Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site

Keywords: Academics

  • EDUCATION

    Degrees of separation: Closing gender gaps in higher ed

    • Erica Cervini
    • 02 May 2024

    In 1883, Bella Guerin became the first woman to earn a degree in Australia, a milestone for women in higher education. Today, women make up a majority of university students and staff, yet disparities in pay and representation persist. 

    READ MORE
  • EDUCATION

    Declining staff-to-student ratios reveal sorry state of higher ed

    • Erica Cervini
    • 06 March 2024
    2 Comments

    By 2012, when the federal government first started reporting on staff-to-student ratios in universities, there was one academic for every 20 students. The most recent data, from 2021, shows that figure had increased to 23. As Australian students return for the new academic year, it will surely come as no surprise to find that ratio has worsened.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    The geography of loneliness

    • John Chesterman and Ilan Wiesel
    • 01 March 2024
    1 Comment

    The key to combatting increasing levels of loneliness and social isolation will likely start in the way we think about cities, public spaces and social care to enable meaningful connections between people, and help to guard against harms caused by habitual loneliness. But we'll need to get creative.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Lessons from the referendum

    • Frank Brennan
    • 07 February 2024
    12 Comments

    The referendum result was a disaster for the country and a tragedy for First Australians and there has been little appetite for public discussion about lessons to be learnt from this abject failure. If we are to move forward, it’s time to begin the conversation about past mistakes.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Can debate ever do harm?

    • Holly Lawford-Smith
    • 02 February 2024
    1 Comment

    How can we make progress on the question of whether debate can do harm, and if it can, whether that’s a sufficient reason to suppress particular debates? Or should we adopt a ‘no debate!’ approach to particular topics ourselves?

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Behind the curtain: Are same-sex rooms needed in public hospitals?

    • Erica Cervini
    • 30 January 2024
    6 Comments

    Public hospitals around the country introduced mixed gender rooms during the noughties to get patients to their rooms quicker after being in emergency. It has since become common practise, without significant debate or research. 

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    When history becomes myth and memory is lost

    • Warwick McFadyen
    • 16 January 2024
    4 Comments

    In a recent survey of young Americans, 20 per cent of respondents, aged from 18 to 29, thought that the Holocaust was a myth. If knowledge of history fades into the mist, the space will be filled with ignorance, and worse, wilful malice. 

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Best of 2023: Why did the referendum fail?

    • Joel Hodge
    • 04 January 2024

    The Australian Indigenous Voice referendum has been rejected, as anticipated by many, with the meaning and consequences now up for debate. This debate may be as crucial as the referendum debate itself to determining the future of reconciliation and what it means to be Australian in the 21st century.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Best of 2023: Bringing the country with us

    • Frank Brennan
    • 04 January 2024

    As Australia approaches a pivotal referendum, voters face a critical choice: endorse a new chapter in the Constitution providing a 'First Nations Voice' or leave it untouched. Whichever way the vote goes, we will be left with a Constitution not fit for purpose in the 21st century.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    What progressives need to understand about the October 7 massacre

    • Philip Mendes
    • 04 December 2023
    2 Comments

    For over 40 years, I have supported a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That term means two states for two peoples. Such an outcome can only come about as the result of peaceful negotiations that advance compromise and moderation on both sides. 

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Conflict over the conflict

    • Kenneth S Stern
    • 25 October 2023

    The university campus is really the ideal place to tackle thorny issues. It is a safe place to examine all ideas, even — or perhaps especially — those that people find offensive or disturbing. The sad fact, though, is that there is a push these days to send the opposite message to students — that they should be shielded from intellectual discomfort. (From 2022)

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Why did the referendum fail?

    • Joel Hodge
    • 19 October 2023
    44 Comments

    The Australian Indigenous Voice referendum has been rejected, as anticipated by many, with the meaning and consequences now up for debate. This debate may be as crucial as the referendum debate itself to determining the future of reconciliation and what it means to be Australian in the 21st century.

    READ MORE