This theme runs heavily through the pieces in UA’s final HIGHER ED.ITION for 2018.
In what has been an extremely busy 12 months for higher education, we end the year as we began – with the second funding freeze in as many years on the nation’s universities.
At the end of 2017, it was a $2.2 billion cut with
a funding freeze on student places. This week, the Government has announced
it will cut nearly $330 million from university research.
The dire consequences are outlined in The Conversation.
Australians and their universities will feel the effects of this deep cut for many decades. The long-lasting damage will be in missed inventions, ideas and opportunities that would have change the lives of thousands of people at home and abroad.
Also in this edition, UniSA Vice-Chancellor Professor David Lloyd future-casts the universities of tomorrow – building squarely on their strengths today. He predicts
tomorrow’s universities will continue to advance both research and teaching – pushing the boundaries of knowledge by teaching young minds how to think and sharing their discoveries with the wider world. His remarks are an extract from a longer speech he gave last month.
Looking forward, we talk to the incoming Chairs of the Universities Australia Executive Women’s group, Professors Caroline Finch and Eileen Baldry, about
advancing gender equity in the sector.
And as he steps down after 10 years as Chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Consortium, NATSIHEC’s Immediate Past President Professor Peter Buckskin discusses
major gains for the Indigenous academy over the last decade, and the work ahead.
And at the end of 2018, UA launched a new campaign
#UniResearchChangesLives to tell the stories of everyday Australians whose lives have or will be transformed by Australian university research.
Have a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy start to the New Year.
Professor Margaret Gardner and Catriona Jackson
Chair and Chief Executive
Universities Australia