The plummeting number of apprentices and school-leavers studying trades will cripple the Minns government’s plans to build 75,000 homes a year, a peak housing body has warned. The gloomy forecast is contained in a new report from the Master Builders Association, which states NSW will miss its five-year housing target of 375,650 new homes by 2029 by 27,600 builds. Master Builders Association (MBA) NSW executive director Brian Seidler said a lack of skilled labour was the biggest factor threatening the state’s housing targets. The number of NSW students enrolling in building and construction ind ..read more

Union students and workers rallied in Sydney CBD last Friday to demand an end to unpaid placements that exclude low-SES students from some courses and cause 'placement poverty' for many. The Australian Services Union and Students Against Placement Poverty put further pressure on governments to fully fund all compulsory work experience hours university students have to complete, especially in teaching and social work degrees. Rallying outside Sydney's Commonwealth Parliament Offices, the groups also demanded unpaid work placement be made illegal, and that accreditation requirements be updated t ..read more

Skills, training and educator bodies have backed the Prime Minister's Future Made in Australia Act that will grow Australia's in-house manufacturing capabilities. The Prime Minister last Thursday outlined his plan to boost Australia's economic sovereignty through increased on-shore manufacturing and decreased reliance on exports. Cutting out middle men that pressure supply chains, interest rates and inflation pressures, will ease the cost-of-living crisis and boost our national security, the PM said, mimicking the US' Inflation Reduction Act. Prime Minister Albanese wants to see supplies, such ..read more

The Climate Council has said all petrol and diesel car sales should be banned by 2035 if Australia wants to have a 'zero-emissions fleet' by 2050, but the leading independent skills training body raised alarm bells about EV workforce demands. The plan to lower climate pollution by 75 per cent this decade recommends a move away from petrol and diesel vehicles, and also more investment in shared transport, such as better walking and cycling facilities, electrified public transport and rideshare. The council said by 2029, one-third of all taxi, rideshare and government fleet vehicles should be EV ..read more

CampusReview · HEDx Podcast: The story of Torrens University - Episode 113 Torrens University Australia is the fastest growing university in Australia, and is considered a leader in the university sector for offering flexible, tailored study that better serves and attracts equity groups. It's chief executive, Linda Brown, and vice-chancellor, Alwyn Louw, tell the story of the university on stage at the HEDx conference in Melbourne in March. They speak of its incredible journey as a private, American-owned business, and how it would eventually outpace Australia's other universities in terms of ..read more

Australia’s biggest universities are failing to provide 80 per cent of their foreign students with guaranteed housing, despite taking in $9bn a year in tuition fees. Universities have built enough dorm rooms to accommodate only 40,000 students nationally – a fraction of the 205,000 inter­national students they have ­enrolled to study in Australia this year, while private training colleges have failed to provide any accommodation, even though they have accepted 149,000 foreign students this year. The failure of the $26bn international education industry to provide accommodation has meant at lea ..read more

A HECS-HELP petition that urges the education minister to change the way HECS is indexed has gained 200,000 signatures in just 12 days. Started by Kooyong Independent MP Dr Monique Ryan on March 14, the petition now has 240,000 signatures, and has been shared and supported by a mass of young people on social media app Tik Tok. Dr Ryan said increasing uni repayments are turning prospective students away from tertiary study, especially as young people also battle housing affordability and the cost-of-living crisis. Dr Ryan linked her petition to her Tik Tok account. "Honestly, most of us were to ..read more

The University of New South Wales (UNSW) has overhauled the way it rates its scientific research, adding in measures of how it impacts the world beyond the gates of academia. The Pact for Impact, launched late March by the UNSW science faculty, commits to measuring the impact of research using five different indicators. One is the traditional scholarly outputs metric, which looks at numbers of papers published and the number of citations received from other researchers. The other four are policy and influence (which look at impact on government policy and public debate); lives change ..read more

CampusReview · HEDx Podcast: Where can technology take us and how can we harness it? - Episode 112 Director of education for SEEK Investments Joshua Nester joins Martin Betts in conversation at the March HEDx conference in Melbourne. As an industry leader in ed-tech, Mr Nester gives a global overview of investments currently being made in private universities, ed-tech companies, management systems and content aggregators. He outlines how this is changing the competitive landscape of global higher education. The conversation is followed by a panel led by Sue Kokonis, chief academic officer at ..read more

A university technology consultant says posting lecture recordings is not digital transformation, and that digital change in unis may be halting at the leadership level, resulting in unsatisfied students and staff. Ernst and Young (EY) Oceania education leader Alison Cairns told Campus Review their student surveys have shown digital transformation – using new technology to improve learning and teaching experiences – needs to be led by vice-chancellors and boards. (You can read a summary of EY's survey results here.) "It is absolutely about leadership. The difference between transformations tha ..read more