UNSW has toned down the proposed update of its student code of conduct. In last week’s draft the university had a clause in Section 3.3 (“Equity, respect and safety”) stating, students must “express political and religious views in a lawful manner which do not risk the safety of individuals and/or unreasonably impinge on university business or the reasonable use of university resources.” (CMM October 25). Funnily enough, students kicked up. The clause is gone in the current draft.

The QILT graduate outcome survey, covering 2015  graduates through to 2018 is out this morning, demonstrating the improving employment power of degrees as the echo of the GFC falls silent. As Catriona Jackson from Universities Australia comments, a “university degree expands your horizons, challenges you and remains one of the surest ways to find fulltime work, even when the labour market has been doing it tough,” Scroll down for details of the new work from the utterly admirable Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching.

Management and the National Tertiary Education Union at the University of Newcastle have reached enterprise bargaining agreement, with the Fair Work Commission helping the parties over the line yesterday.

The Community and Public Sector Union is believed to have already ticked the terms and last week management thought the NTEU was also on-side. It wasn’t, with that union and management disagreeing over what was agreed on academic probation and managing staff performance (CMM October 25) However yesterday a deal was definitely done, “we thank the Fair Work Commission for its assistance to resolve outstanding matters with the NTEU in Newcastle this afternoon, and bargaining has now concluded,” acting vice chancellor Kevin Hall told staff yesterday.

The terms now go to NTEU members and the union’s national leadership for approval, with an all staff vote to follow. It should reach the Far Work Commission for ratification before year end.

But what was the FWC doing – conciliating and informally arbitrating, it sounds like to CMM. Now where has CMM heard that before ?

For all the seasonal sun, the mood on North Terrace is frosty, with University of Adelaide management taking to the pages of The Advertiser to explain they had no overweening ambition in merger discussions with the University of South Australia. Chancellor Kevin Scarce and VC Peter Rathjen, state representations that “we were seeking a takeover and that we wanted our leadership to dominate” are not true. They go on to make the case for a “truly great and well-run, merged university.” Watch out Flinders U.

Nick Talley is NSW Scientist of the year. The University of Newcastle neurogastroenterologist is awarded $60 000. Professor Talley is the fourth UniNewcastle winner in the award’s 11 years.

University of Sydney researchers also did well at the NSW Premier’s Prizes for Science and Engineering, winning five of the other nine $5000 awards which went to;

Maths, earth sciences, chemistry, physics: Dietmar Müller (UniSydney). Biological sciences: Alex McBratney UniSydney. Medical biology: Richard Harvey (UNSW). Engineering/ICT: Branka Vucetic (UniSydney). Energy innovation: Xiaojing (Jeana) Hao (UNSW). Early career researcher: James (Mac) Shine (UniSyd). Innovation: Anthony Weiss (UniSydney). Innovation in public sector science and engineering: Cathy Offord (Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust). Innovation in science and maths teaching: Heidi Hammond (East Hills Girls Technology High School)

Universities have combined to condemn former education minister Simon Birmingham’s veto of 11 Australian Research Council recommended grants (CMM Monday and yesterday). “A ministerial veto decision in the research grants system erodes global confidence in Australia’s research program and our reputation for research excellence. … Such a veto also undermines academic freedom, by opening the door to any minister deciding they don’t like a research topic – irrespective of its merits – that could transform knowledge in a field,” Universities Australia stated after yesterday’s meeting of vice chancellors.

The VCs chose to focus on the minister, not pursuing La Trobe U VC John Dewar’s complaint that “the minister’s actions were concealed, both by the minister himself and by the ARC,” (CMM Monday). “ARC staff have also been placed in the invidious position of having to give feedback to applicants whose projects were recommended for funding but then vetoed – without a public explanation from the minister,” UA stated.

Oh good, another ranking – todays comes from The Economist, which thinks Australia has just about the best run economy in the world but is less impressed with MBAs here. This year three universities make the list, same as last Melbourne Business School (23) UoQ (38) and the Macquarie Graduate School of Management (79).

Open Universities Australia has just turned 25 and reports enrolments are improving, with student starts up 17 per cent, YTD last-month. (CMM September 17). They need to be, newly available federal figures, show OA’s EFTSL was 7,369 in 2017, down 24 per cent on 2016. The 2016 figure was down 15 per cent on 2015. There were drops in all discipline areas last year, except education, which was up 9 per cent.

Naomi Dempsey is Victoria U’s new PVC Students. She is promoted from student services director at VU.

Curtin U planetary scientist Katarina Miljkovic receives a L’Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Fellowship.

Xuemei Bai from ANU has won the Volvo Environment Prize for her research on the causes and consequences of urbanisation.

Virginia Haussegger is the ACT Australian of the Year. She leads the University of Canberra’s 50/50 by 2030 Foundation which works for gender equality in public-sector leadership.

Is CMM who left Swinburne U out of yesterday’s report on attrition stats in the email edition. The Swinburne figure is on the website now.