On Campus blog: Daily news updates from the tertiary education sector
The former NSW deputy commissioner of police will use his experience to help create relevant crime-fighting courses at UTS.
On Campus daily blog: Higher education news as it happens
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Friday 30 July
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Kaldas takes new role at UTS
International consultant and former NSW deputy commissioner of police Nick Kaldas has been appointed Industry Professor in the University of Techonology Sydney’s faculty of arts and social sciences (FASS).
His knowledge and industry connections will help with developing new degrees, such as the FASS Criminology program, and other short courses designed to address the increasingly digital and transnational aspects of crime.
Faculty dean Alan Davison said Mr Kaldas would “inform and enhance course content and the student experience, facilitate agency and industry interactivity, and provide expertise and guidance in the strategic development of the program”.
Mr Kaldas said he was “looking forward to contributing to the dialogue with law enforcement and other agencies, and helping with a greater understanding of the issues and training needs in that community”.
Mr Kaldas has extensive experience in related fields here and overseas and in July was appointed chair of the Royal Commission into Veteran and Defence Suicide.
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ANU celebrates 75 years
The Australian National University will celebrate three-quarters of a century of academic and student effort on Sunday.
There will be a Covid-safe party, the launch of a living history project and a keynote panel on the past, present and future of the university as well as tours of its classics museum and campus architecture and Indigenous heritage walks.
“We are extremely proud of … our history of serving Australia and all Australians as this country’s national university,” vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt said.
“There is also much to look forward to over the next 75 years as we continue to help improve the prosperity to our nation, the region, and the world through our research and its translation, as well as through education.
“We are a university that serves the nation but we are also deeply connected to Canberra and our wonderful local community.”
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Thursday 29 July
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$9m to boost international education
Over 60 independent higher education providers and English colleges area about to share in a $9m innovation fund offered by the federal government to help them deal with the impact of Covid-19 on their businesses.
The fund, which will give each institution up to $150,000, is to help them introduce innovative new ways of delivering online courses to international students who are stranded overseas.
“Border closures have been important in limiting the number of Covid cases in Australia, but some private providers have seen up to a 70 per cent decline in international student numbers as a result,” said Education Minister Alan Tudge.
“These measures will support those providers to maintain as much capacity as possible until international students can be welcomed back.”
The innovation fund, announced earlier this year and due to be distributed this month, is administered by English Australia, the peak body for English language education in Australia.
“With the global pandemic significantly affecting our markets, this will allow providers to adapt new business models that would have been impossible without the support of the fund,” said English Australia CEO Brett Blacker.
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Indigenous students ready to range
This year Charles Darwin University’s Murray Lauritsen has seen about 100 students through a two-week intensive ranger-ready program in Jabiru.
“We encourage students to gain qualifications that give them a pathway to employment or promotion,” the vocational education and training lecturer said.
“The program helps students develop a skillset so they can be safe and confident doing their tasks.” Mr Lauritsen said the course, developed with coordination from ranger groups and the Northern Land Council was designed to support Indigenous people to combine traditional knowledge with conservation training to protect and manage their land.
Practical skills the students are taught include chemical use, machinery operations and maintenance, four-wheel driving and work health and safety.
Mr Lauritsen is encouraging more Indigenous students to think about obtaining a full qualification, such as a Certificate II.
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Wednesday 28 July
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$1 million in business resilience evangelism
Promising new businesses in six areas of rural and regional NSW and areas covered by four local aboriginal land councils will learn how to ensure they are bushfire resilient.
The Federal and NSW state governments have allocated $1 million from their Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund to fund the University of Wollongong’s iAccelerate business to deliver the program to 90 entrepreneurs, in the hope of creating 300 new jobs.
The program is building on the success of the existing Bega Valley Innovation Hub, which iAccelerate launched in 2019.
Local government areas involved will be the Bega Valley Shire, Eurobodalla Shire, Goulburn Mulwaree, Queanbeyan-Palerang, Snowy Monaro and Wingecarribee Shire; and UOW will also work with NSW Aboriginal Land Council’s Yarpa Indigenous Business and Employment Hub to deliver the program to bushfire affected Indigenous communities.
“With over a decade of creating new industries and over 700 jobs in Wollongong, [iAccelerate] is ready to bring this model created in the Bega Valley to more bushfire-affected areas,” iAccelerate ecosystem evangelist Chris Petersilge said.
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Tuesday 27 July
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HSC students to get more time
The NSW Vice-Chancellors’ Committee has swung in behind the NSW Education Standards Agency, which has decided to give HSC students more time for their major projects and exam preparation given the extended Covid-19 lockdown.
Committee convener and Western Sydney University vice-chancellor Barney Glover said the need for certainty was “paramount”.
“Our position is that proceeding with the HSC examinations in 2021 provides certainty to students, parents and teachers as well as universities,” Professor Glover said.
He said universities understood the difficulties faced by students and would respond with appropriate arrangements.
“As we did successfully in 2020 when the pandemic began for that year’s cohort of students, we will continue to work flexibly with NESA and the Universities Admissions Centre to ensure that admission processes can adapt in an equitable way to any changes in Year 12 assessments,” Professor Glover said.
He also said there were alternative pathways into university such as bridging and foundational courses to build up knowledge and skills lost during the pandemic.
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Notre Dame joins UAC
The University of Notre Dames is joining the Universities Admissions Centre’s (UAC) centralised admissions service, which will improve its outreach to NSW and ACT students.
UAC Managing Director, David Christie said Notre Dame would benefit from “heightened brand awareness among students”.
Notre Dame pro vice chancellor student experience, Selma Alliex said students needed “many qualities to be successful in tertiary study and eventually in their chosen field”.
“That is why we consider a range of academic and non-academic factors including applicants’ interests, aspirations, community engagement and co-curricular involvement,” Professor Alliex said.
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Monday 26 July
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New “chemistry set” will help market Indigenous food
Indigenous communities will be able to assess the marketable attributes of popular bush fruits such as Kakadu, Green and Burdekin plums while in the field, using a toolkit developed at the University of Queensland.
Until now, they have had to send samples to laboratories for testing.
“Indigenous enterprises and interested buyers need to know product supply logistical measurements like the weight and size of the fruit (its pulp to seed ratio); how much sugar and salt content and acidity levels are in the fruit; and moisture levels,” the director of UQ’s ARC Training Centre for Uniquely Australian Foods, Yasmina Sultanbawa said.
For example, the sugar levels of fruit can be measured while it is on the tree, Professor Sultanbawa said.
The kit also will help determine a product’s suitability to be processed into a dehydrated powder, and the type of packaging required as well as provide information on seasonality, growing conditions and plant physiology.
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DNA solves the mystery of crow’s hooked tools
New Caledonian crows have long intrigued naturalists with their facility for making hooked tools — the only non-human animal known to do so in the wild.
While a team from the University of St Andrews in Scotland had worked out the materials the birds used at two out of three long term study sites, the source of tools from a third site eluded them, despite a range of methods including behavioural observations in the wild and in field aviaries, radio-tracking of birds, and working with local botanists to examine collected tools.
Teamwork and DNA matching has supplied the answer. Australian National University researcher Linda Neaves collaborated with the St Andrews team and with Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden to match DNA from the tools to the large Spanish Cherry tree, or Mimusops elengi.
“It raises a lot of interesting questions about how and why crows select the plants they use and how this may be influenced by changes in their environment,” Dr Neaves said.
The crows use the tools to extract food from small holes and crevices.
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Events coming up
HES Academic Quality Forum (29 July, 12pm-1pm online)
The theme of this webinar is Creating a Sustainable Academic Workforce and will explore what the academic workforce of the future might look like and how quality and academic standards can be sustained in an ever-changing environment.
Melbourne EdTech Summit 2021 (17-20 August, online, free)
Australia’s premier education technology summit, presented by EduGrowth. Four days of bold ideas which connect to the wider education technology and innovation ecosystem, featuring keynote speakers, panel discussions and fireside chats.
Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia Annual Conference (8-10 September) RACV Royal Pines Resort, Gold Coast
The conference theme is Global Partnerships and Commercialisation themes. It also features the annual KCA awards that celebrate the achievements of members, and highlight “top tier work” in Australasian tech transfer.
Quantum Australia 2021 (8-10 September) Doltone House, Sydney and online
Sydney Quantum Academy’s conference and careers fair for the rapidly growing quantum technology industry. It’s for researchers, businesses, government decision makers, start-ups and big tech.
Australian International Education Conference (5-8 October) Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre and online
AIEC 2021 will explore new horizons for international education with five key subthemes: global challenges, digital innovation, life and learning, policy and politics, and strategic insights.
Collaborate Innovate 2021 (New date of 18-20 October, instead of 9-11 August). Hotel QT, Canberra
The Cooperative Research Centre Association conference will feature an early career researchers competition, the annual Ralph Slatyer address, and the 30th anniversary of the CRC Innovation Showcase at Parliament House.
5th Annual TEQSA Conference (New date of 25 November instead of 24-26 November) Virtual
The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency conference, Hard Lessons, Valuable Learnings, Heightened Expectations will examine how the higher education sector is charting a new course, seeking to adapt and rethink higher education in a reshaped world. Organisers have taken the event entirely online in view of the resurgence of Covid-19 and lockdowns.
More undergraduates signing up for teaching: Labor
The federal government has released new data showing more undergraduates are applying to become school teachers than in previous years, as it works to tackle the nation’s crippling teacher shortage.
Expert seeks Magnitsky sanctions on research
A security expert has called for the nation’s sanctions regime to be reformed to protect against threats to un research from overseas actors, labelling the government’s current approach ‘lamentable’.