On ABC radio in Hobart yesterday a listener asked by text about U Tasmania’s planned move into the CBD, and its shareholders. “There are no shareholders … the only people who benefit from all this are Tasmanians,” VC Rufus Black replied. Perhaps the listener got the wrong end of the stick from the uni’s ambitious property plans , managed by its very own U Tas Properties Pty Ltd.

It’s an image issue for numerous universities with land to spare, which look, as union leader Damien Cahill puts it as if they “are morphing into property developers with a side-hustle in education,” (CMM June 24).

In Features this morning

Merlin Crossley learnt a lot at the Universities Australia conference. “I heard loud and clear the message that there is much to be proud of in higher education – of what we do in both teaching and research,” HERE

plus Conor King (from Tertiary Education Analysis) suggests the issue to address on graduate employment is not are people doing jobs that need a degree. “The more useful question is what could a graduate bring to the role that would be sufficient reason for the higher level of education.”

with Cathy Stone (Uni Newcastle), Sharron King (Uni SA College) and Chris Ronan (Country Universities Network) on how metro universities can best present to regional students. This week’s selection by Commissioning Editor Sally Kift for her celebrated series, Needed now in learning and teaching, HERE

The RMIT enterprise agreement expired a year ago – the union says its way over time for bargaining to begin

National Tertiary Education Union members have voted not to undertake voluntary and unpaid work in August – which is when RMIT’s open days are on.

The agreement’s nominal expiry date was June 30 2020. The campus branch of the National Tertiary Education Union has long-since issued its log of claims, including a 5 per cent per annum pay rise.

The university increased pay by 2 per cent in June.

“Our members at RMIT need an Enterprise Agreement that recognises rising cost of living pressures, recognises the continued excessive workloads of staff, and recognises the hard grind by members to return RMIT and other Victorian universities to surplus,” NTEU Victorian assistant secretary Sarah Roberts says.

The least the RMIT VC can do is to start bargaining now.”

The university advised yesterday that no date is set for bargaining to commence.

MIT’s complete 2022 monograph list will be published open access

All 80 titles will be free to read, thanks to funding from the Direct to Open programme, in which subscribers fund a global OA licence. The Council of Australian University Libraries is a D2O member.

The Australian Institute of Sport announces six universities will receive shares of a $670 000 pool to lead research projects

Griffith U: identify sport-specific talent

Uni Queensland: coaching science

South Australian Sports Institute: optimising performance

La Trobe U: optimising performance

QUT: data science and biomechanics

Uni Canberra: athlete acclimatising to heat

There were 456 000 people on student visas YTD to April, a 13 per cent drop year on year

While commencements were up 6 per cent overall,total  enrolments fell 14 per cent, as people completed, deferred or dropped-out.

HE enrolments were highest year on year, up 13 per cent on Q1 2021.

Student commencements from China were down more (9600) than the biggest growing markets, India (up 5700) and Nepal (up 7100).

of the day

The Australian Historical Association announces lifetime achievement awards for Joy Damousi (Australian Catholic U), John Maynard (Uni Newcastle), Penny Russell (Uni Sydney) and Lyndall Ryan (Uni Newcastle),

Anna Goldsworthy is the new director of the Elder Conservatorium of Music at Uni Adelaide. It is an internal appointment.

of the week

 Frank Bongiorno  (ANU) is the new president of the Australian Historical Society, Michelle Arrow (Macquarie U) is VP.

The 2022 Australian Legal Research Awards include, * PhD: Lauren Butterly (UNSW & UWA)  * ECR: Jane Kotzmann (Deakin U), Rebecca Barber (University of Queensland) * general award: Ian Field (Uni Queensland) * book: Ntina Tzouvala (ANU) *non-traditional research – report: Jane Wangmann, Tracey Booth, Miranda Kaye (UTS), non-traditional research – podcast): Katherine Biber (UTS) with 12 named collaborators

Georgina Gurney (ARC Centre for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook U) is Australia’s nominee for the APEC prize for innovation  research and education (ASPIRE).

Iain Hay (Flinders U) receives the Australian Institute of Geographers 2022 Australia-International Medal (for contributions by geographers resident in/outside Australia).

Dan Hunter leaves QUT to become executive dean of the law school at King’s College London.

Danny Kingsley starts next week as Director of Library Services, University of the Sunshine Coast. She moves from Flinders U.

Michael McNally is re-elected unopposed as Queensland secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union.

Katie Makar (Uni Queensland is elected president of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia. Her term starts in January.

Anne Martin becomes ANU’s inaugural Professor in the Practice of Indigenous Advancement. She continues director of the university’s Tjabal Indigenous Higher Education Centre.

Sherif Mohamed joins Uni Southern Queensland as head of the School of Surveying and Built Environment. He moved from Griffith U.

Lynette Pretorius (Monash U) has a Global Impact Grant (“to share work with demonstrable impact on staff and students”) from the UK’s Advance HE. It’s for her research on academic integrity.

Susan Scott (ANU) is elected a Fellow of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation.

Molecular ecologist Bill Sherwin (UNSW) is awarded the Australian Museum Research Institute’s lifetime achievement award.