CMM has no clue so we asked experts to talk at our zoom event last week

Including Li Tran (Deakin U) who will discuss what needs be done in international student engagement. She’s working with colleagues to create a resource for the Commonwealth’s new decadal strategy.

Professor Tran will be in conversation, (Tuesday, 11.30) with Jayden Huang (Council of International Students Australia), Douglas Proctor (Swinburne U), and Marnie Watson from global education marketer Sannam S4.

Full event details are HERE.

In Features this morning

Merlin Crossley (UNSW) argues that in higher education big is beautiful  “we are delivering more knowledge to more people than ever before”. Problem is that universities can now look like corporations, which some people don’t like – not non-profits investing in teaching and research. So what is to be done? “We have to focus and avoid expanding the core purpose of universities to beyond what is credible to our critics,” he suggests.

plus Jack Breen (UNSW) looks at election advertising in social media. So far Labor is spending way most – but not on education messages.

and Warren Bebbington (Uni Melbourne) on how universities can urgently address climate change in teaching, research and service. “It is in their core programmes that universities can make the most significant contribution to ending this alarming crisis,” he writes.

with Catharine Coleborne and Clare Lloyd (Uni Newcastle) on a new BA, with more inquiry-based subjects and interactive pedagogies. It has changed how academics think about designing and teaching humanities. It’s Commissioning Editor Sally Kift’s selection this week for her celebrated series, Needed now in teaching and learning.

as well as Angel Calderon’s (RMIT) analysis of the new Times Higher impact rankings (CMM yesterday) – which Aus universities are up, those that are down, how it happens and why it matters.

The coalition and Labor both commit $77m for a cancer research centre at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute

“This further investment will ensure patients in Adelaide receive state-of-the-art cancer treatment,” Mark Butler, Labor health shadow and member for the Adelaide seat of Hindmarsh tweeted Wednesday.

Which was what Social Services Minister Anne Rushton (a Liberal senator for SA) and Finance Minister Simon Birmingham (the same) said on a Wednesday visit to SAHMRI.

It’s part of a pattern. U Tas advises both sides agree that what the timber products industry needs is $100m for an innovation centre and that the Launceston campus, in the ultra-marginal seat of Bass, is the place for it (CMM May 4).

There’s an opportunity here for an education (or more likely) health spokesperson who thinks they are about to lose to promise really expensive kit for a university in so close a seat that the other side will immediately match it.

 

The ransomware attack on the National Tertiary Education Union was an excellent opportunity for its leadership’s opponents to get stuck in. A prominent one didn’t

Anastasia Kanjere, (La Trobe U) who is running for union general secretary, took to Twitter yesterday to comment on the hack of member records (CMM yesterday). “While there may be a few less than ideal practices occurring, this is very unlikely to be the union’s fault … Cybersecurity experts tend to say “when, rather than if” and these kinds of breaches are very difficult to be completely immune from,” she stated.

Dr Kanjere did add there are “good practices” which could minimise damage and, “for those interested in change in union leadership, rest assured that we talked about these strategies and I’m ready to implement best practice.” But overall her message was about members’ interests.

Which makes it grown-up politics – a contrast to that other campaign we are all enduring.

Of the day

BioMelbourne Network (“progressing bioindustry”) announces its women in leadership awards * emerging leadership, Lauren Ayton (Uni Melbourne/Centre for Eye Research) * distinguished leadership, Emma Ball (Illumina) * inspiring leadership George Kenley (Seer)

Flavio Menezes becomes director of Uni Queensland’s Australian Institute of Business and Economics. It’s an internal UoQ appointment.

Of the week

 The American Academy of Arts and Sciences announces its 2022 Fellows, including International Honorary Members, Christopher Dickman (Uni Sydney) and Lisa Kewley (ANU),

Poet Evelyn Araluen wins the Stella Prize, “a voice for gender equality and cultural change in Australian  literature.” She teaches in Deakin U’s School of Communications and Creative Arts, where she is officially known as Evelyn Corr.

Hilary Bambrick becomes director of ANU’s National Centre for Epidemiology and Public Health. She moves from QUT

Joy Damousi becomes dean of Australian Catholic U’s new School of Arts and Humanities and director of the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences. It’s an internal appointment.

Mandy Downing is Curtin U’s inaugural Dean of Indigenous Futures in the Faculty of the Humanities. It is an internal appointment.

Robert Goodin (ANU) wins the 2022 Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science, for decades of work, to “blend political philosophy with empirical political science to increase the understanding of how decent and dignified societies can be shaped.” The prize is awarded by the Swedish Skytte Foundation.

Tess Lea is leaving Uni Sydney to become head of Community, Culture and Global Studies at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus. She starts there in July.

Lisa McDaid become director of Uni Queensland’s Institute for Social Science Research. She steps up from ISSR’s deputy director for research.

Duncan Maskell is appointed to a second five-year as Uni Melbourne VC

Meredith Nash joins ANU as Associate Dean, Community in the College of Engineering and Computing Science. She moves from Uni Tasmania.

Uni Wollongong announces emeritus professorships, Shi Xue Dou (Institute of Innovative Material), Richard Kenchington, (Centre for Ocean Resources and Security), Hua Kun Liu (Institute of Innovative Material), Linda Tapsell (Science, Medicine and Health)