The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency has used powers under the Telecommunications Act to “disrupt access” to 40 sites

They are “some of the most highly visited commercial cheating services that are targeting students at Australian higher education institutions,” the agency states.

Good-o, but there are plenty more where they came from.

In June TEQSA reported it had advised HE providers of 2333 “suspected” cheating sites, including 579 “specifically targeting” students at Australian institutions.

The Federal Court gave the agency the authority to order ISPs to block cheaters last year (CMM October 11).

In Features this morning

Michelle Picard and Shannon Johnston (Murdoch U) on expanding student access to work integrated learning by building it into a degree programme. This week’s selection by Commissioning Editor Sally Kift for her celebrated series, Needed now in teaching and learning.

plus Ginny Barbour (Open Access Australasia) on the power and potential of research repositories. They “have a critical role in archiving, preserving and sharing the diverse content produced by universities so it can be used by others and have the greatest impact on our society.”

and Merlin Crossley (UNSW) on teaching on-line and in-person and why there is demand for both. “My expectation is that our physical campus will remain vibrant and powerful, and our cloud campus will continue to develop, so that both sets of students are supported to grow and meet their aspirations for higher learning. Simultaneously, some staff will continue to teach mostly on-campus, while there will also be more options to work remotely,” he writes.

UA warns the 16 000 new teachers graduating each year is 4000 short of what is needed and the gap will grow as retirements increase in the second half of the decade

In the lead-up to the Jobs and Skills Summit, the peak body proposes seven solutions, “including the sensible, practical things that universities can do to play their part.”

* longer classroom placements for teaching students: “pre-service teachers will be more productive sooner and will contribute to addressing workforce shortages”

* degree apprenticeships: “students do more of their training in schools (and) … get a job at the end of it.”

* FEE HELP for short courses and micro-credentials:  professional development for existing teachers and for mid -career moves into teaching

* incentives for postgrads: Classroom internships/para-professional employment to reduce the costs of a teaching qualification and provide PGs with more classroom experience

* national recruitment portal: “to link new graduates to vacancies in schools across the country”

* changes to employment models: specifically to state registration and standards, “to lessen graduate teacher reliance on short-term work to help retain them in the profession.”

* partnerships:the education MINCO creates stronger connections between universities, schools and government

Chancellor James Harris says change begun by former VC Hewywood “will continue”

DVC Simon Evans was named acting VC on Friday – which is regarded as a positive – he is new to UNE and considered capable  and careful – a leader who understands the reasons for rules and sticks to them.

UNE observers suggest that his first challenge is staff morale but that he must also manage Professor Heywood’s plans for the university. In his Friday announcement of Professor Heywood’s resignation Mr Harris referred to her decadal “Future Fit” strategy and organisational change, saying “these endeavours will continue.”

Not all, however, are going well. There are competing plans for a new academic workload model, from both management and a staff committee, which have been debated for months – management cancelled a Friday meeting in the Fair Work Commission. And observers point to problems in staffing, research admin and student services, in part due to staff cuts.

Whatever he does, UNE observers are adamant, Professor Evans cannot sit tight and wait for a permanent appointment to be made, that the university community needs leadership, now.

Federation University announces its bachelor of arts will be no more as of next year, attributing it to “an ongoing and steady decline in student numbers” 

The university reports 83 commencements in 2018, down to 23 this year.

““As part of our plan to be strong and sustainable, we regularly review our programmes and courses to ensure they meet student and industry needs and remain viable to operate,” acting VC Wendy Cross says.

While there are courses that are part of the BA programme that continue, Professor Cross points to the university’s” key role to play in driving economic growth and jobs in our regions.”

To do this, we must build a strong and sustainable university first,” she says.

The end of arts appears to have been in the works for a while. Management cut six positions a year back, citing low on-campus and on-line arts enrolments (CMM September 16 2021). And in November the university responded to declines in overall student numbers with a restructure intended to “respond to employer and innovation demand.” This included ending organisational structures, “which are designed around historically inward-facing models of academia.”

“We understand that the overall changing environment may not align to where some of our people currently wish to be, which is perfectly understandable. Workplace skills are changing at a rapid pace as well as technology capabilities as we become a more flexible workplace,” Federation U management stated then.”

“Regional university staff and students deserve access to this core program, and without having to leave their communities and move to metropolitan areas,” union official Mathew Abbott says now.

“We need an urgent intervention with emergency funding to save this key pillar of regional higher education. Rogue Vice Chancellors making destructive and short-sighted decisions need to be reined in by governments.”

By DIRK MULDER

 English Australia released its market Analysis for May on Friday and there are reasons for optimism

It’s a turnaround from March figures where ELICOS performance remained low (CMM June 14).

 Market highlights

* ELICOS only lodgements were over seventeen times higher YTD

* grants for ELICOS only students were over eleven times higher YTD

* visas granted to citizens from Brazil were over one hundred times higher than in May 2021.

* commencements from Thailand were up by 504 per cent, up from Brazil by 105.9 per cent (1096 additional students), and from Japan 60.6 per cent

* commencements from China decreased by 34.2 per cent or 1413 fewer students versus YTD May 2021. Chinese students made up 14.6 per cent of commencements within ELICOS

* commencements from Colombia decreased by 15.8 per cent or 301 fewer students

* YTD May commencements were also down for India (14.2 per cent), South Korea (21 per cent) and Taiwan (23.3 per cent).

Visas still an issue

The peak body pointed out “ELICOS only grants over eleven times higher”. In fact, the total Independent ELICOS grants for May 2022 was 3170, which is over eleven times higher than in May 2021. Unfortunately, the total number of Independent ELICOS visas granted is 30 per cent down for YTD May 30th, 2022, compared to 2019 – using 2019 as the last stand processing year pre Covid. That is, 4666 fewer Independent ELICOS visas have been granted between Jan 1st and May 30th for 2022 than was true in 2019.

It is key to note that, while the grant rate for Independent ELICOS is down on previous years, the huge difference this year is due to delays in visa processing. This is particularly visible when looking at the comparison between 2022 and all previous years.

Between 2006 and 2021 the total number of ELICOS visas granted was 94 per cent of the total visa applications lodged. However, for 2022, this figure is only 51 per cent.

On the positive side, this is an improvement on last month’s figure of 46 per cent and the government has just announced additional staffing for visa processing.

 Statement from the Government on Visa Processing

Thursday, the Government released a message on the Provider Registration and International Student Management System.

“the Government hears and understands sector concerns that delays in student visa processing could have substantial impacts for the Australian international education market, for providers and for genuine students and their families. Furthermore, that Home Affairs received the highest number of applications in the last ten years in June 2022, with almost 43,000 visas lodged in that month alone. This followed on from May 2022, which was the third highest number of visa lodgements in the last ten years.”

“Home Affairs has recruited more than 140 new staff into visa processing areas since May 2022, with recruitment activity continuing at scale into July and August. Surge capacity is being bolstered through overtime from qualified staff across the Home Affairs portfolio and reallocation of staff from other work.

This new recruitment activity is reflected in record-level processing volumes with over 76,000 applications (nearly 56,000 offshore) were finalised in May and June 2022 alone.”

The entire message can be found here.

 Good to see the feds are on to it. CMM however wonders how much time will pass until it is caught up and squared away.

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

Is CMM

In Friday’s email edition Uni Adelaide 20121 revenue was quoted as $1.47bn in fact it was $1.147bn.

Australian Catholic U has appointed three campus deans, Darius von Guttner (Canberra), Krista Maglen (Melbourne) and Valentine Mukiria (Blacktown). Campus deans manage engagement with “key stakeholders.

 At WEHI (the MRI formerly known as the Walter and Eliza Hall Foundation), Melanie Bahlo has a US$330 000 to estimate risk factors in Parkinson’s Disease. The grant is from the US Michael J Fox Foundation and partner Shake it Up Australia.

Lyn Karstadt is incoming VC at Fiji National U. She was DVC International at Murdoch U 2016-2020

Rory Medcalf (ANU National Security College) receives the Japan Foreign Ministers Commendation, recognising “services to the promotion of mutual understanding between Japan and Australia.”

Graciela Metternicht becomes science dean at Western Sydney U. She moves from UNSW.

Commonwealth Department of Education official David Patty moves to be the department’s FAS, People, Parliamentary and Communications.

Meghan Quinn is appointed secretary of the Commonwealth’s Department of Industry, Science and Resources (as of August 22).

Western Sydney U appoints four distinguished professors (its highest honour for academics). * Kathryn Holmes (School of Education) * Brajesh Singh (“functional ecology and soil biology”) * Anthony Uhlmann (Humanities) * Ian Wright (plant functional ecology) and two distinguished professors for international engagement * Basant Maheshwari (Life Sciences) * Peter Reich (former chief scientist, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment)