NEWS
campusreview.com.au
The biggest
disadvantage
In Australia, being a woman who doesn’t
speak English hurts your chances of
getting a job more than anything else.
A
study of more than 10,000 university graduates has
revealed that being from a low-socioeconomic (SES)
background or a rural or regional centre does not inhibit
one’s ability to secure a job or earn an income on par with
graduates from wealthier or metropolitan backgrounds.
T
Most
for the
money
Government panel to provide
direction on how to maximise
value for research spending.
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On the other hand, being from a non-English speaking
background, and especially being a woman from a non-English
speaking background, is linked to reduced employment outcomes.
The study was commissioned by the National Centre for Student
Equity in Higher Education at Curtin University. Contributing to the
research were academics from Flinders, University of New South Wales
and University of Western Australia. UWA’s Ian Li, an assistant professor
from the School of Population Health, led the study, which also looked
at the employment outcomes of Indigenous Australians; women in
science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM); and students with
mental and physical disabilities.
“The positive employment outcomes for two of the equity
groups we looked at [low SES and rural/regional] indicates that
higher education policy targeting increased participation from
disadvantaged students is working well, and will level the playing field
for disadvantaged individuals,” Li said, before hinting at prejudices being
present in the employment of other disadvantaged groups.
“We conducted an analysis to see if the differences in employment
outcomes and earnings for non-English speaking and female STEM
graduates can be explained by other characteristics, for example,
whether they earned less because they had poorer academic
performance or because they were engaged in further study.
“Our analysis indicates that their poorer labour market outcomes
do not stem from their academic performance or human capital,
and the source of their disadvantage lies elsewhere.” ■
he Commonwealth Government
has formed a Steering Committee
comprising a panel of experts to
measure the value of university research.
This comes after the merit of certain study
areas and the lack of collaboration with
industry players was discussed at length at
the Universities Australia Higher Education
Conference 2016 in Canberra.
“Australia is a world leader in the quality
of our research but falls behind when it
comes to commercialising good ideas
and collaborating with industry,” Education
Minister Simon Birmingham and Industry,
Innovation and Science Minister Christopher
Pyne said in a joint statement. “That’s
why this Steering Committee will provide
invaluable advice and guidance on the way
forward for our national assessment of
research engagement and impact.”
The Steering Committee will be cochaired by professor Aidan Byrne, chief
executive of the Australian Research
Council, and Dominic English, group
manager, Research and Economic Group,
Department of Education and Training. The
inaugural members of the committee are:
• Graeme Whickman, president and chief
executive, Ford Motor Company Australia
• Dr Shanny Dyer, managing director,
Wavefront Biometric Technologies
• Ken Boal, vice-president, Cisco Australia
and New Zealand
• Emeritus professor Lesley Johnson,
University of Technology Sydney and Griffith
University
• Professor Ian Jacobs, president and vicechancellor, University of New South Wales
• Belinda Robinson, chief executive,
Universities Australia
• Professor Scott Bowman, vice-chancellor
and president, Central Queensland University
• Professor Anne Kelso, chief executive,
National Health & Medical Research Council
• Mark Cully, chief economist, Department
of Industry, Innovation and Science
• Dr Alan Finkel, chief scientist of Australia
• Professor Shearer West, deputy vicechancellor, University of Sheffield.
UNSW’s Jacobs, said he was looking
forward to making a contribution.
“Universities in Australia already have an
enormous positive impact through research
discovery and translation, which leads to
societal benefits and economic prosperity,”
Jacobs said. “The report we commissioned
last year from Deloitte estimated that our
universities contributed $160 billion to
Australian GDP in 2014, approximately
10 per cent of total GDP. A lot more could
be achieved by even closer interaction
between businesses and universities.” ■