In this episode of the podcast Claire is joined by two casual academics, Emily Foley and Tony Williams, who also hold positions at the National Tertiary Education Union. Emily and Tony share their personal experiences and those of others in the sector and what the highly casualised, precarious nature of their employment means.

The articles and reports mentioned in the podcast are listed below - but before you get to them, here's another one that takes a very different approach: Prof. George Williams at Western Sydney University writes in Meanjin that universities are not corporations.

• NTEU: University wage theft on track to exceed $382 million nationally
• FWO: University of Melbourne signs Enforceable Undertaking
• FWO: University of Sydney signs Enforceable Undertaking
• AFR: 'I'm not going to say no to a nice salary' outgoing Melbourne Uni boss
• The Guardian: Revealed: University of Sydney spent millions more on consultants than repaying wages of casual staff
• University Chancellors Council: Submission to the Universities Accord Panel's Interim Report 
• Bluesky: Ben Eltham thread on the Monash University Federal Court wage theft case 
• The Guardian: Australian Catholic University sparks anger over scrapping medieval history and philosophy departments
• Times Higher Education: World University Rankings 2025

Contact Claire:

• Connect with me on LinkedIn: Claire Field
• Follow me on Bluesky: @clairefield.bsky.social
• Check out the news pages on my website: clairefield.com.au
• Email me at: [email protected]

The ‘What now? What next?’ podcast recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Australia’s traditional custodians. In the spirit of reconciliation we are proud to recommend John Briggs Consulting as a leader in Reconciliation and Indigenous engagement. To find out more go to www.johnbriggs.net.au

In this episode of the podcast Claire is joined by Prof Himashu Rai from the Indian Institute of Management Indore. What IIM Indore is doing to educate the next generation of Indian business leaders and engineers has to be heard to be believed.

If you want to know more about IIM Indore - their website is: https://iimidr.ac.in/ and you can find Prof. Rai on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/askhimanshurai/

Contact Claire:

• Connect with me on LinkedIn: Claire Field
• Follow me on Bluesky: @clairefield.bsky.social
• Check out the news pages on my website: clairefield.com.au
• Email me at: [email protected]

The ‘What now? What next?’ podcast recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Australia’s traditional custodians. In the spirit of reconciliation we are proud to recommend John Briggs Consulting as a leader in Reconciliation and Indigenous engagement. To find out more go to www.johnbriggs.net.au

In this special episode of the podcast, Claire is joined by Dirk Mulder, founder and CEO of The Koala News and Tracy Harris, Principal, Tracy Harris Solutions to discuss where the international education sector stands now that the government's legislative changes to amend the ESOS Act look unlikely to be passed by the Senate.

The podcast is the audio recording of a webinar Claire, Dirk and Tracy hosted. If you want to watch the video instead you'll find it at: https://clairefield.com.au/international-student-caps-webinar-recording/

If you're not already a subscriber to the Koala News - you definitely should be: https://thekoalanews.com

Finally, if you want to connect with Dirk and Tracy - here are their LinkedIn profiles:

• Tracy Harris
• Dirk Mulder

Contact Claire:

• Connect with me on LinkedIn: Claire Field
• Follow me on Bluesky: @clairefield.bsky.social
• Check out the news pages on my website: clairefield.com.au
• Email me at: [email protected]

The ‘What now? What next?’ podcast recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Australia’s traditional custodians. In the spirit of reconciliation we are proud to recommend John Briggs Consulting as a leader in Reconciliation and Indigenous engagement. To find out more go to www.johnbriggs.net.au

In this episode of the podcast Claire is joined by Chemène Sinson and Maria Langwell to discuss the Revised Standards and why it's important that the Standards should still include a definition of 'competency', why there is a need for proper education and support for RTOs during this transition, and how training providers can map their existing practices to the new Standards.

If you haven't seen the Revised Standards yet - they're still technically in draft form until they are legislated - but they have been signed off by State, Territory and Australian government Skills Ministers, so for now they're available on the DEWR website: https://www.dewr.gov.au/standards-for-rtos

And if you don't know Maria or Chemène - here's where you'll find them on LinkedIn:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/chemenesinson/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-langwell-23617766/

Contact Claire:

• Connect with me on LinkedIn: Claire Field
• Follow me on Bluesky: @clairefield.bsky.social
• Check out the news pages on my website: clairefield.com.au
• Email me at: [email protected]

The ‘What now? What next?’ podcast recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Australia’s traditional custodians. In the spirit of reconciliation we are proud to recommend John Briggs Consulting as a leader in Reconciliation and Indigenous engagement. To find out more go to www.johnbriggs.net.au

On this episode of the podcast Claire is joined by two VET leaders helping shape VET's response to changes in the way work is done in the construction industry: Jason Jennings from the ACT's Construction Industry Training Council and Eve Price from ConCOVE (New Zealand's Construction & Infrastructure Centre of Vocational Excellence).

You can find out more about ConCOVE at: https://concove.ac.nz and about CITC at: https://www.citc.org.au

And if you're interested in AI and its impact on teaching and assessment - although the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) has not yet produced any resources to support VET providers with this challenge, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency has developed an impressive array of practical resources which are also highly relevant to the VET sector: https://www.teqsa.gov.au/guides-resources/higher-education-good-practice-hub/artificial-intelligence

Contact Claire:

• Connect with me on LinkedIn: Claire Field
• Follow me on Bluesky: @clairefield.bsky.social
• Check out the news pages on my website: clairefield.com.au
• Email me at: [email protected]

The ‘What now? What next?’ podcast recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Australia’s traditional custodians. In the spirit of reconciliation we are proud to recommend John Briggs Consulting as a leader in Reconciliation and Indigenous engagement. To find out more go to www.johnbriggs.net.au

In this episode Claire steps through the following changes the Australian government is looking to make to international education:

• through the Education Services for Overseas Students Amendment Bill - which aims to improve transparency in relation to education agents, to limit new international education providers and their activities, and to cap international student enrolments
• Claire's analysis of what the student enrolment caps will mean for different providers - which she has also written about in some detail on her website at: https://clairefield.com.au/unpacking-the-international-student-caps-for-each-provider/ and here: https://clairefield.com.au/more-problems-in-how-international-student-caps-have-been-allocated/
• Claire's analysis of the government's related actions to strengthen integrity in the international VET sector: https://clairefield.com.au/the-list-of-144-of-the-150-ghost-colleges-including-more-schools-the-nsw-taxi-council-ausgrid-and-more/ and the government's earlier media release on the supposed "ghost colleges" https://ministers.dewr.gov.au/giles/over-150-ghost-colleges-axed
• Claire's explanation of why the removal of Ministerial Direction 107 may not deliver everything providers are expecting: https://clairefield.com.au/revoking_ministerial_direction_wont_be_a_silver_bullet/
• Claire's analysis of why private VET providers will be hardest hit in the short-term by the student caps: https://clairefield.com.au/why-private-vet-providers-are-hardest-hit-by-student-caps/
• the Senate Committee's report and recommendations on the ESOS Amendment Bill: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Education_and_Employment/OverseasStudents/Report, and
• the recent PIE panel discussion on the proposed changes and their likely impact: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/australia-intled-landscape-whats-at-stake

Contact Claire:

• Connect with me on LinkedIn: Claire Field
• Follow me on Bluesky: @clairefield.bsky.social
• Check out the news pages on my website: clairefield.com.au
• Email me at: [email protected]

The ‘What now? What next?’ podcast recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Australia’s traditional custodians. In the spirit of reconciliation we are proud to recommend John Briggs Consulting as a leader in Reconciliation and Indigenous engagement. To find out more go to www.johnbriggs.net.au

In this episode of the podcast Claire is joined by the President of the Digital Education Council, Danny Bielik to discuss the work of the Council and how education is changing and what that means for institutions. During their conversation they discuss:

• a recent global survey conducted by the Council on students' views and use of AI in education: https://www.digitaleducationcouncil.com/post/digital-education-council-global-ai-student-survey-2024
• the work of the government of Singapore in keeping its citizens upskilled for the changing world of work: https://www.skillsfuture.gov.sg (see particularly the 'initiatives' tab), and
• Danny reminds us of how difficult it is in early stages of technological change to predict the future (see for example his short post on the Nokia Communicator - once heralded as the future of the internet!)

Contact Claire:

• Connect with me on LinkedIn: Claire Field
• Follow me on Bluesky: @clairefield.bsky.social
• Check out the news pages on my website: clairefield.com.au
• Email me at: [email protected]

The ‘What now? What next?’ podcast recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Australia’s traditional custodians. In the spirit of reconciliation we are proud to recommend John Briggs Consulting as a leader in Reconciliation and Indigenous engagement. To find out more go to www.johnbriggs.net.au

In this episode, Claire speaks with Michael Fay OAM, Director and Head of Education Services at AFG Venture Group and Special Advisor to the Executive Director of the ASEAN Universities Network.

Michael shares his deep experience and insights on Australia's universities' (and VET providers') engagement in Southeast Asia and with ASEAN - and talks about the upcoming ASEAN Australia Education Dialogue being held later this year.

In her introduction Claire recognises the efforts of Austrade to sensitively communicate the recent decision by the Australian government to introduce caps on new international student numbers in 2025, see the Study in Australia website

And as Michael notes, the details of the upcoming AAED Dialogue have not yet been finalised but you can look back at the previous dialogues on the AAED website and there's the option on that page to subscribe to their newsletter to keep updated (or connect with Michael on LinkedIn) or you can check out the ASEAN Universities Network website. 

Contact Claire:

• Connect with me on LinkedIn: Claire Field
• Follow me on Bluesky: @clairefield.bsky.social
• Check out the news pages on my website: clairefield.com.au
• Email me at: [email protected]

The ‘What now? What next?’ podcast recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Australia’s traditional custodians. In the spirit of reconciliation we are proud to recommend John Briggs Consulting as a leader in Reconciliation and Indigenous engagement. To find out more go to www.johnbriggs.net.au

In this episode of the podcast Claire is joined by Kane Murdoch, Macquarie University's Head of Conduct, Appeals and Misconduct to discuss issues related to academic integrity - especially since the advent of Generative AI.

Kane mentions the following articles in the interview:

• Educational integrity enforcement pyramid with Cath Ellis: Ellis, C., & Murdoch, K. (2024). The educational integrity enforcement pyramid: a new framework for challenging and responding to student cheating. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2024.2329167
• Murdoch, K., House, D. (2023). Courageous Conversations: Approaching Amnesty Through Honesty as Reparations to a Learning Community. In: Eaton, S.E. (eds) Handbook of Academic Integrity. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-079-7_181-1

And a recent report from the Digital Education Council 'Global AI Student Survey' offers interesting insights into students' use of GenAI, reinforcing the need for institutions to fully engage with the technology and its impact on academic integrity and learning.

Contact Claire:

• Connect with me on LinkedIn: Claire Field
• Follow me on Bluesky: @clairefield.bsky.social
• Check out the news pages on my website: clairefield.com.au
• Email me at: [email protected]

The ‘What now? What next?’ podcast recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Australia’s traditional custodians. In the spirit of reconciliation we are proud to recommend John Briggs Consulting as a leader in Reconciliation and Indigenous engagement. To find out more go to www.johnbriggs.net.au

In this episode of the podcast Claire was joined by Amit Sevak, the CEO of Educational Testing Service (ETS), to discuss the role ETS plays in international education and what they are seeing as countries like Australia move to restrict international student numbers.

Amit also shares his insights into some of the key takeaways from ETS' 2024 Human Progress Report - a global survey of attitudes to learning (including views on upskilling and reskilling and the growing 'fear of becoming obsolete' (FOBO) as well as people's views on the use of AI in learning.

Contact Claire:

• Connect with me on LinkedIn: Claire Field
• Follow me on Bluesky: @clairefield.bsky.social
• Check out the news pages on my website: clairefield.com.au
• Email me at: [email protected]

The ‘What now? What next?’ podcast recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as Australia’s traditional custodians. In the spirit of reconciliation we are proud to recommend John Briggs Consulting as a leader in Reconciliation and Indigenous engagement. To find out more go to www.johnbriggs.net.au