CampusReview · HEDx Podcast: Four possible futures for higher education - Episode 127 A former vice-chancellor of a UK university has published research that outlines four possible scenarios for the future of higher education in England. Sir Chris Husbands was vice-chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University in England from 2016 to 2023, and is currently the inaugural chair of the UK Teaching Excellence Framework. The professor sees an acute need for leaders to listen to the dispossessed, who miss out on higher education. He argues that complacency and arrogance in university leaders leaves hig ..read more

Group of Eight universities have urged the federal government to adopt a 10-year plan to lift Australia’s investment in research and development to three per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) to boost the nation’s capacity for productivity growth. A new Go8 paper lays out steps for the public and private sectors to work together to increase research and development (R&D) investment, which has fallen sharply as a percentage of GDP since 2008. The drop is mainly due to a reduction in business R&D investment, which was driven downward by the fall in mining R&D after the end of the ..read more

The University of Divinity's council has reviewed its 2024-26 budget projections and decided its School of Indigenous Studies is "not financially sustainable in the current higher education environment." The collegiate university is dedicated to teaching and researching spiritual and Christian beliefs in the modern world with 17 campuses across Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. Students are taught through individual colleges and three schools – the School of Indigenous Studies, School of Graduate Research and School of Professional Practice – that undertake research that develop ..read more

A $35m investment will be made into a new aged care, disability support and mental health care and support TAFE centre in Cairns in an effort to fill gaps in industries facing skills shortages. The boost comes as part of a larger plan to build a network of up to 20 TAFE Centres of Excellence in areas of high skills needs around the country. That goal has seen a combined $650m from the Commonwealth and states and territories to carry out reforms listed in the National Skills Agreement that began on January 1, 2024. The Albanese government said the build will progress vocational pathways in heal ..read more

Branding for the new Adelaide University – a merger of the University of Adelaide and University of South Australia – was revealed at the Adelaide Convention Centre by its co-vice-chancellors, Peter Høj and David Lloyd, on Monday. The logo is tilted forward to convey momentum, echoing the angles of the Adelaide Festival Centre, with trademarked ‘North Terrace Purple’ colouring part of the branding, said to represent optimism (seen in the top left hand example below). The new branding was designed in partnership with international marketing firm Lippincott, which has r ..read more

CampusReview · HEDx Podcast: Recounting knowledge from 8 unis across the globe - Episode 126 Associate provost at Duke University in North Carolina Noah Pickus and vice president for external academic relations at Soka University in California Bryan Penprase (pictured left), share insights from their recent book The New Global Universities: Reinventing Education in the 21st Century.  The book looks at case studies at a total of eight different universities from North America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Each of the institutions has redefined the inherited ritual of what univer ..read more

A new representative body for vocational education and training will launch next month with the aim of giving education providers a reliable badge of quality to set them apart from dodgy practices in the industry. QVET – a member-based, non-profit group – will invite the more than 4000 private registered training organisations that offer vocational courses to join if they pass a “rigorous, transparent quality audit process”, says one of its founders, Jonathan Marshall, who is a former chief executive of a private VET provider. He said QVET was a grassroots effort to address the “real rotten co ..read more

The number of students enrolled in vocational education and training courses has surpassed 1.26 million under a national push to address critical skill shortages, as the Coalition ramps up attacks on Labor’s enrolment levels and signature fee-free TAFE ­program. Amid repeated warnings that workforce shortages will stall the transition to renewables, cripple the construction industry and hamper productivity, new data has revealed VET enrolments jumped five per cent from 2022 to last year and the number of students studying at TAFE increased by 8.3 per cent in the same period ..read more

Higher education and research institutes are pillars of innovation, education and societal development. These institutions play a critical role in imparting knowledge and fostering critical thinking skills among future leaders, professionals and citizens. According to Universities Australia (UA), the benefits to our national economy are significant and contribute $19.4bn annually to Australia’s income. New modelling by Ernst & Young, commissioned by UA, confirms that formal collaborations between Australian businesses and universities generate an impressive $10.6bn a year in revenue direct ..read more

One of the world’s top law firms has implemented new standards for job applicants from America’s top law schools following antisemitic protests that swept universities across the world in the aftermath of the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. Sullivan & Cromwell, which is headquartered on New York’s Wall Street and has offices in Sydney and Melbourne, states that individuals who participated in university protests should be held responsible for their actions, as well as the actions of those around them. The company told The New York Times that the firm will do background chec ..read more