Campus Review Podcasts

Amid a precarious world where old jobs are disappearing and new ones are emerging, the idea of lifelong learning has morphed into something more of a must rather than an intellectual hobby or pursuit. But how will lifelong learning advantage Australians and which industries will most benefit from it? To discuss these issues and other topical points, I spoke to Australia and NZ regional director of D2L, Tony Maguire. According to Maguire, young Australians will embark on five to six careers throughout their lives, making lifelong learning critical. Linked to that is the rise of microcredentials, which have taken off in recent times, especially with government support. But while the A/NZ regional director of D2L thinks they are a great concept, he also believes that more of a framework to support them needs to be developed, so that employers and institutions can classify their true value. To conclude the interview, Maguire explained the block model Victoria University rolled out, and the successes that resulted from that decision. The concept of teaching-only universities was also explored, with Maguire stating that "the elephant in the room" is still the fact that research impact still heavily drives institutional reputation. In saying that, he emphasised that student experience will be key in encouraging more domestic students to enrol in universities and training centres across the country.

This interview with the new chair of our peak body Universities Australia, sees vice-chancellor of La Trobe John Dewar assess how we are doing as a sector and interpret the gauntlet thrown at us by Minister Tudge in his recent speech. John gives a rich picture of the complexity of the commercialisation and campus return issues. He outlines how moves to differentiate on function and by discipline will continue to provide an opportunity for place-based strategies and major forays into the very competitive global online markets. But his message to the sector, in one of his first public statements as UA chair, is to pay tribute to the culture change and skills development that has taken place sector-wide whilst recognising how much further there is still to travel.

This episode has Karl and Martin joined by Professor Lynn Bosetti of UBC in Canada who gives insights into how Australian leaders in universities encounter academic workforces using incivility as behaviour to resist change and attempts at strategic direction. She draws on experience in both countries as an academic leader and her research of VCs and Deans around the world, to outline how the emotional labour of leading universities is exposed to smart bullying upwards by independent academics that has accentuated during the pandemic. A topic of great interest in many Australian universities as change programs, returns to work, and continued financial pressures make these the most difficult times to lead. They contrast with different experiences in Australian business which offer lessons university leaders might need to learn from, and quickly.

Professional placements are in many, if not most, university courses these days, with the goal being to strengthen the students' industry knowledge and links. But what is the price of these placements, particularly when students have to forgo their usual paid work to complete them? Could another solution be found? To discuss this I'm talking to Olivia Armitage, whose petition to end unpaid placements has now garnered nearly 10,000. In this podcast, Armitage talks about how the idea for the petition was formed and how her fellow students thought that unpaid placements for up to 500 hours "were pretty messed up". She added that, for Victorians students in particular, "to expect us to just give up paid work after we've spent nearly a year ro regain it, is absolutely ridiculous." Not having to worry about unpaid placements would also allow students to "focus on their studies". To solve this issue, Armitage is proposing a government-led Jobkeeper-like scheme and perhaps the use of more online technology.

Professor Marcia Devlin joins Martin and Karl to discuss her new book, Beating the Odds, on sexism in Australian universities in the week it is launched. Marcia outlines the inequity as well as the financial, cultural and performance disadvantages that arise from a lack of diversity in leadership teams and how this can be changed by women, men and all leaders following different strategies. The episode gives a sharp, specific and timely insight into the importance of leaders building great culture in universities and how this is even more important in a post-COVID world.

As the 2021 Australian university year is in full swing, new research commissioned by Studiosity revealed that 38 per cent of students were feeling stressed due to their studies at least once a day during 2020. More distressingly, a further 40 per cent of respondents said they were stressed about their studies every week, and only one per cent of students said they never felt anxious about studying. To discuss these findings and their deeper implications, I spoke to Professor Judyth Sachs, chief academic officer at Studiosity. According to the annual Student Wellbeing Survey, key stressors included not having enough time to prepare for assessments and exams, subject workloads that were too high, and the inability for students to experience practicums in areas like medicine and teaching. The survey, which is now in its sixth year, is critical Sachs believes, "as any discussion about student success is really a conversation about student wellbeing." Studiosity's chief academic officer added there was value in universities following up with their 2020 graduates to see how they are coping with their sense of confidence.

Leading learning technology innovator Dr David Kellermann is a Senior Lecturer in Engineering at UNSW in Sydney. He joins Martin and Karl to share his thoughts on the journey he believes all universities must take towards a new hybrid learning model of teaching. As a pioneer of learning technology and innovation he was well prepared for the acceleration in this in 2020 and applied his commitment to equitable access for all students in doing this well. He fears many other academics were less well prepared for this change and remain so. He believes there is more that universities can do to support staff in 2021 and beyond to transition to become skilled in engaging and communicating with students in learning with technology. He believes more investment is required to make this happen but that the biggest barrier is a lack of leadership and vision. He calls for more universities and leaders to see this as an opportunity rather than a challenge.

Recently Education Review wrote an article on the importance of assessing students learning and progress accurately and in a way both parents and students can easily understand. The story was based on an article by Professor Geoff Masters that drew attention to major US study. It found there were significant differences between how well parents thought their children were achieving and their children's actual achievement level. In this podcast, A/NZ regional director of D2LTony Maguire discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic increased the disconnect between teachers' and parents' understanding of student learning and areas in which to improve, Maguire also highlighted the importance of the "feedback loop" building up to major assessments, ensuring it's always student-centered and written in plain language both students and parents can easily understand. Student reflection after an assessment is also something Maguire strongly encourages. In addition to discussing student assessment, Maguire outlines what he would like to see prioritised in this year's budget, particularly micro-credentials that could begin as early as high school.

PricewaterhouseCooper's(PwC)Chief Data Scientist Matt Kuperholz joins Karl and Martin to discuss the evolution of the industry and the role of data in shaping the future of higher education.

In this episode of HEDx , Brigid Heywood outlines her journey into the role of VC and CEO at Australia's oldest regional university in New England before she was plucked from a planned retirement in Easter Island. She outlines a new strategy for UNE built on a long tradition of distance education and on recent advances and radical ambitions for personalised learning journeys at the heart of differentiated student experiences. And she outlines how her unique approach to leadership, and the shaping she seeks to bring to the culture of teams within her university, In combination with external partners in diverse regional precincts, the university its releasing its vision for a world-class, future-fit university.

The COVID-19 pandemic tore a hole in the Australian university sector, highlighting just how dependent many of our institutions have become on international student revenue. Now, roughly a year later, the sector is still adjusting to challenging conditions and many experts have questioned how universities will need to operate in the future to remain viable, trusted and valuable institutions. In this podcast I discuss this issue with Professor Andrew Jaspan. He is the director and editor of The Global Academy(hosted at Monash University)and founder of The Conversation. Jaspan explains that, while some recovery is underway, universities around the country are rethinking their approaches and beliefs towards everything from courses, delivery modes, future student markets and the qualifications, skills and qualities they are looking for in people taking up leadership positions. The appointment of Sydney university's new vice-chancellor Mark Scott is also discussed at length, in particular how non-academic appointments to the top job may now be considered for what they can bring, rather than what they don't possess. One thing is for sure, though. No university is absolutely certain about how it will be moving forward in the future.

In this week's HEDx episode, Karl and Martin are joined by their first international guest: Professor Giselle Byrnes. Giselle is the Provost with responsibilities across research, commercialisation and teaching and learning at distance learning innovator Massey University in New Zealand. She gives pointers in her interview to some of the differences in culture, tradition, priorities and practice in national jurisdictions and reflects on the implications of these for the way disruption might be led from different parts of the world. She makes a call for more compassionate leadership by vice chancellors in these times. The episode gives insights into how variabilities in cultural starting points impact how culture change and leadership will need ideas from outside the sector to be aligned with the practices we have established within. Only then can we find new ways of serving increasingly diverse student needs.

This week on HEDx, Karl and Martin speak with the leaders from one of Australia’s leading technology companies REA Group: Henry Ruiz and Mary Lemonis. They explore the relationship between REA Group and the higher education sector and what progressive organisations need from universities as the world moves on from COVID-19. Going from $500M to $17B in 15 years only happens through brilliant strategy and cultural excellence. The mandate for culture to evolve in universities has never been greater.

Helen Bartlett ,VC of University of Sunshine Coast, joins the HEDx podcast to outline her new university strategy. It has a strong focus on her people and the culture of the university and how that relates to the context in Southeast Queensland. Her language is of opportunity and partnerships and a strong focus on how her region is growing, with the added ingredients of an Olympics in her backyard on the horizon. In the same week that Mark Scott is announced as the next VC of Sydney, are we starting to see a divergence in leadership focus between our global players and those serving particular local needs?

Jack Goodman, founder and executive chair of Studiosity, joins the HEDx podcast in describing how his business, which began by partnering with public libraries to deliver online study help for high school students, has emerged as a dominant place for academic literacy support for students at close to 70 per cent of Australian universities. He foresees a global market for higher education based on the personalisation of service and that technology will be a driver for transformation and disruption. He sees a step change in the balance between digital and physical infrastructure investment, and that student expectations will drive much of that transformation. He describes our current landscape as "39 peas in a pod" and agrees how wonderful it would be if just one of them tried to stand apart as a university for the student experience. What would that take, I wonder?

In this episode DVC Education at the University of Wollongong Theo Farrell joins Karl and Martin on HEDx to describe AFR award-winning staff engagement at his University that helped 99.9 per cent of teaching to move online in a fortnight. A former war studies professor, he outlines the difference between strategy and planning, reflecting on his experience advising international forces in Kabul. He celebrates the momentum to digital learning practice that requires focus on the student experience if it is to win in the higher education battlefields. He makes a case for academic work having changed irrevocably and argues that university executive teams should not back off from seeking outside help in transitions to support business recovery.

In this week's HEDx podcast, Karl and Martin are joined by Lloyd Lazaro of The Executive Chair. They explore how search consultants are seeing how leaders are selected and what it means for graduate recruitment. They believe that most employers cannot distinguish between graduates from different universities and that they have no preferred source of which graduates to hire. The episode explores the increasing importance of soft social skills in job readiness and the challenge of how universities can prepare graduates for this in a post-covid student experience. The episode shines a light on the opportunity for a first mover university to build a brand reputation from a differentiated strategy around graduate employability. It would require relentless focus on this point of differentiation and creating a culture that allowed the student experience to allow these skills to be developed. Such a transformation would be a bold move for a university seeking to stand apart and would need skill in creating, developing and implementing.

Geraldine Mackenzie, VC of University of Southern Queensland, joins Karl and Martin on HEDx to reflect on how her strategy, that was nearing completion when COVID hit, has been delayed, revised and is reorienting USQ to work even more closely with industry partners on translation, and even more closely with technology in transforming learning practices. She applauds how the sector is working together, at least in its respective parts, but acknowledges all in the sector are yet to have clarity on whether the short-term adjustments to regional living through tree and sea changes will have prominence over digital disruption in determining the nature of the seismic changes to come for the sector. A time when all in the sector need new thinking, new solutions and new places to get help from.

In contrast to previous academic years, it’s doubtful many would have described their 2020 university year as ‘fun’ in many ways. Perhaps ‘challenging’ or even ‘stressful’ would be more likely descriptors. But as the 2021 academic year begins, it seems likely university staff and students will face the same sorts of challenges. However, whatever the conditions may be, Dr Stuart Middleton, Senior Lecturer in Strategy at the University of Queensland Business School, believes we must bring the fun back to university and motivate and engage students. Middleton was recently awarded the Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management ‘Innovative Management Educator of the Year’ award for 2020 and joined me to discuss this important topic. For Middleton, ensuring fun and engagement on campus in 2021 will be critical for a generation he describes as facing multiple challenges - demographic, the blurring of public and private worlds and, of course, the pandemic. He also underscores the importance of connections on campus, as well as using technology for personalisation, not efficiency.

After being released in China in 2016 and globally the following year, TikTok has quickly become a social media phenomenon. With its ability to create quirky, short-form videos incorporating dancing and comedy, the platform has a devoted audience, particularly young people. But it’s not all good news for TikTok and several countries are taking the company to task on a number of concerns. Today I’m talking to Susan McLean, widely known as the ‘cyber cop’ and founder of Cyber Safety Solutions to learn more about these concerns. While McLean acknowledges there is lots of fun stuff on the app, it's the refusal to take down inappropriate content and accounts in a more timely way concerns her. "They don't focus on child safety," she summed up.

This HEDx podcast sees Karl and Martin joined by Chris Eigeland the Chief Revenue Officer of GO1 an Edtech start-up. The episode explores how new entrants are moving at warp speed to disrupt business models for lifelong learning as a route to democratising access to education and knowledge. The implications to universities are profound with the clearest argument yet that the days of expensive four-year degrees are numbered. The case is made for the need to be prepared to give up the short term gains of current offerings if long term benefits from a disrupting business model are to be secured before new entrants do.

In this episode of HEDx Karl and Martin are joined by Sarah*, a second year student at Monash University. She applauds the way they helped her through the challenges of 2020 and looks forward to some greater social interaction and some return to campus for 2021. The episode raises the prospect of the sleeping giant of disrupted value propositions in all of our universities for both international and domestic students and the need for third horizon planning to focus on the new business models that will be required. The clearest picture yet of the challenge the sector is facing. * Not her real name.

The HEDx team talk with Professor Duncan Bentley after his first 90 days as Vice Chancellor at Federation University in regional Victoria. He shares his thoughts about how to get to know a new place, its culture and its staff, students and partners, in trying times. He also focusses on the need for care for all in a university community. Duncan speculates about the role of regional universities in 2021 and how a focus on their external communities can set them apart. He presents this as a differentiated strategy, at times when some think all universities look the same.

In the first episode of 2021, Karl and Martin are joined on HEDx by Professor John Germov, the Acting VC of Charles Sturt University in NSW. Together they reflect on how all universities are positioned to start a new year in our universities. They discuss how a new year strategic health check that universities are starting to use around the country can help leaders ask the right questions to set them, their staff, and their students for success in this year of opportunity. What will yours and your university's new year's resolution be? Previous HEDx talks, which include some of Australia's most and experienced and respected academics, can be found at hedx.com.au

This week's podcast allows Karl and Martin of HEDx to discuss the importance of data analytics and finding ways of monitoring and forecasting market changes. John Griffiths, as CEO of one of our state Tertiary Admissions Centres, shares current market data of applications and offers for next year's intake. He confirms trends towards online study and micro credentials in future student demand, and innovative admissions practices by universities in response, which he believes are here to stay.

Australians are known for their colourful language; indeed, it’s been called part of our national identity. But why are we considered a lover of swearwords and from where does this emanate? To discuss these issues, Campus Review is talking to Australian National Dictionary Centre’s chief editor, Dr Amanda Laugesen. Her new book, Rooted, an Australian history of bad language is out now and charts the history of swearing in Australia. Laugesen contends colonial Australia provided fertile ground for a whole host of swear words to be created to describe the harsh environments in which convicts found themselves, even though they were generally frowned upon by upper society. By the end of the 19th century, however, a shift towards the attitudes and types of swear words used reflected not only Australia’s involvement in war, but the country’s love of the bush ranger and the bullock driver, working long and hard hours. It was at that time, “that bad language became more justifiable”. During the second-wave feminist movement, as well, swear words were seen as ways of “defying authority” and reclaiming such words for their own needs. Finally, while people swear for a variety of reasons - emotion, anger, emphasis and abuse - they can be equally used to foster friendships and become part of a group. For instance, the generally frowned-upon ‘c-word’ now features is compounds such as ‘Mad-c’ as more of term of affection than abuse among friends. This is what Amanda Laugesen calls “a process of amelioration”, subverting the power of the word through combining it with other words or modifiers.

In this episode of the Higher Education Experience, Barney Glover VC at Western Sydney University outlines his assessment of where the sector is up to and how WSU is looking to sharpen its approach to respond to the needs of partners and its communities. He also pays tribute to the extraordinary efforts of WSU staff in the most challenging of years.

A new study conducted by Oxford University Press surveyed 1000 recent graduates and found that 88 per cent of them believed “soft skills” were necessary to their future career success. Even as these graduates prepare to enter an increasingly automated workforce, a substantial 78 per cent said such “soft skills will give them an advantage” in the workplace. Indeed, upskilling in soft skills in the workplace is predicted to be a new trend, with more than one third (38 per cent) believing that upskilling in this area will be an ongoing practice throughout their professional lives. But what, exactly, are “soft skills”, and have they always been viewed as being critical in the labour market? To discuss the importance of “soft skills” both now and in the future, Education Review spoke to Dr Alexia Maddox of Deakin University, one of the authors of the study. Maddox emphasised that "soft skills" compliment technical skills, and encompass how "we think, communicate, cooperate and collaborate and innovate". Within the domain of innovation are the "soft skills" of complex problem solving, critical thinking and creativity - skills the students nominated as being the most important to their careers. Indeed, such is their importance of these skills that Maddox called them "the glue that make our professional lives work”. While the Deakin University lecturer noted that it is within the humanities and social sciences that these skills are traditionally acquired, the important thing is that they are taught to students, regardless of the discipline. In this podcast, Maddox also touches on some ways in which these critical "soft skills" can be taught.

Leading commentator on the changing perspectives of young Australians and the future of work Jan Owen AM joins Martin and Karl to reflect on the acceleration that has occurred in trends for young people and their work futures and the implications for our universities. The winners will be those that adapt quickest and develop their staff capabilities and connections with partners that allow them to be 21st Century fit. Previous HEDx podcasts, featuring some of the sector's most respected and strategic leaders, can be accessed through Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Although little credibility has been given to President Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was a fraud, he obstinately holds on to office, delaying the transition of power. But, given the president’s penchant for litigation and the denials flying around in the Republican camp, can we be sure Trump will finally get his marching orders and move on? To answer this important question and more, Campus Review spoke to journalist and Professor of Australian Studies at ANU, Mark Kenny, about this transfer of power, as well as the accuracy and complexity of polling in 2020. He also discussed Biden’s likely domestic and international policies, as well as how a Biden administration will approach an increasingly aggressive China. Kenny said that, based on all reports, “ there is no systemised voter fraud that has been going on”. While he conceded that some errors may have occurred, the journalist stated that this is not uncommon in elections around the world. “All the evidence seems to point to these attempts by the Trump administration to cling on as just the kind of desperation really that has come to characterise Trump’s rhetoric for a long time,” Kenny said. The ANU professor also believes a Biden presidency heralds a return to a more global and less isolationist America, keen to rebuild alliances and commitments to a rules-based order. Kenny predicts that America’s fraught relationship with China at the moment will be better managed by a Biden administration, but whether that will result in a less aggressive, more reasonable China on issues of trade, the South China Sea and foreign interference is unlikely to predict.

Pascale Quester of Swinburne University of Technology joins the HEDx podcast at the end of her first 100 days as Vice Chancellor. She reflects on how all universities have the chance to leave the peloton and make the run to their own finish line based on an assessment of how they are shaped for the competition they want to compete in. The HEDx Health Check is also launched to help each university in the sector measure how it is placed to compete.

Campus Review is pleased to be bringing you the first of many weekly podcast episodes and exclusive opinion pieces in partnership with HEDx, a thought leadership and advisory service to the higher education sector. HEDx was founded by Emeritus Professor and former deputy VC of Griffith University Martin Betts and Karl Treacher, CEO of The Brand Institute. This first episode being brought to you in partnership with Campus Review covers the needs and capability of the sector to reset strategy and Professor Betts talks with the sector's well-known commentator and policy analyst Andrew Norton. Previous HEDx podcasts, featuring some of the sector's most respected and strategic leaders, can be accessed through Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Before an internal government report recently revealed that the Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education (LANTITE) was causing significant concern among pres-service teachers and universities, nine focus groups were created to brainstorm concerns about the test and possible changes to how it would be administered in the future and by whom. Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Education at Southern Cross University David Zyngier was invited to participate in one of these focus groups by a group of education students who had been agitating online for change. However, after the report was released, Zyngier called it "flawed", saying the whole process appeared to have one pre-determined outcome: shifting the LANTITE test so it would be an entry requirement for undergraduate education courses. As an experienced researcher, he felt the process involved in developing the report lacked rigour, But, according to Zyngier, the report eschewed other important concerns that students and other experts had identified with the test. These included the ongoing role of ACER in delivering and assessing relatively costly tests that provide little, if any, meaningful feedback, as well as the fact that undergraduate education students are being forced to take the test, despite many having no intention of entering the classroom. As he mentions in this podcast, not all education undergraduates want to become teachers - some wish to become educational psychologists and trainers.

The 'golden goose' of international student enrollments looks unlikely to fly back and save Australian universities revenue in the short term. However, chief academic officer at Studiosity and former Provost Macquarie University Professor Judyth Sachs says domestic students enrolments look strong for next year, based on universities she has spoken to. The same applies to postgraduate domestic enrollments. But while this is a promising development in some ways - and adheres to the notion that young people caught in recessions will typically bunker down in education and training - Sachs believes the caps on domestic university students must be lifted in order for more revenue to be generated for the sector. The professor also believes that, after the disruptive experience of 2020, domestic school leavers will be expecting a lot from their respective institutions. Sachs also predicts that mental health issues - stemming from traumatic events in 2020 such as the summer bushfires and the current pandemic - means such students will have "social, academic and personal" needs for which universities must be prepared to cater. She also adds that the invisibility of packed lecturers may be a challenge for such students as they begin to "re-calibrate" their interpersonal skills to thrive on campus. But it's certainly not all doom and gloom. The professor believes the 2020 experience has inculcated next year's students with several skills and qualities that will auger well for them as they enter their first year of university. These include resilience, agility and online learning skills and knowledge.

When UNSW Economics Professor Gigi Foster appeared on ABC’s Q & A program in late July, she triggered a storm of criticism. Sitting alongside medical experts, Foster advanced the argument that lockdown measures would hurt the economy and individuals’ mental health so much that it would – in the longer term – lead to poorer quality lives, reduced labour productivity and health complications that could burden the health system and lead to early death. In short, the situation could be worse and a particular number of people may have to die to avoid this scenario. Unsurprisingly, some panelists and community members interpreted Foster’s argument as an attack on the sanctity of human lives, with one panelist calling her argument "abhorrent". To explore this debate further, Campus Review spoke to another economist about this highly controversial issue - Glyn Wittwer, a professor at the Centre of Public Policy at Victoria University. While he acknowledges that locking the economy down for a period of time will inevitably lead to economic losses, he argues that “COVID-19 deaths are a very high price to pay”. For Wittwer, the virus presents “a trade-off” and Australia “may have to learn to live with manageable levels of the virus in the absence of a vaccine”. Wittwer also discussed a number of economic theories that can evaluate the risks of completely opening up the economy, including opportunity costs, comparative advantage and putting a "value on human years lost". For the economist, neither completely locking down nor completely opening up is the appropriate thing right now: it’s all a matter of degrees of trade-offs.

An education and wellbeing expert is concerned that the future for young people will as challenging, if not more so, than what they experienced after the Global Financial Crisis. For Professor Peter Kelly at RMIT's School of Education, this is a consequence of years of employment instability, poor work conditions and “predatory business behaviours” and, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. As Kelly says, young people are more vulnerable “largely because the sorts of work young people do". This includes hospitality, retail and gig work. But In his interview with Campus Review, Kelly mentioned that it’s not just the financial situation young people may find concerning: he described the current period as a sort of “existential crisis”, a time when many vulnerable young people are asking: “What does life look like next?” “They are trying to map out the next stage of their lives,” Kelly said, “and are also seeking all those things that mark an adult life – independence, autonomy.” Kelly has criticised the governments and peak bodies for focussing too narrowly on skills and training, something the academic argues young people already have. The academic is leading a project in Melbourne’s inner north called COVID-19 and Young People’s Well-being, Education, Training and Employment Pathways: Co-designing Scenarios for Young People’s Sustainable Futures. Th project seeks to look at what “recovery” looks like for vulnerable young people in the short, medium and longer term, and help them map out the next stages of their lives in broad, critical and sometimes provocative ways. “We’re particularly interested ion those populations who are already vulnerable,” he said, adding that “they didn’t have to have a mental illness to be considered vulnerable."

2020 has been a challenging and disruptive year for everyone with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, but one group that is often thought about is students – particularly those completing Year 12 this year. To explore this issue more, Campus Review spoke to Professor John Hattie from the University of Melbourne. Although he acknowledges that many Year 12s might be suffering socially this year as the final year of schooling is considered “a rite of passage”, Hattie sees many benefits associated with a remote or online model of learning. Firstly, he points out that thousands of students across Australia have studied online successfully for years. Hattie also adds that students learn to “self-regulate and own their learning” while learning remotely. The Visible Learning founder also refers to a recent study that found many Year 12s felt that could learn more efficiently in a remote learning context. Also, in light of many higher and vocational education courses being delivered online, Hattie sees the remote learning experience as “incredible preparation”. On the topics of ATARs and university entry, while Hattie says there is no need to drop ATAR, states and territories may look at other ways of calculating “what goes into it” and this may alleviate some of the anxiety and stress facing students. He also said that ATAR is often not the sole determiner for university entry; indeed, "for the last decade universities have used multiple indicators" to select applicants.

A new study, led by Australian National University(ANU)PhD researcher Daniela Espinoza Oyarce has recently been published in The Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience. The study examined the brains of more than 10,000 people to find out the effect of both conditions on brain volume. Oyarce and her colleagues found that the brains of individuals with depression only lost brain volume, with their hippocampus area - linked to sleep appetite and movement - having shrunk. The researchers do not yet know why this occurs, but Oryace hypothesises that it could be linked to chronic stress that "creates a toxic environment" in the brain and is harmful to brain cell. Interestingly, however, the research team discovered that the brains of people with both anxiety and depression had increases in brain volume, particularly in an area called the amygdala. While treatments exists for both depression and anxiety, Orayce believes a more complex understanding of the brain is required, especially for individuals who have been treatment resistant (i.e. have not improved with different types of pharmacological and psychological therapies).

With on-campus learning almost non-existent in many universities, remote or online learning in the higher education sector is the status quo. While COVID-19 ushered in this change extremely quickly, institutions are wanting to ensure that a remote learning experience is comparable to an on-campus one and won’t negatively affect student learning and outcomes. An expert in this area is Andrew Martin, Scientia Professor and Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of New South Wales. His research interests lie in student motivation and the cognitive science of learning. He’s advocating a teaching approach called Load Reduction Instruction to help maintain high standards of teaching and learning remotely while the pandemic drags on. Load Reduction Instruction in grounded in educational psychology and its primary aim is to increase learners' long-term memory to promote deep learning. Before this can be achieved, however, students' long-term memory must be developed by relying on shorter, linear tasks that allow them to build up a foundation of knowledge. As Martin contends, practices such as teaching too much too soon, 'busy' screens with too much information to digest, and non-linear teaching and learning plans do nothing to help students with their long-term memory of the content and, subsequently, their understanding of the content becomes fragmented. This insightful podcast also raises questions about whether Australian universities are comparable in their online delivery and whether online learning should have been at the forefront of our minds years ago. It also touches on important issues of socialisation at university and how specific groups would be best placed to keep attending, if practical and safe.

Melbourne’s West is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse regions in Australia, with up to 46 per cent hailing from backgrounds where English is not their first language. This has a flow-on effect in sport, particularly in the area of Brimbank, “showing it is among the lowest in Victoria for club-based sport and sport participant registrations, and the lowest for its number of sports facilities, playing fields and courts”. But Dr Brent McDonald and his colleagues at Victoria University - who have studied the relationship between sporting membership and social inclusion previously - are determined to see a positive change, knowing that inclusion in sports requires a breakdown of the exclusionary and structural practices relating to income, transport, fees and language. McDonald and his colleagues at VU have just begun a two-year project titled ‘Change Makers: Empowering sports to enhance social inclusion for migrants and refugees’. McDonald spoke to Campus Review about the myriad barriers facing newly arrived migrants and refugees in relation to social inclusion through sports and how the $330,000 project will operate. The project was just one of 57 successful applications for an Australian Government social inclusion grant from a pool of 800.

Dr Jarrod Kath from USQ’s Centre for Applied Climate Sciences is investigating a variety of coffee that supplies roughly 20-40 per cent of the world’s market. It was named robusta after it was thought to be extremely resilient. What he and his colleagues are finding, however, is that the bean is not as tough as first thought and may require a range of strategies to keep it growing in South East Asia, particularly in Vietnam where millions are dependent on it for income. Examining robusta coffee crops is the beginning of a research project titled ‘De Risk South East Asia’, which is being conducted in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organisation and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture. The project will examine how a host of South East Asian agricultural crops, such as coffee, sugar and rice, are threatened by the effects of climate change. Once the effects have been investigated, “climate management systems” will be employed to try and attenuate the negative climatic effects on yields. Kath and his colleagues have already discovered that the optimal temperature for the robusta bean is 20.5 degrees Celsius, not between 22 and 28 degrees Celsius that had once been unquestioned. Also, Kath’s research is indicating that the overnight minimum temperature might be having more of an effect on the robusta yield, not daytime temperatures. In addition to these research findings, the project is exploring ways farmers can mitigate the effects of climate change through equipping farmers with more accurate weather knowledge (and thus knowing when to irrigate more) and mulching more during hotter periods. The idea of a genetically engineering a robusta bean that can tolerate higher temperatures has also been considered.

Professor Sandra Milligan from the University of Melbourne and her fellow experts were inspired to write the report 'Future Proofing Students: What they need to know and how educators can assess and credential them' after noticing a disconnect between "what teachers want students to learn and how they are credentialed" or assessed. The authors of the report also found that employers often knew little of what a student could really do based on a report card. Students, too, often complained that some credentials didn't reflect who they really were. Campus Review spoke to Milligan about this issue as well as the skills all students will require now and into the future. Depending on the context, these skills are called different things: soft skills, 21st century skills, general capabilities and graduate qualities. They include teamwork and collaboration, communication in a range of forms, critical and creative thinking, and problem solving, to name a few. Milligan refers to them as "learning skills" as they are essential to the learning process. Milligan also discussed the idea of a learner profile, which is allows educators to assess these credentials - or general capabilities in school language - in a more detailed way than a report. She's hoping this new way of assessing credentials gains traction but admits there are big challenges in going forward.

Education minister Dan Tehan's recent announcement to change the course fee structure across Australian universities had been met with a range of views. Some believe it sets Australia up for the future, while others, including former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, called it "baffling", Other critics, too, have pointed to the irony of how important the coalition considered the soft skills of humanities to the future of jobs before making such a decision. One of the most vocal and cogent critics of the proposed changes that need to be legislated is the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Campus Review spoke to the academy's president about the issue, ProfessorJoy Damousi. In contrast to the government's line, Damousi said arts and humanities graduates are incredibly job ready and statistics support this . She also said humanities graduates possess "very transferable, very transportable skills". Damousi also focussed on the need for students to follow their talents and passions, not enrol in courses purely based on financial reasons. She called this "an insidious choice". The academy's president was also concerned about how the new course fee structure would affect low socioeconomic students and how discounting subjects like history ran the risk of cultural amnesia and the rise of deeply troubling ideologies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a quick rethink of how got get unemployed or underemployed workers back into jobs and retain their skills base. It has also necessitated that individuals consider retraining in new fields that they might not have considered in he past. To facilitate this, the government passed the Higher Education Relief Package, helping to create subsidised Undergraduate Certificates in a range of high-demand fields. Now, the government has gone one step further, creating the Higher Education Short Courses Scheme. This will allow not only displaced workers, but anyone to access a plethora of two-hour courses for free. Such courses can even be competed on your mobile. Torrens University General Manager, Design and Creative Technology, Paul Brafield, spoke to Campus Review about the success of the scheme so far, with over 6000 short courses already completed since April. The most popular courses are in leadership, social media marketing, design thinking, emotional intelligence and agile project management methodologies. Brafield also mentioned that, while the short courses are not accredited, they can be used as credit toward other longer, accredited university programs.

Dr Melissa Barnes is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, working within the fields of teacher education, assessment, policy and TESOL. She is a critic of the controversial initial teacher education test, also known as the LANTITE. To begin with, Barnes highlighted the problem with attaching the word "quality" to the those who pass the LANTITE test or "quality" teachers in general. As she explains, quality is a diverse and difficult-to-explain phenomenon that varies in different educational contexts. The academic does not believe "a literacy and numeracy test is the best way to measure teacher quality in the country". Barnes also argues that a third-party organisation such as the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER) is not the best way to assess students' literacy and numeracy skills, and such a test would be best left up to the universities to administer. Finally, the Monash lecturer in education holds concerns about the standardised nature of the test, meaning students are completing a multiple-choice test essentially. Barnes recently conducted a study with roughly 134-fourth year education students and found that many of them had concerns about the validity of the test. While Barnes believes strong numeracy and literacy skills are critical to teaching, she is unconvinced LANTITE has much to offer in assessing the skills we want to see in teachers.

According to ANU experts, deaths from climate change have been “substantially under reported” in Australia’s national health records, and it's high time it's listed as a reason for death on official documents. Indeed, the research contends that deaths attributed to environmental heath factors is at least 50 times more than what is officially published on death certificates. Recently published in The Lancet Planetary Health, figures show that, over the past 11 years, 340 deaths in Australia were recorded as being due to excessive heat. But a more in-depth, statically analysis has dwarfed that figure, finding 36, 475 deaths could have been attributed to excessive heart brought on by climate change. “Climate change is a killer, but we don’t acknowledge it on death certificates," co-author of the study Dr Arnagretta Hunter, from the ANU Medical School said. Campus Review interviewed Dr Hunter about this terrible, yet some would day predicable, revelation as our climate worsens. Hunter said while COVID-19 is a deadly and extremely serious disease, it's affected approximately five million people at the moment. In contrast, in years to come, climate change is expected to affect millions, if not billions, of people. "Climate change is a killer," Dr Hunter warns, "And we need to include it in our health data set.

The COVID-19 pandemic had witnessed a mass migration to online learning, with some Australian universities being more experienced at it than other, Campus Review spoke to Associate Professor Petrea Redmond of the University of Southern Queensland(USQ), and a member of the Australian Association of Research in Education. The expert in online learning said that, while “there has been much talking about technology... educators need to consider equally the teaching methods being deployed." During the podcast Redmond, who has been teaching online at USQ since 2000, said educators have been "thrown into this new environment "and it's understandable if lessons don't work out as well as intended." She said there have been a host of success stories, as well as times when things didn't go to plan. The trick, she says is "We need to be forgiving of each other." In essence, Redmond does not believe there is any difference is the quality of online versus face-to-face education; "it all comes down to context," she says. However, Redmond also contends that some students may be struggling trying to study from home, finding the lines of work, study and life difficult to demarcate. "Finding a commitment to learning learning is a bit more difficult now," she said. Finally, she concluded that a key challenge facing both universities and students is availability, on a personal level. "The biggest challenge at the moment is to demonstrate that you are available for your students," she said.

Campus Review talk with Dr Donna Bossio form Swinburne University about the Opera Project. A collaboration between Eastern Community Legal Centre and Swinburne, the program has used extensive community consultation to explore how ageism plays out in the day-to-day experiences of older people and better understand its trajectory towards elder abuse

Dr Lukas Carey, a long-time educator, trainer, coach and research academic at Edith Cowan University, recently published an article about how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting incarnated learners, entitled ‘Education while imprisoned during the COVID-19 outbreak, the forgotten frontier’. While Carey did concede that not all educational facilities or programs at jails have their prisoners’ education disrupted, enough inmates are angry about it, saying it perpetuates the stereotype that prisoners are irredeemable and not worthy of a full education. The research academic was able ask detainees what they thought about the current state of education amid COVID-19. The responses were varied, poignant and underscore just how much more work needs to be done in this field. “The officers won’t even let us use the computers. They have locked down the library for everyone and that’s where the computers are. It is really s***and makes the guys trying to learn really angry. They just don’t care,” one detainee said. Another said: “My father comes home soon, we are counting down the days but he recently started an excavator course he paid for from his prison savings. He won’t be able to finish this course, can’t get a refund and is feeling very depressed that he can’t get things done.” Campus Review interviewed Carey, whose special research interests include criminology and convict criminology, to discuss the largely forgotten learners behind bars.

While some people may have been able to access Work from Home (WFH) policies in the past, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen anyone who can technically work from home do so. But how do people feel about this? And will WFH practices become the norm for many in the future. To discuss this topical issue, I interviewed Dr Sarah Bankins, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Management at Macquarie Business School. She wrote about this issue recently for the university’s The Lighthouse publication, entitled ‘The coronavirus has changed work forever’. Bankins contended that, while technologies such as Zoom, Google Hangouts and Skype have existed for some time and offer the workforce a way of communicating that is functional, they are far from perfect. Connectivity issues, slow internet speeds as well as technical glitches can impede businesses trying to communicate on a regular basis. Because it is too early to empirically conclude what impacts WFH has had on employees’ productivity and wellbeing, the Macquarie University academic said social media has helped to identify three distinct types of people who look at WFH is vastly different ways. For instance, some prefer working form the office and having a clear demarcation between work and home, as well as fewer or no disruptions. On the other hand, Bankins has identified another group of individuals who are enjoying the flexibility WFH gives them, and the opportunity to be productive outside of the normal 9 to 5 working tradition. Finally, there is the third group of individuals who “want the best of both worlds” and are probably in the majority. Although many businesses will find it difficult, almost impossible, to move towards a WFH policy, Bankins warns that ongoing overheads such as rent and electricity may provoke more white-collar professions such as lawyers, accountants and office workers – to name just a few – to reconsider their operational models.

When the COVID-19 pandemic initially took off in China, grave fears were held for Australia's university sector. This was primarily due to Australia's reliance on Chinese students and the travel bans that are still in place. But now universities are facing another challenge. With the banning of large gatherings and recent social distancing protocols, on-campus students are now affected and a range of technologies are being relied upon like never before. But as Michael Sankey, Deputy Director for Learning Transformations in the Learning Futures Group at Griffith University, explains, most Australian universities are adapting to the new "learning ecosystem", delivering on-campus students their content and assessment online. He stresses, however, that a lot of hard work has gone into the changes and there are some universities, who are no so experienced in online learning, "that are playing catch up". Griffith University has also installed some 1500 VPN connections into Chinese students' computers who are still unable to return to Australia. Sankey says Griffith is relying on their tried and tested technologies, such as Blackboard Learning and Microsoft Teams, and are trying "to keep things simple". He also warns that "predatory vendors" are trying to cash in on the new learning "ecosystems".