WELCOME to High wired, The Australian's daily guide to everything afoot in higher and further education in Australia and beyond. Some of the news that's fit to print The new edition of the University of Queensland News is light on for, well, news. Notably news about the report by former University of Wollongong VC Gerard Sutton and retired state MP David Watson into the Integrity and Accountability Reform program. Readers who hate seeing great careers implode may have suppressed the memory of the late 2011 resignation of then vice-chancellor Paul Greenfield and his deputy Michael Keniger. The cause was never revealed, beyond it relating to a problem with an individual enrolment in medicine. However, it kick-started concerns about corporate culture that continue still. According to a consultant's report intended to inform Sutton and Watson, a staff survey "suggests a current culture where, mostly, people either avoid difficult situations or position themselves in the best light, often at the expense of others." Sutton and Watson also found an accountability culture in dire need of improvement. With the arrival of the new VC, it is now opportune to adopt improved decision making behaviours, ones which encourage open, honest and transparent behaviours and to be forward looking in the change process. At least it's all out of the way and new VC Peter Hoj can take the university forward. Um, not quite. The Crime and Misconduct Commission has a report into the enrolment affair and the university's management of it. Yesterday CMC spokeswoman Siobhan Barry told High wired "it would be released at a date to be fixed." Another story for UQ News not to run? Enjoy it while it lasts High wired thought it was a case of April fools' day delayed when the University of Canberra announced yesterday, "sex is "nothing but trouble" ." In fact it was notice of a lecture by evolutionary geneticist Jennifer Grave. Apparently, "the genes and chromosomes that control sex self-destruct in a blink of an evolutionary eye." Please note the absence of jokes about things happening too quickly. Better off with Ballarat Monash University's former director of its Gippsland campus John Anderson pulled no punches when he explained why it will be better off as part of the University of Ballarat (it's not a done deal mind, it only looks like one.) "Monash has not been visible for a few years," he told ABC regional radio's Celine Foenander. He was also generous with advice that may, or may not, suit Ballarat. It's a new university, not the Gippsland campus of the University of Ballarat. It will give Gippsland a chance to do what it has always wanted to do. But what about losing the cachet of the Monash name? "G8 snobbery is not as justified as people think," he said. So that's all right then. Thorough to a fault Quality regulator TEQSA wants to hear how people think it should communicate its edicts. Not that it has to mind, "there is no specific requirement under the TEQSA Act for TEQSA to publish information on discrete regulatory processes and decisions, beyond the requirement to maintain the National Register of Higher Education Providers," it assures us. That the invitation takes eight pages says a lot about the agency - and it is all alarming. Shorter but subtler The Australian Research Council is also asking for opinions, to design the next Excellence in Research for Australia exercise in 2015. It looks like standard administrative engineering, asking academics "to identify any functional and user experience enhancements that can be made to the data collection process, or other technical aspects of the submission process" and so forth and so on. But that's not the subtle style of the ARC's astute Aidan Byrne. With Chief Scientist Ian Chubb working on a research impact strategy universities need to get all the options for measuring and funding, research on the table. The bit to read in the invitation is the ARC's request for "general feedback from universities on the preparation, submission and evaluation phases of the ERA 2012 process," which can mean anything an astute DVC research requires. Brand building for the baffled Last month the Group of Eight announced it had hired marketing consultants to have a look at the elite university brand. High wired's pals in the Common Room were surprised by the timing - it came close to Universities Australia launching its multi-million dollar campaign advocating more money for the system in the lead up to the election. But it seems UA has a way to go before it has the brand recognition it needs to really blow its own trumpet. The Go8 now reports, "feedback indicated there was a lack of clarity surrounding the current priorities of the Go8. It also highlighted a demand for more benchmarking. Yep, that will do it - when it comes to campaigns that win hearts and minds nothing beats benchmarking. Tweet of the Day Yesterday Scott Bowman, VC at CQ University tweeted to his 512 followers. Today we start to move forward as one united university - I have put forward a plan for C Management Services to be mainstreamed into CQU. No, High wired didn't know what it meant either. But Bernard Lane did and he explains an important story that explains the end of an era in The Australian this morning. Right to drivel not denied Like his namesake, Ward Churchill never surrendered, never. But his cause was just a touch more ambiguous. Ethnic studies academic Churchill was sacked by the University of Colorado in 2007 after internal investigations into his academic performance. But he did not surrender and fought a losing fight through the courts until yesterday when the US Supreme Court declined to hear his last appeal. Churchill claimed he was sacked for his opinions. The university countered that it had 'properly investigated and adjudicated acts of plagiarism, fabricating evidence and violations of the university's academic standards. As to his opinions, Churchill is best known for his comparison of World Trade Centre victims to Adolf Eichmann. In the end his arguments did not get a guernsey with the court upholding the university's process rather than addressing the free speech issue. Know something the world needs to hear? Tell me all about it. Discretion guaranteed but lots of questions asked. matchetts@theaustralian.com.au and sign up for the High wired newsletter