UK govt should not resort to wholesale debt forgiveness to soothe escalating concerns about student loans in England, according to Antipodean experts who conceded that the approach had paid political dividends Down Under. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/loan-fo...

“There was a heavy focus on a small number of particularly sensitive groups, but all the major international student source countries were put into one Asian group. This is about a few fashionable victim groups rather than the broader student experience.” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/report-...

Jason Clare has vowed to change the threshold standards, which universities must comply with to maintain their registration, to require unis to demonstrate “action against racism”. His office didn't not say whether he had read the suppressed document. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/report-...

AHRC did not include any links to the POLIS document in material promoting the racism study, but said it had referenced the document “throughout” its report. The 248-page report contains two references to the document on page 239. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/report-...

International students were less likely to encounter racism at university than in public transport, social media, shops, housing or employment, the suppressed document says. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/report-...

Suppressed document, unlike AHRC report, compared incidence of reported racism at unis with background rates in the broader community and found that the community rates were more than twice as high. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/report-...

“These patterns strongly suggest that the…survey disproportionately attracted participants with direct experiences of racism. Its published figures…should be treated as an upper bound rather than an accurate estimate.” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/report-...

An appendix to a damning exposé of racism at Australian universities, suggesting it overestimates the incidence of campus racism at least twofold, has been removed from public view on the orders of the Australian Human Rights Commission. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/report-...

Women made up almost 60% of the university workforce in 2024 and occupied nearly 55% of professional leadership positions, up from about 37% in 2001. But they constituted just 45% of associate professors and 36% of full professors. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/male-un...

Unis’ pay gaps are well below the workforce average but tend to be larger than in other education sectors, including schooling, early education and voc training. Unis also register larger gaps, on average, than private HE colleges with a few hundred staff www.timeshighereducation.com/news/male-un...

Men working in Australian universities earn 10% more on average than their female colleagues and they remain about 45% more likely on a per capita basis to be in the top pay quartile, despite contraction in pay disparities. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/male-un...

Charles Darwin Uni has cancelled its audacious plan to set up a UK branch campus after “detailed risk analysis”. CDU said preparatory work to establish operations in London had been “valuable”, but its focus “must now shift to priorities closer to home”. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/remote-...

Grant rates for South Asian visa applicants have plummeted, and fees for post-study work visas have doubled, as the Australian government ramps up its campaign against inauthentic foreign students. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/post-st...

Greens recommend eight amendments to the bill, including giving ATEC an “explicit focus on research” and guaranteeing its independence by allowing it to research, publish and advise on topics of its choosing – including student fees and racism. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/pass-at...

“There is scope for the model to evolve through implementation and review, but further delay in creating a steward would leave the sector without the guidance it urgently requires.” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/pass-at...

Labor-dominated committee recommends passage of ATEC bill, but some 30 pages of dissenting reports from opposition and crossbench senators highlight the challenges facing the government in ushering the bill through parliament. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/pass-at...

Higher Education Standards Panel discussion paper canvasses options to effect recommendations from plethora of reviews including Universities Accord, Expert Council on Governance, Senate committee inquiry into governance and survey of racism on campuses. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/austral...

Public universities could be required to meet tougher regulatory standards than their private counterparts, under new proposals from the Higher Education Standards Panel. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/austral...

“ATEC would be asking, ‘what baseline credit do you offer at the moment? Where do you want to get to? What sort of pipeline of students can you attract? And how can we discuss our load allocation to help support you?’” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/credit-...

“We need to make it easier for students to get the skills and quals they need without having to rely on pot luck to pick the uni that offers the best deal. At the very least, we should make it easier for students to compare what every uni has to offer.” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/credit-...

ATEC’s establishing legislation must be amended to foster greater independence, broader expertise, mandated student consultation, and mission-based compacts that protect equity, academic freedom and meaningful civic engagement. www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/atec...

“Unless the sector finds a way of having a dialogue with government about how to deal with excesses, the danger is that governments…will have to make a blanket decision which could actually damage things.” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/dont-ex...

“There’s been a percentage growth in commencements in the ACT, Northern Territory, South Australia, Western Australia, and a reduction in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. That’s terrific. That’s sharing the benefits of the sector more widely.” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/dont-ex...

Overseas enrolments in Australia are unlikely to grow any time soon, but the federal government is shifting the balance to higher-value students and spreading the benefits more evenly across the country. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/dont-ex...

Universities to be awarded extra places if they offer recognition of prior learning in a consistent way, in horse trading overseen by the Australian Tertiary Education Commission. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/credit-...

Australian authorities will use compact negotiations to press for systematic recognition of university entrants’ prior studies, in a bid to achieve the long-sought “harmonisation” of the tertiary education sectors. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/credit-...

“I come to this role with real affection for universities, and with a clear view of what they can do. I am a friend who wants to see you be your best selves.” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ditch-h...

In address straddling policy and pedagogy, Leeser counsels unis to safeguard qualifications against “future challenges” by rethinking teaching and assessment. “How can a degree program…retain its worth when it is not reflective of intellectual effort?” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ditch-h...

Australian universities should discard group assignments because students “hate them”, according to shadow education minister Julian Leeser. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ditch-h...

Government policy changes have done more than the coronavirus pandemic to throttle Australia’s language training sector, costing thousands of jobs and threatening to fundamentally change the nature of a once-thriving industry. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/austral...

“If you find yourself at a party, check the location of your nearest roof. Ideally, it should be above you. Roofs are for keeping the rain off; they’re not for standing on. You’re thinking of floors. This information could save your life.” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/do-no-h...

Administrators in New Zealand’s iconic student town have taken a harm minimisation approach to the unofficial week of frolics and foolhardiness that prefaces the academic year. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/do-no-h...

“Many of these applicants had completed Australian foundation or diploma programmes in Sri Lanka. They were applying to continue in Australia in courses also delivered locally by Australian providers.” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/austral...

A duplicated line – “applicant failed to articulate reasonable motives for not undertaking similar courses available in home country” – is a standard justification in visa rejection letters to applicants from India, Pakistan and, more recently, Sri Lanka. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/austral...

Sri Lankan visa applicants are the latest to experience widespread rejections on the grounds that they have failed the “genuine student” test because it would be easier for them to study at home. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/austral...

Proposed school’s lack of bricks and mortar won't disadvantage students with committed GP supervisors and dynamic small group teaching. GPs’ clinics good places to learn because they have patients of all different ages, backgrounds and health issues. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/austral...

Approach sidesteps a key problem in medical education - competition for placements - by delivering most of the practical training through regional GPs who don't currently host students. “We’ve got more placements than we need.” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/austral...

Australia’s smallest university has teamed up with a private education company to develop the country’s newest medical school and help resolve a dearth of general practitioners in the bush. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/austral...

Researchers must be more willing to demand the retraction of their own papers if the studies they cite turn out to be fraudulent, says a research integrity champion leading efforts to “decontaminate” scientific literature. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/retract...

“This three-month window is useless. It’s undermined the ability for researchers to plan their lives. You’ve got to tell your industry partner you won’t know when the outcomes is going to be known. What do you think the industry partner is going to say?” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/grant-d...

Processing time frames for key ARC funding schemes increase by up to 6 months following 2024 legislative change to protect grants from ministerial veto. Announcement date windows rise from about two weeks to three months. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/grant-d...

Australia’s effort to take politics out of research grants has stymied the distribution of funding, as administrators grapple with new national security obligations. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/grant-d...

“It wasn’t that long ago that universities were being asked to step up on free expression. Now they’re being asked to crack down on excessive free expression across a spectrum of views that some people find outrageous and others don’t.” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/bondi-t...

“Uni leaders have been equivocating about antisemitism. They’re going with the wind. They read the room for moral leadership. They should ensure policies against antisemitism, stay neutral on geopolitical issues and discipline anyone who crosses the line” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/bondi-t...

“We’re not asking them to figure out Middle East geopolitics. Just don’t let people harass and express hate. If govt has to get unis to do what they should have been doing anyway by threatening to withhold money, that’s a clear indictment of leadership.” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/bondi-t...

“The community is watching. New teaching period presents an opportunity to demonstrate...balance [of] academic freedom and academic standards with fundamental obligation to keep students safe. This teaching period is an opportunity to rebuild trust .” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/bondi-t...

The regulatory and cultural repercussions of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack are still playing out on Australian university campuses, two months after the tragedy. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/bondi-t...

“Protecting workers from psychosocial risk is a legal obligation and a basic human right. Staff are working in circumstances that endanger their psychological health. Unis can rebuild trust and workplaces by building the psychosocial safety climate.” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/psychos...

Psychosocial safety at Australian universities is markedly worse than across the wider workforce and is continuing to decline, research has found. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/psychos...

“Understanding” is the single biggest ask from part-timers who often feel treated like “half a student”. “Engaging lecturers who show compassion for their situation – that was by far the most important element to success that students identified.” www.timeshighereducation.com/news/easy-tw...