In Features this morning

Michael Sankey (Charles Darwin U) and Chris Campbell (Griffith U) on live-lectures and tech In teaching – what students want is what works, is here. They address issues raised by  Robert Vanderburg and Michael Cowling, in CMM here.

plus James Guthrie (Macquarie U) sets out the seven gaps between university managements’ rhetoric on the state of finances and the very different realities

and Merlin Crossley (UNSW), makes the case for science comms and the good that comes from getting the word out.

Coping with COVID meant running hard to stand still this year, which made it easy to miss the HE race has changed

Join university leaders and advisors discussing challenges in recruiting students, creating courses and remaining relevant post (hopefully) pandemic.

Six on-line sessions over three days, from Twig Marketing and CMM. Details here.

The Prime Minister told a Victorian Chamber of Commerce function yesterday he thinks international students, will be back “before the end of the year,” which makes it a good time to make them feel welcome.

The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations wants international students who go home to be able to come back

CAPA says that before they leave Australia internationals must have approval to come back, under “an outdated travel restriction.”

“This has left many international students torn and uncertain. All they want to is return home over the holiday break and to reunite with family they have not seen throughout this pandemic.”

TEQSA reminds the international education industry of its obligations

The regulator sets out what providers must do for students who enrol overseas and want (but can’t just now) to study in Australia, including;

“Providers must be transparent with students and potential students about the type of study they are being offered, including the visa, legal protections and post-study work rights implications of each. “

Tracy Harris joins Swinburne College as GM and dean. She was previously at RMIT.

VC Peter Høj presented them yesterday

 research: * Roger Byard (Health and Medical Sciences) * Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem (Sciences)

research, professional staff: Miles Davies (Maths)

research, early career: Dominic McAfee (Sciences)

research team: Dale Godfrey, Cadence Haynes, Nicole Moore, Khloe Xu, Sanjee Peiris, Lauren Champs, Louise Moore, Lynette Kelly (Research and Innovation)

student experience: Adrian Koerber (Maths)

student experience, team: Doreen Krumbiegel, Snezana Ilic, Ann-Louise Primiero, Antoinette Brincat, Rosie Wilkes, Diana Reed, Barbara Little, Nazia Hussain, Helen Nagel, Emma Aucote, Clementine Hill, Sarah Ward, Michelle Tatyzo, Tricia Catford, Kristina Hoffman, Linda Katselis, Darlene Truong, Dascey Crouch, Erin Smith, Charlotte Le Lan, Monica Kerr, Melanie Lewis, Jake Kroker, Clare Govett, Donna Gould, Janelle Palmer, Jordan Peters, Heather Soutar, Libby Hamilton

leadership: Ben Sparrow (Biological Sciences)

service innovation:  Tony Cambareri (Health and Medical Sciences) * Jane Smart-Foster, Matthew Piantadosi, Melissa Totino, Irene Bartolo, Alice Robinson, Vanessa Jones, Tanya Seagrim, Jane Welch (Enterprise Agreement variation team)

community building: Gill Stuart, Louise O’Reilly, Tom Brown, Ashleigh Folland, Sasha Oelsner, Luke Van Trigt, Rhiannon Taverner, Wee-Ching Kong, Jo Marshall, Julia Miller, Michelle McLeod, Kat Sibly (Engineering, Computer and Maths)

equity, diversity, inclusion: Sarah Bilney (Professions)

exceptional contribution:  Chien-Li Holmes-Liew (Medical School and Royal Adelaide Hospital

Campus unions agreed last year to defer 2019 enterprise agreement payrises scheduled for 2020 and 2021, as COVID-19 savings measures (CMM July 30 2020)

But the agreement was based on times remaining tough – if things improved it could be cancelled, which by August this year the National Tertiary Education suspected was the case. “The dire predictions of 2020 have not come to pass, ” branch president Fiona Probyn-Rapsley said in August, (CMM August 15).

Management did not agree, Chief Operating Officer  Damien Israel warned that while UoW is “on the path to recovery” “our financial outlook continues to be challenging” and ending savings measures early “could place the university in financial difficulty,” (CMM August 20).

Certainly Uni Wollongong had a tough time last year. A Commonwealth Government report shows it moving from a $17m surplus in 2019 to a $52m loss last year, but as James Guthrie reports in CMM a great deal of the university’s difficulties had to do with the cost of ending a student accommodation partnership.

And now new Vice Chancellor Patricia Davidson has decided to pay on December 1, the November 2020 (2 per cent) and November 2021 (2.5 per cent)  pay rises that were deferred  until the end of January next. “Although our financial situation remains uncertain, we can afford to make this important and genuine show of goodwill … it will hopefully ease the financial burden being borne by staff, particularly casual staff, in the lead up to the holiday season,”she said yesterday.