Feb
11
2021
When education expert Dr Sue Thomson first sponsored a child’s education through The Smith Family, she never dreamt that the changes would be so dramatic. Her student soared past a difficult and deprived childhood, went to university and now has a degree. Thomson was so happy with her first Smith Family sponsorship that she has …read more
Nov
13
2020
The Covid-19 upheaval has combined with global trade scuffles to lift the number of professionals eyeing school-teaching as a potential career-changer. In uncertain economic times, thousands of Australians swing towards teaching as a secure career, and this year has been no exception.
Nov
13
2020
David Bruce is one of thousands of Australians choosing to further their nursing careers with a master’s degree in nursing or in the allied health professions. With the Covid-19 pandemic accelerating the need for health services and disrupting the economy, many have decided to boost their qualifications or retrain to find a more secure career …read more
Sep
24
2020
Dietmar Muller’s primary research focus is the physical fabric of the world and how it has evolved over more than a billion years, reaching back to a time when life as we know it didn’t exist. Using the latest advances in machine learning and computing technology, the Sydney University geophysicist and his colleagues use the geophysical …read more
Sep
24
2020
More “robust” peacekeeping by United Nations peacekeepers working to calm or resolve conflicts comes with its own dangers, and it’s fertile ground for Charles Hunt’s research. Once, UN peacekeepers were strictly prohibited from ever using force for anything other than self-defence, no matter the provocation. Hunt, now an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow at RMIT university, …read more
Sep
24
2020
It took Maria Forsyth a while to settle on her real research interests. Beginning with a broad foundation of study in materials engineering and chemistry, she sailed through her doctorate at Monash University. With a questing mind, she worked on materials for new optic fibres and chemistries for improved in-vitro fertilisation methods, before her focus moved …read more
Apr
29
2020
Dr Xiaoling Liu, the newly appointed chancellor of the Queensland University of Technology, is well-placed to advise on the coronavirus crisis engulfing Australian universities. Born Chinese, she worked as a metallurgist and executive for Rio Tinto for many years before retiring from her executive position and later joining company boards.
Apr
1
2020
A professor of chemistry at the age of 32, Brigid Heywood knows how hard it can be to forge a career in the male-dominated world of science. Even so, the forthright new vice-chancellor of the University of New England doesn’t think quotas for women academics are the answer.
Jan
15
2020
It can be hard to get into the University of Hong Kong these days. Physically hard. Two of the entrances from the local subway station were shuttered last week – due to “vandalism”, according to a station notice. Most visitors travelled up an escalator, then up in a lift and along a passageway to the …read more
Dec
11
2019
The federal government has backtracked and funded four of the 11 Australian Research Council grant applications that were secretly vetoed by Simon Birmingham as education minister in 2017 and last year.