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A chance for casuals
Labor has a campaign commitment which will be unpopular with some university managements
Buried in yesterday’s economic plan Labor commits to “empowering the Fair Work Commission to turn insecure jobs into more secure ones and regulating the gig economy.”
The present legislation that covers converting casual university jobs into continuing ones has not delivered – universities have interpreted its requirements so narrowly that dozens of people have qualified out of hundreds, indeed thousands, at large institutions. Uni Melbourne offered continuing jobs to 72 casuals out of 7700 on the books under the existing process under the FW act process (CMM November 15 2021).
There’s more in the Mail
In Features this morning
Christy Collis (Uni Southern Queensland) on the digital skills gap. “Our students may know how to use digital tools, but we are not necessarily teaching them how to be successful digital workers, she warns in an essay for Contributing Editor Sally Kift’s celebrated series, Needed now in teaching and learning.
plus Wendy Perry suggests a dual sector provider as an alternative to an SA uni merger. With work TAFE might make be a fit with Flinders U.
and James Guthrie sets out priorities for HE reform.
Global win for Western Sydney U
It’s world number one on the new world university impact ranking
The Times Higher Education ranking measures institutions’ performance on four criteria, research, stewardship, outreach and teaching, for each of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
As well as overall first place, WSU is number one of 1406 institutions for SDG Six (clean water and sanitation) and second for SDG 12 (“responsible consumption and production”). UTS is second in Australia, at 15th in the world and La Trobe U is third at equal 19. All up 17 local universities are in the global top 100. Seven of New Zealand’s eight universities are also in the top 100 (Lincoln U is absent). Uni Auckland first at sixth in the world and Victoria U of Wellington last at 85th.
In addition to Western Sydney U, ANZ universities take top spots in three SDG categories, Uni Canberra (SDG 10 – reducing inequality), Uni Canterbury (SDG 12- responsible consumption, production) and U Tas (SDG 13- climate action).
Methodology is here.
Beyond the emergency row
As international education takes off join us for a zoom conference on what’s next
Speakers include, VCs Margaret Gardner and Iain Martin, policy experts Hamish Coates and Gwilym Croucher and buckle-up for TEQSA chief commissioner Peter Coaldrake in conversation with Sally Kift. Details here.
Internationals achieving better outcomes than domestic students
by Dirk Mulder
So why are the Feds reviewing English language aspects in the ESOS Act?
Alan Olsen (formerly behind the Australian Universities International Directors Forum benchmarking) has reviewed new Commonwealth data for 2020 to find commencing international students had an 88.8 per cent pass rate, compared to 85.8 per cent for locals.
His research is here.
It was not always thus. “Generations of academics had the experience that commencing international bachelor students dragged standards down. In 2001, commencing international bachelor students were 2.3 percentage points worse, in 2004 negative 4.2 and in 2005 negative 3.7,” he reports.
However, by 2008 commencing international students did about the same as commencing domestic bachelor students (less than one percentage point difference). And from 2013 commencing international students did better than comparable locals.
What makes this really important is that the Department of Education, Skills and Employment is reviewing the Education Services for Overseas Students Act and is asking the English Language sector,
* how can providers of ELICOS and Foundation Programmes ensure that students have reached the required level of English language proficiency to start their first AQF course?; and
* would it be beneficial to introduce an independent assessment of international students’ English proficiency before they commence their first AQF course?
But as Mr Olsen points out;
“the results since 2013 can be interpreted as showing that increasing numbers of Australian universities set and maintain entry standards, including English language entry standards, for international undergraduates that lead to successful outcomes, prepare international students better in English language proficiency, monitor academic performance and provide effective English language and study skills support.”
Which creates a question for DESE. If the system isn’t broken, why look for ways to fix it?
Dirk Mulder advises education and business clients on trends in international education. He writes regularly for CMM
Alternatives for Elsevier
The for-profit journal giant has long stuck to a pay for access to its journal content but times change
Last month the publisher reached an agreement with UK universities that will make their research free to read in its journals.
Perhaps Elsevier has read the writing on the OA wall and is following other publishers who are adopting various forms of open access. Or perhaps Elsevier is keen on re-shaping itself into a data analytics provider, monetising its vast information base. Probably both. Elsevier has certainly been buying specialist analytics providers, such as Science Metrix (CMM January 21 2020) and data manager SciBite (CMM August 24 2020).
And now it announces the purchase of US research admin services provider Interfolio. It’s a distance from what Elsevier refers to as “its roots in publishing.”
Appointments
Elizabeth Hartland (Murdoch IMR and Monash U) is new chair of the Victoria chapter of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes. She replaces Brendan Crabb (Burnett Institute).
Bond U reports Libby Sander become director of the MBA programme. It is an internal appointment.