Bologna challenge for Australian higher education
Written by Steven Schwartz on March 28th, 2008
The ancient northern Italian city of Bologna lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains. It is well-known for many things: a university thought to be the oldest in the western world, elegant arcades and medieval buildings, historic monuments and churches, Maserati and Lamborghini cars, the Ducati motorbike, and of course … Bolognese sauce.
Bologna […]
Watch this space …
Written by Steven Schwartz on March 19th, 2008
A new government, another higher education review. Whatever the new inquiry - announced by Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard - determines should be the way forward for universities, it now appears we won’t get any significant new funding until 2010.
In the meantime, the work of universities must go on.
I’ve recently uploaded several new videos onto […]
Higher education: threats and opportunities
Written by Steven Schwartz on March 11th, 2008
Recently The Economist magazine reported on what happened when the British music company EMI invited some teenagers in for a focus group.
The kids provided feedback on their music interests. At the end of the session, the marketers invited the participants to help themselves to free CDs piled on a table near the door.
No one took […]
Deregulate to stimulate higher ed
Written by Steven Schwartz on March 3rd, 2008
The higher education sector has been buzzing with comment and opinion about what the Labor government should or should not do to our universities.
I was particularly interested in the views of Professor Richard Larkins, vice-chancellor of Monash University, which he expressed in an address recently to the Melbourne Press Club.
In a thoughtful and well-crafted speech […]