World news

Four different datasets, four different stories: Australian university staffing statistics ‘impossible to reconcile’

Frustrated by rises in publishers’ article processing charges, the country wants to expand non-commercial journals instead

Pandemic could reverse gender-equity advances in Asia-Pacific region, researchers warn

Viruses are much more predictable than governments, summit hears

Australian regulator allows Perth institution to address its problems behind closed doors

Scholars say that the new institute, whose remit describes the genocide as ‘baseless’, will lack credibility

Australian university limits journals accepted for doctorates amid mounting concern among academics

Women leave STEM at transition stage from university to work, Australian study finds

Authorities probe competition implications, as plagiarism giant insists it needs scale to meet customer demands

City state’s first university of the arts to be the more than the sum of its parts

Academics bemoan softly-softly reforms to ‘fundamentally broken system’

In unprecedented comments ahead of federal elections in September, Anja Karliczek applauds university that shuttered its institute

Research uncovers tipping point in distant relations between overseas and local learners

Normally static sector’s landscape sees uncharacteristically rapid change as new standards take effect

Eminent judge’s departure follows Australian university’s decision to fund new campus development while discarding staff

Incoming Australian vice-chancellor no stranger to foreign revenue challenges because he deals with same issues in current job

Performance can help explore academic questions, say advocates, but the field still lacks full acceptance in the corridors of power and policymaking

Australian report warns that students and academics alike are learning to stay silent

Alumnus and established academic to take the helm at highly ranked university

Wave of money is ‘truly unprecedented’, says Italian rectors’ head, but some worry the money is too focused on technology transfer and that national plans overlap

Restrictions reimposed as isolated infections trigger domino effect

Australian state’s audit reveals that the early financial benefits of Covid can outweigh the losses

Federal prosecutor alleges that ‘Ilnur N’ passed on university information to Russian intelligence services in return for cash

Australian consultants’ report reveals shortcomings in treatment of people who experience or witness sexual harassment or assault

Covid redundancy terms include non-disclosure and non-disparagement obligations, as corporate HR culture captures universities

Governments have focused on building up a lavishly funded research elite, but the forced switch online has made them realise losers in this system cannot cope

After criticism that it failed to declare Peter Daszak’s work with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, journal has also ‘recused’ zoologist from its coronavirus origins taskforce

Covid has created a platform for institutional newcomers to ‘leapfrog’ established frontrunners

Koç University dismissed media scholar Amir Hetsroni for ‘inappropriate behaviour’, but he suspects a link to his private criticism of Turkey’s government

Expert applauds new measures to boost ERA’s rigour and transparency, but questions ‘softly, softly’ approach

Politician turned coal boss pulls out of appointment as Australian university’s chancellor

NSW universities spent more money sacking people than they lost in international student revenue

Charles Sturt a ‘stronger institution’ after addressing regulatory and governance issues

Scholars, fed up with decades of living from contract to contract, force government to remove video that seemed to celebrate insecurity

Australian review finds that the switch from clinical practice into the ‘sausage factory’ of academia can elevate stress levels – even among the most stressed

Modest programme spells hope for tens of thousands stranded offshore

Former UK foreign policy adviser fears countries could lose ‘monopoly’ over accreditation for failing to inject critical thinking, curiosity, emotional intelligence and empathy into higher education

Rating scale for Excellence in Research for Australia to be recalibrated, with Indigenous studies incorporated as a field in its own right

Decades of leniency encouraged scores of final-year students to fake their overseas placements and go ‘sightseeing’

Chinese students bring benefits but universities are too reliant on them and Canberra should ‘take a harder line’, respondents say

Australian minister’s call for specialisation fosters speculation that rejected idea could be resurrected

New South Wales plan, which requires federal approval, would allow for 250 arrivals a fortnight

Michael Higgins warns campuses ‘have suffered attrition of range and depth, loss of interdisciplinary exchange, leading in too many cases to a degradation of the very scholarship and teaching for which they were established’

Head of state weighs in on dispute, as war of words escalates among Pacific neighbours

Report author says increasing funding would only lead to more insecurity, and culture shift is needed instead

Shift towards studies using preregistered reports could inhibit scientific inquiry and harm researcher well-being, argue US scholars

Senior Fijian politician brands vice-chancellor’s new contract ‘illegal’ as council splits on national lines

We are in danger of underselling ourselves to ‘like-minded countries’, Australian chief defence scientist warns

Misplaced fear of racial and sexual threats, plus the need to provide a ‘feeling’ of security, cited as reasons universities are reluctant to limit armed officers

Critics argue that The Lancet failed to disclose potential conflict of interest when dismissing the leak theory

Just 10 per cent of academics account for half of all engagement with the media, according to a survey of more than 1,000 Swiss professors

Economist says university innovations can rejuvenate Australian productivity, but only if ‘bizarre’ tax arrangements are addressed

Former minister accuses Canberra of ‘McCarthyism’ amid spate of unexplained research grant delays and vetoes

As Australian minister calls for an online shift to reach 10 million foreigners, insiders warn such offering wouldn’t meet students’ needs

Geopolitical rivalry, security concerns and America’s ‘roaring 20s’ optimism generate R&D prospects down under, ambassador says

Interplay of pandemic, geopolitics and demographics generating ‘significant movement in this part of the world’

As feared, the country’s universities are being used as a weapon to crush dissent against the regime, several academic organisations say

Liberals go focus on undergraduates with collaboration push while Labor hawks reconstruction fund

Those who understand how their advice is likely to be implemented are more able to make it constructive, professor says

Australian university presses ahead with campus in Sumatra, agtech centre in Sulawesi and MBA delivery in Jakarta