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Too full of glasses
“Did you know the Macquarie University History Museum holds the southern hemisphere’s largest collection of ancient glass? Smashing,” MU, via Twitter, yesterday. Presumably this does not refer to a drastic de-accession.
There’s more in the mail
In Features this morning
Angel Calderon digs (really, really digs) into the QS subject rankings to rate how the university alliances did. He found good results for the Group of Eight and the Australian Technology Network.
plus Lynda Shevellar (Uni Queensland) on universities encouraging a sense of belonging among students when campus is not the core of their lives. This week’s selection by Commissioning Editor Sally Kift for her celebrated series, Needed now in teaching and learning.
Universities face 15 per cent pay demand
The National Tertiary Education Union calls for more
With enterprise bargaining under way or on the agenda at universities across the country the union has increased its pay claim by 3 per cent.
The national executive decided on the increase yesterday. Union branches which have lodged a total 12 per cent claim for the three years of the next agreement will make a supplementary claim on managements.
The present 12 per cent increase was decided by the union leadership in November 2020, when inflation had been negligible for years. However, the union is now responding to inflationary expectations. The RBA suggests a 3.75 per cent CPI rise in the June quarter and running at 2.75 per cent for all of 2023.
“Many institutions have benefited from the sacrifices and increased productivity of staff and are now clearly in position to afford real salary increases,” NTEU General Secretary Matthew McGowan said last night.
There is now a substantial gap between union and management expectations on pay – Western Sydney U, for example, is offering 1.6 per cent per annum for each of the three years (CMM March 24).
From the “who knew!” desk
James Cook U reports, “rock fishers at risk while life jacket warnings go unheeded.” Apparently researchers found 60 per cent of people interviewed at rock-fishing spots said they never wore a life jacket.
Proposal to reduce fee protections for local students
The Tuition Protection Service prepared well for a COVID-19 crisis that did not come but now local students may need less cover
A review of the TPS, undertaken for the Commonwealth by consultants Nous Group finds it is “a suitable protection mechanism” for international students but not so much for domestic ones.
The service was expanded in January 2020 to cover fee-paying locals, in response to the VET FEE HELP shambles. To date there have been no local need and no levies on providers and Nous suggests, “grounds for a differentiated approach.”
“Domestic students are on balance less vulnerable than international students: they do not face the acute risk of breaching visa conditions; and are arguably better placed to assess the risks and impacts of closure,” the consultants claim.
Nous floats “rapid, targeted, information and guidance about appropriate alternative course options” which would, “not address the potential financial detriment to affected students” but “may represent a more proportionate response to the risks and harms faced by domestic students in the current VET environment.”
Elephant stamps of our age
Melissa Fanshawe and Katie Burke (Uni Southern Queensland) run on-line courses in initial teacher education and use digital badges to encourage engagement
“Many of our students visibly enjoyed receiving their badges and we’ve received emails if their expected badge didn’t emerge when they thought they’d completed all required activities,” they write for the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education.
Want to know how to reward micro-credentials?
Research giveaway of the day
Uni Adelaide leads the second trailblazer research programme, in partnership with UNSW and business
The consortium will work on defence science. According to Uni Adelaide, the Concept to Sovereign Capability programme will “enable innovators in industry and universities to create deployable prototypes of disruptive technologies to meet Defence’s priority future requirements. There will be $126 million to commercialise successful tech for defence and civil use.
Prime Minister Morrison announced the programme in Adelaide yesterday. It follows Monday’s news of a Curtin U trailblazer on resources technology.
There are two more trailblazers likely to be announced during the campaign.
Lights, camera, cash!
On Easter Eve the Coalition announced $5m for a training and student placement partnerships between digital film producers and Uni Melbourne’s Victorian College of the Arts. It’s part of mainly state government funded “virtual production infrastructure,” “boosting the state’s position as a world-leading centre for screen production.”
What UNE wants from its hometown
Armidale locals wonder about Uni New England expanding into regional rival, Tamworth. VC Brigid Heywood tells them how it is
A decision on a university campus for Tamworth has been a while coming (CMM May 25) and writing in the Armidale Express yesterday Professor Heywood suggested, if it wasn’t going to be UNE there, “another university would be now establishing its presence in that city – and UNE and Armidale would be poorer for it.”
As for the campus connection with Armidale, the VC pointed to the benefits UNE brings to the city, “graduations, sports festivals and conferences can bring in more than $500,000 of additional revenue to the city in any one week.”
And she has ideas on what the city could do for UNE, “a flourishing, vibrant city, rich with entertainment and employment opportunities, is exactly what UNE needs to support its on-campus experience and to attract long-term staff.”
However, “any visitor to Armidale could be forgiven for thinking that the city lacks vitality. The hum of activity that energises a city centre is often muted.”
Appointment
Cathy Sherry moves from UNSW to become a law professor at Macquarie U. She starts in June.