So that’s that fixed

PM’s Albanese and Modi announce the Australia-India Migration and Mobility Partnership

Apparently it  “will promote the two-way mobility of students, graduates, academic researchers and business people, while also enhancing cooperation to prevent irregular migration and people smuggling.” Good-o but what do the PMs have in mind – curious education agents want to know.

There’s more in the Mail

In Features this morning

There’s talk of the Accord creating a unified tertiary system – New Zealand demonstrates it can be done, just not fast or easily. Roger Smyth’s third report on what we can learn from NZ’s transformation of tertiary ed.  The others are https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/an-expert-agency-to-oversee-he-how-it-could-work/ HERE and HERE.

plus Sean Brawley and colleagues on how Uni Wollongong is learning to live with risk. Another instalment in their series on how the university restructured to revitalise admin, HERE

and Sarah O’Shea (Curtin U) reminds us that the Accord should address a fundamental purpose of universities: creating better societies..New in Commissioning Editor Sally Kift’s celebrated series, Needed now in learning and teaching

with  Karen Gravet, Rola Ajjawi and Sarah O’Shea on the different way students feel they belong, and why they matter. Also a new Sally selection, HERE

Uni Newcastle appeals to the umpire

VC Alex Zelinsky tells staff management has asked the Fair Work Commission for help to reach a bargaining deal

There’s an agreement ready to be put to professional staff, with the support of the Community and Public Sector Union, but members of the National Tertiary Education Union knocked back an offer for all academics.

Hunter-side observers suggest this because management withdrew a long-standing offer (CMM August 22 2022) to increase super contributions for casual academics to 17.5 per cent (the national norm is 11 per cent as of July) – which their continuing colleagues receive. Some suggest management may have done this to reduce the cost of an increased pay offer. The 9 per cent staff knocked back in a December vote is now 13 per cent (CMM May 1).

Overall, Professor Zeklinsky advises the present offer is “fair and reasonable given our current financial position,” and “our BEST offer.”

But with the NTEU membership opposed the university won’t put the professional staff offer to an all-workforce vote – which is wise, non-union members often listen to the comrades on wages and conditions.

So, management, unions and other bargaining representatives are off to the FWC  on Tuesday.

 

Todays Headline Story

Uni merger could increase pay in SA

A plan to merge (or not) the universities of Adelaide and South Australia is due from them next month –  the pro case is picking up  

The Advertiser newspaper reported yesterday that the state’s Productivity Commission chair Adrian Tembel thinks the 8 per cent “wage gap” between SA and the national average “can be eased” by the merger.

Apparently the finding is in a “major report” handed to the premier.  That may well be the Commission’s report on “turning research into economic competitiveness.” The draft of which suggested,

“we would note that a merger, if designed and implemented competently, could create a catalyst for broader cultural change in the merged institution making some of our suggested reforms more likely to succeed. The merger could also potentially create cost savings for example through removing duplications of assets enabling more efficient use of facilities. If any such savings were used to fund applied, industry focused, research in the spirit of our reforms then the potential for the universities to drive improvement in the state’s economy would be further enhanced,” (CMM April 17).

The commission will release the final report in August but perhaps it will appear earlier if useful to support the merger case.

WA unis ok financial shape

But if the inquiry considering a WA public universities merger is looking for a reason it could point to Murdoch U

Uni financials maven Frank Larkins (Uni Melbourne) reports all four had 2022 income down on ’21 – but that was largely due to one-offs that year, Commonwealth COVID emergency money and respective shares of the university-system selling international student recruiter, IDP Education. Plus international students did not return in strength in ’22

However Professor Larkins is optimistic, “the continued growth in total and net assets provides an assurance that WA universities remain financially strong,” he writes, adding that 23 should see “improved financial outcomes.”

But of the four, Murdoch  U, often named as most vulnerable to be merged had the sparsest ’22.

Comprehensive income was down 10 per cent on pre-Covid 2019, nearly twice the next-worse result, from Curtin U. Murdoch U also had the highest deficit ($37m) – just worse than Curtin U. UWA and ECU both recorded surpluses. Plus Murdoch U was down 26 per cent on 2019 fees (as in international students) and charges – compared to UWA which took a 10 per cent hit.

Appointments

Nicholas Brown (ANU) and Rodney Smith (Uni Sydney) are appointed visiting professors in Australian Studies at the University of Tokyo Centre for Pacific and American Studies. Smith’s appointment is for 2023-24 and Brown’s is 2024-25.

Sarina Claassens will be head of Curtin U’s School of Molecular and Life Sciences, moving from North-West University, in South Africa. She starts in September.

Catriona Jackson (Universities Australia) is an inaugural advisory board member for the Commonwealth’s Centre for Australia-India Relations

Australian Academy of Science announces 2023 Fellow

* Timothy Brodribb (plant evolutionary physiologist) Uni Tasmania

* Liming Dai (materials scientist) UNSW

* Mariapia Degli-Esposti (immunologist) Monash U

* Michael Fuhrer (materials physicist) Monash U

* Zaiping Guo (materials scientist) Uni Adelaide

* Elaine Holmes (computational biologist) Murdoch U

* David Keith (ecologist and conservation biologist) UNSW

* David Komander (biochemist and structural biologist), WEHI (aka) Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

* Sharon Lewin (infectious diseases physician and virologist) Uni Melbourne

* Jian Li (antimicrobial pharmacologist) Monash U

* Belinda Medlyn (ecologist) Western Sydney University

* Louis-Noël Moresi (computational geophysicist) ANU

* Richard James Payne (chemical biologist), Uni Sydney

* Shizhang Qiao (materials scientist) Uni Adelaide

* Pankaj Sah (neuroscientist) Uni Queensland

* Brajesh Singh (soil ecologist) Western Sydney U

* Peter Taylor (applied mathematician) Uni Melbourne

* Leslie Weston (plant biologist and biochemist) Charles Sturt U

* Andrew Wilks (molecular biologist) Synthesispharm

* Xinghuo Yu electrical engineer (RMIT)