15).

The TSP also advises that if students are, “not happy with how Macleay is advising or assisting them” they should get in touch, “and we will assist.”

Macleay has engaged HE consultants DVE Solutions, “for a short term piece of work to provide advice around improving a number of their processes.”  Head of Consulting Ian Thomson confirms Michael Tomlinson may be part of its team on the work. That’s the Mike Tomlinson who was the long-serving director of TEQSA’s assurance group.

A new academic workload model is expected in May

Vice Chancellor Brigid Heywood had one ready to go but the chair of the Academic Workload Committee had another, which the campus branch of the National Tertiary Education Union considered superior. The union took the disagreement to the Fair Work Commission in March where Commissioner Johns suggested the parties keep talking (CMM March 8).

Which they will do through to May, when an agreed workload plan will be announced. Professor Heywood certainly appears keen to keep courteous the discussions still to come.

On Monday she acknowledged the work of the AWC and noted contributing staff members’, “generous and collegial sharing of adaptive good practice between staff in faculties and across schools.” She also recognised academic staff in general for “adjusting to the challenges” of working without a formal model.”

ANU DVC Ian Anderson and HE policy veteran advisor Robert Griew spent the summer asking university leaders what universities can do to “create a covenant with their communities”

It would be a way “re-win” community support, despite the “destructive rhetoric used by some senior government figures and the politicians’ clear sense that any hostility they display towards the university sector does not play badly in the electorate.”

They propose six priorities

* “a new mixed-mode educational normalcy” and attention to student wellbeing and social inclusion

* “rebuilding” the international student experience

* teaching career pathways for junior academics, less reliance on casual academic labour

* universities roles in creating skills-based growth

* universities partnering with local business and communities to demonstrate how research can contribute to economic recovery

* “revisiting the arguments for diversity within the sector – from institutes of technology to comprehensive research universities to key regional institutions”

by CLAIRE FIELD

the investment made in digital education during COVID needs to be the starting point for more, and more sophisticated, online learning

A column on “education in the metaverse” might sound like I am spruiking for Facebook. To be clear I am not, and the concept of the metaverse stretches well beyond Facebook’s rebrand as Meta.

In fact the advent of web3/the metaverse is something that educators in both higher education and VET are going to need to start seriously thinking about.

A report last week from Citibank defines the metaverse as possibly, “the next generation of the internet – combining the physical and digital world in a persistent and immersive manner.” The authors suggest that a “device-agnostic metaverse accessible via PCs, game consoles, and smart phones” could result in new and enhanced ways to undertake “all of our current activities, including commerce, entertainment and media, education and training, manufacturing …”

With Australian adolescents reporting spending 7.5 hours per day on digital devices, most commonly smart phones and laptops or tablets, we need to understand that the investment made in digital education during COVID needs to be the starting point for more, and more sophisticated, online learning.

In the same way that teenagers live increasingly digital lives while still engaging in the real world, I think it is inevitable that these learners will expect their tertiary education to reflect the level of digital sophistication available to them in other aspects of their lives.

As debate continues about whether students want on-campus or https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/on-line-and-or-in-person-what-students-want-is-good-teaching/ good on-line delivery, we need to keep in mind that pre-pandemic the number of students turning up to lectures on campus was in decline. It seems likely that many students yearning for on-campus tuition will fairly soon shift back to pre-pandemic modes of attendance.

The issue we face is not on-line versus on-campus teaching. It is how to deliver quality education to increasingly digitally sophisticated students. While predominantly text-based and video lessons delivered on-line were accepted during the pandemic – they will not suffice in the future.

Well-designed hybrid learning which offers engaging content, both on-line and face-to-face, and which is built on advances in learning and assessment design which improve learning outcomes are the future which institutions need to be building for now.

 Claire Field is an adviser to the tertiary education sector

Andrew Fraser will become Griffith U chancellor in September. Mr Fraser is now in business, after serving as deputy premier and treasurer in state Labor governments.

QUT Chancellor Xiaoling Liu will step down in June for personal reasons. Deputy Chancellor Peter Howes leads the search for a successor.

David Cameron-Smith starts at the University of Newcastle at the Ourimbah campus, in  the new role of professor of food innovation. He moves from the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences.

Winners in the Victorian Premier’s Awards for Health and Medical Research are, Rebecca Goldstein: health services (Monash U) * Xiaodong Li: basic science (Monash U) * Rachel Nelligan: clinical researcher (Uni Melbourne) * Angela  Dos Santos: Aboriginal researcher (Australian Stroke Alliance) * Roshan Selvaratnam: public health (Monash U) *  Christina Zorbas: public health (Deakin U)