AUSTRALIA: Brain economy - the elephant in the room

Politicians and the public are yet to realise that tangible support for the 'brain industries' is as critical for Australia's future and for Australian jobs as support for the resources industries, says Tony Adams, Immediate Past President of the International Education Association of Australia.

The Australian government should appoint a dedicated minister, or at a minimum a parliamentary secretary, with responsibility for international education, Adams says. The government should also partner with industry to develop a comprehensive national strategy on international education, with a set of well-funded priority programme initiatives.

He says funding support for the industry should be lifted to levels commensurate with the support already provided by government to Australia's other major export industries.

Exporting education is Australia's third largest export industry and the largest service export industry, out-performing tourism, Adams says. The more than 500,000 students from overseas studying in Australian institutions - in universities, vocational education and training colleges, schools and English language centres - generate $15.5 billion (US$11 billion) a year for the Australian economy.

"International education is a major source of jobs for Australians working in education institutions, the tourism and travel industries, accommodation and real estate, the telecommunications industries, transport, cinemas, banks and the hospitality sector," he says.

Education displaced tourism as the largest service sector export industry in 2008. "The Australian people are probably not aware that international education is Victoria's largest export industry and in NSW is second only to coal. With the cyclic nature of the resources sector, the global financial crisis puts education in a very interesting position among Australia's major exports. It is the elephant in the room."

Yet this has been achieved largely by education providers themselves, with only modest government support. "The industry has greatly appreciated the support provided over recent years, especially by Australian Education International, a division of the federal Education Department.

"But the AEI itself is a poor relative in the hurly burly of Canberra budget allocations," says Adams. "IEAA as an industry association believes senior level political leadership and a more effective whole of government approach is needed if the future of international education as a critical export industry supporting Australian jobs.

"Better coordination across government agencies is also needed. The government must also engage and consult all sectors of the industry in the final design of the independent international education industry development body proposed by the Bradley review of higher education.

"We haven't heard what the government's response to this recommendation will be. There have been no industry wide consultations about it and this is worrying many in the industry. Within the next year, we would dearly like to see the Prime Minister issue a well thought through policy statement on international education, one that properly incorporates the views of industry."

http://www.universityworldnews.com/

The Australian Education Network University and College Guide

Experience tertiary education in Australia and you will be opening the door to a world of study that will fill your life with knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm.

The Australian higher education sector offers a complete range of programs and courses that lead to highly regarded and internationally recognised qualifications. Australia is now the destination of choice for students from around the world looking for a quality education at an affordable price.

Click here to find an alphabetical List of Universities in Australia

Click here for a State-based search of universities

Learning and studying in Australia is the perfect way to launch your career. Employment opportunities open up to those who have degrees from any one of the universities, whether they study in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, or at any of the other higher-education institutions located around Australia.

You can read these brief descriptions about some of the institutions before you select from the menu on the left and search their websites.

University of Western Sydney (UWS) Sydney, NSW. With over 32,000 students, the University of Western Sydney (UWS) is one of the largest of the universities Australia has to offer. Over 2,800 international students from 70 different countries choose to study at UWS each year. UWS is a young, energetic and rapidly growing university with six campuses located in the Sydney region

Victoria University Melbourne, Victoria. Victoria University is one of Australia's largest dual-sector institutions of higher education, with a TAFE college offering a unique combination of academic and vocational skills in a modern and supportive environment. It has built a strong reputation for providing a broad range of courses that are up-to-date and relevant to the modern employment environment and is considered an innovative institution amongst the universities in Victoria.

Deakin University Melbourne, Victoria. Deakin University is one of Australia's most progressive and visionary universities. It has been noted for providing a superior and student-centered education, Deakin has become increasingly popular as a destination for international, with around 70,000 students studying on its various campuses, including ELICOS studies.

Bond University Gold Coast, Queensland Bond University is Australia's first and largest private Australia university and has grown to become one of the Queensland universities with an excellent international reputation. At Bond you will experience personalised education by highly qualified teachers, innovative courses and teching methods, an international student body and a beautiful secure campus. Bond's staff to student ratio is the best in Australia

The University of Adelaide. Adelaide, South Australia. The University of Adelaide is one of Australia's oldest and one of the highest ranking universities Australia has in any guide to higher education institutions and is regarded as one of the best Australian universities. Established in 1874, it is a member of the 'Group of Eight'. There are more than 1,800 international students among the 14,000-strong student population.

Southern Cross University Lismore, Tweed Heads/Gold Coast and Coffs Harbour, Queensland Southern Cross University is an internationally-recognised Australian government university. It has a reputation for academic excellence, and has won many prestigious international and Australian awards and grants. The quality programs offered by the University have high academic standards.

Griffith University, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, Queensland Griffith University, one of Australia's leading universities has over 2,500 teaching staff, 27,000 students including 4,000 students from over 80 nations. Griffith has become an popular choice for students deciding that they want to study at one of the universities in Australia. Learning never got more enjoyable or rewarding than this.

The University of Southern Queensland Toowoomba, Queensland. USQ has been recognised as a world leader in the fields of and tertiary study initiatives. USQ is a dynamic, flexible and innovative University whose staff and students pride themselves on being responsive to the technologically aware global market place.

Swinburne University of Technology Melbourne, Victoria. Established in 1908, Swinburne has a strong reputation in Australia and overseas as a provider of career oriented education. Swinburne is a small, innovative university, which is rapidly forming a distinctive character including the study of accounting business commerce computing law management marketing nursing tourism a character which reflects purpose, achievement and the genuine quality of its educational outcomes.

University of Tasmania Hobart - Launceston - Burnie, Tasmania The University of Tasmania is the fourth oldest University in Australia. It is highly regarded internationally as a teching and research institution. The University of Tasmania offers a pleasant, enjoyable environment for study at all levels of higher education.

Queensland University of Technology - Brisbane - is a dynamic and innovative institution that not only satisfies the requirements of its local and international student body but also has one of the highest MBA Australia rankings according to the Financial Times 2004 world listings.

Macquarie University Sydney, NSW Macquarie University is one of the leading NSW universities and is a modern, sophisticated and cosmopolitan leading provider of education in Australia. With over 24,000 students including 4,000 international students, Macquarie is a university which prides itself on outstanding academic achievement and has excellent resources for distance learning and study online.

Edith Cowan University Perth, Western Australia. Edith Cowan University is noted for its innovative course content, specialised research and creative pursuits. Responsive and forward thinking, it is one of the universities in Perth that is internationally focused and an Australian leader in the provision of professionally focused degree programs.

University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) Sydney, NSW The University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) is well known as a leader of professional career-focused education and is regarded as one of the best in Australia. It offers one of the most comprehensive ranges of innovative and internationally recognised degrees in Australia. When people consider one of the universities in Sydney then UTS in a natural choice.

University of Canberra Canberra-ACT, ACT Internationally focused, the University of Canberra enjoys a diverse student population from more than 80 countries worldwide on the Canberra Campus. Offshore, the University teaches programs in countries such as Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Monash University Melbourne, VictoriaMonash University is one of the top Australian universities and is leading the way with its international focus, ground-breaking research and academic excellence. Since its first student intake in 1961, Monash has grown into a diverse, multicultural and energetic institution with six campuses around the state and has an excellent international reputation that attracts many students.

The University of Notre Dame, Australia Perth, Western Australia Inspired by one of the greatest Catholic universities in the world, the University of Notre Dame in the United States, Notre Dame Australia brings to Australian education the vibrant traditions of a Catholic university together with the rich history.

More information about australian universities at http://www.australian-universities.com/

Parents make moves on top schools

PARENTS are buying houses in areas close to desirable schools and intervening more than ever to ensure their children are positioned for success in their education, University of Sydney research has found.

The belief that bright children will do well at any school has been superseded with distrust in leaving anything to chance.

Anxious middle-class parents have become more proactive in making sure their children enrol in "the best" school, whether measured by academic or cultural standards.

Frustration had displaced any sense of entitlement Anglo-Australians once felt in sending their children to selective high schools, a tradition that could no longer "be handed down along with the family silver". This had given way to resentment with the growing role coaching colleges played in helping students, particularly those from Asian-Australian families, gain selective school entry.

Despite feeling that coaching colleges were beneath them and a form of "cheating", some Anglo-Australian families admitted they had "given in" and commissioned their services, or had drilled their children on past selective school entry test papers, even if only the once.

The findings are based on 1350 surveys and 63 interviews with parents of year 7 students. The researchers, Craig Campbell, Helen Proctor and Geoffrey Sherington, also examined Australian census data from 1976 to 2001 for their new book, School Choice: How Parents Negotiate The New School Market In Australia .

The research highlights a shift in middle-class attitudes towards education as a commodity. Those committed to the public school system felt upset that they were being "forced" into non-government schools because of insufficient government investment in state schools.

Satisfaction with the local school was more common in middle-class areas where some families had moved for no other purpose than securing a school enrolment.

Associate Professor Campbell, from the University of Sydney's faculty of education, said middle-class families interviewed for the project had expressed firm ideas about where their children should go to school. Those with the resources were moving to the catchment areas, such as Sydney's Hills District, to be near reputable public schools. Those who did not were often opting for low-fee Catholic and Christian schools despite having no religious convictions.

PARENTS are buying houses in areas close to desirable schools and intervening more than ever to ensure their children are positioned for success in their education, University of Sydney research has found.

The belief that bright children will do well at any school has been superseded with distrust in leaving anything to chance.

Anxious middle-class parents have become more proactive in making sure their children enrol in "the best" school, whether measured by academic or cultural standards.

Frustration had displaced any sense of entitlement Anglo-Australians once felt in sending their children to selective high schools, a tradition that could no longer "be handed down along with the family silver". This had given way to resentment with the growing role coaching colleges played in helping students, particularly those from Asian-Australian families, gain selective school entry.

Despite feeling that coaching colleges were beneath them and a form of "cheating", some Anglo-Australian families admitted they had "given in" and commissioned their services, or had drilled their children on past selective school entry test papers, even if only the once.

The findings are based on 1350 surveys and 63 interviews with parents of year 7 students. The researchers, Craig Campbell, Helen Proctor and Geoffrey Sherington, also examined Australian census data from 1976 to 2001 for their new book, School Choice: How Parents Negotiate The New School Market In Australia .

The research highlights a shift in middle-class attitudes towards education as a commodity. Those committed to the public school system felt upset that they were being "forced" into non-government schools because of insufficient government investment in state schools.

Satisfaction with the local school was more common in middle-class areas where some families had moved for no other purpose than securing a school enrolment.

Associate Professor Campbell, from the University of Sydney's faculty of education, said middle-class families interviewed for the project had expressed firm ideas about where their children should go to school. Those with the resources were moving to the catchment areas, such as Sydney's Hills District, to be near reputable public schools. Those who did not were often opting for low-fee Catholic and Christian schools despite having no religious convictions.

Sydney Morning Herald

Reforms top of the class

By Julia Gillard
Effective schools are the foundation of a strong economy

It ’S that time of year when parents and students are starting to think about what they need to do to get ready to go back to school.

While uniforms, exercise books and stationery will be uppermost in their minds, they will also be thinking about teachers, curriculum and school grades.

But it shouldn ’t just be parents thinking about how Australia ’s school system is performing, it ’s something that should concern all Australians.

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development research indicates a country can achieve gains of up to 2.5 per cent in gross domestic product per capita from a 1 per cent increase in literacy performance.

The federal Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations recently estimated that increasing the number of working-age people with post-school qualifications by 1 per cent would contribute about $8 billion annually to GDP.

The fundamentals of schooling are literacy and numeracy, but the evidence shows we are not performing as well as we should be.

Literacy and numeracy tests conducted across Australia for students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 last year show that although most Australian children are achieving well above the minimum standard, too many are falling behind.

While in some areas only one student in 10 does not meet the minimum benchmarks, in others it sinks to a shocking one in three. An unacceptable percentage of those students are indigenous or from remote regions or low socioeconomic areas.

We need to do better, to give individual students the best chance of success in life and for our nation ’s future competitiveness.

Before the end of 2008, the country ’s education ministers set about developing a plan to implement the historic school reforms agreed to by the Prime Minister, premiers and chief ministers at the Council of Australian Governments in November.

People, organisations and educationalists have talked for some years about achieving reform in our schools. Until that COAG meeting, huwever, it had remained just that: talk.

As a result of the COAG decisions last November, Australia now has a package of landmark reforms to enable all schools across Australia to strive for excellence.

There is a renewed focus on getting the basics right in reading, writing and arithmetic through a national partnership on literacy and numeracy. The Government will invest $540 million in this area over the next four years.

There will be a new partnership on teacher quality, which recognises the importance of our teachers. This reform will see the commonwealth invest $550 million to attract, train, place and retain quality teachers and leaders in our schools.

In addition, the federal Government will invest $1.1 billion in a new partnership for disadvantaged schools.

Through this specific reform, the Government is saying that disadvantage is not destiny and a quality education is the way to overcome disadvantage.

In November last year I was pleased to welcome Joel Klein, the chancellor of schools in New York, to Australia.

Klein is someone who believes in and has implemented a number of reforms to provide parents, teachers, principals and taxpayers with transparent information about what is happening in their local schools.

While Australia needs to come up with its own set of transparency arrangements, I think it is important to look at what is being done overseas.

New York is a city with pockets of very great wealth and pockets of very great poverty and disadvantage, and Klein ’s model has made a difference to those pockets of poverty and disadvantage.

Back home, I want parents to get comprehensive information about what is happening in their child ’s school. I want them to be able to compare it with other local schools as well as with similar schools across the country. Interested community members should be able to do exactly the same thing.

In addition, through the National Education Agreement and Schools Assistance Ad, schools across Australia have committed to the introduction of a national curriculum.

While all these initiatives were developed in 2008, Australia ’s education ministers know that the real work in implementing them begins this year.

That is why on December 5 at the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs in Melbourne, we started a discussion about the best ways of implementing these reforms.

We will be keeping the community informed of our progress throughout the year. By the end of 2009, I expect the reforms will have begun to be built into our education and schooling systems.

And within four to five years, the benefits of these reforms will be there for every student, parent, teacher and community member to see, helping deliver a more transparent system based on the belief that every child should have access to a quality education and every school can strive for excellence.

Julia Gillard is the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

Australian National

Scholar’s passion for life’s big questions

JOSEPH JORDENS Academic and teacher of comparative religion Born June 28,1925; died December 14.2008

Dr Jos Jordens will be remembered as a scholar of Indian religious thought with a remarkable breadth of understanding and the capacity to reach out to fellow men and women confronting enduring questions of life and death.

He died at 83, still planning in his final year to teach a course in Batemans Bay on The Varieties of Religion: Judaism, Christianity, Hindu and Buddhist Traditions, Confucianism, Taoism and Japanese Shinto. The question he chose: "Is the fear of death the origin of religion?" One of five children, Jordens was born in Belgium in 1925. On leaving school in 1943, he decided to become a Jesuit, to his family ’s surprise, "setting off on a train journey to the novitiate wearing a cassock because, while Germans at that time were conscripting young men as forced labourers, they never conscripted priests".

As a Jesuit in training, Jordens added to Latin the study of Sanskrit in 1947 in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Louvain. In 1953, in his late 20s, he went to India for the first time. He had already defended in Latin his doctoral thesis on the Bhagavadgita in 1952.

He went to India to continue his studies in Sanskrit and in Hindi and began to use English. He practised his Hindi by telling stories to a class of first-graders.

In 1957 he realised he no longer wished to be a priest. "By the late 1950s I had laid the foundations of an academic career in Indian studies [thanks to the Jesuits, one might add], but I knew that there would be few, if any openings in that field in Belgium," he said. "I set my sights on an English-speaking country where universities were beginning to teach about Asia, and in 1957 decided to try my luck in Australia. I found Melbourne University was planning to inaugurate a Department of Indian Studies in the near future. [In 1961 he was appointed, and eight busy and happy years followed.] I taught my students about ancient and traditional Indian culture, its religion and philosophy, its literature and art and published a number of papers in that field." In Melbourne, Jordens met and married Ann-Man, and this loving relationship lasted for the rest of his life.

Committed to his family, he became an Australian citizen early in the 1960s.

In 1970, he accepted a position at the Australian National University to teach modern Indian history, bringing his already developed interest in Hinduism, classical Indian literature and notions about movements of religious and social reform in the 19th and 20th centuries. He taught undergraduates and shared in the supervision of a group of postgraduate students in the South Asian field who came to Canberra from India, Pakistan, the US, Japan and other parts of Australia, and had as colleagues scholars of world renowm Backed by his knowledge of Sanskrit, Hindi, English and more in the coming years, he turned to a study of the Hindu reform movement, the Arya Samaj. His own account of his search for material in India in the 1970s reads like a detective story. His book, Dayananda Sarasvati: i-I is Lije and ideas, was published in Delhi in 1978, republished the following year and again as a paperback in 1997.

The 1980s were his last years at the ANU as scholar, teacher arid administrator. He was dean of the Faculty of Asian Studies for most of that decade, and while the number of South Asia students was declining, colleagues abroad continued to stimulate his research and writing on Mahatma Gandhi. Before his retirement as dean, he had the pleasure of seeing the 1987 Crawford Prize awarded to his student Harjot Singh Oberoi, now professor of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia. Professor Oberoi said, "Dr Jordens was a great mentor to me and certainly shaped my historical scholarship. His smile will always be missed." The end of Jordens ’ time as dean, and his retirement in the 1990s, allowed him to bring to fruition the work for which he had only been able to make preparation while distracted by administrative and other tasks in previous years. The last of the 90 volumes of The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi had now been published, and Jordens was ready to add a further title to his earlier three books, 14 contributions to edited volumes and 22 scholarly articles in his opus. This new book, Gandhi ’s Religion: A Homespun Shawl, was published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Gandhi ’s assassination on January 31, 1948.

Jordens ’ university colleagues knew him as a fine scholar and family man devoted to Ann-Man and their family. It is fitting he died at home in the loving care of his wife of 46 years and their children.

John Caiger
Canberra Times,
Canberra,Australia

Higher education opportunities to boost rural prosperity

THE recent Bradley Review of Australian Higher Education highlights the investment needed to overcome innate obstacles rural Australians face in accessing higher education opportunities and the need to unlock labor force capacity to build productivity gains and generate economic growth.

"As noted in today ’s Bradley Review findings, all Australians regardless of where they live must have access to higher education," National Farmers ’ Federation (NFF) CEO Ben Fargher said.

"Rural Australians, especially primary producers with predominately family ownership structures, often start from a poor position in terms of equity and access to education, training and skills.

"Naturally, they often have a preference for studying at a nearby regional location, but such a facility may not exist and they cannot afford to move to study elsewhere.

"The Australian Government ’s response to this review must ensure the education needs of rural students are catered for.

"Specifically, stronger support is needed for regional campuses so rural students can pursue higher education, which, in turn, assists in retaining graduates in regional communities." Studies show that once a rural student leaves for a city-based education, there is only a 40 per cent likelihood that they will return to a country area.

On the flip side, 40 per cent of metropolitan students who study at an inland university stay in country areas for employment.

"This strongly suggests that investment in regional universities can deliver significant spin-off benefits in attracting people from cities to regional areas, enhancing regional development opportunities and improving health, education and social services that are, typically, below average in rural communities," he said.

"Farms today need a hettereducated and higher skilled workforce than ever before, hut rural communities are too often denied basic opportunities to the education they need." Australian agriculture is facing unprecedented demand for skilled labor with around ~0,00() skilled and highly-skilled positions going begging.

"As major regional employers some 300.000 direct on-farm jobs farming must he able to attract, train and retain workers to deliver improved long-term benefits, and prospects, to employees and the regional communities that rely on farm businesses," he said.

"But, first, the government must correct the imbalance by ensuring equal access to higher education [or rural Australians ’

Southern Farmer
Melbourne,Australia

The future is another country

JUST a few decades ago, students at uni-versities outside their home countries formed a tiny elite. Some gained scholarships with famous names like Rhodes or Fulbright; others were sent by governments, grooming them for top jobs in academia or public service. A few were born to cosmopolitan parents who searched for the best schooling money could bu~ That picture has changed. The 20th century saw a surge in higher education; in the early 21st century, the idea of going abroad to study has become thinkable for ordinary students. In 2006, the most recent year for which figures are available, nearly ~m were enrolled in higher education institutions outside their own countries, a rise of more than 50% since 2000.

One reason is the growth of the global corporation; ambitious youngsters sense that a spell studying abroad will impress multinational employers. But for schoolleavers in the developing world, the poor teaching and lack of places at home are stronger factors. China, the biggest "sending" country, with around 200,000 students currently in higher education abroad, has university places for less than a fifth of its loom college-age youngsters.

In June 2008 around lom sat the gao kao, the state university entrance exam. There were places for two-thirds of them. That is despite huge growth; the number of places has risen almost fivefold in as many years.

The general level of China ’s higher education remains low. In 1966 Mao Zedong closed the universities and scattered their teachers; when they re-opened they were short of cash, and a preference for rote learning still leaves many graduates ill-prepared. A 2006 study by McKinsey, a consultancy, found that of the country ’s L6m young engineers only 10% were capable of working for multinational firms.

In the 1990s, China began pouring money into research at around ion of its 1,800-odd higher-education institutions, hoping to create an elite tier of universities.

But the country has yet to register on the global education scale: a ranking by Shanghai Jiao Tong University puts no Chinese institution in the world ’s top 200 universities; Britain ’s Times Higher Education magazine puts Peking University 50th and only six Chinese institutions in the top 200. For Chinese youngsters who can raise the cash, study abroad looks attractive.

Students travel to help themselves, but universities and host countries gain too.

Around a fifth of university students in Australia were born abroad, and international education is the country ’s third-biggest export after coal and iron ore. Foreign students who work in their spare time plug gaps in Australia ’s labour markets.

But some ideas risk succeeding too well. Since 2001 foreign students in Australia have been able to apply for residence; so the marketers of that country ’s campuses have been touting an enticing dealtake a vocational course in a field where Australia needs expertise; work while studying; then settle for good.

According to Fiona Buffinton, head of Australian Education International, a government agency, about a third of the country ’s foreign students are motivated mainly by the hope of gaining residence, and a third primarily by the education on offer, while also nursing hopes of staying on.

Only a third plan to go home after their studies. She fears that if Australia does too well at attracting students seeking a back door to immigration, its position in the global education marketand its attractiveness to really serious studentswill suffer.

Such worries are a reminder that in a global business, reputation is easily lost. In Britain, too, students from distant lands help to balance the universities ’ books: fees for students from the European Union are capped at uneconomic rates. But a study by the Oxford-based Higher Education Policy Institute sounded a warning: Britain ’s "quickie" masters degrees (doable in a year, and nice earners for colleges) are coming to be seen as substandard. Meanwhile, a survey of Chinese students in Britain found that many felt their institutions valued them only for their fees.

Ideally, "sending" countries can benefit as much as those who take students. Taiwan urges its students to leave, although with 164 universities for a nation of 23m, there is no clear need. "We push them out, especially ldoctorall students," says Ovid Tzeng, a government minister. "Otherwise everyone works on the same problems." A wise viewthough the benefits of exporting brains can be slow to materialise.

Once again, China ’s history is instructive.

In 1978, Deng Xiaoping decided to send 3,000 scientists to foreign universities each year for training. Even if 5% did not return, he said, the policy would be a success. In ~

fact, only a quarter of the students who left China as a result ever returned.

So by 1990 China had a brain drain, and this prompted a row within the government, notes David Zweig, a Hong Kongbased scholar. Some wanted to make students return; others saw little point, since China lacked facilities to make use of the students ’ training. Zhao Ziyang, the Communist Party chief, said it would be more far-sighted to "store brain power overseas". His ideas prevailed: a new policy urged Chinese people living overseas to "serve their nation from abroad" as consultants, investors or scholars.

The dream of bringing well-trained Chinese minds home is having some success. Some of the cash earmarked for elite universities is being used to lure scholars back to the motherland. Both the Academy of Sciences and private donors such as Li Ka-shing, a Hong Kong-based billionaire, are dishing out money to make conditions attractive for returning Chinese scholars.

This sort of global contest for grey matter certainly makes for a bracing environment. By contrast, when universities mostly recruit locally, well-known campuses can coast along, knowing they have a brand that can hardly be challenged. In a global market, cross-border partnerships can alter the scene, and create entirely new brand names, in very unexpected ways.

Here too, China offers interesting case studies. Under a law passed in 2003, foreign universities were permitted to set up campuses, or whole universities, inside China, if they partnered with a local body.

In the short period before the government called a halt to take stock, two British universities moved in. Nottingham University opened a campus in Zhejiang province, in 2005; the British institution recruits students and faculty, sets course content, conducts exams and confers degrees. A year later Liverpool University, in partnership with Xi ’an Jiaotong, one of China ’s best colleges, opened a new university iookm (60 miles) from Shanghai. The first few cohorts will get degrees from Liverpool; the new university will soon award its own degrees. Neither British university put up any capital; what is at risk in such ventures is mostly reputation. Both universities, respected in England, but not world-famous, have decided that risk is worth taking in the hope of boosting their global profile.

Meanwhile, some campuses that already flourish in the global market want to go further. Spain ’s IE business school ranks among the world ’s top ten. It now plans to go into undergraduate educationand, in the words of Santiago Iniguez, rector of IE ’s new offshootto "re-invent the university". All courses will have close ties with the hard school of real life. Would-be psychologists will see how organisations work; art students will learn how to run auctions; architects how to deliver on time and on budget. The ethos will be thoroughly global, with teaching in English and up to 80% of students from outside Spain.

Masao Homma, vice-chancellor of Ritsumeikan University in Japan, thinks an influx of foreign students could help his country ’s campuses: in a homogeneous landwhich in his view is growing even more introvertsuch exchanges could expose Japan ’s young to the wider world. Academics, too, could be changed by the new arrivals. Japan ’s tenured faculty members are hardly challenged by home students; foreign ones could do the trick. In Britain, Mr Homma notes, a quarter of all students are over 25, while in his country the figure is only 2.7%. Japan ’s timid young students rarely ask questions; outsiders might.

Like many of his counterparts in rich and not-so-rich countries, Mr Homma looks forward to a world where educational shoppers take a hard look at what is on offer in the global supermarket before settling for a home-made product.

The Economist

Grants will help repair a dilapidated system

New funding suggests post-compulsory education is getting the attention it deserves,

OST of the Australian Gov-ernment ’s $1.7 billion capital and recurrent grants for post-compulsory education are like the Government ’s economic stimulus, of which they are a part: temporary expedients to compensate for structural deficiencies that need basic reform.

The biggest allocation was $580 million from the Education Investment Fund, which was brought forward from its initial timetable. Half the funds are allocated to researchonly facilities and the balance are for research and teaching, with some projects explicitly including clinical or commercial applications. Five of the 11 projects funded are in the physical sciences, four are in health, one is in design and the other is in the social sciences.

National benefit will be gained from the grant for the University of Canberra ’s International Microsimulation Centre based on the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling. The centre produces excellent technical and more accessible reports on social, economic and business issues.

For example, one of its recent publications, What Price the Clever Country?: The Costs of Tertiary Education in Australia, profiles tertiary students, how they meet the costs of living while they study, how much they pay for university compared with students in the rest of the world, how their HECS debts are repaid and the lifetime financial value of a tertiary qualification. The centre will be awarded $11 million from the ElF, by far the smallest grant from the fund.

The equal second biggest of the Government ’s recent allocations to tertiary education was $500 million through a new Teaching and Learning Capital Fund for higher education. This is like the Better Universities Renewal Fund allocated in the 2008-09 budget, except that it is allocated according to domestic student load and no longer takes into account research performance.

A little more than $7 million of the Teaching and Learning Capital Fund was allocated to Bond University, the Melbourne College of Divinity and Notre Dame Australia, which increasingly seem to he only nominally private institutions.

Private vocational and higher education institutions have been making a curious argument recently that there is no relevant distinction between public and private institutions for the purposes of eligibility for public funding, but that private institutions are special in their attractiveness to students and relevance to business.

The Government allocated another $500 million for TAPE and community education infrastructure.

TAPE institutes have been invited to apply for grants of up to $8 million towards immediate maintenance, small capital works and purchase of equipment and plant.

TAPE institutes may also apply for competitive grants of up to $10 million towards capital works and provision of technology and equipment to help their region adjust to economic and climate change.

Adult and community education providers have been invited to apply for small grants of up to $100,000 towards maintenance or buying equipment and for larger grants of up to $1 million for major upgrades.

This is a valuable contribution to a sector that has long been overlooked and underfunded by all three levels of government, and indicates that the Australian Government is starting to consider post-compulsory education as a whole, beyond the formal vocational and higher education sectors.

The smallest recent announcement of $111.5 million is from the Diversity and Structural Adjustment Fund.

Almost all public universities received an allocation from the fund this round, with grants averaging $3.5 million each. Almost $12 million was allocated to five projects that may be broadly described by the US term early outreach: universities working with primary and junior secondary pupils and their parents and teachers to raise aspiration and achievement for admission to higher education.

As welcome as these grants are, many are compensating for inadequacies in government policy and funding. Commonwealth funding for domestic students has included a capital roll-in since 1994, when the government gave universities responsibility for resource management decisions including capital expansion, maintenance, refurbishment and replacement The large accumulations of deferred maintenance reported by some universities are therefore the result of their improvident financial allocations over the last 15 years.

But the root of the problem is that the funding for domestic students is not enough to support the teaching and facilities expected by students, the research that universities want to conduct and the capital development to support both.

Gavin Moodie is a higher education poLicy anaLyst at Griffith University who writes reguLarLy for the HES.

Gavin.Moodie@telstra.com

Australian National

Opportunities for universities

CHARLES Sturt University vice-chancellor Professor Ian Goulter is urging universities to grasp an opportunity for positive change.

Prof Goulter said the release of the Bradley Review into the future of higher education in Australia, and CSU and Southern Cross University ’s plan to conduct a feasibility study into the establishment of a new national university based in regional Australia, marked a chance for change.

"I would encourage all universities to carefully read the final report of the Review of Australian Higher Education and examine its implications for their universities and regional communities," he said.

A proper analysis will take time, but will better prepare us for the discussions that need to occur in the future." Among the many observations and recommendations in the more than 300-page report, Professor Denise Bradley called for the creation of a new wellfunded national university through collaboration between existing regional universities to ensure the long-term growth of higher education in regional Australia.

Prior to the release of the Bradley Review, CSU and Sd announced they would apply for funding from the Commonwealth Government to jointly explore options for the creation of a new national university based in regional Australia. The Bradley Review has been largely viewed in the sector and the media as an endorsement of this approach.

"One of the main drivers for Charles Sturt University and Southern Cross University to undertake a feasibility study is to explore more deeply the sustainable provision of high quality university education and relevant research for regional communities across all parts of the country," Prof Goulter said.

"Our institutions have developed a very successful and sustainable model for regional higher education across multiple campuses, including the use of distance education to extend access to communities without a campus.

"What we want to explore is how we can build upon, and extend, our success in regional multi-campus delivery to other parts of the country through a new type of national university.

Western Advocate,
New South Wales,Australia

Another year over

Last year began with UNE ’s first intake of medical students an epoch-making event that set the tone for a year of achievement at the university. UNE ’s School of Rural Medicine, officially opened in July by the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, is UNE ’s part of the Joint Medical Program an expansion of the highly successful University of Newcastle medical program in partnership with UNE, Hunter New England Health, and Northern Sydney Central Coast Health.

During Ms Gillard ’s visit, she also officially opened the new building housing the Oorala Aboriginal Centre the educational advisory centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at UNE and the Dixson Library ’s Learning Commons, which provides physical and electronic infrastructure for both distance-education and on-campus students.

The 61 first-year students in UNE ’s Bachelor of Medicine program impressed their teachers and professional mentors with their application to their studies and to extra-curricular activities such as the Anatomy Club.

In July, the 2006 Australian of the Year, Professor Ian Frazer, accepted an invitation from the UNE Medical Society to be the guest speaker at the society ’s first official function.

Several other new undergraduate courses introduced in 2008 have like the Bachelor of Medicine program a special focus on preparing graduates for work in rural and regional areas.

These include programs leading to Bachelor of Criminology and Bachelor of Engineering Technology degrees.

In February, the NSW Minister for Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald, visited UNE to launch a new phase in the life of the Primary Industries Innovation Centre (PIIC) a collaborative venture between his department and the university.

On that occasion Mr Macdonald announced the appointment of Prof Bob Martin as the first full-time director of the PIIC, and the establishment of a National Centre for Rural Greenhouse Gas Research within the UNE-based PIIC.

Professor Martin is leading a collaborative project, with $1.17 million funding from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), aimed at reducing poverty in north-western Cambodia by enhancing the production and marketing of maize and soybeans.

UNE ’s Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law, under the directorship of Prof Paul Martin, published the results of several important studies during the year.

These included a study titled Concepts for Private Sector Funded Conservation Using Tax-effective Instruments and a report explaining why the benefits expected from Australia ’s national water initiative are not being fully realised.

Important national and international conferences hosted by UNE in 2008 have included the 28th Annual Seminar of the International Society for Teacher Education, with delegates from Uganda, Kiribati, Bhutan, Kuwait, East Timor, Brazil, Chile, South Africa and the United States, and the 35th annual conference of the Australasian Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour, hosted by UNE ’s Centre for Neuroscience and Animal Behaviour and organised by Prof Gisela Kaplan.

Senior lecturer Dr Terrence Hays was artistic director of two national music events: the inaugural Australasian Piano Summer School for talented young pianists in their senior years at high school was held at UNE in January, and the second biennial Australian National Seniors ’ Choral Festival that was held in Sydney.

The choral festival is a joint project of UNE, the University of Sydney, and the Conservatorium High School, Sydney.

UNE continued to strengthen its international links, developing and expanding partnerships with major tertiary institutions in Vietnam and Thailand, and welcoming to UNE a group of nurses from Chandigarh in the Indian State of Punjab who are the first students to undertake UNE ’s new Bachelor of Professional Nursing degree program.

In April the university welcomed 18 leaders or potential leaders in the field of teacher education whose four-week visit to UNE was funded by Australian Leadership (ALA) Awards a Commonwealth Government AusAID program. The ALA Fellows were from Bhutan, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and East Timor.

In another productive year for the three national Cooperative Research Centres based at U~NE (those assisting the beef, sheep and poultry industries), the chief executive officer of the Australian Poultry CRC, Prof Mingan Choct, became the first Australian to present the important Robert Fraser Gordon Memorial Lecture at the annual conference of the British Society of Animal Science and receive the associated Gordon Memorial Medal.

In sport, UNE won a gold medal (in lawn bowls), a silver medal (in rugby sevens) and two bronze medals (in lawn bowls and athletics) at the Australian University Games in October.

Jacqui Lawrence, who graduated from UNE in 2005 with a First Class Honours degree in Natural Resources, won a silver medal in her kayaking event at the Beijing Olympics.

The university maintained its unequalled record in the Good Universities Guide for 2009 in being once again awarded the Guide ’s maximum rating five stars for overall graduate satisfaction. UNE also received fivestar ratings for teaching quality, access by equity groups, Indigenous participation, entry flexibility, and staff qualifications.

Outstanding contributions to the learning experience of students by members of staff at UNE once again received national recognition through the annual Citations of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC formerly the Carrick Institute).

This year, seven citations went to individuals and groups at UNE, taking the total number won by UNE staff members since the awards began in 2006 to 25.

2008 a year of anniversaries and reunions included events celebrating the 80th anniversary of Armidale Teachers ’ College, the 50th anniversary of Mary White College, and the 70th anniversary of New England University College~ (the precursor of UNE).

At a 70th anniversary dinner at Parliament House, Sydney, in early December, the guest speaker was one of UNE ’s most distinguished graduates, Dr Bridget Ogilvie.

Dr Ogilvie, a world-renowned medical scientist and Fellow of The Royal, Society, was the first student in UNE ’s Bachelor of Rural Science (Honours) degree program to graduate with a University Medal.

In October, family members of foundation lecturers, at the New England University College and lecturers from the College ’s early days were among the guests at the opening of an exhibition mounted in UNE ’s Dixson Library illustrating the home lives of those first families.

This event and the exhibition itself documented, the community ’ that the college developed and that the, university has fostered.

By Jim Scanlan
Armidale Express,
New South Wales,Australia

It pays to complete a degree at JCU

UNIVERSITY graduates are more likely to be employed than non-graduates according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data.

While the general unemployment Jigures are above 4 per cent and growing, of those with university degrees only 2 per cent are unemployed.

Graduates also have high starting salaries with the median starting wage of graduates aged under 25 around $45,000.

Graduate Careers Australia (GCA), the leading authority on graduate employment issues in Australia, recently released Jigures that showed that the top-ranked fields in terms of starting salaries were dentistry, engineering, earth sciences, medicine and mathematics.

James Cook University offers courses in all these fields and many more.

GCA, which is a peak body with representatives from universities and government, as well as graduate recruiters, says that graduates in mining engineering, pharmacy, medicine, civil engineering, and nursing achieved a high proportion of full-time employment.

At James Cook University there are more than isa undergraduate and i 40 postgraduate courses spanning the arts, business, creative arts, education engineering, indigenous studies, information technology, law, medicine and health sciences, veterinary sciences, social sciences, and science.

This year dentistry has been added to the JCU offerings.

While many of those enrolling at JCU in 2009 will be 2008 ’s Year i 2 graduates, there is also a large cohort of older students embarking on a tertiary education after some years in the workforce.

Others are returning to university to upgrade their qualilications in order to achieve advancement in their careers, and some want to change career direction altogether.

Whatever their ambition, a JCU degree will give them an internationally recognised and respected qualification.

With its major campuses in Townsville and Cairns, JCU is a comprehensive university, being one of only a handful of Australian universities teaching in nine or more of the 10 recognised fields of study.

The university will be making its major offer to new students on January 15 and there will be later offer rounds in February.

More than 16,000 students were studying under the JCU banner in 2008 including more than 4500 international students.

The university ’s graduates number more than 35,000, and the most recent cohort ranked their educational experience in teaching quality as four star along with graduate outcomes in getting a job and positive graduate outcomes.

The Good Universities Guide gave the Cairns and Townsville campuses five star ratings for electronic support, while the Australian Universities Quality Agency in its report commended JCU for its success in nurturing a "student-centred" learning culture and environment.

JCU ’s academics are world leaders in areas as diverse as marine biology and tourism. In the latter field, JCU has four of the world ’s leading tourism scholars, ranking it equal first with Texas A&M in this area.

Continued on Page 36

Continued from Page 35 In 2008, the Shanghai Jiao Tong ’s listing of the world ’s top 500 universities had JCU in its top 400.

It is one of only 15 Australian universities to make the list and not all are in the top 400.

The university has firmly established itself as a world leader in environmental and ecological research.

In 2008, Thomson Reuters Essential Science Indicators (ESI) ranked JCU as one of the top 50 most frequently cited research institutions over the period January 2003 to December 2007 in the category Environment/Ecology. Only six Australian universities achieved a Top 50 ranking in any of the 22 categories cited by ESI.

James Cook University ’s clearly defined intent is a brighter future for life in the tropics, world-wide and its purpose is to produce graduates and discoveries that make a difference.

Beginning as the University College of Townsville in 1961 as part of the University of Queensland, JCU became an autonomous university in 1970, and is Queensland second oldest university.

Townsville Sun
Queensland,Australia

Progress on post-school pathways

Despite a few flaws and omissions, the Bradley review is a step in the right direction, writes Gregor Ramsey F ever there were a need to demon-strate the case for a permanent body to advise governments on post-school education, the Bradley review has done the job. Its scope and the range of mailers that need a fix give some idea of how the system has been allowed to languish since the Dawkins reforms of two decades ago. The review is forward looking, balanced, powerfully argued on the basis of evidence and comprehensive.

The important question is how the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relatiuns bureaucracy will deal with the advice and how long it will take to respond.

The recommendations are very much a package that connects the demand for a more highly skilled workforce; the needs of students, particularly in rural and regional areas; issues of quality and transparency; funding and its allocation; and the requirements of a system for Australia in the 21st century.

Universities have their definition tightened and a system of accreditation imposed to guarantee quality of outcome. There is a limiting of the "let a hundred flowers bloom" approach to research, with universities expected to build their research strengths in a planned way according to specific criteria.

Both are moves that have been too long coming. Less welcome is another categorisation of universities into comprehensive and specialist, with a third category of "other higher education institutions". In staifrooms these will no doubt become "real" universities, "nearly real" universities and "nearly" universities. \AThy do we need such categories? Let the institutions stand alone to show what they can do and what they can fund.

Otherwise too much energy will be spent as universities struggle for redefinition.

A major focus is for vocational education and training to become part of the system.

VET is stated to be "of equal value": shades of the old advanced education rhetoric that was very quickly shown to be empty. VET, as the newcomer, is destined to fit in rather than to influence what universities do, providing opportunities that are as yet not fully clear.

Although the review asserts their different roles and hence different sectoral responsibilities, how long can such assertions be sustained without a heavy controlling hand? The review dismantles its own argument for distinction by saying that there needs to be "a capacity for the whole system to provide integrated [my emphasis] responses to workforce needs of industries and enterprises".

How can separate sectors he integrated without a lot of mutual angst and resentment and the stronger sector prevailing in any dispute? The Bradley review proposes a single ministerial council with responsibility for all tertiary education and training. This is a step in the right direction, because at present higher education falls between one ministerial council essentially covering school education and another covering VET. Too much optimism about what such a body might produce is not backed by history.

The membership of ministerial councils changes too often, they meet infrequently and briefly, and state rather than national issues loom large in the minds of ministers. Unless the new council has a ongoing secretariat able to tap deep into the sector, as this review did, it is unlikely to give post-school education the examination it needs.

About nine of the Bradley recommendations require the states to "agree to" or to "negotiate". This is a sure way to slow down the implementation of the reforms. Particularly in higher education, where the fiscal responsibility is with the commonwealth government, the national interest is much

more than the collective compromises likely to he achieved among the states.

After all, about the only major enterprises left in Australia that operate on a state-bystate basis are the states themselves.

What would have been good to see in the review? Three issues stand out The first was the opportunity to redefine where schooling ends and provide a broader, more unified sweep for post-school education. The funding responsibilities of the states and the commonwealth are still too convoluted, and although the review goes some way towards resolving them, it falls shurt uf significant change consistent with revolutionary rhetoric.

A sensible approach could be to have a compulsory period of schooling to the end of the year a child turns 15, or to the end of Year 10. This period is undertaken in a school and a child does not leave school until they have reached an acceptable standard in terms of literacy, numeracy, general knowledge and skills. This should be common across the country and funded by the states. After Year 10. the adolescent moves into a commonwealth-funded period of further education, training and work. This again is a requirement, at least until the age of 18.

In this way the commonwealth would be responsible for the training of the future workforce. More flexibility would be possible in post-school education, with Years 11 and 12 at school, VET in schools, VET in the workplace, private providers, TAFE and universities all developing new arrangements better suiting the adolescent (and adult) clientele seeking to prepare for work.

This leads to the second issue not dealt with by Bradley: that VET funding and higher education funding need to be determined together, because it will be increasingly difficult to distinguish which sector does what As the review acknowledges, the country has suffered from the decision of the education and training ministers in the 1980s not to accept the Dawkins offer for the commonwealth to take up the funding of VET (or TAFE, as it was then).

Why should a student who does a VET course in, say, engineering or accounting have to go to another institution to pursue a degree? The single institution offering training at all levels in a specific field is a model rare in Australia but could well be used in higher education institutions, and particularly in regional Australia. Bradley ’s single agency for regulation and quality would help bring higher education and VET together. To unify policy and funding for these two sectors would have been a genuine revolution.

The third issue is the review has missed an opportunity to advise how higher education and VET could assist with the commonwealth Government ’s educational revolution in schools. If our schooling is so bad and the literacy and numeracy levels so disastrously low, especially in the case of indigenous students, part of the problem must be a university issue, with higher education involved in the solution.

The low status of teaching, the poor preparation of teachers and the low priority universities give to that task, the low level of school-related research undertaken in universities, particularly on effective teaching, and the lack of priority attached by universities to improvements in schooling are all issues the higher education sector should engage with more thoroughly.

How students can be retained at school is fundamental to increasing participation.

School-university partnerships are key underpinnings to the changes that are required.

An interesting question is how the commonwealth intends to deal with the review and what effect the economic downturn will have on issues such as participation, government funding and the skill requirements of a recovering economy.

The old saw that education is an investment, not a cost, remains valid. The challenge for governments, institutions and students alike is to make the right investment The Bradley review provides excellent advice to the Australian Government on how this investment should be made and managed.

As chairman of the Advanced Education CounciL and then of the Higher Education CounciL in the mid-1980s, Gregor Ramsey was heaviLy invoLved in deveLoping and impLementingthe white paper poLicies. He Left the commonweaLth to become head of TAFENSWin 1991.

Australian National

An economist who had a love of learning

PETER KARMEL Economist, scholar 9-5-1922 - 30-12-2008
By TONY STEPHENS NE

Australia ’s most influential economists, Peter Karmel, blended academic life and public service to an extent rarely achieved in Australia. Karmel, who has died in Canberra aged 86, will be best remembered for his work in education, in particular, his landmark 1973 report Schools in Australia that highlighted educational neglect and inequality across the country.
The report followed an inquiry set up by the Whitlam government and its education minister, Kim Beazley snr, aiming to use Commonwealth funds to increase the quality of education and eliminate inequality.
It led to programs for Aboriginal children, migrant children, children with special needs, technical education and adult education. A new schools commission was to oversee the programs, on a needs basis, and money was allocated to state and territory government schools for the first time.
Just before his death, Karmel had written a note to his family describing his pleasure, as the only child of a protective and possessive mother, at becoming a father of six and grandfather of 16. He wrote that his wife, Lena, was the rock on which the family was built.
Peter Karmel was born in Melbourne to Simeon and Ethel Karmel. His father, an importer, died when he was young. Being Jewish was central to his life only "in terms of one ’s ambition". His drive to succeed brought him a scholarship to Caulfield Grammar, where he was school captain.
From Melbourne University he went to the Bureau of Statistics in Canberra, where he met Lena Garrett. They married in 1946, before he took up a scholarship to Cambridge University, finishing his PhD in two years.
He returned to Melbourne University as a senior lecturer in economics in 1948 and, by 1950, at 27, was professor of economics and dean of the faculty at Adelaide University.
Karmel became Flinders University ’s first vice-chancellor in 1966. From 1962 he had been chief planner of the new university. Karmel was admired for his democratic ways at Flinders, yet his last years there coincided with student protests against authority. Being lampooned in the student press distressed him.
He was chairman of the interim council of the University of Papua New Guinea (1965-69) and became its chancellor. In 1971 he returned to Canberra as chairman of the Australian
Universities Commission, which became the Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission in 1977. He was vice-chancellor of the Australian National University (1982-87) and, for 19 years, president of the Australian Council for Educational Research.
Karmel also chaired the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, the Canberra Institute of the Arts and the Australian National Council on AIDS.
As well as his tertiary education work, he chaired three inquiries into schools. The 1973 report, written with Jean Blackburn, established the present system, with the public, Catholic and independent sectors all funded by government.
Karmel felt that the section helping disadvantaged schools and handicapped children was the report ’s most important part. "I don ’t think there ’s quite the same enthusiasm these days for equality as there was in the 1970s," he said later. "We ought to be thinking of education as a part of life as really life itself instead of as a preparation for life." Despite its widespread acclaim, critics argue that the 1973 report brought an end to teaching the three Rs reading, writing and arithmetic and dumbed down a system that had served Australian children well.
Karmel ’s contribution to the education debate was unending.
He made a submission last year to the Bradley review of higher education, delivered to the Federal Government last month.
Two of his recommendations, a voucher system for students and a centralised and independent university regulatory body, were supported by the review.
He had long advocated an independent body to act as a buffer between universities and the government to develop education policy, arguing that various governments were too beholden to lobby groups.
He warned against creeping mediocrity in universities, arguing that it was vital for Australia to support elite researchers and academics, in much the same way that we support elite sportspeople.
Decrying the underfunding of higher education, he fought for a decentralised system to strengthen the autonomy of the institutions. In 2000 he said Australians should pay more tax to pay for a better public education system.
While he worked six days a week, Karmel always ate dinner at the family table and devoted Sundays to mowing the lawn and enjoying a roast lunch with Lena and visitors. He is survived by Lena, five daughters, a son and 16 grandchildren.

Age,
Melbourne,Australia

University misled about drug University misled on attention deficit disorder drug

THE ethics committee of an Australian university gave the green light to a study involving a trial of a new ADHD drug after being wrongly told by a researcher that the US Federal Drug Administration had dropped a "black box" warning that the drug brought an increased risk of suicidal thoughts.

It has also emerged that Curtin University failed to disclose to the parents of the children in the study the full extent of involvement in the study by Eli Lilly Australia, the multinational company that markets the drug Strattera.

Concerns surrounding the conduct of the trial have emerged following a 15-month battle with the West Australian university and Eli Lilly to have details of the study released under Freedom of Information laws.

The trial, which has just concluded, compared the effects of the commonly prescribed ADHD stimulant drugs Dexamphetamine, Ritalin and Concerta with the new non-stimulant medication Strattera, on the educational and social outcomes for children aged between eight and 15 years who had been diagnosed with the condition.

The documents, the release of which Curtin fought hard to prevent, reveal that its ethics committee, which approved the research, was given incorrect Continued Page 8

From Page 1 information regarding the potential suicide risks associated with Strattera.

Curtin was ordered to hand over the documents to Western Australian Labor MLA Martin Whitely, a vocal ADHD medication critic, by the state ’s Acting Information Commissioner John Lightowlers.

"It ’s taken 15 months to get information that shows the university ’s Ethics Committee were given completely wrong information about the suicide warnings attached to this drug," Martin Whitely told The Weekend Australian.

According to the documents, Associate Professor Heather Jenkins, the university researcher who led the trial, told Curtin ’s Ethics Committee in June 2006 that the US Food and Drug Administration had revoked a black box warning about the increased risk of suicidal thoughts associated with the drug, citing an article to back up her claim which had appeared in the US medical journal Pediatric News.

"Since the study has been approved, there has been some publications related to the rare occurrence of suicidal ideation in some patients who were taking Strattera," Professor Jenkins told the ethics committee. "This initially led to a black box warning from the FDA, which was subsequently revoked following further investigations." This was wrong. The FDA black box warning the strongest it issues had been in place for eight months at the time Professor Jenkins advised the committee it had been lifted and the Pediatric News article she cited said so.

Further, Associate Professor Jenkins appears to have cited the incorrect publication she used to support her incorrect claim to the Ethics Committee that the FDA had revoked the Strattera warning. According to a summary document provided by Curtin University which details Professor Jenkins argument, she said it had appeared in the Harvard Mental Health Letter in April, 2006. No such article appeared in that issue but an article by the same name and by the same author does appear in the April 2006 edition of Pediatric News.

Australia ’s own drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, had also placed its strongest possible warning on Strattera regarding the suicide risk two months prior to the university considering Professor Jenkins ’s application.

A separate document provided by the university to parents of children being considered for the study lists serious adverse events associated with the drug including liver damage, cardiovascular disorders and gastrointestinal problems. However, no mention is made of the increased suicide risk associated with the drug.

In 2006 Curtin was deliberating on whether to renew Professor Jenkin ’s drug trial application. They project had stalled because its research partner, Sydney ’s Childrens Hospital Education Research Institute (CHERI) at Westmead, had withdrawn from the project.

According to the documents, the head of CHERI advised Professor Jenkins that the Childrens Hospital Westmeads ethics committee had "too many objections to put in writing." The hospital refused to answer questions from The Weekend Australian about the nature of those objections.

Professor Jenkins did not respond to questions from The Weekend Australian but Curtin University has vigorously defended the conduct of the drug trial. In a statement its Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Linda Kristjanson said Curtin ’s Human Research Ethics Committee was "fully informed and was not misled on any aspect of the study." "Before approving the study, the University ’s Human Research Ethics Committee conducted a rigorous independent review that complied scrupulously with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Research Involving Humans as prescribed by the National Health and Medical Research Council," Professor Kristjanson said.

She said information was given to parents by the pediatrician who diagnosed their children and prescribed the medication.

The extent of Ely Lilly ’s involvement in the trial of its own drug is also revealed despite Professor Jenkins claim in a statement to parents of children in the study that: "Eli Lilly has signed an agreement with Curtin University of technology that confirms that the university investigators are completely independent of their company. This means that Eli Lilly Australia has not influenced the design of the study." The documents show that a drug company employee was paid to work on the study as an investigator who would "contribute to the overall conduct of the study through advice on design and implementation." In an email from Ely Lilly ’s Director of Corporate Affairs and Health Economics to Professor Jenkins in 2002 during the set up phase of the project, he wrote: "We [Eli Lilly] would like the opportunity for our Clinical Research Physician, to look at the proposed protocol in more depth. We have some initial thoughts regarding a couple of additional instruments that may he worth including.." Eli Lilly contributed $145,000 in cash and inkind support to the trial. The trial also received a $500,000 grant from the Australian Research Council.

Parents of children who participated were told that Ely Lilly had supplied the medication free, that the company had made a financial contribution and that its medical staff would be available to the researchers and doctors for information purposes.

Eli Lilly Australia, which also fought the release of the documents said: "Lilly Australia feels that these documents, relating to the study, contained confidential information and their release is not necessarily in the public interest." Its spokeswoman said the company had early in the study provided "technical advice" on outcome measures on "as needed basis" but was dissociated from the study as a "Partner Investigator" in September 2004 and continued as an "Industry Partner Organisation" after that time.

Julie-anne Davies
Weekend Australian

Travel or Living in Australia - Education

Australia has a well-developed education system, with very high rates of secondary and tertiary school participation, and some of the best private schools in the world. The responsibility for schools are divided between state/ territory and federal governments. The education system is divided broadly into five areas,

• preschool /kindergarten

• primary school

• high school/secondary college

• public or private career / vocational training

• public or private university

In Australia, you usually get what you pay for in schools. However, unlike other countries, there are some excellent public (state run) schools. So have a good look around and do your homework. Attendance is compulsory in most states and territories until the age of fifteen, but most students stay on to complete their high school education; year 12 being the final year.

In Australia, the system of teaching and school discipline is often viewed as quite different when compared to some other countries. Parents who have migrated here often find that there is more of an emphasis on encouraging a child’s interest and enthusiasm in learning and also in teaching them self-discipline, research and learning by discovery.

When enrolling your children in a school, you will have the choice between public (state government) or private (independent) schools. Education at public schools is inexpensive. The costs will include a small annual school fee to cover extra activities for example school building funds (tax deductible) or library costs and also extras for their children such as books, uniforms and excursions. Private or independent schools set their own fee structure and receive a subsidy from both Federal and State governments.

If your children are younger than school age (5) there are many full-time and part-time childcare services, although availability can be an issue.