Censorship, says Australian political theorist John Keane (1991), can "echo within us, take up residence within ourselves, spying on us, a private amanuensis who reminds us never to go too far... It makes us zip our lips, tremble and think twice" (p. 39). It can also make us sick. The author states that this is her argument here: that,…

The author states that in earlier pieces (O'Neill, 2002, 2010, 2012), he chewed on and tried to digest newspaper advertisements made by universities. Byproducts did not come out smelling like roses: universities are scarcely able to present themselves without boasting, crass displays of salesmanship, and brazen invocations of virtue. This…

In this essay, the authors talk about higher degree supervision as a human relationship, and shares how to supervise a PhD. There's a tendency now to talk about supervision as if it's a technical process one needs to learn the rules of. This paper urges educators to think about this as a human educational relationship, which has all the ups and…

Excellence in Research for Australia has a number of limitations: inputs are counted as outputs, time is wasted, disciplinary research is favoured and public engagement is discouraged. Most importantly, by focusing on measurement and emphasising competition, ERA may actually undermine the cooperation and intrinsic motivation that underpin research…

The need to articulate and validate creative practice has been made more urgent by the inclusion of the creative arts in the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) process. The proof of research quality is tied to government funding and universities have strategically sought to increase their share of funding by targeting their own research…

One of the outcomes of the "Bradley Report" (Bradley et al. 2008) is that Australian universities have a new incentive to enrol students from low socio-economic status. Consequently, a flurry of interest is growing around knowledge concerning the targeting, recruitment and retention of low socio-economic status (SES) students. Working class people…

It took the author 22 years to get her first undergraduate degree. Not that she studied for all that time, of course, but she first enrolled in 1976 and she didn't graduate with her BA until April 1998. Why did it take so long? Was there something wrong with her? Was there anything anyone else could have done to help her get through university…

The authors want to figure out what happened in Australian post-secondary education over the last 50 or so years and to predict what sort of arrangement their great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren, will encounter 50 years hence. To put this modest project another way: what in 2060 might a historian (assuming there are, then,…

In this article the author discusses public reaction generated by the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings. He argues that it is not simply that the methodologies adopted by the main rankers -- Times Higher Education (THE), QS and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University -- are diverse and open to the usual interpretation, but there…

Little has been written about the relationship between academia and the media. This essay describes three models through which academics can engage with the media: as generalist or public intellectual; as advocate or activist; and as educator or sub-disciplinary expert. It couches these models within both the traditional wariness of academia…

Non-medical research involves the same issues of justice, beneficence, and respect for persons that apply to non-medical research. It also may involve risk of harm to participants, and conflicts of interest for researchers. It is therefore not possible to argue that such research should be exempt from ethical review. This paper argues that…

As temples of higher learning, universities are particularly partial to Latin phraseology. The more obscure the phrase, the better. Latin froth can also convey a potent image of lofty intellectualism that emboldens vacuous claims to "higher education" and "excellence". The motto is indeed a wonderful window to the university's soul. It is what…

Taking up a theme raised by Stuart Cunningham in a recent issue of the "AUR"--that the innovations of Australia's humanities, creative arts, and social sciences are not getting the recognition that they deserve from the nation's government--this paper, dealing only with the social sciences, offers a cautionary note. If the social sciences are to…

"The Dawkins era is over," Commonwealth Education Minister Julie Bishop told a Perth audience in late July 2007. This turning point in Australian higher education is not being driven by a decisive legislative change; the rapid abandonment of the old in favour of the new that everyone has seen before. It is as much the accidental result of policy…

There has been much critical comment in recent years about the tensions between the regulation imposed on public universities and the flexibility needed to compete effectively in international and national markets for students and funding. In the partisan world of politics each side points the finger at the other as the author of "too much"…