How far will Charters go?
Written by Steven Schwartz on January 29th, 2008
The Science Minister, Kim Carr has called for scientists to be “liberated” from any impediment to communicating their research results or expressing their opinions on contentious issues.
Carr plans to create Charters for Commonwealth research agencies - CSIRO, the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. These Charters will be […]
Signs of the times
Written by Steven Schwartz on January 22nd, 2008
It seems I’m not the only one asking what universities are for and what values, attitudes and expectations are embedded in their missions. In a lengthy article, a recent edition of Times Higher Education asked the question “is there still any agreement about the essential meaning of the word ‘university’?”
Although the article, and an associated […]
Utilitarian unis: it’s just not cricket
Written by Steven Schwartz on January 15th, 2008
A recent article (‘Just apeing society’s values’, Financial Review, 14/1/08 p 54) commenting on the controversial second cricket Test in Sydney between Australia and India has got me thinking about universities.
Now it may seem odd to be considering cricket and higher education in the same breath. (I know many people would be outraged by this […]
Big Think thinks big - so does Macquarie
Written by Steven Schwartz on January 9th, 2008
I’m impressed with a new website called Big Think - which sets out “to do for intellectuals what YouTube, the popular video-sharing site, did for bulldogs on skateboards”, as a recent article in the New York Times puts it, and which you can read here in the excellent Arts & Letters Daily.
It’s early days yet […]