Campus Review Vol 30. Issue 01 | January 2020 | Page 9

NEWS campusreview.com.au Australian strategic policy analyst Alex Joske. Picture: Gary Ramage 2019: the year that was A review of the key higher education issues of 2019. By Wade Zaglas O ne controversy that kept rearing its head in 2019 was the Ramsay Centre’s Western civilisation degree and its attendant negotiations with the Universities of Wollongong, Sydney and Queensland. To date, only UOW has committed to the Western civilisation program, with the Ramsay Centre walking away from a deal with USYD. The Ramsay degree also failed to attract enough interest at UQ. In some ways, the Western civilisation degree played out as part of the culture war between the left and right. Members of UOW’s academic senate even initiated legal action to stop the Ramsay deal, before withdrawing it after considering the costs involved. Another important story this year originated from ABC TV’s Four Corners. In an episode titled ‘Cash Cows’, it was alleged that some Australian universities were waiving important English and other prerequisite tests for international students who did not have the necessary skills. A coterie of Murdoch University academics, frustrated by what they believed was a clear case of putting profit before quality, blew the whistle on the issues occurring at their institution. Another well-read and somewhat bizarre story reported on a UTS academic who allegedly sent herself threatening notes after a Chinese medicine course was dropped at her university. The professor spent over $150,000 of UTS funds in security measures to protect herself from perceived threats. She pleaded not guilty to the charges and has since been granted bail. Considering higher education is our third largest export market, it was disconcerting to report on some of the horrendous conditions that international students had to endure to chase their university dreams in Australia. Associate Professor Bassina Farbenblum from UNSW said international students looking for a place to live often had to stumble through a “minefield of problems”. “Landlords exploit students because they can,” she told AAP. The students are far from home, they don’t know their rights, and they need a roof over their heads. “We found exploitative practices like a student’s rent being almost doubled overnight during an exam period,” she said. In terms of rankings, Australian universities cemented their reputations as some of the leading institutions in the world, particularly in specific subjects. For example, Australia is now ranked fifth in science and social science worldwide. Another important achievement for Australia was a tripling in the number of its highly cited researchers (HCRs) since 2014: there were only 80 Australian HCRs named in 2014, compared with 217 in 2019. While Australia has been actively recruiting HCRs from overseas since 2014, there has also been a steep increase in the number of homegrown HCRs. Speech and language acquisition researchers at Charles Sturt University received the American Journal of Speech- Language Pathology Editor’s Award for the best paper published in a prestigious US journal in 2018. Sharynne McLeod, professor of speech and language acquisition at the Charles Sturt School of Teacher Education, and colleague Dr Kate Crowe were conferred the award for their article, ‘Children’s Consonant Acquisition in 27 Languages: A Cross-Linguistic Review’. On a more troubling note, one issue that came to light this year was foreign interference at Australian universities, with two substantial and successful hacks of student data at ANU going back years. Alex Joske, an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said ANU was targeted because it trains thousands of individuals who will eventually work in the national security community. If ANU holds information that compromises these people, such as a history of plagiarism or sexual harassment allegations, “then this is incredibly concerning and could undermine our national security”. He, like other professionals working in the national safety space, have also raised serious concerns about “lucrative” research partnerships between China and Australia. “It’s clearly not in Australia’s interest to be recklessly training scientists who will go on to develop technologies that could be used against our military and against our county,” Joske said. Another hot topic last year was what constitutes academic cheating and how should it be countered. Research revealed that the practice was widespread, with thousands of students admitting to using third-party contract cheating services. And finally, like their PISA results, Singapore dominated the QS Asian University Rankings for 2020, with the National University of Singapore (NUS) taking out the top spot for a second year in row. Nanyang International University, Singapore, which held the top position in 2018, was ranked second this year, followed by the University of Hong Kong (3), Tsinghua University (4) and Peking University (5). The rise of quality education in Asian countries was a talking point last year, and the trend looks set to continue. ■ 7