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The perils of alliteration
Griffith U medical student Alexandra Wilson has a scholarship to attend the World Health Organisation in Geneva, to present her proposal for compulsory self-care among healthcare workers.
The university announces her achievement but perhaps the headline is not what was intended, “Jaunt to Geneva to spruik self-care.”
That’s jaunt, as in a “journey, especially for pleasure,” according to the OED and “spruik” as in “to advertise a show” according to the Australian National Dictionary
There’s more in the Mail
In Features this morning
How Uni Wollongong is making the most of its data – a new contribution in Sean Brawley and colleagues series on the transformation of the university’s services
with To expand university access for students with disabilities invest in accessible learning technologies. Ratna Selvaratnam (Edith Cowan U), Luke Butcher (Curtin U) and Justin Brown (Edith Cowan U). Make the case.
plus Making more and the most of student partnerships require an inquiring mind and nuanced approach. Alison Jaquet and Lolita Liboon-Aranas (Uni Southern Queensland), Megan Pozzi and Sherry (QUT) and Kate Walsh (Flinders U) set out the challenge for Commissioning Editor Sally Kift, / HERE.
and in Expert Opinion Brigid Freeman (Uni Melbourne) explains the challenges and opportunities for Australian universities and colleges as the Indian Government expands post-school education. HERE
Claire Field on mixed futures for international ed providers
by CLAIRE FIELD
I was travelling when Minister for Home Affairs Clair O’Neil addressed the National Press Club last week, but I had downloaded the Final Report of the Migration Review and read the international education chapter carefully before we landed.
As I turned my phone back on, I was still musing how the ideas proposed for international education would be progressed when I opened an email from a very senior leader saying: “I expect all hell to break loose in coming days as the HE sector digests what (Minister O’Neil) said and the changes which are coming very soon. I see some HE business models in serious trouble …”
Once I had read the minister’s speech and the subsequent Q&A with the press gallery, it was clear he is right.
The minister was far more precise and targeted in her comments than the Review Panel – and the changes being planned will badly impact some higher education and VET providers.
In her speech the minister said:
“We propose creating simpler, faster pathways for the international students who will have special skills and capabilities we need. But we also need to make sure our international student system has integrity… we will look at tightening the requirements for international students studying in Australia, and ensure that students are actually here to study.”
So – if you are an institution attracting students with high levels of English and your international students achieve strong graduation outcomes – then you should benefit from the proposed reforms. But for other providers it seems likely their international student numbers will decline, especially providers focussed on onshore recruitment.
Answering journalists’ questions the minister said:
“We’ve basically sat back and allowed the people who are already here to run through the system.”
“I’m working with my colleagues… to think about how we would need to lift the requirements for international students to enter and study in Australia.”
“This is not about reducing the number, but I think it’s inevitable when we lift standards that there might be some implication for numbers.”
“… fixing these integrity issues will help us bolster what’s working at the moment. It’s going to be a big and important project thinking about lifting standards for international students…”
Of course, many integrity issues could have been avoided if students transferring to lower AQF courses had been made to apply for a new visa (as the rules require) and if the “concurrent CoE loophole’” had been closed.
Claire Field is a consultant and advisor to the tertiary education sector
The message made it
If Uni Newcastle hoped that its 13 per cent pay offer Friday (up from 9.5 per cent last year) would end industrial action this week it was forlorn
The campus branch of the National Tertiary Education Union had stop works scheduled and they roll on – explained by local leader Terry Summers in the Newcastle Herald yesterday. The headline helped his point referring to “fed-up” union members.
Bargaining at Uni Melbourne: views from the law school
100 plus present and retired staff let the VC know what they really think
Management’s response to union bargaining claims, “reflect a failure to address the crisis of working conditions at the university and its accompanying crisis of trust in senior management,” they write in an open letter to VC Duncan Maskell, Provost Nicola Phillips and DVC Pip Nicholson.
They point to major bargaining claims by the campus branch of the National Tertiary Education Union, including;
* effective workload and working hours clauses: “our workload has become crushing … it is simply not sustainable to continue in this way”
* flexible working arrangements: signatories call on management to rescind rejection of the union call for hybrid work arrangements for professional staff and drop the requirement for academics to have prior authorisation to work from home. “This is a regressive measure that seeks to overturn long-standing established, (productive practices)”
* “a fair pay rise:” “the university must do more than investing in buildings, marketing campaigns, consultants, and senior managers”
* a restriction on restructures: the three major programmes since 2014, mean the professional staff base has been gutted … each restructure has tended to make things worse, not better.”
But the one that involves real reputational risk for management is how to handles the union’s call for “80 per cent continuing employment”
“The university has publicly made commitments to overhaul its insecure workforce model,” the letter states. Indeed it has (CMM January 22), and in its submission (230) to a Senate committee inquiry on job security, Uni Melbourne stated. “our goal should not be to eliminate all use of casual or fixed-term contracts, as they are in some instances and for some people entirely appropriate, but rather to make sure that their use is confined to very well-defined circumstances, and that we achieve a significant shift of practice and culture such that our predominant contractual basis for employment rests on continuing and longer fixed-term arrangements.”
Agreeing to 80 per cent continuing employment in a new enterprise agreement would be a stretch for management, but Uni Melbourne’s record of underpaying casual academics (two Federal Court cases, CMM February 13) is such that it must be seen to do something significant.
Pay and insecure employment are related issues and in combination they can create popular perceptions that Uni Melbourne management is not fussed about the conditions of casuals.
To all of which Uni Melbourne responded last night; “”We are working collaboratively and constructively with the unions to reach a new enterprise agreement that is fair to all, recognises the value and contribution that all staff members make to our institution …”
“We are actively engaging with staff as well as with their representatives and inviting feedback on the University’s proposed enterprise agreement provisions.”
A good deal of cooperation: Uni Adelaide and unions strike a bargain
It follows the basis of an agreement at Flinders U, yesterday
Uni Adelaide reports the terms for a proposed enterprise agreement, backed by management and campus unions.
The headline payrise is 13.2 per cent, compounding to 13.9 per cent, across July ’22-’25. (A 2 per cent administrative increase was paid last year).
As usual, the offer goes first to National Tertiary Education Union members and if they approve will be put to an all-staff vote. The Community and Public Sector Union has signalled in-principle support, subject to consultation with members.
The agreement would expire before the proposed merger with Uni SA is in place
The proposal includes new gender affirmation leave and time for people to deal with domestic and family violence, freezing casual academic numbers at 2021 levels and more continuing teaching roles.
All up, it appears similar to terms reported in CMM yesterday, agreed by the NTEU and Flinders U VC Colin Stirling.
In a message to staff Adelaide U’s lead negotiator DVC Jennie Shaw VC referred to “the positive, productive and respectful attitude maintained by all parties during the bargaining process,” which is pretty much what Professor Stirling said yesterday.
That two of the three SA public universities have successfully negotiated similar draft enterprise agreements without rancour could be a coincidence. But if the same follows at Uni SA it might indicate a strategy by the NTEU to reach similar agreements at multiple universities.
Vic unis’ 2022: the pandemic powered-down but the financial pain remained
Public universities annual report are tabled in state parliament
Deakin U: reports $1.18bn in operating income for ‘22, down from $1.27bn the previous year (revised from the 21 annual report due to accounting change). There was a net deficit of $77.8m in ’22, compared to a net surplus of $79.7m in ’21).
Chancellor John Stanhope attributes the operating result to “inflationary cost increases” and “the on-going effects” of reduced international student numbers during the pandemic. He expects an (unspecified) operating deficit for 2023.
Federation U: revenue from continuing operations was $266.8m in ’22, down from $325.8 in ’21, for a net loss last year of $41m, compared to a prior year surplus of $33m.
Chancellor Terry Moran sets the scene in his forward to the report, pointing to “volatility in global financial markets, international student revenue not returning to pre-pandemic levels … and domestic student disengagement following long years of learning on-line.”
La Trobe U: released its 2022 financial results last month, reporting an operating deficit of $28m (3.7 per cent) – a large gift for research led to an overall surplus.
VC John Dewar stated then he expected the university to be at break-even by the end of this year (CMM April 26). His optimism may be based on what the annual report calls “a notable uptick” in international student numbers which were up 192 per cent in ’22 on pandemic-shaped ’21.
Monash U: Vice Chancellor Margaret Gardner revealed the 2022 loss in March, (headline for the university $113m) and she simply states what happened in the annual report. A big hit to the Monash Group as a whole was a drop in investment income from $232m in ’21 to a loss of $69m in ’23.
RMIT’s: states total revenues for its “consolidated entity” in Australia, SE Asia and Europe of $1.46bn in ’22, down from $1.55bn in ’21. The net operating result was a loss of $27.65m last year, against a positive $117.09m in ’21.
Swinburne U: Reports an operating deficit for the “consolidated entity” $42m last year, compared to $40.9m surplus in 2021. Total consolidated revenue from continuing operations was down $30m to $720m.
Uni Divinity: reported an operating loss of just under $1m on $13.99m in revenue, down nearly $2m on ’21. The “most significant” cause was a 9 per cent drop in overall enrolments, driven by a 19 per decline in UGs.
Uni Melbourne: got the bad news out early, reporting a $104m operating deficit (CMM March 31). “The deficit result is largely driven by increased investment in student support … and spending linked to our return to on-campus teaching and learning, while revenue from student enrolments has remained below pre-pandemic levels,” the annual report states.
Operating incomes was up 2.3 per cent to $2.7bn.
Victoria U: “Less than expected” domestic student demand and investment market “volatility” made 2022, “our most challenging year since the of the pandemic” Chancellor Steve Bracks and VC Adam Shoemaker jointly state. Consolidated revenue and income from continuing operations for 2022 was $423m, for a loss of $73m, compared to break-even in ’21 on $464m
Appointments, achievements
“Pioneer of the bionic ear,” Graeme Clark,(Uni Melbourne) becomes an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
At Monash U Marilyn Fleer (Faculty of Education) and historian Lynette Russell become Sr John Monash Distinguished Professors.
David Perry (Alphacrucis University College) is the new chair of Independent Higher Education Australia. Ann Whitelock (International College of Management Sydney) becomes deputy.