Day: October 12, 2007

Higher education ‘equity’ in the for-profits

~ Andrew Norton ~ 3 Comments

Amidst the pre-campaign barrage of media releases from Julie Bishop was one announcing funding for a National Centre for Student Equity in higher education.

“The Centre will develop best practice for attracting and retaining students from disadvantaged backgrounds and will provide outreach programs to universities, schools and the broader community,” Minister Bishop said.

This assumes too much. While we know the main reason low SES people don’t go to university, poor school results, we don’t know very much about the consequences for those who do decide to attend. Mainly due to being less academically prepared to start with, their completion rates are lower than for higher SES students. But is doing some university a benefit, even if it does not end in a degree? Are those who do complete getting jobs that match their qualifications, or are they over-represented among those graduates in sales and clerical work?

Our aim ought to be to help people improve their lives, not use them to help make society look more like the ideological preconceptions of the academic left.
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Job vacancy at CIS

~ Andrew Norton ~ Leave a comment

My CIS colleague Kirsten Storry is moving on, leaving a vacancy at the CIS for someone wanting a job researching Indigenous issues:

The position will involve undertaking research into the challenges facing indigenous communities, developing policy recommendations for the social and economic development of those communities and promoting widespread discussion among indigenous communities and the general public. Areas of focus will include education, health, housing and governance. The successful applicant will be self motivated, have good writing and speaking skills, and will be able to prepare innovative materials for presentation and publication. Familiarity with the work of CIS http://www.cis.org.au and sympathy for its objectives are highly desirable. Candidates are advised to read recent articles (available on the website) produced by CIS authors working in this area. This position is for a term of 2 years in the first instance.
Salary is available on request.

Applicants should have a good degree from any relevant discipline and should be able to show evidence of research competence. Post graduate qualifications would be an advantage. Preference will be given to people with work experience in a research or policy background.

If you are interested, contact Jenny Lindsay, jlindsay AT cis.org.au