News & Views item - June 2005

 

 

Professor Glyn Davis, Vice-Chancellor University of Melbourne, to be Next Chair of the Group of Eight. (June 27, 2005)

    With his taking up of the Vice-Chancellorship of Melbourne University in January this year, Glyn Davis, together with ANU's VC, Ian Chubb, has marked himself as one of the most outspoken of Australian Universities' Vice-Chancellors in delineating what he sees at the proper place of Australian universities in the fabric of Australian society. He will take over from Professor Chubb as Go8 Chairman in September.

 

It is not an exaggeration to say that higher education in Australia is facing tough times. Given the government’s recent decision not to provide indexation for salaries, universities must fund staff increases amid a levelling-off from international fee income and the significant cost impositions of an end to the amenities and services fee that funds a range of services at most Australian universities.


The challenge for the Group of Eight universities will be how to maintain, in these circumstances, the high-quality teaching and research environment expected of world-class universities.

But just what arguments and inducements the university sector might bring to bear in the current political climate to raise its position on the world stage is a moot point. Currently ANU and The University of Melbourne are Australia's two most highly ranked research universities by the Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University at positions 53 and 82 respectively.

 


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