"A crime against the Humanities!" "An assault on the very Idea of a University." "A plot to STEM our CASSH-flow." "A cunning plan to muzzle critical thinking." "An ode to serfdom." "A complete and utter cluster-fluctuation." “Polymorphously perverse! But not in a good way." Fake quotes, all. Yet they convey the vibe of many early…
Australian mystery: higher education spending rose – how come no-one knows?
Old hands and policy wonks have mapped the shifts and drifts of Australian higher education policy over the last few decades. Often these are viewed in a wider comparative context. The Education at a Glance reports, published each year by the OECD, can provide this. Our most widely quoted international comparisons focus on funding. Up…
Higher education: survive the tempest, plan for more sea-change
Like a scene from Shakespeare’s Tempest, study in Australia has been swept off campus. To keep study programs afloat, staff and students alike have leapt or scrambled online. As shutdowns relax and our "tyranny of social distancing" lifts, campus life will re-animate. The shipwreck in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Act 1. (Engraving by Benjamin Smith after…
Introduction
I started writing Big Little Thought Crimes here in Melbourne in early 2020. These are personal views on public policy in higher education, and universities as institutions of higher learning. In Australia as elsewhere, universities have seen big shifts over the last 2-3 decades. Looking ahead, even bigger changes seem likely by 2030. I hope…
