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There’s more in the Mail
In Features this morning
The successful switch to on-line teaching and learning during COVID was not luck – it depended on the skills of third-space practitioners, the learning designers, academic developers and educational technologists who had built the foundations for the transformation. Sally Kift and Colin Simpson set the scene for a discussion of a new book in how it happened.
plus Merlin Crossley (UNSW) on knowing there will always be unknowns and why it’s better than believing anybody has all the answers.
and Tim Winkler (Tim Winkler) worries uni websites look like they did in 2019 – which is a big opportunity lost.
What an offer!
Charles Sturt U announces a “free information night” for prospective students, parents and career advisors for its medicine degree. Is there any other kind for Commonwealth Supported Places offered by public universities?
Unis must harden-up on national security threats
The sector must create a ‘hardened environment for foreign powers, where, “hostile activity is unfeasible, too expensive or too risky to undertake”
Where this comes from
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security’s long-awaited report makes 27 recommendations, focused on protecting national security and the rights of campus communities from foreign interference.
And the committee, chaired by Senator James Paterson (Lib-Victoria), makes it politely plain that they are necessary due to universities performance.
“The committee believes that the sector’s awareness, responsiveness and effectiveness in relation to national security risks can best be described as reactionary but developing rapidly. The sector has not, and did not, respond to these risks in a vacuum or of their own proactive volition. Because of this reactionary approach, the committee took a dim view of arguments of legislative overlay and increasing regulatory burdens when the committee considers that the sector was being reactionary to the national security risks. It is possible perhaps that should the sector have been more proactive on issues like talent recruitment and foreign interference on campuses that additional government intervention would not have occurred.”
The committee makes four top-level recommendations
* University Foreign Interference Taskforce oversight of a university/research institution campaign of, “active transparency in relation to the national security risks”
* adherence to UFIT guidelines reported annually to the PJCIS, accompanied by a classified briefing
* UFIT assist universities with “training on national security issues for staff and students” Plus, “universities should employ an accountable authority who is responsible for managing foreign interference risks at their institution”
And then there is the one that should not be needed, but as committee hearings made plain, manifestly is;
* UFIT, “ should provide clear guidance to universities on implementing penalties for foreign interference activities on campus, including reporting on fellow students to foreign governments. These should be clearly defined in university codes of conduct and communicated to students.”
Among the other 23 recommendations the PJIS calls for,
* an audit of sampled Australian Research Council grants “to determine exposure” to foreign “talent recruitment programmes”
* the foreign minister to use existing veto powers under the Foreign Relations Act “to make determinations in the national interest, including in relation to Confucius Institutes”
* the committee also cited an agreement between Monash U and the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) suggesting that commercial technologies could have dual use. The US Government lists COMAC as having close ties to China’s military. “As a matter of principle an Australian university funded by Australian taxpayers and student fees should not be entering into an agreement with a company owned or controlled by a foreign authoritarian government’s army,” the PJCIS states.
Universities are in Dan Tehan’s debt
In August 2019 the then education minister announced UFIT, which has a steering group that “acts as the primary conduit for all university and Government counter foreign interference related activities.”
While the PJCIS certainly does not consider UFIT as a complete solution if it did not exist universities would now face less government oversight than intervention. For a sense of what this could have meant consider the first critical infrastructure cyber security bill from Home Affairs under Peter Dutton (CMM February 15 2011).
Uni Newcastle’s new shingle in Singapore
It’s now registered as a Private Education Provider in Singapore – it plans to become more
The university has provided courses there for 15 years in partnerships but is now able to offer courses under its own brand, Newcastle Australia Institute of Higher Education. It’s starting with five masters, as a step towards teaching international students in Singapore – which involves a four year accreditation process.
This is an extension of the strategy to embed in the region. Uni Newcastle has a joint medical science programme with Chulabhorn Royal Academy in Thailand and five medicine and health science programmes with the International Medical University in Malaysia.
WA uni 2021 financials: saved by the feds
The four public universities 2021 annual reports demonstrate the year could have been way worse
Curtin U: Total operating income increased from $902m in 2020, to $996m last year. This was largely due to a $60m increase in Commonwealth funding. Domestic student numbers (not load) were up 1800 to 47 850. While in-country international enrolments dropped 15 per cent, to 5572, off-shore numbers were down just 150 to 6510. The operating margin was $113m, up from a marginal loss in 2020, with a $40m saving on staff costs making a substantial contribution.
Edith Cowan U: 2021 revenue was $533m, up from $480m in 2020. This was due to a $33m increase in Commonwealth grants and nearly $40m more in WA state and local government financial assistance, mainly state government capital grants. ECU reports an underlying operating surplus of $25m and a 5 per cent margin.
Murdoch U: Student numbers were 2200 down from 2020 to 23 300, while revenue was all but unchanged, $392.3m in ’21 and a restated (accounting changes) $392.7 in ’20. Total Commonwealth funding was up $6m, to $210m. Acting VC Jane den Hollander summed up the situation in her report; “The university’s finances remained under pressure throughout 2021 and while savings and efficiencies were found, increasing student numbers, and identifying new sources of revenue, remain essential goals for 2022 and beyond.”
Uni WA: Total enrolments were up 1700, to 27 900. The university reports an 11 per cent operating margin for 2021, (nearly double 2020’s when restated for accounting changes). However UWA attributes the improvement, in part to “one-time government research funding to alleviate the impact of COVID-19” and “to increased savings as part of initiatives for continued financial sustainability.” All up the university’s consolidated result for 2021 saw income up $187m, to $1176.3m. Commonwealth grants were up $70m, with investment producing $153m up from $58m.
Lift-offs for space research
The Commonwealth is kicking in $52n to a space industry consortium led by Gold Coast company Gilmore Space Technologies
The Industry Department funding is to “grow sovereign space manufacturing,” specifically launch vehicles and satellites.
Education partners include CQU, Griffith U and James Cook U.
But apparently not Gold Coast neighbouring Uni Southern Queensland, which is keen on creating a space manufacturing hub.
USQ is shortlisted for a $50m “trailblazer” grant from the Department of Education, Skills and Employment.
Presumably the two government departments know about each other’s programmes – unless the memos were lost in space.
A new university alliance
The four private unis announce “a single representative voice”
The Independent Higher Education Association convened its VC’s Dialogue, with the association and member vice chancellors meeting last week.
Member universities are Bond, Torrens and the two recently elevated by TEQSA, Avondale and Uni Divinity.
“The Dialogue provides an opportunity for IHEA university leaders to discuss their shared interests, collaborate on current challenges and support IHEAs unified advocacy for the independent university sector,” association CEO Simon Finn says.
To which purpose the VCs with the heads of other IHEA members also met with Labor shadow education minister Tanya Plibersek.
The VCs Dialogue makes five interest-group alliances of Australian universities, joining the Australian Technology Network, the Group of Eight, the Innovative Research Universities and the Regional Universities Network.
However while all participants in the four public institution groups are also members of umbrella body Universities Australia, Bond U is the only private member of UA,
Appointments, achievements
The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering announces its second group of “catalysts” in its Industry Mentoring Network in STEM, * Malene Ahern (Macquarie U) * Ngozi Chidi-Egboka (UNSW) * Beatrice Chiew (Uni Newcastle) * Amal Mohamed Dameer (medical practitioner) * Marissa Duong (UWA) * Alejandra Fernandez (QUT) * Josephine Ataa Hinneh (Uni Adelaide) * Adam Johnston (Macquarie U) * Lauren Jones (Flinders U) * Tian Nie (Uni Melbourne) * Arianna Oddo (consultant) * Winter Okoth (Griffith U) * Mateus Oliveira Silva (CSIRO) * Françios Olivier (Monash U) * Mohammad Zaidur Rahman Sabuj (QUT) *Janice Vaz (Western Sydney U)
Dragan Gašević (Monash U) is made a lifetime member by the Society for Learning Analytics Research, for “significant and sustained contribution” to the field.
The six PhD students or post docs who will attend the 2022 Lindau Nobel laureates meeting are * Amandeep Kaur (Uni Sydney) * Neil Robinson (UWA) * Sanjana Prasad (RMIT) * Piyush Sharda (ANU) * Matthias Wurdack (ANU) and Diana Zhang (UNSW).
Cheryl Praeger (UWA emeritus) and Jeremy Brownlie (Griffith U) are new members of the Commonwealth’s National Science and Technology Council.
Jacqui True (Monash U) receives the Northcutt Award from the International Studies Association’s Women’s Caucus.
UWA reports election by its convocation (graduates, academics and interested other). Warren Kerr is the member of Senate. Jenny Gregory is warden. Warren Kerr is the member of Senate. David Griffiths is deputy warden.