Australia and New Zealand

While main parties battle over debt-wipe proposal in Australian election, critic says scale of fees is the real issue

Study findings misrepresented in experimental Q&A published with paper, amid concerns efforts to save researchers time are fuelling mistakes

Vice-chancellors say they have ‘no choice’ about downsizing, but unions question the need as 2024 accounts reveal recovery trend

Australia must fund its universities in ways that reflect their mission – not just their margins, say Rhodri Davies and Dorrit Jacob

National security U-turn ‘cutting Australia off from knowledge creation frontier’ just as US turns its back on collaboration

New restrictions following pro-Palestinian encampments appear to contravene Australian universities’ commitments on free speech, says legal academic

Three-term system ‘suited the time’, but post-pandemic conditions bring new priorities, says university

As people from non-traditional backgrounds become the majority in Australian universities, a legal academic argues that efforts to accommodate them can help the old guard too

Medical training a bright spot for the sector, in an election campaign mostly focused elsewhere

Australian university council members bear far less onerous ethical and reporting obligations than volunteer mums and dads, analysis finds

Debt forgiveness could reduce graduates’ borrowing capacity, as home ownership becomes defining issue of upcoming election

In recent years, politicians have flip-flopped in their attitudes and policies towards higher education, amid controversy over ‘woke’ agendas and the social effects of immigration. Ahead of next month’s general election, universities find themselves in both main parties’ bad books. John Ross reports