This Month
- Exclusive
- University
Why we got it wrong on education and skill shortages
After 15 years of policies encouraging people to go to university, Australia’s skills tsar says it is now time for a reset if we are to address chronic skill shortages.
- Julie Hare
October
AI greenhouses feed remote communities and educate children
Food Ladder installs AI greenhouses in remote communities to feed people and educate their children about the benefits of healthy fresh produce.
- Christopher Niesche
- Exclusive
- Food & drink
Taxpayers paid McDonald’s $72m to train its staff
McDonald’s Australia and its franchisees were the biggest beneficiaries of the Coalition’s $5.8 billion trainee and apprenticeship wage subsidy, documents show.
- Ronald Mizen
- Exclusive
- International students
Desperate colleges lure agents, students with cash offers
With the introduction of student caps looming, desperate vocational colleges are using unethical practices to shore up numbers.
- Julie Hare
Student caps not for migration reasons, Senate hearing told
An employment department official said student caps were not intended to bring down net migration, an explanation at odds with what the government says.
- Julie Hare
September
- Exclusive
- International students
Banned colleges allocated thousands of places under student caps
Private vocational colleges say the allocation of caps for new international students for 2025 has been a ramshackle process.
- Julie Hare
June
- Exclusive
- International students
Teal MPs seek softening of foreign student cap laws
Legislation to cap the number of international students will be debated this week – even as visa numbers are in dramatic decline.
- Julie Hare
June
Higher education key to bigger pay, Labor MP argues
When it comes to the relationship between education and earning capacity, research suggests more is better.
- Julie Hare
May
Labor to give teaching, nursing students $320 per week payment
Teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students will receive a weekly payment to help offset the costs of mandatory placements.
- Julie Hare
April
International student numbers slump as reforms bite
Only 46,570 students landed in Australia to begin their studies last month.
- Julie Hare
Visa rejections hit record as overseas students top 700,000
There were 713,000 international students living in Australia in February, but a corner has been turned as visa rejections pile up.
- Julie Hare
March
NSW to return TAFEs to centre of local communities
After years of policy “fixes” gone wrong, NSW aims to give TAFEs a new lease of life.
- Julie Hare
Have we just laid out a plan to kill the traditional university?
The universities accord says that the number of university students needs to double by 2050. That raises the question of what we actually want from our universities.
- Julie Hare
February
Bright, poor students guaranteed a uni spot
Aspiring university students whose families earn less than $54,000 a year will be guaranteed a place in a degree if they meet admission benchmarks.
- Julie Hare
The group saying no to uni: white, male, and would rather be a tradie
The Albanese government wants to get more kids into universities, but a new study on apprentices shows there is a clear cohort with no interest in a degree.
- Julie Hare
Review to hammer out apprenticeship problem
Only half of all apprentices complete their training, despite billions in funding going into ensuring they do. A new review is looking for a solution.
- Julie Hare
January
Call to lift ban on foreigners doing trade apprenticeships
Most international students are not allowed to undertake a trade apprenticeship in Australia. Changing that could help the worsening skills’ crisis.
- Updated
- Julie Hare
The new working poor is educated and female
A new report sheds the light on how poorly vocational graduates are paid, especially if they are female.
- Julie Hare
December 2023
100,000 foreign ‘students’ won’t come or will go home under reforms
Over the next year, an estimated 100,000 ‘students’ will either not arrive under new migration rules, or will be pushed to return home.
- Julie Hare
‘Non-genuine’ foreign students to be weeded out
The student visa system will be overhauled with the focus on quality students and providers, but numbers won’t be capped.
- Julie Hare
