“Researchers have found a material that quickly kills bacteria in drinking water, creating a safe and cheaper alternative to chlorine. Tap to learn more,” Uni Melbourne promotes a story-link, via Twitter yesterday.

In Features this morning

JIM NYLAND (Uni Southern Queensland) on why we need an engaged universities accord and what should be in it. “Access, equity and social justice will be central to the new identity of Australian higher education over the next decade and beyond,” he writes.

with CLAIRE MACKEN (RMIT) on expanding education access in Vietnam – there’s much to learn from the way people ride motorbikes .

plus JO HOETZER and colleagues from ANU and Uni Wollongong on working with students to deliver employability and life-long, life-wide career management skills. It’s a new selection by Commissioning Editor Sally Kift for her celebrated series, Needed now in teaching and learning.

And in Expert Opinion

JASON POTTS (RMIT) on the power and potential of the blockchain for education – that and transforming how society works, (episode 21, here).

The Australian National Audit Office is looking at how the Department of Education went at designing and implementing programmes to improve access and participation of regional and remote students to HE.

Contributions will open “soon.” Got a view on remote and regional enrolments not being what they could be?

Six months into negotiations for a new enterprise agreement there’s a  pay-offer on the table

Management proposes 4.6 per cent paid on a new agreement going into effect, followed by 3.5 per cent in December ’23 and 3.1 per cent 12 months after that.

There have been 15 bargaining meetings to date and management is polite about progress, (VC Margaret Sheil tells staff negotiations have occurred “in a collegial and timely manner”.)

The question is, a learned reader observes, how much more has management still to offer.

The professional staff model in universities was designed 30 years back – a bit has changed since then

Elizabeth Baré, Arnaldo Barone and Janet Beard demonstrate how structures created in the ‘90s can be anomalous or even irrelevant in a new paper for Uni Melbourne’s Centre for the Study of Higher Education.

And they set questions that go to the heart of the HEW model’s efficiency for institutions and equity (in the sense of career progression and work satisfaction) for individuals including;

* has the structure facilitated a cadre of university managers with skills that span administrative areas

* does the structure contribute to gender pay gaps

* have work classifications resulted in casual jobs paid “market rates” rather than continuing roles

The state of the HEW model is unlikely to be top of mind as universities create their accord cases, but Baré, Barone and Beard make a strong case why it should not be ignored;

“ultimately, the purpose of a classification structure is to fairly and equitably enable the recruitment, development and reward of staff who can not only effectively support and manage current university structures and business, but who also have the right skill mix and capacity to anticipate and meet emerging challenges.”

The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia announces the 2022 Paul Bourke Awards for early career researchers. * Harry Hobbs (UTS, law) * Felix Septianto (Uni Queensland, marketing) * Gemma Sharp (Monash U, health sciences) * Sophie Webber (Uni Sydney, geography).

Janin Bredehoeft is the new CEO of Science in Australia Gender Equity. She joins SAGE from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

The Curtin U Student Guild announces its teaching awards, * Andrew Brennan (Business and Law) * Donna Butorac (Humanities) * Robin Shortland-Jones (Health Sciences) * Fred Jourdan (Science and Engineering) and * Anthony Kickett (Aboriginal Studies)

Uni Sydney neuroscientist Glenda Halliday is NSW Scientist of the Year. (scroll down for the other premier’s prizes)

 James Cook U announces its open access award winners. Daniel Miller (Healthcare Sciences) is ECR Open Access Champion. Tianna Killoran (Arts, Society, Education) is HDR Open Access Advocate.

Shainal Kavar will start as chief information officer at La Trobe U later this month. He joins from “integrated services provider,” Downer.

Category winners in the NSW Premier’s Prizes for Science and Engineering are, David Elridge – state department of planning and environment and UNSW (public sector innovation) * Anna Giacomini – Uni Newcastle (engineering, ICT) * Jiao Jiao Li – UTS ECR, (physical sciences) * Michelle Leishman – Macquarie U (biological sciences) * Ian Preston – Murrumbidgee Regional High School (teaching) * Sudarshini Ramanathan – Uni Sydney (ECR, biological sciences) * Geordie Williamson – Uni Sydney (maths, chemistry, earth sciences, physics) * Luke Wolfenden Uni Newcastle and Hunter New England Local Health District (innovation) * Justin Yerbury – Uni Wollongong (medical biological sciences)

Lisa Whitehead (Edith Cowan U) is in-coming editor-in-chief of The Australian Journal of Nursing Practice, Scholarship and Research.