Plenty of time

For-profit publisher Springer is opening access to 50 plus chapters and articles on lifelong learning and equality in education – until June 3

Springer states this aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goal Four (“inclusive and equitable education and promote lifelong opportunities for all”). Good-o, perhaps Springer thinks this will only need three weeks to achieve.

There’s more in the Mail

In Features this morning

People whose partners sabotage their education through coercive control need help – university communities should provide it. Angela Hill, Braden Hill, Fiona Navin and Michelle Rogers (all Edith Cowan U) make the case.

On Thursday Labor leader Anthony Albanese proposed funding a “start-up year” for students and new graduates “with ventures attached to a tertiary institution or designated private accelerator.”

But how will they know how to start their start-up? Flinders U has a university-wide programme teaching innovation and enterprise skills and competencies. Vice Chancellor Colin Stirling  explains what it does and why it works.

Student stress stable

Students are stressed, but no more than prior to the pandemic

Study support provider (and CMM advertiser) Studiosity reports 38 per cent of surveyed students say they are stressed by study daily. But the pandemic did not do it.  In 2019 Studiosity found 39 per cent of students suffered daily stress.

Studiosity’s Michael Larsen suggests no pandemic increase is due to the support universities providedtheir students. “There is no doubt that studying can be stressful, but seeing the statistics hold steady during the pandemic is testament to many universities’ goal of putting students first.”

Next week in Needed Now

It’s a week to day two of the Needed Now in Learning and Teaching conference

So check-out signing-up for one, or two, sessions next Tuesday.

* Learning Rights: why equity is not an option, with Verity Firth (UTS), Andrew Harvey (La Trobe U), Braden Hill (Edith Cowan U) and Sarah O’Shea (National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education)

* Job ready for what: the future of industry-integrated education with, Marnie Hughes-Warrington (Uni SA), Mark McKenzie (Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association), Pascale Quester, (Swinburne U) and Franziska Trede (Australian Collaborative Education Network)

Uni Tas goes to town

The university reveals its plans for a Hobart CBD campus, which “blends university and city life”

Back in March Vice Chancellor Rufus Black promised a draft plan about now, and lo! it was released yesterday.

While the university is at pains to point out that this is but a draft, presented for community consultation it rather appears that the university is ready to go.

The plan includes a big pitch for community support, emphasising sustainability, amenity and Indigenous heritage. This is wise, in earlier versions a city-move was not universally well regarded by resident, (CMM April 23 2019).

The substance of this scheme is moving the university’s teaching and learning into five city precincts. The first stage is set to start, with the project planned to be pretty much complete by 2030.

As for the university’s Sandy Bay campus, “master-planning will commence in the coming months to deliver a world-leading example of a sustainable urban community.” Which will presumably rquire rezoning some of the site – this needs to be sorted after the university lost a zoning case in the Supreme Court last year.

As to paying for what is an enormous expansion on what is already a significant property development programme  – the university has a plan to spend $500m, funded by debt and “balance sheet optimisation,” (CMM March 9).

An imprint of her own

Terri-ann White left UWA when management decided the university press, which she led, should stop being a publisher of “works of local interest and importance … particularly in sharing local Western Australian stories, history and Indigenous voices” (as then acting VC Jane den Hollander described in her farewell message to Ms White, CMM June 19 2020).

Instead, the university decided the press should provide, “open and digitised access to information and knowledge in its support of the university’s academic writing and research,” (CMM November 11 2019).

Now Ms White announces an imprint of her own.

Todays Headline Story

Tudge two-steps to put unis on the back foot

Alan Tudge has set universities a challenge, get Australian students studying on campus before bringing internationals back, and only in the second half of next year for large numbers

“We are just taking one step at a time there,” the Education Minister told Tom Connell on Sky News yesterday.

But there are two steps to put universities on the backfoot. “We can do more to have students back on campus,” Mr Tudge said. That’s Australian students.

“At the end of the day, Australian students are the number one priorities of our universities, and last year, Australian students didn’t get the best of experiences, and the student experience survey results show that. I want to see the universities prioritise Aussie students. Ultimately, that’s what universities were set up for and provide them with the best possible learning experience, and in many cases that means face-to-face learning.”

As for what the absence of international students means for university finances, Mr Tudge acknowledged that commencements are down but he also pointed to last year’s “very substantial assistance” from the government for research and student places. “And I do note that most universities are still reporting surpluses,” he said.

If anybody missed the message in the budget, universities are on their own.

The state of the states for international students

by DIRK MULDER

International student numbers for March YTD are out. Yesterday CMM reported the figures across sectors, today its commencers/enrolments by states and territories

 The state of the states

NSW: commencers were down 17 400 or 27.6 per cent in March ’21 from March ‘20. Enrolments were down 39 200, (15.8 per cent).

Victoria: commencers were down 19 100 (33.5 per cent) Overall enrolments were down 39 800, (18.3 per cent).

Queensland: commencers were down 10 100 (34.7 per cent) while enrolments were down 19 100 or 19.9 per cent.

 South Australia: commencers were down 3 700 or 33.4 per cent while enrolments were down 4 200, (11.9 per cent).

 Western Australia: commencers were down 3 700 or 32.3 per cent while enrolments were down 6 300 or 16.9 per cent.

 Tasmania: commencers were down 830 or 24.6 per cent while enrolments were down 1 900 or 15.7 per cent.

Northern Territory: commencers were down 279 or 23.2 per cent while enrolments were up 49 or 1.4 per cent.

ACT: commencers were down 287 or 9 per cent while enrolments were down 885 or 6.6 per cent.

Market share

 NSW: market share of commencers in March last year was 35.2 per cent – this March it was 36.8 per cent. Overall share was 37.5 per cent last year, 38 per cent this.

Victoria: commencement share in March ’20 was 31.8 per cent, in March 21 it was 30.6 per cent. Enrolment market share in Mar ‘20 was 32.7 per cent, in Mar ‘21 it was 32.1 per cent.

Queensland:  Commencer market share in March ‘20 was 16.1 per cent, in Mar 21 it was 15.2 per cent. Enrolment market share in Mar 20 was 14.4 per cent, in Mar 21 it was 13.9 per cent.

South Australia: Commencer market share in March 2020 was 6.2 per cent, this March it was 5.9 per cent. Enrolment market share in Mar 20 was 5.3 per cent, in Mar 21 it is 5.6 per cent.

Western Australia: commencer market share last March was 6.3 per cent, this March it was 6.2 per cent. Enrolment market share was 5.6 per cent, this March it was 5.62 per cent.

Tasmania: Commencer market share in Mar ‘20 was 1.9 per cent, in March 2021 it was 2.1 per cent. Enrolment market share in Mar 20 was 1.8 per cent, in Mar 21 it was down 0.02 per cent.

Northern Territory:  Commencer market share in Mar ‘20 was 0.67 per cent, in Mar 21 it was 0.75 per cent. Enrolment market share in March ‘20 was 0.55 per cent, in Mar 21 it is 0.65 per cent – a increase of 1 per cent.

ACT:  Commencer market share in March ‘20 was 1.77 per cent, in March ‘21 it was 2.33 per cent. Enrolment market share in Mar 20 was 2.03 per cent, this March it was 2.28 per cent.

Dirk Mulder advises education and business clients on trends in international education. He writes regularly for CMM

Appointment, achievements

Tim Harcourt joins UTS as an industry professor and chief economist at its Institute for Public Policy and Governance.

Carol Crevacore (Edith Cowan U) wins the education award at the WA Nursing and Midwifery awards. Garth Kendall (Curtin U) wins the research award. Gavin Leslie (Curtin U) and Rhonda Marriott (Murdoch U) receive the lifetime achievement honour.