Within the higher education sector in Australia regionality is not well defined, which is a significant issue for regional universities, given the opportunities for development and growth stemming from the Australian Government's focus on regional higher education. This paper contends that if regional universities are to operate successfully in an…

In this essay, we discuss the Australian Government's refusal to provide international students with adequate support during the COVID-19 pandemic, in spite of the hardships these students are facing in relation to mental health, financial hardship, exploitation and the risk of homelessness. We call on the Australian Government to provide better…

Teacher Education in Australia seems to be in a dynamic and constant cycle of review and change. Policy governing teacher education has also been eminently changeable and dynamic. To some extent this stems from three year terms for governments where a short term and expedient political view is taken. There has also been ongoing centre-periphery…

Contemporary campaigns for public education rest upon an assumption that public schools are fundamental to an equitable and inclusive society. In this paper, I reflect on this presumption by exploring the inherent tensions of the meaning and practice of 'public' education, especially when the 'public' in public schooling is linked to political…

Currently the Australian university sector almost has a monopoly in the provision of courses and programmes for the initial preparation of teachers across the nation. What the future holds for the filed, however, is quite uncertain. This uncertainty, as this paper will demonstrate, is reflected in a number of trends. First, while a trend has…

In Australia, the inception of veterinary technology, as a higher education discipline underpinning an emerging, mid-tier paraveterinary field, reflected global trends for more highly educated veterinary paraprofessionals to meet changing societal demands. In this study, veterinary technology graduates were surveyed about their experiences in the…

Australia's education system has served the nation well, but must continue to evolve to ensure competitiveness in a world racing towards the future. The report recommendations presented seek to optimise the ways industry partnerships can assist in the provision of contemporary, internationally competitive Science, Technology, Engineering, and…

Intermediaries--also referred to as bridge builders, boundary spanners, conveners, and other names--fill the critical role of connecting all the parties in the system to empower people with the skills required in the labor force. Those parties generally include employers, educators, workers, and prospective workers. Within these categories may…

An analysis of the relationships between teacher unions and governments sheds light on teacher union leadership, what drives it and what ethos lies behind it, illuminating the connections between such initiatives and developing theory in the role of teacher unions. Teacher union leadership in turn enables and encourages teachers to exercise…

This article represents the submission of the "Australian Council for Computers in Education's" (AACE) response to the Australian Government's Department of Communications' initiative for "Enhancing Online Safety for Children." Henderson and de Zwart agree that children and their educators and caregivers are in serious need…

Over the last twenty years or so the number of international students in Australia has grown rapidly. At the same time, official responsibility for providing support to international students has been devolved from governments to educational institutions. In this paper we argue that while education institutions have a significant role in…

Education policy-making in Australia remains one of the most complex of government's responsibilities, affecting a broad spectrum of social and political advancements of national and international importance. The advancement of education policy has been accepted as a key factor in achieving the labour productivity and innovation capacity that are…

The landscape of early childhood education and care is changing. Governments world-wide are assuming increasing authority in relation to child-rearing in the years before school entry, beyond the traditional role in assisting parents to do the best they can by their children. As part of a social agenda aimed at forming citizens well prepared to…

Soon after it came to power in 2008, the Australian Government adopted six key targets relating to life expectancy, infant mortality, education and employment in its policy "Closing the Gap on Indigenous disadvantage". As it became apparent in 2011 that these targets were not being met, the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, in her annual…

In a world where governments increasingly attempt to impose regulation on all professional activities, this paper advocates that professional standards for teachers be developed "by the profession for the profession". Foucauldian archaeology is applied to two teacher standards documents recently published in Australia, one developed at…