“The children wept, as no parents were there to share the moment – their parents had been killed by the Israeli army,” said one observer. (more…)
Category: Education
-
The quest for 21st century Australian productivity is being held back by our archaic TAFE system
It is dynamism in the workplace that leads to productivity improvement. (more…)
-
Universities, free speech and the High Court
Greg Barns looks at the legal implications for universities, who last year adopted an IHRA-aligned definition of antisemitism, in wake of a large scale boycott of the Bendigo Writers Festival. (more…)
-
A better and fairer school system? Just look to Canada
Ontario implemented needs-based funding a quarter of a century ago, and the benefits go beyond student achievement. (more…)
-
Reflections: public education past, present and future
Readers of Pearls and Irritations may be aware of the Public Education Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation which turns donations into life-changing scholarships for students and others in around 200 NSW schools. (more…)
-
The Segal report and the universities
The Segal report presented to Prime Minister Albanese on Thursday, 10 July, represents an unprecedented challenge to Australia’s 39 public universities – to their autonomy, their independence and to their reputation both here and internationally. (more…)
-
Deepfake abuse caused a crisis in South Korean schools. How can Australia avoid it?
Australian schools are seeing a growing number of incidents in which students have created deepfake sexualised imagery of their classmates. The eSafety Commissioner has urged schools to monitor the situation. (more…)
-
Top Australian writers urge Albanese to abolish Job-Ready Graduates, calling their humanities degrees life-changing
“Earning a humanities degree was not only life-changing, in terms of opening up a world of knowledge otherwise beyond my reach, it also turns out to have been enormously productive – for me and many, many people around me,” said Tim Winton this week. “My little arts degree has created jobs and cultural value for over 40 years.” (more…)
-
Evans gobsmacked by ANU change plan
Former ANU Chancellor and Federal Minister Gareth Evans has expressed ‘acute concern’ at proposed changes in humanities and social sciences at ANU. In a letter delivered to the Vice-Chancellor and Chancellor this week, he says the university’s distinctive national mission is being ‘ignored or gravely under-valued’. (more…)
-
Change proposals risk relegating ANU to middle-ranking regional uni
Well known historian and long-time ANU staff member, Frank Bongiorno, says he has never seen, “such a lack of vision, such a vacuum of ideas, such general disorganisation, nor such cavalier decision-making about institutions and programs built up through hard work over decades” in all his years at ANU. He outlined his concerns in this submission to ANU management. (more…)
-
Cutting HECS debt is the least Albanese could do for young Australians. He should do more
It may seem an age since the federal election, but the new parliament has just convened for the first time. Anthony Albanese will be giving top priority to enacting his election commitments – “an honest politician? Really?” – and starting with his promise to cut uni graduates’ HECS debt by 20 per cent. (more…)
-
The war on US science
The US was already having problems with the performance of US academic institutions in scientific areas when Donald Trump arrived with the mission to nobble universities. (more…)
-
An open letter from the presidents of Gaza universities
Our campuses may have been razed, but our universities continue to exist. (more…)
-
Slaying the juggernauts
Barbara Preston’s recent reflection on Australia’s school funding system offers a quietly devastating insight into the paradox of public education reform. (more…)
-
Karmel, Gonski and the private school ascendancy
The 1973 Karmel report and the 2011 Gonski report helped drive Australia’s internationally exceptional private school ascendency. (more…)
-
APU Media Release: Macquarie University announces plans to axe Sociology
Macquarie University announces plans to axe Sociology and cut jobs and courses in other humanities and social science disciplines. (more…)
-
The ANU School of Music: Requiem for a Dream?
On 20 September this year, the School of Music at ANU (formally the Canberra School of Music) should be celebrating its 60th anniversary. (more…)
-
Missed opportunities in Japan
John Menadue points to the lack of Australian interest and involvement in Asia. (more…)
-
India’s state and central governments still aren’t speaking the same language
The first rule of discussing language policy in India is to leave any expectations of a calm conversation at the door. (more…)
-
Don’t talk or write about Palestine. It’s a career killer
The new McCarthyism sweeps through the university sector at a terrifying pace. At the core is conflation of antisemitism with criticism of Israel, spurred on by the pro-Israel lobby that has convinced or recruited governments and large sections of the media. (more…)
-
US brain drain set to gather pace as academics seek posts outside Trump’s America
Increasing numbers of scientists are eyeing opportunities in Australia, Canada, China and Europe amid threatened cuts to funding. (more…)
-
Jason Clare’s monumental task in education
The Labor Government has promised a rethink in education policy and a better future for all children. (more…)
-
Universities and the ‘definition’ of antisemitism
Antisemitism is a despicable phenomenon with a long and dismal history, sadly promoted by significant elements in Christianity for many centuries as well as by other secular ideologies, and we do well to guard against it. (more…)
-
Misgivings in the heart of the defence state
On a quiet Wednesday night in Adelaide recently about 50 people met in a church hall to share concerns about the militarisation of their schools and universities. (more…)
-
A Joycean defence of Harvard (and Australia’s universities?) from Trump’s derangement Part 2 of 2
In the context of President Donald Trump’s all-embracing appetites and hatreds, Harvard being under attack by his administration should, almost reflexively, be easy to defend. (more…)
-
Trump’s attacks on Harvard: Cardinal Wolsey and the prologue to an Australian encounter? Part 1 of 2
The White House is now more accurately described as an Imperial War Room: from it, President Trump directs indiscriminate attacks on whatever is enraging him. (more…)
-
Grounds for optimism over bilateral ties with China
As living in another country shows, mutual understanding is built on respect and openness. (more…)
-
When education funds genocide: students raise their voices in defiance
For more than a year, the world has been witnessing the genocidal massacres committed by Israel against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where tens of thousands have been killed, including university students and teachers, and academic institutions have been completely destroyed. (more…)
-
Conflation and controversy over antisemitism definition
Antisemitism did not spring up here as suddenly and as localised as a field of mushrooms. It is, above all, a by-product of Israel’s endless onslaught on the people of Gaza which one and all can watch as a daily horror show. (more…)
-
Brian Schmidt on securing Australia’s sovereign research capability
Brian Schmidt and Richard Holden addressed the National Press Club jointly this week. The following are full transcripts of the speeches.
Let me take you back to February 1940 to the University of Birmingham. World War II had just broken out, and 38-year-old Marc Oliphant, an Australian-born physicist, who went on later in life to found the ANU Physics department and the Australian Academy of Science, had just had his lab invent the modern microwave resonant cavity, that could create incredibly intense radio-waves in a device of a size such that you could hold it in your hands. (more…)