The Algorithm Age

Staff at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) are experiencing high levels of psychological distress as they brace for 400 redundancies as part of a broader cull of Australian university workers, according to a leaked survey. The survey of 380 workers by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), obtained by ABC News, found 35 per cent were experiencing very high levels of psychological distress. "There's a lot of helplessness and uncertainty and the thing that I want to draw out of here is people have this notion that's natural with change management," said Dr Hossai Gul, a UTS expert in change in complex systems. "There are kind and compassionate ways to do this… people shouldn't become unwell." Dr Gul is risking her employment to speak out due to rules governing public comment by university staff. She said the redundancies would result in the downgrading of important areas of scholarship and teaching ...

Aussie regrets studying at university She has to pay off more than $50,000 HECS debt READ MORE: Proof young Aussies have never had it worse A young business graduate has claimed her degree was 'not worth it' after discovering her HECS debt has ballooned to more than $50,000. Perth woman Pascal Zoghbi, 22, told Yahoo she regretted studying a Bachelor of Business and majoring in marketing at the University of Western Australia . She said her debt was around $48,000 when she graduated in 2023 and believed the figure was slowly growing smaller due to compulsory repayments from her salary. 'Because I knew I was paying it off, I genuinely thought it would be at least under $50,000,' she said. 'The fact that I saw it back to $50,000, if not more - that was shocking. 'I was like, "Are you serious?" Literally everything that I have paid is just now back again.' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese...

Aussie regrets studying at university She has to pay off more than $50,000 HECS debt READ MORE: Proof young Aussies have never had it worse A young business graduate has claimed her degree was 'not worth it' after discovering her HECS debt has ballooned to more than $50,000. Perth woman Pascal Zoghbi, 22, told Yahoo she regretted studying a Bachelor of Business and majoring in marketing at the University of Western Australia . She said her debt was around $48,000 when she graduated in 2023 and believed the figure was slowly growing smaller due to compulsory repayments from her salary. 'Because I knew I was paying it off, I genuinely thought it would be at least under $50,000,' she said. 'The fact that I saw it back to $50,000, if not more - that was shocking. 'I was like, "Are you serious?" Literally everything that I have paid is just now back again.' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese...

The federal education minister has referred concerns about the Australian National University in Canberra to the country's tertiary education regulator. Independent ACT senator David Pocock wrote to the minister, Jason Clare, on June 16 to raise concerns about governance and financial management at the ANU, which is pursuing a controversial restructure to save $250 million by 2026. There has been widespread staff and community outcry over the university's ongoing plans to slash hundreds of jobs, after it revealed a cumulative deficit of around $600 million. Senator Pocock's letter, which also includes other unspecified serious allegations, has now been referred to the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), which regulates higher education. Mr Clare said he had also written to ANU Vice-Chancellor Genevieve Bell on June 6 after hearing of "significant concerns" from his ACT Labor colleagues and the broader community ab...

Prahlad Narasimhan Chari, 30, an Indian citizen, considered applying for an MBA in the US . After getting accepted to a business school in Barcelona, he withdrew his application to an American school. He said that Europe was the right choice for him as an international, self-funded student. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Prahlad Narasimhan Chari , 30, an MBA student who was applying to a university in the US but withdrew his application and went to a school in Barcelona. His words have been edited for length and clarity. Everyone around me in Hong Kong — and my relatives in India — seemed to think that pursuing an MBA in the US was the obvious choice. Friends and cousins who had gone before me raved about their experiences. But I didn't do it. Instead, I pulled the plug on my US application . The decision felt big at the time — even a little risky. I grew up i...