The Conversation: Australian Research Discussion Site

The following link (via Colm) is an interesting new Australian site devoted to discussions of research emanating from the university world in Aus. Their basic statement of purpose is below. Interesting idea. My experience of being one of the less frequent contributors to irisheconomy.ie is that there is definitely a demand in Ireland to debate research coming out of the universities. A blog post I put up about one of Kevin's papers on higher education generated nearly 150 comments and, while the most popular post deal with developments in the macroeconomy, people do debate research papers when they are put up. The format of the website below is an interesting model.

The Conversation is an independent source of information, analysis and commentary from the university and research sector – written by acknowledged experts and delivered directly to the public. As professional journalists, we aim to make this wealth of knowledge and expertise accessible to all.

We aim to be a site you can trust. All published work will carry attribution of the authors’ expertise and, where appropriate, will disclose any potential conflicts of interest, and sources of funding. Where errors or misrepresentations occur, we will correct these promptly.

Initially, our Content Partners include the Australian Group of Eight universities (Adelaide, ANU, Melbourne, Monash, NSW, Queensland, Sydney, Western Australia) plus University of Technology Sydney, CSIRO, and the Australian Science Media Centre.

Sincere thanks go to our Founding Partners who have given funding support. Those universities are ANU, Monash, Melbourne, UTS, UWA, plus CSIRO. See also our list of Strategic Partners.

We are based in Melbourne, Australia, and wholly owned by The Conversation Media Trust, a not-for-profit company.

This is a beta site in development. We have a program of additional features and functionality that we will be introducing over the next few months. In the meantime, we'd be keen to hear back from you on any suggestions.

If you have any comments or suggestions about our service, we’d like to hear from you. Email us at: feedback@theconversation.edu.au

Teacher Pay Down Under

The Australian teachers union is calling on the government to fund a voluntary system of performance pay that would be based on national teaching standards and would pay the most accomplished teachers $100,000 annually.

According to an article in The Australian:

Federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said a new career structure was required to move away from the current system under which teachers are forced to leave the classroom and undertake administrative positions to achieve further pay rises.

"This is a two-step process in giving professional pay for teachers," he said. "First we need to ensure as a country that we have a competitive professional salary to attract teachers in the numbers required to ensure a qualified teacher in front of every single classroom, no matter where it is in the country.

"Beyond that, I restate our preparedness to negotiate a framework that further recognises and rewards demonstrated teaching skills, knowledge and practice."

This seems to me to endorse something akin to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards but which would be built upon recognized national teaching standards and funded consistently across the country. More info here and here.

Kudos to the Strategic Management of Human Capital project for bringing this issue to my attention.