National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU)
NTEU “Our Universities Matter” Campaign
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) will launch a major campaign tomorrow, Thursday 24 July, under the banner of “Our Universities Matter – Investing in People and Society”.
Details of the launch are:
THURSDAY 24 JULY 2008, 12.45 PM
KALEIDE THEATRE,
RMIT UNIVERSITY, SWANSTON ST MELBOURNE (enter from Swanston St)
LAUNCH PARTICIPANTS:
Professor Margaret Gardner, Vice-Chancellor, RMIT University (host)
Dr Carolyn Allport, National President, NTEU
Sarah Cole, Victorian President, National Union of Students (NUS)
Staff crisis first bill of order
THE Government's higher education review will be pointless unless the sector starts to confront the crisis in academic staffing, recruitment expert Rohan Carr has warned.
Dr Carr, who was at the Sydney conference where Education Minister Julia Gillard announced the review last month, said an increase in funding would do little if universities could not find enough good academics to teach.
And the timetable of the review was too leisurely, given the acute shortage of academic talent in an ageing sector.
Kids wave meets don dearth
A SHARP increase in the age of academic staff and a looming rush to retire will create a shortage of university teachers just as two waves of school-leavers engulf post-secondary education.
The percentage of the academic workforce aged over 50 increased from 26 per cent in 1991 to 39.8 per cent in 2006, according to University of Adelaide research fellow Graeme Hugo.
The oldest baby boomers would pass 65 in 2011, so the exodus of baby boomer retirees would gather momentum during the second and third decades of the century, Professor Hugo said.
