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Chris Bowen quits cabinet
Tertiary education minister Chris Bowen has resigned from Julia Gillard’ s cabinet in the wake of fallout from Labor’ s unsuccessful leadership spill.
In a press conference at Parliament House, Bowen said:“ This is what I regard is the appropriate and honorable decision for me.”
Kevin Rudd did not stand for the leadership last week, allowing the Prime Minister to retain the leadership unopposed.
Bowen, one of Kevin Rudd’ s most senior supporters, said he took the“ difficult decision” that supporting Rudd was the best option for Australia.
“ Twenty-five years ago I joined the ALP. Every day since then I’ ve done what I thought was in the best interests of the Labor Party. Always,” Bowen told reporters in Canberra.
“ The Labor Party would have done well to return him to the leadership. The party took a different view, hence my decision today.”
Bowen’ s resignation follows the sacking of fellow cabinet member Simon Crean, who initially sparked calls for a leadership ballot.
The Prime Minister said she expected a number of her cabinet members to resign following the leadership spill.
In his address, Bowen thanked Rudd for appointing him to the Cabinet and thanked Gillard for keeping him there.
Bowen said he will stay in Parliament and recontest his seat of McMahon( western Sydney) at the election.“ I will fight hard... and I will win it,” he said.
At print time, there had been no announcement of his replacement. n
Six of the best
Australia is strongly represented in The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings.
It is the third most represented country in the 2013 rankings after the US and the UK, with a total of six universities, outperforming Japan and the Netherlands.
“ Australia is a country very much on the way up in terms of worldwide academic prestige. On the back of significant gains in 2012, it has had another great year in the( rankings),” said Phil Baty, the editor of the rankings.
The University of Melbourne, which has been Australia’ s top representative since the rankings were first published in 2011, rose from 43rd place to 39th.
Newcomers to the list are Monash University, 91-100 group, and the University of New South Wales, 81-90 group.
The others are the Australian National University( 42nd place – tied), the University of Sydney( 49th) and the University of Queensland( 71-80 tier).
The elite group of US and UK global“ super-brands” still head the list.
At the top is Harvard University, followed by MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University.
However, Baty said new forces in higher education were emerging,“ especially in the Asia-Pacific countries that are investing heavily in building world-class universities, so the traditional elite must be very careful”.
A university’ s reputation was significant to its success in attracting staff, students and investment in a competitive global
2012 Rank
43 44( tied) 50 71-80--
2013 Rank
39 42( tied) 49 71-80 81-90 91-100
Institution
Country
University of Melbourne Austraila Australian National University Austraila University of Sydney
Austraila University of Queensland Austraila University of New South Wales Austraila Monash University
Austraila www. timeshighereducation. co. uk / world-university-rankings
market. Different researchers believe that the brand or reputation of a university is the single most important consideration of prospective international students and academic staff.
Baty said the 2013 rankings show“ how well poised Australia is to make the most of its geographical advantages; while it has strong links with the best universities in the West, it has also made the most of east Asia’ s booming higher education scene”.
“ Australia could be a serious beneficiary of the Asian century, which is great news for its economy and competitiveness,” Baty said.
The poll asked senior academics to nominate a maximum of 15 best institutions in their field of expertise, in terms of research, teaching and international outlook, among others.
For this year’ s table, 39 per cent of the responses came from the Americas, 26 per cent from Europe, 25 per cent from the Asia-Pacific, 12 per cent from the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. n
www. campusreview. com. au March 2013 | 5