The Australian — Higher Education

Way clear for specialist unis

A NEW wave of wannabe universities is expected to emerge after education ministers agreed to open up the market for higher education.

Purifier heads off disease

ZIMBABWE-born design student Julie Frost was determined to help rural people in her home country.

Call for closer look at CQU affairs

THE National Tertiary Education Union has called for a public inquiry into the governance of Central Queensland University and the relationship with its commercial partners.

A way with words helps to improve the past

'I'M afraid that many undergraduates begin with the feeling that writing is the mechanical thing you do with information," says Monash University historian Graeme Davison. "They've got very little sense of the craft of writing."

Labor's plan wins support

THE university sector has welcomed Opposition Leader Kim Beazley's blueprint for changes to research and development funding and the commercialisation of ideas.

No more 'grazing' in the arts

UNDERGRADUATES will have fewer subjects to choose from while arts students may be forced to learn a language or specialise in a different culture under Melbourne University's radical graduate school strategy. The plan will also shrink class sizes.

Nutrient recycling on humanity's menu

THE ability of humanity to feed itself through the steepest increase in food demand in history lies in something most communities throw away: nutrients.

Humanist poet for all reasons

GREEK, Latin and astronomy were the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll of the 16th century. Actually, this is probably going too far. But the analogy gives us an idea of the transformative value of classics and astronomy in the Renaissance. These disciplines converge in the Scottish humanist George Buchanan (1506-82), whose quincentenary we celebrate this year.

Gallop strikes a new balance

GEOFF Gallop is a fresher once again.

Diversity's fine, deregulation is better

THERE has been considerable discussion recently about diversity in Australian higher education. In contrast to the US, where diversity in higher education is about the student population and revolves around questions of access and race, the debate in Australia is mostly focused on structures and names. Which institutions should be entitled to use the title university? And what programs should they offer? Two threads run through the debate.

Tests are no great gauge of learning

IN 1982, a film crew hired by the staff of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics and funded by the American National Science Foundation, attended a graduation ceremony at Harvard.

Showdown with the states

FEDERAL Education Minister Julie Bishop was blooded last week - in the nicest possible way - at her first meeting of the ministerial council on education, employment, training and youth affairs.