Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Shaun Wilson

David Peetz @davidpeetz.bsky.social · Aug 19

Want to lift workers’ productivity? Let’s start with their bosses

www.thenewdaily.com.au/work/2025/08...

Want to lift workers' productivity? Let's start with their bosses

Business has the biggest influence on productivity – a much bigger impact than workers, who are typically blamed when things go wrong.

www.thenewdaily.com.au

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Professor Euan Ritchie @euanritchie.bsky.social · Aug 19

"Australia has the second-lowest public expenditure on tertiary education institutions in the OECD…This has resulted in an endless chase for dollars (international students & “the next big thing”) rather than thinking about what an educated Australia should look like” www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...

Universities such as mine are making poor decisions, and we’re not allowed to know why

UTS has announced a “pause” on enrolments in 100 courses. Vacating these critically important areas diminishes not only the brand of UTS but the state it was designed to benefit.

www.smh.com.au

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Josh Holloway @jholloway.bsky.social · Aug 15

with what's been going on at ANU, UTS, Macquarie, etc. seems like an appropriate time to again post this 2021 study. Gives some good hints as to where some alternative savings might be found
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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Guardian Australia @australia.theguardian.com · Aug 15

UTS academics describe ‘culture of fear’ as enrolments put on hold for nearly a fifth of courses

The freeze comes as the university pursues $100m in cost cuts and after it announced in April it could axe 400 jobs * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Academics at the University of Technology Sydney have described feelings of stress and a “culture of fear” after the educational institution temporarily paused student enrolments for nearly a fifth of its courses, leaving staff wondering if their jobs will be among the hundreds set to be axed. The university has stopped taking in new students for 120 of its 615 courses, including masters degrees in teaching primary and secondary education. More than 50 of the affected courses were international study options attached to other degrees. The pause will last until the end of the autumn 2026 semester. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · Jul 1

"Europe Sees Dangerous Heat Wave as North America Sets 3,000 Temperature Records" via @truthout.org: truthout.org/video/europe...

Europe Sees Dangerous Heat Wave as North America Sets 3,000 Temperature Records

This comes as GlobalChange.gov was taken down, along with information on how global warming is affecting the US.

truthout.org

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Human Rights Watch @hrw.org · Jul 1

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act isn't a solution to economic inequality or for managing immigration and asylum procedures — it's a blueprint for cruelty.

The US deserves a health care system that fulfills everyone’s human right to health, and a budget that makes this possible.

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SEIU California @seiuca.org · Jul 1

Unbelievable. Senate Republicans just voted to TERMINATE healthcare & SNAP for millions — all to funnel more billions to billionaires.

This vote exposes Trump’s MAGA agenda: always for billionaires—not for working families fighting for care, food, dignity.

seiuca.org/press-releas...

SEIU California | Republican Senate Vote to Terminate Healthcare and SNAP for Millions Americans Exposes MAGA’s Big Lie: Trump’s Bill was Always for Billionaires, Not Working People

Republicans in the U.S. Senate today voted for the biggest cut to healthcare and nutrition in our nation’s history in order to deliver on Trump’s campaign promises of tax cuts for the mega-rich.

seiuca.org

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Cam Walker @camwalker.bsky.social · Jul 1

Excellent news. Great work from the ALP, Greens, Animal Justice & Legalise Cannabis parties.
Of course, the LNP refuses to come out of the 1950s.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

First Peoples’ Assembly set to become permanent voice to Victorian parliament with crossbench support

Exclusive: Advisory body will be renamed and granted statutory powers after Labor secures numbers to make it permanent

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Shaun Wilson

Shaun Wilson @shaunwilson.bsky.social · Jul 1

Please sign and share - a worthy petition to protect Sociology at Macquarie and, more generally, to protest the declining commitment by university managers to strong social sciences in Australia. Their value cannot be over-stated.

www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/sa...

SAVE SOCIOLOGY AT MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY

We urge Macquarie University management to reverse this decision and preserve the vital disciplines of Sociology and Politics. Sociology has a key place in the social sciences as the broadest and mos...

www.megaphone.org.au

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Shaun Wilson @shaunwilson.bsky.social · Jul 1

Please sign and share - a worthy petition to protect Sociology at Macquarie and, more generally, to protest the declining commitment by university managers to strong social sciences in Australia. Their value cannot be over-stated.

www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/sa...

SAVE SOCIOLOGY AT MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY

We urge Macquarie University management to reverse this decision and preserve the vital disciplines of Sociology and Politics. Sociology has a key place in the social sciences as the broadest and mos...

www.megaphone.org.au

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Dr Peter Davidson @pagdavidson.bsky.social · Jun 28

Oh god yes, the next time I read (incl from uni peak bodies) that unis are a leading export industry Ill throw up!
Among other things they are key to boosting productivity.
Won’t happen if corporatised production line approach persists.

Shaun Wilson @shaunwilson.bsky.social · Jun 27

www.afr.com/policy/healt...

Universities aren’t pizza joints; stop treating them that way

Policymakers must set aside the fiction that universities are just another industry that can generate its own funding and that academics can be turned into entrepreneurs.

www.afr.com

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The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) @sociologyaustralia.bsky.social · Jun 27

🔥 FINAL HOURS!
Early Bird registration for #TASA2025 closes at midnight tonight!

Be part of Australia’s leading sociology conference and connect with scholars, researchers & change-makers from around the country.

🎟️ Register now and save: www.tasa.org.au/content.aspx...

#DeadlineDay #TASA2025

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Reposted by Shaun Wilson

Ben Eltham @beneltham.bsky.social · Jun 27

I think the new universities regular ATEC should make a rule — every time a university kills off a course like music or politics or sociology, they should also have to reduce the salary of the vice-chancellor by $100k

Ariadne Vromen @ariadnevromen.bsky.social · Jun 27

It’s heartbreaking to read about the dissolution of the Politics Department at Macquarie University along with the decimation of Sociology - so many brilliant scholars livelihoods being destroyed www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Proposed Macquarie University restructure will ‘hollow out’ humanities, academics say

Macquarie blames prospect of international student caps and ‘uncertainty’ about domestic student numbers for proposed academic job cuts, fewer arts courses

www.theguardian.com

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Dr Liz Allen @drdemography.com · Jun 27

‘Academics are leaving, exhausted by stifling workloads…Students are unhappy…paying through the nose for an insipid version of the…experience their parents enjoyed. We’re so busy beating up universities…we forget what a disastrous own goal we’re kicking…’ www.theage.com.au/national/a-k...

‘A kind of monster’: Why does everyone hate universities?

Neither side of politics is giving universities the love they need, but the unis need to smarten up – for all our sakes.

www.theage.com.au

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Shaun Wilson @shaunwilson.bsky.social · Jun 27

www.afr.com/policy/healt...

Universities aren’t pizza joints; stop treating them that way

Policymakers must set aside the fiction that universities are just another industry that can generate its own funding and that academics can be turned into entrepreneurs.

www.afr.com

1

Reposted by Shaun Wilson

Dr Liz Allen @drdemography.com · Jun 27

University policy has been broken for 40 years. ‘Our policymakers must be brave enough to argue that education is unequivocally and intrinsically a public good, vital to the interests of the nation, and therefore worth funding properly.’ www.afr.com/policy/healt...

Universities aren’t pizza joints; stop treating them that way

Policymakers must set aside the fiction that universities are just another industry that can generate its own funding and that academics can be turned into entrepreneurs.

www.afr.com

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Reposted by Shaun Wilson

Milo Kei @milokei.bsky.social · Jun 20

Maq Uni restructuring is symptomatic of the rot infesting university mgmt throughout the land (and elsewhere). Just when you think the hollowing out has to stop somewhere it accelerates into new disciplines. #Sociology now at risk there due to pitifully small thinking

#AcademicSky #SaveHASS

We must oppose the reductive logic underpinning the Macquarie proposal. The HASS fields, including
sociology, remain crucial to the international standing of Australian universities, and are a drawcard for
our students. We note that the Job-Ready Graduate Package has done nothing to deter students’
interest in HASS. The contention that HASS courses are financially unviable is simply not born out by
indicators of teaching and research income.
Despite this, the management of Australian universities has been reduced to forms of ‘strategic
planning’ that amount to cherry picking (and often guessing at) the most profitable fields – and
restructuring accordingly. This reflects an inability to envisage and enact innovative institutional
responses to national and global developments shaping higher education. It fails to uphold a vision of
the contemporary university as one that balances income and profit with intellectual contribution, social
purpose and cultural impact. We urge the senior management of Macquarie University to revise their
current restructuring proposal and adopt a more constructive and future-orientated vision. We extend
this plea to other Australian universities currently reviewing their programs and staffing. Our collective
task is to strengthen what our universities are and can be, not deplete them.

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History Council of NSW, Inc. @historynsw.bsky.social · Jun 26

Will History fall silent?

We are extremely concerned to hear about the planned downsizing of academic positions in the Arts Faculty

Please read our statement of concern on the proposed staff and course cuts at Macquarie University via the link below

buff.ly/8ThbLgf

Statement of Concern - Proposed staff & course cuts at Macquarie University

The History Council of NSW expresses concern about the proposed staff and course cuts to History at Macquarie University.

buff.ly

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Ariadne Vromen @ariadnevromen.bsky.social · Jun 27

It’s heartbreaking to read about the dissolution of the Politics Department at Macquarie University along with the decimation of Sociology - so many brilliant scholars livelihoods being destroyed www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Proposed Macquarie University restructure will ‘hollow out’ humanities, academics say

Macquarie blames prospect of international student caps and ‘uncertainty’ about domestic student numbers for proposed academic job cuts, fewer arts courses

www.theguardian.com

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · Jun 25

Yes to this but why stop there? Let’s go for full comprehensive universities established on co-operative principles. VCs to be elected by staff, paid the same as other professors and rewarded for the burden of their 4 year stint with a sabbatical afterwards. Local govt on the board too.

Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · Jun 25

Better governance ‘could have avoided mass university job cuts’.

Philip Augar proposes union representation on governing boards and vice-chancellor pay reforms.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

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Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · Jun 22

Penny Wong, 2003: "I say suspicion is not enough. To justify going to war we need more than suspicion. What sort of world would we live in if suspicion alone was justification for participation in unilateral military action outside the auspices of the UN? "

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Mike Hudema @mikehudema.bsky.social · Jun 21

From the edge of extinction Spain and Portugal were able to save the world's most endangered cat from the brink.

We have the solutions. Implement them.

#ActOnClimate #climate #energy #nature #rewilding #GreenNewDeal

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Jamie Wood @larusnz.bsky.social · Jun 19

Impressive work - The number of recognised genera of Australo-Papuan treefrogs has just been increased from 3 to 35!

academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · Jun 20

A message from Bernie as we head into the final weekend before the election.

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The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) @sociologyaustralia.bsky.social · Jun 20

TASA is deeply dismayed by Macquarie Uni’s proposed restructuring that would decimate sociology. The social sciences matter — they help us navigate a complex world. Our full statement & call to action here: www.tasa.org.au/docs.ashx?id...

#Sociology #HigherEd #SupportHASS

www.tasa.org.au

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