This Month
- Opinion
- Australian economy
How to get fiscal dividend from a jobs, skills and training virtuous cycle
Reforms in vocational and higher education, and migration, can realistically aim to promote economic growth and would more than repay the upfront investment cost.
- Peter Dawkins
Singapore’s Keppel swoops on school, uni campus for new fund
The Asian asset manager has snapped up two Sydney properties, worth $198 million in total, for its growing Australian education portfolio.
- Nick Lenaghan
Palaszczuk ‘full steam ahead’ on renewables despite blowout risks
The Palaszczuk government has committed $62 billion to wean the state off fossil fuels, but fears have been raised about cost blow-outs on the mega-projects.
- Mark Ludlow
Students not the only ones dropping out for better-paid work
Skills Minister Brendan O’Connor says low pay is a factor in apprentices failing to complete their trades training, but not the only reason.
- Andrew Tillett
- Analysis
- Childcare
Higher subsidies don’t solve childcare costs - and may make them worse
The Albanese government’s response to the competition watchdog’s latest report on the childcare sector was disappointingly shallow.
- Ronald Mizen
Government threatens to ‘name and shame’ childcare centres gouging
Margins in the sector are highly varied, with head office expenses and the cost of chains trying to grow chewing up large operators’ profits.
- Nick Bonyhady and Julie Hare
- Opinion
- High school
How to turn around Australian kids’ appalling classroom behaviour
Australia’s education system has consistently been marked down when it comes to the behaviour of students and the capacity of teachers to manage classrooms.
- Glenn Fahey
Market forces in childcare have failed families: ACCC
Childcare in Australia is less affordable than almost all other comparable countries and despite government contributions being almost double the OECD average.
- Julie Hare
September
Is a skills passport a ticket to job mobility?
A national skills passport should include non-formal education to more accurately capture jobseekers’ skills, experts say.
- Euan Black
Australia’s most powerful people in education in 2023
There are significant changes ahead for the way children are taught in schools and the cross-section of students at universities.
- Julie Hare
Wealthy parents are spending $1.2m to get kids into top unis
With 24/7 tutors and lots of hand-holding, high-end consultants are taking the admissions race in the US to the next level.
- Francesca Maglione and Paulina Cachero
Voice will give Indigenous kids ‘a fair shot’: Burney
In a forceful rebuttal of the No case, the Indigenous Australians minister will point to the Coalition’s Remote School Attendance Strategy as failed policy.
- Tom McIlroy and Tom Rabe
The Carlyle Group considers tilt at Affinity Education; bankers up
Street Talk understands Hutchinson is working with RBC Capital Markets to prep an indicative offer for the early childhood education business.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
- Opinion
- University
Opening doors to China is good for everyone
Learning, education and knowledge can change our relationships and the world. We need to know this Asian giant more, not less.
- Vicki Thomson
- Analysis
- Tech Observed
Schools and business embrace AI, but do we know what they’re doing?
Artificial intelligence seemingly lets students and workers do new and exciting things more efficiently, but without care, we risk sacrificing genuine knowledge for short-term gains.
- Paul Smith
Teachers are helpless to stop AI cheating
At least half of all school teachers have had to mark assignments they were certain had been written by ChatGPT, a government inquiry hears.
- John Davidson
Is banning AI in state schools dudding students?
Westbourne Grammar principal Adrian Camm has embraced artificial intelligence in his classrooms to give his students the edge, but others are warning not to move too fast.
- Ronald Mizen
- Opinion
- Skills
Private colleges the only way to get to O’Kane’s big target
The universities accord holds at its core a doubling of the number of university students by 2050. The only way to get there is to embrace the private sector.
- Peter Hendy
August
Outgoing ANU boss predicts greater role for private colleges
A 20-year horizon on higher education will be very different from today, says Brian Schmidt, who revealed his role behind Christopher Pyne’s “fixer” moment.
- Julie Hare
- Opinion
- Teaching
New teachers should have our support, not denigration
Much of the debate around initial teacher education disregards facts and is undermining the newest members of our most noble of professions.
- Mary Ryan
