This is a sample newsletter only. The number of news articles in each sector will vary each week.

News of the Week

This section will include the news which is most relevant to the education industry as a whole.

Universities advised to share success stories

January 30, 2008, The Australian

Universities are urged to start sharing success stories instead constant complaining in order to attract more philanthropy. The HEEF board will be taking grant applications from institutions by the end of April and have a short list for the fund of $304 million by July. The board’s recommendations will go to the Minister by November. They are expecting to split the fund between a minimum of 5 projects.

Give our top students the chance to excel further

February 1, 2008, The Age

Through the funded education resources struggling students should excel. Australia’s international ranking has dropped in regards to pushing our top performing students to reach their maximum potential. Melbourne University professor Barry Mcgaw states that educators and governments should be working to lift the game of all students.

Plan to raise minimum standard of education

January 30, 2008, The Australian

Premier Morris Lemma is considering altering the NSW legal drop out school age from 15 to 16. This is aimed to make sure all students leave school with a minimum school certificate qualification.

Industry News

This section will include general education industry news including government and legislation updates.

4 year Australian Public Service program to address skills short fall

February 4, 2008, Department of Finance and Deregulation

A $15 million information and communications technology program was announced today by Lindsay Tanner. The program is aimed at addressing current and forecasted shortfalls in skills. This program will create on-the-job training positions within government agencies for 60 young Australians to provide them with the opportunity to develop their skills and start their ICT careers.

Education vital to solve drug and poverty cycles

January 25, 2008, Sydney Morning Herald

Due to 39,000 Australians aged between 12 and 25 being homeless with more than half of them failing to complete year 10, Open Family Australia has warned that young school dropouts run the risk of ending up on drugs and on the streets. OFA chief executive Sue Renkin states that education is absolutely critical to break the cycle of poverty, to give kids self-respect and to help disadvantaged kids find a way out of their situation and into meaningful employment.

University Sector News

This section will include news relevant to the university sector.

New university courses to combat financial corruption

January 30, 2008, The Australian

Due to a nationwide crackdown on money laundering and terrorism financing, Austrac has called upon the tertiary sector to develop courses that specialise in following the money trail of criminals and terrorists. Studies will be based around the financial sector, auditing, money laundering, terrorism, criminology and profiling.

University strategy for engineering skills shortage

January 30, 2008, The Australian

Due to a significant shortage in the Engineering field, the Australian Technology Network of Universities have signed an agreement with 15 private and public schools to encourage students to study engineering. The engineering industry says that there is a shortfall of at least 20,000 graduates for the profession.

National tribunal to handle university student grievances

January 30, 2008, The Australian

The Carrick team will be researching and seeking out alternate methods to handling student grievances. This is due to the current inefficiencies of the courts not being able to provide students with appropriate remedies. Externally on the drawing board is a National Tribunal and for internal resolutions offices such as a Student Ombudsman and Dean of Students.

Resurrection of a new National advisory body

January 30, 2008, The Australian

The University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor Glyn Davis supports the reinstatement of an independent higher education advisory board that would be somewhat similar to Hong Kong’s UGC. Professor Davis states that due to Hong Kong spending a significantly larger amount on universities there is a notable increase in their education standards including the development of a standard 4-year undergraduate degree to be put in place by 2012. Professor Davis also states that there are strategic issues for Australian universities in regards to maintaining international market appeal once 4-year degrees become standard across north Asia.

Academic freedom to be given to researchers

January 30, 2008, The Australian

Last week the Group of Eight universities released their ‘right-to-publish statement’ after the Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Minister Kim Carr announced a charter to protect academic freedom in science agencies. This statement protects the integrity of research from the influence of financers from both government and private agencies.

Vocational Sector News

This section will include news relevant to vocational education and registered training organisations

No need for university qualifications to teach at TAFE

January 30, 2008, Sydney Morning Herald

In a recent NSW state government decision, no further requirement for TAFE teachers who also deliver Higher School Certificate vocational courses, to complete university training is necessary. Under this decision the required qualification for TAFE teachers will change from a university diploma to a level-four certificate in training and assessment. The decision was brought about due to the increasing teacher shortage with forty per cent of the teaching profession in NSW being eligible for retirement within five years. The NSW Minister for Education, John Della Bosca explains that this decision will aid industry professionals to become permanent TAFE teachers.

Decrease in funding for vocational training

January 31, 2008, The Australian

Vocational skills training spending by commonwealth, state and territory governments between 2002 and 2006 has fallen by 1.5 per cent in real terms to less than $4.2 billion. The larger declines were by NSW at 3 per cent, Victoria at 5 per cent and The Northern Territory with the biggest decline at almost 7 per cent.

School Sector News

This section will include news relevant to the school sector.

Gillard forgets public schools by keeping to the Howard governments funding model

January 25, 2008, Sydney Morning Herald

Private schools are receiving an inordinate share of Federal Government Education funding. Julia Gillard says she will continue to use the Howard governments funding model whilst the Australian Education Union, Federal President, Angelo Gavrielatos states that the model is discredited and inequitable.

Brumby government, pay your teachers right!

January 27, 2008, The Age

Many Hollywood films have shown us the important roles that teachers play within the lives of teenagers through the creation of inspiration cinematography that links poor and rebellious teenagers with an unconventional teacher and ultimately able to transform their lives. As a result of the vital role that teachers play in student lives, we must hold the profession at high esteem in order to re-create the prestige of being a teacher. An essential step towards this is for the Brumby government is for them to pay their teachers in line with their interstate colleagues. This would account for an annual pay rise of 10%.

Australian families fork out for private education

January 27, 2008, Sydney Morning Herald

Independent school fee costs are weighing down families due to: -

- 1 in 10 families spending more than half of their take-home pay

- Independent school fees are more than half of their take-home pay

- 1 in 3 parents allocate more than 15 percent of their household income

- 12 percent of parents reserve up to half of their income for school fees

- 53 percent of independent school parents and 47 percent of Catholic school parents find paying for their child’s education was financially tough

Costs for public schools on the increase

January 29, 2008, The Australian

Parents who send their children to public schools have had to deal with a significant increase in costs of up to and over $5000 a year. Expenses include fees, books, laptops, uniforms, fundraising and excursions.

Essential skills to be added to QLD curriculum

January 29, 2008, Brisbane Times

The Queensland government has promised that they will give students the basic building blocks in education that is needed to succeed in the 21st Century. The Essential Learning program will be integrated into the curriculum of Years 1-9 and will include subject matter from British Colonisation to how to read a pie chart.

Infrastructure is needed more than computers

January 30, 2008, ABC News

Through the scraping of the Investing in Our Schools Programme small schools will miss out on funding for much needed small infrastructure projects such as fixing leaking roofs and installing air conditioning.

Smooth transition to a national curriculum

January 31, 2008, The Australian

Julia Gillard is setting measures in place in order to minimise the disruption of a national curriculum transition. One of these measures is for the National Curriculum Board to develop the national curriculum. Professor Barry McGaw has been appointed by Kevin Rudd to oversee the development of English, mathematics, science and history subject matters.

VIC misses out on education spending

January 31, 2008, The Age

The pressure is building for the Rudd and Brumby governments to increase education spending as Victorian children receive almost $1000 less than NSW and almost $2000 less than Western Australia. The Productivity Commissions Report states that a majority of Victorian year 3 students achieved national benchmarks in reading even though Victoria is the lowest-ranking state. Also stated in the report is an increasing shift of students enrolling in non-government schools.

Give us a real education revolution

January 31, 2008, The Australian

With teacher shortages being one of our school systems greatest problems, the Rudd government has an opportunity to go beyond election campaign spin and create a real education revolution based around solving the needs of the system rather than spending much needed money on computers. The trick now for Gillard is to create the right strategies to not only recruit the best and brightest staff but also uphold them.

International Trends

This section will include international trends in regards to education policy, statistics, innovative ventures and recruitment techniques.

Britain launching specialised corporate qualifications

January 30, 2008, The Australian

The British government’s latest skills initiative will allow large employers to offer their employees diplomas that will be equivalent to GCSE, A Level and potentially degrees. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority has currently approved McDonalds to provide courses in basic shift management that will train staff in areas such as marketing, human resources and customer service skills, Network Rail will develop courses in rail engineering and low-cost airline Flybe will run courses in aircraft engineering and cabin crew training.

Recruitment models that allow international students to ‘recruit’ themselves

February 2008, US Journal of Academics

The international student recruitment industry is very lucrative however the main aspect that education institutions should be questioning is the effectiveness between ‘push’ and ‘pull’ recruitment models from the perspective of the student. Push is the more traditional recruitment model that is based around a commission payment per student. Push creates a quantity not quality situation where industry focuses on the revenue aspect of education that has the potential of reducing the standard of an institutions service. The pull/annual fee model gives the inquiry process solely to the student where they are able to submit their contact details online through a trusted intermediary and directly contact the universities that interest them most. This does not create as many leads as the push model however the leads are of a much higher quality that does create a higher conversion rate between initial enquiry to actual enrolee.

Immigration News

This section will include news related to immigration to Australia including international immigration trends, government policies and forecast.

Australia needs more immigrant workers

February 5, 2008, Sydney Morning Herald

Due to an ageing population and declining work force growth, Australia must implement long term strategies and policies based around immigration, education and training. A report by Professor Peter McDonald and Professor Glenn Withers states that there is huge demand for workers in mining, transport, communications, construction and engineering.

Research News

This section will include summaries and links to research articles and papers that may be relevant to our industry network.

Technology in Education

This section will provide useful information on the latest and upcoming technology that can be used in order to increase efficiency in the delivery of education.

Member News

This section will provide subscribers of the newsletter with the opportunity to release information to our industry network concerning their operations, activities and achievements.

Members’ Voice

This section is based around our subscribers sharing their opinions with our industry network on current affairs related to the education industry.

Events and Activities

We will be providing an events and activity listing relevant to the industry. Member organisations will have the opportunity get their upcoming events and activities listed in this section.

Law for educators - legal issues in compulsory education

UTS Professional Development Unit - Sydney - 15 February 2008

This two day course is designed to provide an introduction to the legal issues which confront educators in Australian schools. Its focus is on the impact of the law on the provision of education particularly in relation to the responsibilities, duties and rights of schools, teachers, students and parents in the compulsory sector.

Phone : +61 2 9514 3793 or 3767

Email: pdu.law@uts.edu.au

AFR Higher Education Conference

Sydney, Thursday, 13th March 2008 - Friday, 14th March 2008

Where: Amora Hotel Jamison, Sydney

11 Jamison Street, Sydney

Website: http://afr.com/home/events/education/

Australian Education Congress 2008

Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre - March 17 - 18

The higher education system in Australia is changing. The institutions are becoming more businesslike and the marketplace is becoming more competitive.The structure is now changing towards a United States-style degree system. Australia is now facing the most radical transformation of management education in a generation!

Website: http://www.acevents.com.au/education2008/

Hot Jobs

Members will have the opportunity to advertise employment opportunities to our industry network. This will provide member organisations with the opportunity to advertise their top positions to a network of high performing professionals from across the country. We will also endevour to list the most relevant opportunities in this section that is advertised elsewhere for positions either in Australia or overseas.

Dean of the faculty of Social Science

The Chinese University of Hong Kong – Hong Kong

Source: The Australian/ www.careerone.com.au

Website: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk

Associate Dean (Academic) and Associate Professor/ Professor

College of Business – University of Western Sydney

Source: The Australian/ www.careerone.com.au

Website: www.uws.edu.au/vacancies/

Teaching and executive positions in NSW Public Schools

Principal, deputy principal, assistant principal positions and head teacher positions available.

Positions of the ‘Principal’

- Hawkesbury High School, Sydney Western Suburbs

- Mount St Thomas Public School, Illawarra/South Coast

- St Marys Public School, Sydney Western Suburbs

Positions of the ‘Deputy Principals’

- Kincumber High School, Hunter/Central Coast

- Mitchell High School, Sydney Western Suburbs

Positions of the Assistant Principals

- Bermagui Public School, Illawarra/South Coast

- Crawford Public School, Sydney Western Suburbs

- Killara Public School, Sydney Northern Suburbs

- Mount Annan Public School, South West Sydney

Website: www.jobs.det.nsw.edu.au

Closing date for applications is 27 February 2008.

Source: Seek

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