Category Archives: Education

Independent schools right to be worried about GST broadening – parents already fee sensitive

Posted on August 19, 2015 by Gene Tunny

Independent Schools Queensland (ISQ), which represents non-Catholic private schools, released an excellent discussion paper earlier this week prepared by Mikayla Novak on the impacts of broadening the GST to include education. The paper notes that, if GST were applied to … Continue reading →

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Victoria threatens to overtake Qld in international visitors

Posted on June 8, 2015 by Gene Tunny

In a recent post, regarding new ABS data on the State or Territory in which short-term (i.e. for less than one year) international visitors to Australia spent the most time, Mark Beath asks: “Surely Victoria can’t really be about to … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Tourism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

MOOCs a game changer for universities – UQ lecture by Roly Sussex OAM

Posted on March 1, 2015 by Gene Tunny

Our very own University of Queensland is a world leader in MOOCs. (Image attribution: By James Dover (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons) Last Thursday night, at the University of Queensland’s Customs House in Brisbane, Emeritus Professor … Continue reading →

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Time for a Sensible Debate on Broadening the GST Net – Guest post from Michael Willis

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Gene Tunny

Last week, I spoke with Ben Davis from 4BC about broadening the GST (see 4BC interview on KPMG’s analysis of GST increase for CPA Australia). Our discussion was pretty high-level, and there were many detailed issues we could have discussed … Continue reading →

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Boys under-performing at Queensland State Schools

Posted on December 16, 2014 by Gene Tunny

A new ABS study on educational outcomes at Queensland State Schools confirms the importance of socio-economic factors in school performance, and also reveals a surprisingly large gap in NAPLAN performance between boys and girls (see chart below I’ve copied and … Continue reading →

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Productivity Commission has scope to consider student visa rorts

Posted on November 21, 2014 by Gene Tunny

One of my loyal readers often says to me that “Australians love a good rort”, and indeed there are several government policies and programs that allow rorting to various degrees. So I’m pleased that the fiercely independent Productivity Commission is … Continue reading →

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GST hike appears very likely, but Commonwealth retreat less so

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has, it seems, given the green light for raising more revenue via the GST in a speech at Tenterfield on Saturday (Sir Henry Parkes Commemorative Dinner): …the Commonwealth could stop funding programmes in areas of state … Continue reading →

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Upcoming Economic Society event on rural & remote service delivery

Posted on October 19, 2014 by Gene Tunny

With a relatively high proportion of the population living outside of major cities and towns, in outer regional or remote areas (see chart above based on ABS data), Queensland faces an additional challenge in delivering government services such as health … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Health, Population, Queensland Government | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

TAFEs cutting costs as training market gets much more competitive

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Gene Tunny

It’s good to see that Queensland TAFEs are preparing for the more competitive training market expected in the next few years and are considering cutting courses that are not economically viable. For example, as reported on in the Fraser Coast Chronicle … Continue reading →

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Huge disparity in qualification levels across regions, even in SEQ – e.g. Bris West vs Ipswich & Logan

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Gene Tunny

A new ABS publication, Perspectives on Regional Australia:  Changes in Regional Educational Attainment, reveals huge differences in the percentage of people aged 20-64 with post-school qualifications (Certificate III and above) across Australian regions (see map below based on 2011 Census … Continue reading →

Posted in Brisbane, Education | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments