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2006-12-14T06:10:00.000+11:00

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Concern over uni staff levels

2006-10-08T09:33:00.000+10:00

A Launceston City Council alderman has repeated concerns that senior staff levels at the University of Tasmania in Launceston have eroded. Ald. Robin McKendrick has listed a notice of motion for Monday's meeting, recommending that the council seek an urgent meeting with Premier Paul Lennon to "express serious concerns at erosion of senior staff levels and numbers".The issue was first raised by Legislative Council President Don Wing in July, when he said the facility was concentrating its professors in Hobart at the expense of Launceston.At that time, university executive director for planning and development Paul Barnett said there were 14 non-administrative professors in the North, compared with 50 in Hobart.He said other professorial positions were being considered.A university spokeswoman yesterday said those numbers had not changed and would not make any more comment on the issue.Ald.

McKendrick will speak to the motion on Monday.A Government spokeswoman yesterday said that it was an interesting request because funding and staffing of universities was a Federal Government responsibility.Meanwhile, the council will decide on a road layout for an Outline Development Plan at St Leonards, which may involve a road link between Abels Hill Rd and Johnston Rd to make the transition to the Tasman Highway safer.A report to the council from infrastructure manager Geoff Brayford said the link would "provide for efficient traffic movement from east to west" by removing the two existing 90-degree angle curves on a steep section of Abels Hill Rd which "are dangerous".The council has also been asked to approve changes to the fee structure for truck and combination truck entries to the Remount Refuse Disposal Area.If changes are adopted, they would see a $6 rise to $14 for a covered small combination vehicle up to 4.5t (gross combination mass) and a $6 rise to $18 for an uncovered small combination vehicle up to 4.5t GCM.

But pensioners may receive some slight rates relief, after the council recommended a remission of more than $4500 to 595 pensioners after finding an error with its water charges.HAVE YOUR SAY: Write a letter to The Examiner at PO Box 99, Launceston 7250, or e-mail editor@examiner.com.au.

DISCLAIMER : Media releases are provided as is by the source mentioned and have not been edited or checked for accuracy. Any queries should be directed to the source of the article itself.

DIMIA catches 21 illegal workers

2005-03-26T14:30:00.000+11:00

Community information has led to the location of 21 illegal workers and visa overstayers in northern Victoria the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, Senator Amanda Vanstone said today.

‘Staff from my Department located these people at two caravan parks and two residential addresses during a compliance operation on 22 and 23 March in Cobram and Murchison,’ the Minister said.

Of the 21 people located, 10 were visa overstayers while 11 were illegal workers.

The group, of whom seven were female and 14 were male, came from the following countries: Indonesia (10), Malaysia (8), Vietnam (1), Singapore (1) and Korea (1).

All have been transferred to immigration detention prior to removal from Australia.

‘The operation once again highlights the effectiveness of my Department’s compliance operations in locating and detaining people who are unlawfully in Australia or who breach their visa conditions,’ the Minister said.

The Minister said employers who had doubts about their employees’ entitlement to work can call the Department which will be happy to answer any questions or arrange a site visit if necessary.

‘My Department provides Employer Awareness Training and a free Entitlement Verification facility for employers to check whether their employees are allowed to work,’ the Minister said.

DIMIA officers, often with assistance from state police, make regular visits to workplaces in many parts of Australia, including restaurants, farms, shops, offices, factories and brothels, in an effort to detect and locate people who are in the country illegally or who are working illegally.

People with information on illegal workers or visa overstayers should call the Immigration Dob-In Line on 1800 009 623.

SOURCE : DIMIA

DISCLAIMER : Media releases are provided as is by the source mentioned and have not been edited or checked for accuracy. Any queries should be directed to the source of the article itself.

Victoria Uni - No Strike but tension lingers

2005-03-26T14:22:00.000+11:00

VICTORIA University of Technology narrowly averted a 48-hour strike yesterday but discontent among staff remains high.

University administration was at loggerheads with the union after conflicting statements were issued late yesterday.

Vice-chancellor Elizabeth Harman contradicted statements from National Tertiary Education Union VUT branch president James Doughney and general secretary Grahame McCullough that an agreement had been reached for a 22 per cent pay rise to June 2008.

"Despite these statements, no agreement has been reached," she said. "The university has made no new offer to the union. Both parties have been negotiating on an agreement through to June 2006. At this stage this is unchanged.

"The action is prejudicial to future negotiations."

Professor Harman said the university would continue to consider its position "and looked forward to resuming discussions after Easter". Dr Doughney said staff had been concerned about proposed faculty restructures, job losses, planned changes to the academic board and what they saw as a lack of progress in enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations.

He said there was unrest among members about a deterioration in education services and worsening staff conditions at the university.

The union feared that VUT did not want to settle a three-year agreement because management wanted an opportunity to "attack employment conditions as soon as possible after the Howard Government's changes to industrial laws come into effect after July1".

Professor Harman said she was delighted the strike had been averted. "This is good news for our students; however, many students will still be disrupted because of the very late withdrawal of the strike action," she said.

One point that staff and management at VUT are agreed on is the uncertainty the university faces in an era of change.

"The Nelson reforms have made our future uncertain," Professor Harman said.

"We need to protect our future viability and sustainability as a teaching and research institution." Dr Doughney said staff had been feeling uncertain about their future because of the Nelson reforms and the university's refusal to sign an EBA to 2008.

"We are concerned that under [federal Education Minister Brendan] Nelson, this university's income will be reduced and we are desperately concerned that the Nelson plans will see VUT becoming a teaching-only institution," Dr Doughney said.

"The people of the western region here in Victoria fought long and hard to get a real university."

He also raised concerns about the university's decision to replace its academic board.

The university's governing council last year voted to merge the academic and TAFE boards into a smaller, 35-member education board, but critics say the move would turn it into little more than a training institution.

Industrial action is also on the cards at Charles Sturt University because of staff concerns about job security, pay, and staff workloads. Staff at Wagga, Albury and Bathurst will take stop-work action today.

SOURCE : The Australian

DISCLAIMER : Media releases are provided as is by the source mentioned and have not been edited or checked for accuracy. Any queries should be directed to the source of the article itself.

Cheating scandal rocks Sydney University

2005-03-26T14:17:00.000+11:00

Australia's oldest academic institution, the University of Sydney, has moved to stamp out plagiarism after more than 200 students were suspected of cheating.

In one department alone -- the veterinary faculty -- 73 of the 628 students were investigated for allegedly copying or fabricating material. Most of the copied material had been taken from the Internet, and in many cases, students were caught by anti-plagiarism software.

Many of the students were made to resubmit their work, although only one was ultimately failed by the faculty.

The Faculty of Health Sciences uncovered 80 cases of alleged cheating. Of these students, 29 were failed, 31 were given written warnings and 17 were counselled.

A further 39 cases were detected in the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, while 29 economics and business students were investigated, taking the total number of students allegedly involved to more than 200.

Confidential faculty reports were made public under Australia's freedom of information laws.

Plagiarism from the Internet has become so easy that 25 Australian universities have purchased licenses for anti-plagiarism systems. These allow universities to cross reference students' work with previously published material.

But Felix Eldridge, president of the National Union of Students, denied there was a major problem in Australian universities.

"The vast majority of plagiarism is young students misunderstanding academic procedures and not knowing how to footnote," he said.

The University of Sydney has since updated its policy on plagiarism to make students aware they should not take information from new technologies without acknowledgment.

Last year, the University of Western Sydney investigated 39 cases of alleged plagiarism.

SOURCE : Tapei News

DISCLAIMER : Media releases are provided as is by the source mentioned and have not been edited or checked for accuracy. Any queries should be directed to the source of the article itself.

Australian universities join forces to become more competitive

2005-03-26T14:10:00.000+11:00

Two of Australia's oldest universities are combining forces to compete with major overseas universities.

The Australian National University (ANU) in the capital, Canberra, and Sydney University have struck an agreement to share international recruiting, research resources and teaching.

The deal will enable the institutions to offer joint tertiary degrees, in which students will be allowed to move between courses at both universities.

They will also be able to apply for funding grants together.

The ANU Vice Chancellor, Ian Chub, says the agreement extends the ability of the two leading universities to provide major research, educational and international opportunities.

"No university can do all it would like to do these days on its own and so you have got to form a few strategic partnerships," he said.

SOURCE : ABC

DISCLAIMER : Media releases are provided as is by the source mentioned and have not been edited or checked for accuracy. Any queries should be directed to the source of the article itself.

Big blow to IDP - loses lucrative Botswana contract

2005-02-04T23:24:00.000+11:00

THE Botswana Government will sever links with IDP Education Australia in a body blow to the universities' troubled international marketing and recruitment arm.

After weeks of speculation that one of IDP's most lucrative contracts was under threat, the company yesterday confirmed that at the end of March the Botswana Government would not renew it.

The Botswana High Commission will take over the $19million student fellowship scheme under which 500 of its students are placed and supported in Australian universities.

A Botswana Ministry of Education spokesman said yesterday his government had had a good working relationship with IDP for more than 10 years. But it would now use itsown officers to administer students abroad.

It began taking over the management of its students in December. The latest move will complete that process.

Botswana pays IDP about $6million every three months under the fellowship scheme.

While the biggest slice of that is passed on to Australian universities for tuition fees and other allowances, IDP retains about $1.5 million a year in management fees.

From the end of March that $6 million will pass directly from the Botswana Government to Australian universities, with the Botswana High Commission managing the program instead of IDP.

It comes at a crucial time for IDP as it pares back its operations and turns to its core business of student recruitment in Asia.

Late last year its critical cash-flow problems triggered the closure of seven overseas offices and 60 staff redundancies. A steady stream of resignations continues to exacerbate the not-for-profit company's woes.

The group blames its crisis on a drop in international student numbers due to external factors beyond its control.

Three days before Christmas universities mounted a rescue bid, pledging $7 million in interest-free loans over two years.

At the same time $6 million in fees from the Botswana contract came to IDP, giving it a temporary reprieve.

IDP president and vice-chancellor of Curtin University of Technology Lance Twomey said then that if the Botswana contract had not come through "IDP would have found it difficult to meet commitments".

Professor Twomey refused to discuss the Botswana contract with the HES after a board meeting on Monday.

In a statement issued yesterday he said: "While students from Botswana were a sizeable segment of IDP's fellowship management in the past, student numbers from other countries have increased, particularly in the Middle East, where IDP has contracts with government and private companies."

In the same statement chief executive Lindy Hyam said: "It has been a privilege to be part of this contract, with IDPand Australian institutions contributing to the human resource development of Botswana."

No one at IDP would speak to the HES about the developments yesterday.

Reported in The Australian
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DISCLAIMER : Media releases are provided as is by the source mentioned and have not been edited or checked for accuracy. Any queries should be directed to the source of the article itself.

Change to CPA Australia's postgraduate strategy ensures diverse offering for MBA studies

2005-02-04T23:16:00.000+11:00

Pathways towards members obtaining a masters degree will be streamlined under a postgraduate strategy change by CPA Australia. This change in strategy builds on the strength and reputation of the CPA Program in the marketplace and will enable member access into a broad range of MBAs.

Current MBA credit arrangements with Charles Sturt University, Curtin University and Deakin University and a wide range of other universities around Australia will continue.

Intakes into the three CPA MBA programs - Charles Sturt University, Curtin University and Deakin University - will cease at the end of 2006, however, students enrolled at that time will be unaffected as they will be able to complete their CPA MBA studies and obtain the qualification.

The rationale for this change is to ensure that a diverse offering of postgraduate opportunities is available to all members of CPA Australia and that credit arrangements (recognition of the completion of the CPA Program segments by universities) be pursued to the maximum extent to assist members in completing these programs in the shortest possible timeframe and at less expense.

CPA Australia will continue to encourage and support our members to choose the best MBA for their career progression. While the CPA MBA will be discontinued from January 2007, members currently completing the CPA MBA will continue to be supported.

The MBA programs on offer include both on campus and distance learning study options.

Members based outside of Australia will continue to have access to MBAs through off-shore programs from Australian universities as well as through distance learning.

For further information regarding MBA credit arrangements or the CPA MBA transition arrangements, contact Michelle Webb, education development executive, by email at michelle.webb@cpaaustralia.com.au or by phone on +61 3 9606 9603.

DISCLAIMER : Media releases are provided as is by the source mentioned and have not been edited or checked for accuracy. Any queries should be directed to the source of the article itself.

UNSW sets its sights on India

2005-02-03T04:02:00.000+11:00

THE University of NSW is boosting its profile in India, a nation with significant research strengths "largely neglected" by Australia's higher education sector.

UNSW deputy vice-chancellor (international and development) John Ingleson said India's rapid economic growth would see its better universities evolve into powerful institutions within 10 years, but it remained "off the radar" in Australia.

In the past four years UNSW has signed 12 memoranda of understanding with Indian universities and institutes and developed special funding for student and staff fellowship programs there.

Other initiatives include the establishment of the Indian Advisory Council, whose members include Indian academics, bureaucrats and business representatives; the hosting of joint conferences; and joint research projects. UNSW also funds staff and student exchange programs.

Professor Ingleson said the Australian higher education sector had concentrated its attention on South-East Asia and as a result had little presence and a low profile in India.

"My reasoning for India is that it has been off the radar screen for Australia and it will be a very important country in the region," Professor Ingleson said.

"We haven't [engaged with India] in the past 20-30 years and we should."

He said a common legal system, the presence of an English-speaking elite and a growing economy made India a natural partner for Australia in education.

India has been identified as the "sleeping giant" of the international student market, but Professor Ingleson said student recruitment was not the university's primary goal.

"The fit was good in terms of our research needs ... it isn't about recruiting students but more about institution to institution links.

"It has to be mutually beneficial not just about ripping out students."

Part of boosting Australia's profile in India was sending staff to key Indian conferences, encouraging research collaborations and financing student exchanges.

UNSW also developed the International Assessments for Indian Schools, launched in India last year by NSW Premier Bob Carr. The tests provide an international benchmark for academic achievement in a range of subjects from Years three to 12. So far, more than 100,000 students have sat the tests in English, science and maths.

"In 10 years' time, if India's economy keeps growing at this rate, its better institutions will have more money and they will be powerful universities," Professor Ingleson said.

"We want to be there and to be a part of it. The US and the UK have invested much more in India than Australia has."

He said there was "tremendous research" being conducted in India. "Some of the basic sciences are very strong and complement our work."

The university is spending $150,000 a year on its Indian connection.

Reported in The Australian
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DISCLAIMER : Media releases are provided as is by the source mentioned and have not been edited or checked for accuracy. Any queries should be directed to the source of the article itself.

47 Malaysian Illegal Workers Removed From Australia

2005-02-01T18:37:00.000+11:00

Forty-seven Malaysians located working illegally mainly in regional Victoria have been flown home, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, Senator Amanda Vanstone, announced today.

‘My department’s compliance staff located these people over the past six to eight weeks, the majority of them were found working on farms in the Goulburn Valley,’ Minister Vanstone said.

‘The group of 34 men and 13 women had been detained while arrangements were made for their departure as required by law.

‘The group was removed on a charter flight to Kuala Lumpur, avoiding the necessity of prolonged detention while commercial seats were sought.

‘Given the large number, charter removal was a cost-effective option.

‘The success of operations such as this should send a strong message that the Government does not tolerate people living and working illegally in this country.’

In the 2003-04 financial year the department located over 20,000 people who had overstayed their visas or breached their visa conditions.

The Minister reminded people working in Australia without permission that if they were here illegally, it is not a matter of if, but when they would be caught.

People with information on illegal workers or visa overstayers should call the Immigration Dob-In Line on 1800 009 623.

Source - DIMIA Media Release

DISCLAIMER : Media releases are provided as is by the source mentioned and have not been edited or checked for accuracy. Any queries should be directed to the source of the article itself.

Full speed ahead for an IT recovery

2005-02-01T17:55:00.000+11:00

It has been a difficult few years for Australia's university IT faculties, but as the 2000 tech wreck's IT winter shows the first signs of thaw, educators feel optimistic about the future.

Despite IT enrolments continuing to decline, by as much as 25 per cent a year at some universities, educators are hopeful that news of growth in the industry will restore student confidence in an IT career.

Last year, Victoria's Monash University reduced its University Admissions Index score for entry to its computer science courses by five points. It didn't want to do so again this year, so cut places instead.

The University of Technology Sydney reduced its computer science requirements by two points, as did the Queensland University of Technology and Deakin University in Melbourne. Lower scores are the best indicator of lower student demand.

Yet all signs indicate that there is, or soon will be, a new IT skills shortage. The cost-cutting of recent years - a natural reaction to the irrational exuberance of the tech boom - has left IT departments with minimal inhouse skills, particularly in many newer areas of technology such as internet security, wireless and Voice over IP.

Just a few years ago, to be "in computers" was something special but since Y2K and the dotcom bust, the computer industry has fallen to earth. Job prospects are bleak, salaries falling, enrolments down and work moving offshore.

At least that is the perception.

IT has lost its shine, but this is likely to be temporary. Fewer people entering the industry, and the retirement of many older workers, means IT workers are again in demand.

For years the Australian Government and many in the IT industry talked up the lack of IT capability. This continued during the recent downturn, leading to a significant oversupply of programmers, business analysts, database administrators.

That oversupply became a political issue in the US, and hard data from the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and other sources, indicates that unemployment in the IT industry has been above average for the past few years.

Add to that the export of many IT jobs to other countries, most notably India, and it is little wonder that the computer industry no longer beckons our best and brightest. The computer industry is now just another profession competing on the jobs market.

A recent survey by the Australian Association of Graduate Employers found that the number of graduates employed in Australia this year will grow by 16.6 per cent, but growth in the IT industry will be marginal.

Now IT spending is picking up again and there is a concern that we face a severe shortage of skilled practitioners. Fewer school leavers entering training means fewer graduates in a few years, just when their skills are likely to be needed most."

The combined impact of falling student numbers and the impending retirement of thousands of baby-boomer professionals will significantly reduce the pool of IT workers in coming years," says Australian Computer Society president Edward Mandla. "Students continue to abandon IT as a career, with recent research showing they have little understanding of the various IT roles available and where IT can take them."

Mandla says the problem is compounded by the lack of a training culture in the IT departments of many big organisations.

"We have a corporate culture that often requires professionals to work long hours focused on a particular technology over a number of years, while giving little priority to retraining workers in new skills," he says.

Those new skills will be very different than those needed in the past. Gartner Executive Programs research director Andy Rowsell-Jones sees signs that Australian companies are starting to invest in IT infrastructure again, but in a different kind of infrastructure than they have in the past. Key areas are business process efficiency, security and customer-management.

"IT is being seen again by Australian companies as part of the solution, where it used to be seen as part of the cost problem," Rowsell-Jones says. "The whole industry is ageing and the popularity of IT jobs among those of university age is certainly not as high in Australia as it is in other places.

"There will be judicious sourcing - if you can't get your talent in-house, you'll get it from someone else. If you can't get it in the country, you'll import it," he says.

The problems and changes we are witnessing in the IT skills market are symptomatic of much larger changes in technology, and in the way that technology affects our jobs and lives.

The IT job market is not dead. It is not even sick. Nor is it what it was, or will it ever be again. - with Adam Turner, and Ben Haywood

Business cycles favour job-seekers

Australia's chief information officers agree that economic conditions rather than any new-found faith in IT will drive increased investment this year. They also agree with educators and recruiters that an IT skills shortage is either looming or already here.

Yet they still worry about picking the right technology for the long term, especially after recent high-profile mergers.

For Nigel Smyth, CIO of Macquarie Bank, business confidence is vital. He says IT cycles follow business cycles and it has been a strong year or two for business, including the financial sector. "Business is expanding on the back of strong markets," Smyth says, "and people are wanting to invest after a period of consolidation."

Martin Cassidy, IT director of NSW Lotteries Corporation, says every company is driven by its own investment requirements, but in his case these are steady. Economic confidence also is improving.

"There's a general feeling the ship is steady," says Cassidy, who believes a fall in IT undergraduate numbers will have little effect.

Hemant Kogekar, pictured, Brisbane-based group executive of IT for Suncorp, disagrees about the long-term effects.

"Australia is not leading in sending jobs offshore and there is still demand here," he says. "Over a three- to four-year cycle you may see a shortage emerging. What happens is if there is a shortage, the cost (of staff) will go up, and that may drive people to look for alternatives, such as sending work offshore."

He says some big projects, such as the customer relations management development at Commonwealth Bank, are soaking up many people. In Brisbane there are candidates available, he says, but they find jobs faster.

Cassidy agrees: "It's hard to get good people at any level. I was hiring for a couple of positions and didn't get the depth or range of people coming through for either technical or managerial positions."

Macquarie Bank's Smyth, who sometimes works with the University of Technology Sydney, is finding it harder to secure contractors and skills, agreeing with Kogekar that any shortage can be expected to drive up wage costs. "Costs in London and New York are starting to come up again and we don't think we're far behind here." - Rob O'Neill

Graduates back in the hot seat

Skills in demand include experience in systems such as customer-relationship management and enterprise resource planning - and new voice and data communications technology. Experienced networking engineers are also in short supply.

Demand for entry-level positions is also rising, but new ICT graduates are in short supply.

The chief executive officer of national IT recruiter Diversiti, Deborah Howard, says there was a sharp rise in demand for skilled IT people in the first few weeks of 2005.

"It is becoming difficult to get quality candidates," Howard says. "Whereas before, when you put an ad out you would get heaps of applications, you don't necessarily get that now. There has been an upturn in demand for people with skills in CRM tools, such as Siebel, and specific modules of SAP."

She says there is demand for IT workers skilled in mining and resources, banking and finance industries.

Jane Bianchini, pictured, technology division director at listed recruiter Ambition Recruitment & Contracting, says this will continue through the year.

"Given the changes to the immigration points system, non-resident graduates who have completed their studies are required to either go (to) regional (areas), continue to study or are forced to return to their country of origin," Bianchini.

"The lure of working overseas, being attracted to higher salaries and the opportunity to work on bigger (global) projects will also see many of our highly skilled ICT professionals lost to other countries," Bianchini says.

She tips that utility computing - in which computing power is delivered as it is needed, much like switching on a light or turning a water tap - wireless networking, Linux and upgrades to existing enterprise systems will "prove more difficult to source throughout the year".

Project managers with business acumen are also in demand, says Peter Acheson, chief executive of recruiting company Ambit.

"As organisations invest capital in IT projects in 2005, we will see increased skills shortages in specific areas," Acheson says. "In the past, the market has been happy with project managers with a strong technical orientation. Now the market wants the strong technical skills but also good people-management skills and financial literacy."

Acheson says there is also strong demand for skills in systems that manage customers such as Siebel and Oracle/PeopleSoft.

"Up until about 12 months ago, organisations had stopped investing in (customer-relationship management), but now they have started up again and there is a real shortage of good people," he says. "In the communications area, the emergence of technologies like 3G (mobile phones) has led to a situation where it is hard to find a network engineer."

Some recruiters tell clients to look outside Australia in the quest for talent. "Overseas is an option," Acheson says. "We certainly do a lot of overseas recruitment of engineering people, but by the second half of this year we expect to be doing more in IT."

He adds that organisations with a need for skills should tap into the graduate market, "but there are not enough graduates out there", he says, adding this year's university-leavers will find it easy to get jobs, especially in banks, insurance companies and telecommunications carriers.

Diversiti's Howard says the ICT recruitment industry should look at demand for skills over the next two to five years, lobbying the Commonwealth to grant access to offshore sources of scarce skills. "We should involve DIMIA (Department of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs) in that discussion, so that we can encourage them to put it back on the hot skills list again." - Stan Beer

Schools promote IT - just for fun

IT jobs are boring - that's the perception of high school students, according to a survey by Multimedia Victoria last year.

Up to 41 per cent of students have some interest in studying IT at a tertiary level, but a lack of knowledge about the types of jobs available was the main inhibitor to an interest in an IT career, the survey found.

These findings have been a particularly strong influence on Monash University's approach to attracting IT students.

"It's just as important to present IT jobs as being interesting, interactive, creative, and as inherently satisfying, as it is to promote an awareness of labour market conditions," says Titian De Colle, IT faculty marketing manager at Monash.

The university plans to markedly increase its activity - including visits - in schools this year.

Across the border, in addition to school visits, the University of Sydney runs a computer science summer camp for year 12 students to promote the merits of careers in IT.

"I don't think any of the things we are doing are trying to shift students who are not interested in IT into being interested," says Associate Professor Alan Fekete, pictured, acting head of the school of IT at the University of Sydney.

"It is more trying to convince those who are interested that there is a place for them in IT," he says.

The University of Sydney and the Queensland University of Technology are also adjusting their courses to make them more appealing to school leavers.

Both universities have noticed a trend towards double degrees and subject combinations that pair IT with another study area.

At the Queensland University of Technology there are already indications that better double degrees are stabilising enrolments.

"Last year our enrolments dropped in both single degree and double degrees. But while single-degree numbers have fallen off again this year, our double-degree numbers have stayed flat," says Professor Simon Kaplan, dean of the faculty of information technology at QUT.

De Colle says: "All sorts of indicators are pointing to a stronger labour market in IT and ... that will make its way into schools, and careers teachers will again encourage students to apply for IT programs. It just takes time." - Ben Haywood

Reported in Sydney Morning Herald
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DISCLAIMER : Media releases are provided as is by the source mentioned and have not been edited or checked for accuracy. Any queries should be directed to the source of the article itself.

Universities urged to end secrecy over names of full-fee students

2005-01-31T19:44:00.000+11:00

The Universities Admissions Centre will ask universities to reverse a policy of keeping secret the names of those who are offered full-fee-paying places, now that six NSW universities offer the degrees that cost up to $150,000.

The admissions centre's managing director, Andrew Stanton, said the names of students offered full-fee places had never been published because it was "considered a bit of a privacy issue" in 1999, when the protocols on handling full-fee applications had first been set. But that was in the days when only the University of Sydney and the University of NSW accepted full-fee students, who gain entry to courses on marginally lower marks than Commonwealth-subsidised students but pay much higher course costs.

This year six universities - the University of Sydney, the University of NSW, the University of Newcastle, the Australian Catholic University, Charles Sturt University and Southern Cross University - offer full-fee places, encouraged by Federal Government changes.

Under the Government's higher education changes, which take effect this year, institutions may enrol 35 per cent of their Australian students as full-fee payers in most courses, and the students have access to a new loans scheme to help finance the expensive degrees.

Mr Stanton said the initial sensitivity about publishing the names of offer recipients was to do with "the public perception that people were getting in because they could pay for it".

"That view has softened," he said. "People are realising it is a valid alternative."

Full-fee applications were only one of many entry schemes giving admission to students with entrance scores below the standard cut-off, Mr Stanton said, and it was unfair to fix upon the full fee-paying route "in isolation and misinterpret it".

The universities have a "users' committee" at the admissions centre, where representatives of each higher education institution liaise with the centre's staff.

Publishing names with full-fee-paying offers was "something that we will take up" with the universities, Mr Stanton said.

The proposal has high-level support at the University of Newcastle, which this year entered the full-fee market, making 567 offers for places in 59 courses.

The deputy vice-chancellor, Brian English, said such enrolments were now "a regular part of the system, and the clarity of the offers [process] would be enhanced ... if the names of everybody were published. It would be easier for the students and easier for everyone else."

There was "no stigma in being offered a fee-paying place", and the logical system was to publish two offers for applicants who qualified for entry under both schemes, Professor English said.

"Students might have put HECS [the subsidised Higher Education Contribution Scheme] law at Sydney first [on their preference list], and law fee-paying at Sydney second, then a mixture of other HECS and fee-paying courses, so they might get one offer for fee-paying law and another for HECS arts," Professor English said.

The state president of the National Union of Students, Sarah-Jane Collins, said "the stigma [associated with being a full-fee student] is gone to some extent", but Australian students should not be paying such large amounts for an education.

University main-round offers to students wanting to pay their way into university rose almost 80 per cent this year, from 1647 offers to 2943. Some students applied for both a HECS and a fee place.

Reported in Sydney Morning Herald
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CQU student dies in waterfall plunge

2005-01-27T17:25:00.000+11:00

A YOUNG man drowned after he and a friend were sucked under a waterfall on the Gold Coast hinterland.

Salman Amin, 25, was swimming at Natural Bridge when he became trapped under the weight of the famous waterfall.

He was one of 24 Brisbane-based Bangladeshi university students who had been enjoying a day trip to the hinterland. Another student was pulled from the water after trying to rescue Mr Amin, described later by friends as a poor swimmer who suffered from asthma.

Rescue divers searched the turbulent water hole into the night and found find his body about 10.40pm.

"It was located under a rock ledge near the falls - it was in about three metres of water," a police spokesman said. "The body was retrieved and formally identified and the family has been advised."

It is the third swimming hole tragedy in Australia in recent days.

On Christmas Day, four members of a Pakistani family drowned at MacKenzie Falls in Victoria, and on the same day a 38-year old Charleville man died after diving into a weir near Cunnamulla.

Onlookers said about six people had been swimming near the waterfall, which cascades through a picturesque natural arch formation in the lush Numinbah Valley.

"Salman decided to go under the waterfall to see the pressure, but he slipped and went under," fellow student Mudassir Chowdhruy said.

"Other friends told him not to go very close to the waterfall but he did. He was not a very good swimmer and he was asthmatic."

Others saw him resurface before once again being forced underwater by the weight of the falls.

Another friend, known only as Imran, attempted to reach Mr Amin but also found himself in trouble.

A rescuer dragged Imran from the icy water. Paramedics treated him on the rocky bank of the falls, covering him with a reflective heat blanket to prevent hypothermia.

He was later carried out of the gorge on a stretcher.

Dozens of police, ambulance, fire and State Emergency Service workers rushed to the scenic tourist destination, but it took nearly an hour and a half for divers to properly prepare to enter the water and begin their search.

Mr Amin's friends were outraged at the delay and said more should be done to warn others of the danger of the water hole. Noman Musa, 22, said friends had to trek for 10 minutes to find a mobile phone signal and call for help.

"I'm really upset about it. There's no lifesaver up here. There should be a lifesaver, this place is very risky," Mr Musa said. "There has to be signs. There's no signage here."

Onlookers Jessica and Paul McKenna, of Brisbane, said Mr Amin "completely disappeared" under the falls.

Mr Amin was a second-year marketing student at Central Queensland University's Brisbane campus.

Meanwhile, four bushwalkers who spent Monday night lost in bushland at Mt Barney National Park emerged safe and well yesterday morning before search parties were deployed.

Reported in The Courier Mail
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Union and UTAS to discuss pay dispute

2005-01-27T17:14:00.000+11:00

More talks will be held today in a bid to end the pay dispute involving English language teachers at the University of Tasmania.

The academics walked off the job for 24 hours at the end of last year and have threatened further action unless a satisfactory offer is made.

They met earlier this week to consider a revised pay offer.

Karin Dowling from the National Tertiary Education Union says further talks with the university this morning will attempt to resolve the sticking points.

"Failing that, our members intend to meet next week to further consider their position in the bargaining," she said.

"But really we'd just like to focus on the positive progress that we think has been made in the negotiations and to encourage the university to continue to talk through some of the last remaining issues."

Reported in ABC Regional
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New offer may end teachers' strike at UTAS English Language Centre

2005-01-26T19:04:00.000+11:00

TEACHERS from the University of Tasmania's English Language Centre have postponed a strike planned for tomorrow as part of a continuing salary dispute.

The English Language Centre teaches English to international students who either have an interest in bettering their English skills or need lessons to help them with their studies.

ELC teachers went on strike for 24 hours on December 15 to consider a revised offer, which was rejected.

The university made a revised offer of a 20.25 per cent increase in four instalments from 2004-2007 but NTEU members rejected the offer last Wednesday.

They voted to continue their industrial action but the university said yesterday it would make a new offer.

ELC teachers are seeking parity with other university staff in leave flexibility, job security, workload regulation and improved professional development opportunities.

The centre's academic year began on January 4 and a strike would have an impact on the teaching of modules, enrolments, organising classes and students' graduation.

NTEU industrial officer Karin Dowling said it would cost the university at least $15,000 a day to refund ELC students for a lost day.

Reported in The Mercury
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Students tell top universities to lift standard of teaching

2005-01-26T18:57:00.000+11:00

Some of the most prestigious universities have the highest dissatisfaction levels with the quality of their teaching, yet retain low dropout rates, says a comprehensive ranking of student experiences released by the Federal Department of Education.

Undergraduate happiness - measured in Student Outcome Indicators of Australian higher education institutions, 2002 and 2003 - will become funding criteria for universities next year, when the Commonwealth will open a competitive learning and teaching performance fund.

Universities will quote measures of student satisfaction to compete for shares of the fund worth $54.6million next year, growing to $113.8million in 2008.

The fund could partially offset the sandstone institutions' strength in winning competitive research funding.

The report shows that of the 37 public universities, student satisfaction with teaching was lowest at two members of the elite Group of Eight research-intensive universities - the University of Adelaide, followed by the University of NSW.

The University of NSW's move to second-worst was a step up from the previous report, released in 2001, which showed UNSW at rock bottom.

In contrast, the highest level of satisfaction with teaching was recorded at the University of New England, followed by Murdoch in Western Australia. Both scored highly in the 2001 report.

Nevertheless, UNSW enjoyed the second-lowest dropout rate of first year students, and the third-lowest dropout rate for continuing students. The University of Wollongong recorded the lowest first year dropout rate.

The director of policy and analysis at the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee, Conor King, said that for the last decade universities had been trying to improve students' experiences in the lecture theatres, and the Commonwealth's performance fund would "focus attention even more on teaching quality" and reward institutions that made it a priority.

However, it was important that funding depended on more than just happy responses from student surveys and low dropout rates, "unless you want to produce a homogenous sector where you [the universities] only choose the students who will stay with you," Mr King said.

A higher education policy analyst with Griffith University, Gavin Moodie, said that high levels of student satisfaction and low dropout or failure rates were not infallible indicators that all was well. They could also imply soft marking and raised the question: "Do institutions with lower cut-off scores [for entry] mark easier than other institutions - who would bloody know?"

Relying on student satisfaction levels might also fail to take into account the inevitably lower degree of individual attention an undergraduate receives in the crowded lecture halls of popular courses, such as first year psychology, compared to niche courses "like Swedish", Mr Moodie said.

Nevertheless, the pro-Vice-Chancellor (education) at UNSW, Adrian Lee, said that "we clearly need to improve our teaching".

The research-intensive nature of UNSW meant that in past years, "staff had the feeling that effort in research was what counted," Professor Lee said.

However, since 2000, UNSW had set up teacher-training programs and mentorships, he said. The university has also launched a comprehensive set of teaching guidelines that push staff to make their classes challenging, inclusive and relevant.

Professor Lee said that UNSW had won national and state teaching awards since the renewed emphasis on how best to deliver courses.

Reported in Sydney Morning Herald
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AGSM slumps in rankings

2005-01-26T18:51:00.000+11:00

THE Australian Graduate School of Management has plummeted more than 30 places in the Financial Times ranking of the world's top 100 business schools' MBA programs.

AGSM, a joint venture between the University of Sydney and the University of NSW, fell from 53rd place last year to 84th in the latest table, released on Monday. The school had improved from 69th to 53rd between 2003 and 2004.

Its only Australian counterpart on the table, the Melbourne Business School, had a better year. Its ranking jumped from 72nd to 63rd. On a three-year average ranking (2003-05), the University of Melbourne's MBS also came out on top, at 66th against AGSM's 69th.

Harvard, Wharton, Columbia and Stanford in the US filled the top four places. The London Business School was fifth.

AGSM award programs director Sharyn Roberts said the school was pleased that for the sixth year in a row it had made the Financial Times top 100. The drop in places was not a concern.

"Business school rankings do fluctuate from year to year and what's really important is the long-term performance, that's where we have our focus," Ms Roberts said.

"In terms of how it might be used more broadly, we do understand that students look at it but the crucial thing is that we remain focused on our mission to attract the best-quality students, the best-quality faculty and produce outstanding graduates."

MBS dean and director John Seybolt said in a statement: "This ranking is especially gratifying because it is based on alumni perceptions of the value of the program."

MBS was listed in the top 10 schools for economics.

According to the Financial Times, MBS students can expect a salary increase of 106 per cent on graduation compared with their pay before enrolment. AGSM students can budget for a 78 per cent rise.

Average salaries three years after graduating are $141,430 for MBS students and $126,631 for AGSM alumni.

Calculating course costs, the opportunity cost of not working during the course and salaries three years after graduation, MBS is ranked 40th best in terms of value for money. The AGSM is 64th.

But job prospects are better for AGSM graduates, 83 per cent of whom were in work three months after leaving, against 66 per cent of MBS graduates.

Both schools are roughly equal on the proportion of female students (25 per cent each) and female faculty members (AGSM 22 per cent, MBS 23 per cent).

Ms Roberts said the AGSM was pleased with enrolments for 2005 after reports last year suggested the school had suffered a dramatic drop-off in numbers.

"We have 1600 in our MBA executive programs for session one and 150 students in the full-time program," she said.

Numbers are "on par" with last year's enrolment, Ms Roberts said.

The University of Queensland's Brisbane School of Management, 82nd in last year's survey, dropped out of the top 100 this year.

MBAs are offered at 36 of Australia's 38 universities.

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Nelson wants a say in course cuts

2005-01-26T18:45:00.000+11:00

FEDERAL Education Minister Brendan Nelson has signalled he wants greater control over what universities teach, warning they must negotiate with the Government before closing courses.

He has also fired a salvo at the peak Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee, questioning "the intellectual integrity" of public statements it has made.

Dr Nelson raised the issue of course closures in specialist areas with low enrolments - particularly in allied health and languages - following a couple of controversial closures last year.

Last month he wrote to all vice-chancellors citing "growing community concern" about these.

"I will be including an additional condition of grant in funding agreements that will specify that closures of specialist courses must be negotiated and agreed with the commonwealth," he said.

One higher education source described the move as the most intrusive from a federal minister since Labor education minister John Dawkins.

"Since the Higher Education Support Act came in, the Government is controlling the enrolment mix of students subject by subject," the source said.

"Now it's controlling what courses you open and what courses you close."

But AVCC vice-president and vice-chancellor of Wollongong University Gerard Sutton said he agreed with Dr Nelson's intention - if he gave extra funding to sustain those courses.

"The issue as to whether or not a university can continue a course depends on the appropriate number of students and the funding level associated with it," Professor Sutton said.

"So if as part of the negotiations ... he's suggesting that for those courses special funding would be made available to those universities to keep those courses going, that is fine.

"If he's saying that within the current resources he would insist on those courses being run then that would be unreasonable." But vice-chancellor of the University of Queensland John Hay said while he had not seen the detail, it could mean "extremely bureaucratic intervention".

"With about 6000 courses UQ is regularly introducing new courses and closing others," Professor Hay said.

Closing a course was not a decision that was made lightly. Further, a raft of factors such as teaching capacity, demand, research opportunities, and community need were all taken into account when considering such a move, he said.

In a separate letter to AVCC president and vice-chancellor of Macquarie University Di Yerbury, Dr Nelson has taken the unusual step of admonishing the peak lobby.

At issue were comments made by the committee's chief executive John Mullarvey on ABC Radio just before Christmas.

Mr Mullarvey was being interviewed about the federal Government's plans to transfer the remaining state control of universities to the commonwealth after the release of a paper flagging options for doing this.

Dr Nelson's letter, obtained by the HES, said: "I would ask you to carefully read the transcript [of the interview, which he enclosed] and reassure me of the intellectual integrity of a number of statements that are made."

Among the statements that irritated Dr Nelson was Mr Mullarvey's assertion that the only way to make it easier for students to get into university was to have more Government-funded places: "That's not something that the Government has put on the table."

"I may be missing something," Dr Nelson's letter said, "but have we not just announced the funding of 36,000 HECS [places] over the next four years while crossing the historical threshold of providing an income contingent loan for full-fee paying Australians in the eligible public and private universities?"

Reported in The Australian
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Thousands of Temporary Entrants Chose to Call Australia Home

2005-01-24T16:26:00.000+11:00

Thousands more people who come to Australia temporarily for skilled employment or study are choosing to stay for good, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, Senator Amanda Vanstone, said today.

New figures, released today by Senator Vanstone, show more than 36,000 permanent visas were granted in 2003-04 to people already in Australia on temporary visas.

‘This is more than double the number of eight years ago and represents a profound shift in the way people migrate to Australia,’ Senator Vanstone said.

‘Almost a third of places in the 2003-04 Migration Program went to people already in the country.

Senator Vanstone said students and skilled workers are driving the change.

‘In the case of students, in 2001 the Government changed the rules to allow overseas students in Australia to be able to apply to stay permanently as skilled migrants at the end of their studies,’ Senator Vanstone said.

‘In the case of skilled migrants, last financial year over 13,000 permanent skilled migration visas were granted to students in Australia, a 50 per cent increase on 2002-03.’

There was a seven per cent rise in the number of permanent visas granted onshore under the Employer Nomination scheme to workers who entered on temporary programs in 2003-04.

‘The people being granted these visas are typically young and skilled, and now are more often educated in Australia. This is benefit to all Australians,’ Senator Vanstone said.

‘They are usually proficient in English and have established social networks and experience of our labour market and culture, increasing their chances of settling quickly and successfully.

‘Most are coming from the United Kingdom, the People’s Republic of China and India.’

Source - DIMIA Media Release
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Editors quit University of Queensland Press over restructuring

2005-01-24T01:58:00.000+11:00

THREE senior editors have walked away from the University of Queensland Press amid claims its editorial autonomy is under threat.

As UQP overhauls its operations, three of its five commissioning editors are among nine staff to take redundancy packages in the past two months.

General manager Greg Bain said the press was managing "perfectly well" with only eight remaining staff, as it had outsourced its production and was using freelancers. Once it had recruited more staff its workforce would be 12 or 13, with a stronger emphasis on internal editorial control, he said.

Editor-at-large and former publishing manager Craig Munro, senior editor (literary fiction and non-fiction) Rosanne Fitzgibbon and senior editor and manager of black Australian writing Sue Abbey left UQP this month.

Managing editor Madonna Duffy is tipped as the frontrunner for the new position of publisher, which was advertised recently in the trade newsletter Weekly Book News.

An interim publishing committee has been set up comprising several members of the UQP board, a move Ms Fitzgibbon said threatened independent decision-making about what was published.

She said the board had never before been involved in the creative process of deciding what should be published.

As reported in the HES last August, UQP, which comprises a publishing arm and bookshop, has been slashing costs to rein in a $3.5 million debt, which it says is costing the university $215,000 a year in interest.

Considered one of the most important publishers of Australian literature since World War II, UQP launched the careers of a raft of authors including Peter Carey, David Malouf and Kate Grenville when it published their first novels.

But like many scholarly publishers in Australia and overseas, it has fallen on hard times and has found it difficult to compete with the big commercial publishers.

The university said it wanted to retain the press but that there had to be changes, including moving out of some marginal areas of publishing and seeking new business.

"The university is not walking away from it," acting vice-chancellor Paul Greenfield told the HES. "It has supported it and continues to support it."

The restructure document says the press will continue to publish scholarly and general books. It has set a target to move from 40 titles this year to 60 in 2007, with the number of scholarly titles increasing from seven to 16 over that period. Children's titles would rise from 10 to 16 and nonfiction from nine to 13.

Asked about the impact of fewer commissioning editors on the press's capacity to spot new writers, Mr Bain said UQP was building closer relationships with literary agents. "That's really helping us to identify strong talent," he said.

But Ms Abbey, who has worked for UQP for 23 years, said she was concerned about the mentoring of emerging authors. "UQP has made and maintained its reputation for divining talent and for nurturing and fostering the careers of emerging writers," she said. "My major concern is that the mentoring aspect of UQP is now left with one individual or desk editors."

National Tertiary Education Union UQ president Andrew Bonnell said the restructure had "pretty much gutted" the press in terms of expertise and corporate memory. "I think it's going to be very hard for them to maintain the level of innovation in terms of getting quality new writers, [as] the press had done in the past, without active, experienced commissioning editors," he said.

"They can say they'll see what agents give us, but it's not the same as having strong commissioning editors."

Reported in The Australian
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Data from heaven for UNSW

2005-01-24T01:03:00.000+11:00

STUDENTS at the University of NSW may benefit through research, commercialisation and employment from a possible tie-up between the university and an Australian satellite technology company.

The video technology, according to its Australian owners, will be able to spot and track from space a fire smaller than 4000sqm.

Executives from Astrovision Australia, seeking a university to act a repository for reams of data sent earthwards by the satellite, have been in talks with senior academics from the University of NSW.

Astrovision chief executive officer Shubber Ali said the university would be able to use the data in teaching.

UNSW school of biological, earth and environmental sciences geologist Geoffrey Taylor said there was an agreement in principle to explore a partnership between the university and Astrovision.

"From UNSW's perspective, our interest is not merely as a data repository but also in the research that can be done on a medium and long-term data archive," he said.

"The technology will provide a perspective that we've never had before, that is to look at earth processes at a variety of time scales."

Mr Ali said there was also a promise of jobs for graduates and that the company had designed a curriculum based on the data.

"We expect there will be opportunities for students on a graduate, postgraduate and postdoctoral level in research and, downstream, employment opportunities," he said.

"It should bring roughly 100 direct hi-tech jobs and about 500 indirect jobs in programming, systems analysis, data fusion and computer modelling."

Astrovision is in the process of raising the $200 million it needs to build and launch (in 2007) a satellite that will be fitted with seven sensors, some of which will be able to spot fires as they start.

One of the sensors would be able to transmit a fresh image every second, said Astrovision Australia managing director Michael Hewins, a former space lawyer.

The technology is based on NASA science used on deep space research missions.

Astrovision Australia, which opened for business in October 2003, sees the Defence Department, the Bureau of Meteorology, Australian Customs Service, bushfire authorities and other emergency services as customers.

The satellite, which will be in geostationary orbit, can picture an area stretching from Bangladesh to North Korea, Hawaii and the Antarctic.

It can zoom into an area 1000kmx1000km and can detect a bushfire smaller than 4000sqm.

Among its sensors are the streaming video camera, a thermal imager that can detect heat blooms, and a lightning tracker. Images from these can be overlaid.

"Whenever a bushfire starts, we can see it live, which means it can be monitored, which means the efficiency of the firefighting crews - to get there, see where the most serious hot-spots are and cut down on the damage - becomes much better than it has been," Mr Hewins said.

Professor Taylor said the satellite could be used to track storms or locust plagues and to see how soils behaved under different climate events.

Internet access to an archive would probably be free, but live video would be available only by paid subscription, Mr Hewins said.

Reported in The Australian
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Foreign Students Settle

2005-01-23T20:24:00.000+11:00

One in three of Australia's new settlers is a young person who originally came to study or work.

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said 36,700 temporary residents, mostly foreign students, were given permanent residency in the year to last June, compared with just 15,000 five years earlier.

More than 13,000 were beneficiaries of a little-noticed policy introduced in 2001 that allows foreign students permanent residency if they line up a skilled job within six months of completing their course.

New Immigration Department figures show the number seizing the opportunity jumped 52 per cent last year, as growing numbers of Asian students chose to stay and work in Australia.

Almost half had qualifications in information and communications technology, and about a quarter had accounting degrees, with engineers the next largest group. Two-thirds came from India, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and South Korea.

"This is a benefit to all Australians," Senator Vanstone said. "The people granted these visas are typically young and skilled."

Demand from foreign students lifted the number of people settling permanently in Australia to almost 149,000 in 2003-04, up from 95,000 six years earlier.

The number settling here under government programs has jumped in six years from 79,000 to 129,000, while a further 20,000 arrived last year from New Zealand.

Reported in The Age
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Immigration raid nets 59 people

2005-01-23T20:19:00.000+11:00

Thirty-nine people have been sent to Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre and another 20 ordered to leave Australia after being caught in raids by the Immigration Department.

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said all were found to be in Australia illegally during compliance operations in Sydney in the past two days.

Fifty were "unlawful non-citizens" and nine were found to be in breach of their visa conditions, she said.

"The illegal workers were located across several industry types including construction, hospitality and manufacturing," Senator Vanstone said.

"A total of 35 people were located at their workplaces and warning notices will be issued to all employers."

The operations were conducted throughout Sydney, including Liverpool, Girraween, Marrickville, Botany, Camperdown, Hurstville, Fairfield, Penrith, Merrylands, the northern beaches and Circular Quay.

Of the group, there were 38 men and 21 women from China (12), Indonesia (8), Egypt (6), Fiji (5), Malaysia (5), Thailand (4), Pakistan (3), Lebanon (3), the Philippines (2), Hong Kong (2), Sri Lanka (2), Nigeria (1), United Kingdom (1), Japan (1), South Korea (1), Germany (1), Taiwan (1) and Bangladesh (1).

Reported in Sydney Morning Herald
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International students at University of Sydney need to improve their English

2005-01-19T21:00:00.000+11:00

Extra English language classes will be offered to overseas students at the University of Sydney after a review found that they did not do as well as Australian students, or foreign students at the country's other main universities.

In an otherwise positive report from the Australian Universities Quality Agency, the inferior progression rates of the university's foreign students was identified as an area of concern. Students studying the humanities, the social sciences and science and technology were seen as most at risk.

The university's acting vice-chancellor, Professor John Hearn, said its own assessments found that overall overseas students did as well as local ones. But he conceded that in fields such as economics and business, progression rates differed.

"All international students have got an internationally recognised entry level requirement of English, but it is clear that some may need additional support," he said. "We will be now giving more options and support for English teaching for students who require it. They do get this already, but it is an area which we will now be strengthening."

At present students requiring English tuition can receive it from the university's Centre for English Teaching. But as a result of the quality agency's audit, they will now be asked directly whether they want it from university staff.

"We will now be far more active in looking at this, predicting which individuals may need support and recommending that they do it," Professor Hearn said. "We won't be doing this in any threatening way, but we will be getting more onto the front foot and saying to students that if they really want to get the most out of their year or years at our university, then a little bit of tuition in English might be of assistance."

The agency's positive commendations covered areas including the university's governance, innovations in teaching, and staff performance.

The audit said: "There can be no doubt that the university has been achieving outstanding research outcomes. It is consistently one of the highest generators of external research revenue and has one of the largest postgraduate research student cohorts."

Professor Hearn said: "We are very happy with this report, and its findings are very positive in endorsing the major parts of our operation.

"Our rejoicings are that we now have endorsed quality products in teaching, research and in our management of our assets."

However, the audit also highlighted that a number of staff and students believed that the university needed to better maintain its teaching premises. Overcrowding was a big problem.

"Students reported that many of the teaching classrooms are overcrowded, suggesting problems with timetabling," the audit said.

"In some cases this results in students not being able to attend class.

"Moreover, students also stated that a number of the classrooms are windowless, with air-conditioning that does not appear to work effectively and teaching aids, such as overhead projectors, that do not always work."

The university's many heritage-listed buildings for which no special funding is provided was identified in the report as a "complicating factor", inhibiting their redevelopment or maintenance.

Reported in Sydney Morning Herald
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When dollars, not marks, get you a university place

2005-01-19T20:48:00.000+11:00

Thousands of students are now finding that equality comes at a price, writes Louise Merrington.

Intellectual capability has tragically little to do with entrance to Australian universities - the hard truth is that if you are willing and able to pay your way in, academic performance is a secondary consideration.

Throughout their schooling, but particularly during their senior years, students and their families are constantly told university entrance is based on merit and intelligence. They are led to believe that the number allocated to a course indicates how smart you need to be to study it. If you don't get the score then you obviously won't suit the course.

In reality, however, the ENTER is little more than an indicator of supply and demand. If a course with a limited number of HECS places is popular, the score goes up. Full-fee places are less popular; thus the score is lower and entrance much easier - provided, of course, you have the money.

My cynicism stems from experience. Two years ago I was one of 34,000 Victorian students receiving first-round university offers. In spite of an ENTER score in the high 90s, I missed out on my first preference, and only narrowly made it into my second preference, which, at the end of 2002, had an ENTER requirement of 98. What continues to gall me, however, is that if I had been willing to pay nearly $15,000 a year, my score could have been up to 10 points lower and I would still have been admitted.

In a system where the decimal point on your score can be the difference between being admitted to a HECS place or missing out completely, a 10-point buffer for domestic full-fee-paying students is nothing short of ridiculous. Such a yawning chasm laughs in the faces of those students who work hard through years 11 and 12 only to miss out at the final hurdle because of a system that is geared against them.

Domestic full-fee places also pose another, less documented threat. When degrees become commodities to be bought and sold, rather than qualifications earned solely through hard work and academic achievement, they begin to lose their value. Universities are transforming from centres of learning into mere corporations, where academia must be sacrificed to balance the books, and students are missing out as a result. Even those who get in face higher staff-student ratios, the casualisation of lecture and tutorial staff that makes it far more difficult to seek academic support, and a host of other problems.

As this year's round of university offers continues to emerge, so will the disturbing figures. Even in areas such as teaching and nursing, which, we are continually told, face appalling shortages of well-trained and qualified staff, it is highly likely that the demand for HECS places will once again outweigh the supply. It seems that the Government is yet to grasp the idea that sound investment in universities today will bring immeasurable returns in the future.

These students are tomorrow's doctors, nurses, educators, lawyers, engineers, architects, researchers, scientists and other professionals. They will be the ones that design our infrastructure, defend our freedoms, teach our children and save our lives. Consequently, if the Government continues to strangle universities in the interests of short-term gain, the decision will inevitably return to bite them in the proverbial behind.

Changes such as the recent Nelson reforms (which allowed universities to increase HECS fees by up to 25 per cent and domestic full-fee places by up to 35 per cent) will survive long after the ministers who implemented them have been forgotten, and students will continue paying for these policy errors for generations. It is critical that the politicians of today look beyond their own careers and do what is best for Australia's future, even if it means that some rich noses will be put out of joint.

If our universities are to remain world-class institutions of learning and research, they must be properly funded so that their resources can be spent on education. And if today's students are to grow into competent, highly sought-after professionals, then they must be able to access an affordable education. Yet as tens of thousands of students are finding out this week, equality in this country increasingly comes at a price.

Louise Merrington is a member of the editorial team of SAGE (The Age's youth supplement).

Reported in The Age
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