LATEST ARTICLES

Innovative inner-city campus not fencing in students’ potential

Innovative inner-city campus not fencing in students’ potential

Brimming over with enthusiasm, the vice-chancellor of the University of Technology Sydney lets fly with a rapid-fire paean on the ­institution’s modernity, achievements and sheer potential. Attila Brungs has been in charge of the uber-modern university for four years and he’s “loving it, absolutely loving it”.

Monash council election disputes trigger change

Monash council election disputes trigger change

Disputed elections for staff and student representatives for Mon­ash University’s council have spawned contested results, a successful appeal to the Victorian Ombudsman, hastily rewritten regulations and a call for the state’s Higher Education Minister to consider changing the relevant laws to ensure impartiality.

Engineering needs input from humanities

Engineering needs input from humanities

Elanor Huntington is readying herself for the imminent arrival of the next world-changing engineering discipline, one she believes will overlap the realms of the built and digital worlds.“Engineering is not a static thing,” she says. “There have been new disciplines emerging over time for centuries, and I think there’s a new one coming.”

Ramsay Centre: Wollongong denies secrecy over Western studies course

Ramsay Centre: Wollongong denies secrecy over Western studies course

Flatly denying the Ramsay Centre deal for a Western civilisation course at Wollongong University has been kept a secret, the university’s executive dean of law, ­humanities and the arts, Theo Farrell, insists he had been discussing the idea with colleagues since 2017. “Some colleagues have gone public saying there has been no consultation,” Professor Farrell …read more

Ramsay Centre rollout on course at Wollongong University

Ramsay Centre rollout on course at Wollongong University

Daniel Hutto will start to sell the curriculum he has designed for the University of Wollongong’s contentious new Western civilisation bachelor of arts course in on-campus town hall meetings over the next few weeks. For the privately funded Ramsay Centre, it will be the culmination of a tortured series of negotiations with universities across Australia …read more

Lessons learnt, Leinonen resets her agenda

Lessons learnt, Leinonen resets her agenda

Murdoch University has been through some contentious times recently, seeing its enterprise agreement terminated in 2017 after protracted and occasionally bitter negotiations, and late last year jousting with the National Tertiary Education Union in the Federal Court and the West Australian Supreme Court.

Tarnished monster of rock ’n’ roll

Tarnished monster of rock ’n’ roll

All tight black leather trousers, a black leather vest and multiple loops of swinging gold chain, Gary Glitter was rocking on. The 1973 concert at Sydney’s endearingly shabby (even then) Hordern Pavilion was so awful it was almost good, in a stand back and marvel at the spectacle sort of way. And of course the …read more

Stemming a nasty malady

Stemming a nasty malady

As a kid in Sydney, Mohamad ­Dawoud loved playing football. An athletic boy, he started kicking the ball around when he was three years old and it became the passion of his life.

MS stem cell treatment breakthrough in Australian trial

MS stem cell treatment breakthrough in Australian trial

A groundbreaking Australian clinical trial has halted the progression of multiple sclerosis in early-stage patients by using chemotherapy and stem cell transplants, with some of the patients showing marked physical improvement and even abandoning their walking sticks. Published in the prestigious Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, the results of the trial offer hope to …read more

The future of farming is here

The future of farming is here

Tiny sensors that stick to crop leaves and transmit health data. Robot buggies that trundle up and down orchard rows. Hyperspectral scanners to assess tree health. Smartphone-operated virtual cattle fences. Gene manipulation to transform crops so they’re a different colour or last longer, or bear fruit in a more convenient way.