This Month
Former Plibersek adviser appointed to top universities job
Luke Sheehy will head Universities Australia just as the first major review of the sector is due to be made public.
- Julie Hare
Brian Schmidt on the double-edged sword of leadership
After eight years at the helm of Australian National University, Brian Schmidt says he’s been hit by everything – except locusts.
- Julie Hare
The professor, his student and a decade of ‘serious misconduct’
The sacking of star economist Chris Edmond has rocked the establishment. Academics are seeking answers from one of the country’s top universities, and the RBA.
- Mark Di Stefano and Aaron Patrick
How much difference a high ATAR can make to your salary
Analysis of ATO data shows people who left school with very high ATARs go on to earn on average $33,000 a year more than their less brilliant peers by age 30.
- Julie Hare
100,000 foreign ‘students’ won’t come or will go home under reforms
Over the next year, an estimated 100,000 ‘students’ will either not arrive under new migration rules, or will be pushed to return home.
- Julie Hare
- Opinion
- Opinion
The Ivy League’s Bill Clinton moment
Not since the former president was asked about having sex with Monica Lewinsky and replied, “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is,” has there been such parsing.
- Maureen Dowd
‘Non-genuine’ foreign students to be weeded out
The student visa system will be overhauled with the focus on quality students and providers, but numbers won’t be capped.
- Julie Hare
Why regional higher education is so difficult to tackle
After 12 years at the helm of La Trobe University, John Dewar maintains that regional education is still the most complex policy nut to crack.
- Julie Hare
- Opinion
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Campus antisemitism, free speech and double standards
Colleges have discovered the virtues of free speech only now, when the speech in question hurts Jews.
- Bret Stephens
- Opinion
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict
I’m ashamed of Harvard, a university I loved
University administrators and academics have allowed a cult of anti-Jewish activism to flourish under the banner of anti-colonialism.
- Aaron Patrick
University wage theft tops $159m: union tally
The majority of universities have now been involved in short-changing some 100,000 staff, with unions saying there is a crisis of accountability in the sector.
- David Marin-Guzman
- Opinion
- International students
Overseas student tax is a spiky idea that needs the boot
The universities accord went looking for big ideas that build on our reputation as a clever country. This is no time to be dumb.
- Merlin Crossley
For these exceptional uni students, scholarship opens locked doors
The Order of Australia Association Foundation has awarded its 2023 scholarships. For all of them, it opens opportunities they had previously written off.
- Lucy Dean
- Exclusive
- International students
Coalition considered, then rejected ‘envy tax’ on foreign students
The idea to place a levy on international students did the rounds under the Coalition, but was scrapped. Now it’s on the cards again.
- Julie Hare
- Exclusive
- International students
Foreign uni enrolments rise again amid visa crackdown
Universities say demand from overseas students is “going through the roof”, but a clampdown on non-genuine students will dampen temporary migrant numbers.
- Julie Hare
November
RBA’s econ freelancer sacked for “serious misconduct”
Chris Edmond – an economist with ties to the RBA – was sacked this week from the University of Melbourne.
- Mark Di Stefano
Is a university degree really worth it?
This week on The Fin podcast, education editor Julie Hare on why young Australians are losing faith in the value of uni and whether the government can turn it around.
- Opinion
- Australian economy
Taxing foreign students will have a terrible cost
A levy will not make Australian universities more resilient, but the opposite. And visa scams and housing shortages should be addressed directly, not with the blunt instrument of a tax.
- Richard Holden
Students hold key to riding high on AFR’s Best Universities Ranking
There’s a rule of thumb in Australia’s tertiary education sector that the bigger a uni is, the poorer the student experience is. It doesn’t need to be this way.
- Julie Hare
Ombudsman could step in when unis fail on sexual assault
Universities that fail to resolve sexual assault claims could come under the watchful eye of a new national student ombudsman.
- Julie Hare
