High Wired update: Canberra is policy-free on postgrad places THE Government's response to funding postgraduate places for professional masters is nonsense on stilts. Nonsense on stilts: In November 2011 the feds asked for ideas on the mess that is the allocation and funding of Commonwealth supported postgraduate places, generally for courses required for professional qualification. Back then, publicly funded PG places varied between 1 per cent and 22 per cent of undergraduate enrolments at universities across the country, with allocations based on deals and precedent rather than policy. A consultation paper set out four options, ranging from Canberra distributing a capped number of places for specified courses, through guaranteeing every university a share to allowing institutions to split total load between UG and PG programs. A fourth option "presented for completeness" was to introduce demand driven funding for postgraduate places. The issue was a big deal then and still is. Professional masters are a money-spinner for universities. Where once the content of an undergraduate degree covered the knowledge required for professional accreditation, now a general degree plus masters is regularly required. And the more course costs covered by Canberra the easier it is to charge students for an extra couple of years of study. The consultation paper gave everybody interested until December 16 to respond, which 75 organisations and individuals duly did. That was it for 18 months, until yesterday, when officials who handle higher education inquiries at the department with a very long name finally responded to HW's request for information on what policy is now in place. Here's the salient section of the reply: "There is already scope to vary the allocation of postgraduate Commonwealth supported places, and requests may be approved if sufficient places are available and a course: is, or is moving towards, being an accepted entry-level for a profession; or meets an identified need in an area of skills shortage; or is of national significance." In other words there is no response to submissions to the consultation paper and the status quo of closed-door deals and ad hoc arrangement continues. Another issue for whoever is minister after the election. In breaking news: The University of Queensland reports "ancient bandicoots were "pocket sized"." Debt collectors: A policy expert (a wonk among wonks) suggest the feds have options if the size of HECS borrowings on the Commonwealth's books ($42bn by 2018) alarms them. One is to increase the repayment rate, which now starts at 4 per cent for debtors earning $49,000 to $54,000 and steps up to 8 per cent on incomes over $91,000. The 37 per cent PAYE rate kicks in at $80,000, which means, approximately, graduates earning $91,000 plus pay a top marginal rate of 45 per cent - which only applies to other income earners when they pass $180,000. Another option is to charge graduates a real interest rate on their loans, above an income threshold. This is a possibility raised last month by father of HECS Bruce Chapman. And then there is the biggie, increasing the contribution charge itself. There is talk an Abbott Government might not bother with a mini budget, waiting instead for the results of its audit review and holding the hard stuff until the 2014 budget. HW has no clue, but suspects an increased return on student debt will be too tempting for a new finance minister to ignore until next May. You don't say!: New research from the Australian Institute of Family Studies finds "employed women with children were more likely than other women to be rushed or pressed for time." Who's counting?: Think the debate over the quality and content of teacher education degrees has gone away? HW doesn't. Neither does Griffith University maths educator Stephen Norton. Dr Norton's long submission to the Queensland parliamentary inquiry into maths, chemistry and physics education, makes less interesting than alarming reading. Here's one bit: In most teacher education mathematics subjects, especially primary teacher subjects, there is limited teaching of effective pedagogy or demand for reasonable levels of numeracy from trainee teachers. So, if the lecturer does not teach much maths, or how to teach it, what do the students do? Well, the students read a lot of articles and summarise learning theories. In some mathematics courses much of this reading is on relevant topics such as the role of technology, mathematics of indigenous cultures, articles in support of constructivism, indigenous mathematics, learner's attitudes towards mathematics teaching and curriculum trends. By focusing on reading and critiquing articles, students do more of what they are best at, and that is academic literacy. It is not that I consider such study unimportant; it is just that I consider trainee teachers" knowledge of mathematics and how to explicitly teach it more important. What trainee teachers do in limited amounts is mathematics and how to teach specific mathematical concepts. Despite the argument that too many teacher education undergraduates do not have sufficiently high university entry scores, perhaps the problem is less whether they are bright enough and more what they aren't taught. Who's counting? Alison Sammel, that's who: High Wired swears this is serendipity not segue. Just after writing the above, HW heard about Dr Sammel's new degree for trainee secondary teachers in maths, physics, chemistry and biology and gave her a call. The Griffith academic says her new three and a half year degree includes pedagogy and teaching competencies as well as an entire year in the science faculty, where students solely study their speciality. "There is a focus on content knowledge and how to teach it," she said. Dr Sammel told HW her first intake of students have strong tertiary entrance scores and have studied their speciality at senior secondary level. The good news is that the course is popular: "People want to be science and maths teachers." The surprising news, she adds, is that there is a strong demand from smart young women for physics. The social norm is to want to be a doctor; (society) doesn't rate teaching so to see students with really high entry scores wanting to teach is wonderful. Crawford keeps collecting: Yesterday HW reported ANU's Crawford School of Public Policy has won federal funding for a tax research institute, in the face of a comprehensive bid from a consortium of universities that account for much of the country's academic expertise in tax policy. Well, the work keeps flowing Crawford's way. It turns out the Department of Immigration and Citizenship has an MOU with the ANU for Crawford to manage research for the "irregular immigration research program." If you have a project you want funded Jonathan Cheng is your man and further details are here. Georgia on MOOC minds: Georgia Institute of Technology has announced a MOOC masters in computer science "with enhanced support services for students." Initial cost is under $US7,000, "a fraction of the cost of traditional on-campus masters," Ga Tech says. The program is a joint venture with MOOC provider Udacity. A pilot program will enrol a "few hundred students," which is expected to expand "gradually." This is global competition on price and quality. Think MOOCs are going to flair and fail? Think again. Doltish dreams of avarice: Yesterday High Wired initially reported the ANU branch of the NTEU was demanding a 28 per cent pay rise per annum for four years. Fool that I am I wrote "for" when I meant "over." The union's proposal is a much more modest 28 per cent over four years.