Category: In the Media

Richard Ferguson – The Australian – 31 August 2020 Australia’s most prestigious universities say their research with China and other global powers is all in the national interest, as they get set to face a major inquiry into foreign interference. The Australian revealed on Monday the Morrison government will call…

7:30 Report – Thursday 27 August 2020 Professor Margaret Gardner AC, Interim Chair of the Group of Eight Board Watch at ABC

Richard Ferguson – The Australian – 18 August 2020 The nation’s most prestigious universities have rejected the Morrison government’s higher education reforms, warning the proposals could cut their funding by stealth without delivering any of the job outcomes promised by Education Minister Dan Tehan. In a submission to the government’s…

Richard Ferguson – The Australian – July 17 2020 Australia’s most prestigious universities could permanently lose thousands of researchers in the next few months as sandstone institutions hit by COVID-19 face a $2bn fiscal cliff. New modelling by the Group of Eight, which represents the country’s most prominent higher education institutions,…

RN Breakfast – ABC Radio – 16 July 2020 One of Australia’s top universities is set to shed 500 jobs, with fears others will follow as the sector struggles to cope with the economic fallout of COVID-19. The University of New South Wales has confirmed the layoffs will help cover…

ABC Radio – 24 June 2020 Nearly a week after the Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan announced a major overhaul of tertiary education funding, Australia’s largest universities have finally been provided with more detail. Under the government’s plan, the cost of studying for a humanities degree will more than double,…

PM – ABC Radio – 19 June 2020 Federal Labor says some university students should not be forced to pay more to boost university places. Under a plan announced by the Government on Friday, degrees including humanities, law and accounting will cost more. Meanwhile teaching, agriculture and maths courses will…

ABC Radio – 10 June 2020 Australia’s largest universities say China’s warning issued to students is disappointing and unjustified. The ministry of education has told students it’s risky to study in Australia because of cases of discrimination and the coronavirus pandemic. The warning comes just days after Beijing issued a…

Radio National Breakfast – Fran Kelly – 25 May 2020 Labor is clamouring for the government to extend the JobKeeper program to Universities after it was revealed on Friday that it will cost the government $60 billion less than expected due to an accounting error. It comes as four private…

Fergus Hunter – Sydney Morning Herald – 21 May 2020 International student arrivals would recommence from countries deemed safe and be subject to self-funded quarantine requirements under a plan put to federal and state governments by the elite Group of Eight universities. The “secure corridor” framework could allow for students…

6 May 2020 – David Taylor on PM – ABC Radio Universities are warning they’ll be forced to shed tens of thousands of staff after missing out on the federal government’s JobKeeper subsidy for a third time. Universities have been excluded because they don’t meet Treasury’s test, but that test…

Geraldine Doogue on Saturday Extra – ABC Radio Even as universities scramble to stay alive, there is no lifeline from the government. What’s gone wrong? Guests: Prof Margaret Gardner, VC Monash University, deputy chair, Group of Eight David Phillips, education consultant, director, PhillipsKPA Listen at ABC Radio

29 April 2020 – David Taylor – PM – ABC Radio You might get the impression from looking at the share market that Australia’s economic recovery is well underway. From its March lows, the market as a whole is now up roughly 20 per cent, and believe it or not,…

April 29, 2020 – Fergus Hunter – Sydney Morning Herald Maintaining strict lockdowns until June could drive a 50 per cent greater economic boost than if measures were slowly eased a month earlier, under one of two COVID-19 recovery plans presented to the government. University researchers have given government leaders…

Fergus Hunter – The Sydney Morning Herald – 25 March 2020 The chair of an academic advisory group which had its recommended strategy to curb COVID-19 rejected by the federal government says there is no perfect solution to the pandemic and those in power should be trusted to make hard…

Vicki Thomson – The Australian – 25 March 2020 No one would want to be in the shoes of our Chief Medical Officer or members of the national cabinet as they work to steer us, as a nation, through this crisis in the safest way possible. They seek to save…

Fergus Hunter, Eryk Bagshaw and Rob Harris – The Sydney Morning Herald – 24 March 2020 Australians will face restrictions on hosting social gatherings in their own homes and more workplaces will be forced to close as the nation moves towards a British-style shutdown that could last months. In an…

Richard Ferguson – The Australian – 18 March 2020 Australia’s top universities are ­offering Scott Morrison their best researchers to fight the corona­virus, as the wider sector pushes for more money and cuts to red tape after being devastated by campus shutdowns and the loss of international students. The Group of…

February 25, 2020 Listen here:

Go8 Chief Executive Vicki Thomson on Sky News, 19 February 2020 – watch at Sky News

Listen to the interview

Vicki Thomson – The Australian – 12 February 2020 As the global coronavirus emergency continues, there should be no reticence to state bluntly that it is delivering a sudden and hard solar plexus blow to international education — Australia’s third largest export sector. Especially after the economic hit of the…

As China’s influence grows, UK scholars question how best to collaborate. A post-Brexit transition may offer change to more than our EU relationship February 6, 2020 By John Gill – Times Higher Education After years of wall-to-wall Brexit coverage, it was a little strange that in the week that Britain formally…

Vicki Thomson – The Australian – 29/01/2020 – read at The Australian It has been a national disaster like no summer before it. Its wake of destruction — mental, physical and economic, and not only for the short term — remains too difficult to comprehend. It’s not a time when…