Free Microsoft developer tools to students

Microsoft are gearing up to offer free developer software to high school and university students worldwide, in what could be a bold move to capture the youth market and blitz competition such as Adobe Macromedia. Although, according to CRN Australia, the initiative is part of a greater cause to address the skills shortage in the ICT industry.

The "Dreamspark" suite is already available to students in the US, China and parts of Europe and is expected to be released to other countries over the next six months.

The approximate value of the deal for Australian students is $5,000. When broken down, pricing for the products are: Windows Standard Server $909; SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition $84; Visual Studio 05 and Visual Studio 08 $1387 each, Expression Studio $1040; and XNA Creators Club US$99 (approx AU $107).

Read more on computerworld.com.au.

Show us the money!

Some universities are feeling a little deflated in the wake of last year's Federal election, won by Labor's Kevin Rudd on a wave of "knowledge nation" promise.

According to Simon Marginson they have missed the point, it was more about attitude than immediate financial redress for past neglect by the Howard government.

Support will flow when the universities adopt forward-looking commitments to better national outcomes, and structural changes that enable nuanced and strategic university missions, rather than the old one-size-fits-all formula funding.

Read more on smh.com.au.

Update: Students have their say - call for cheaper degrees, more support (SMH, 19 Mar 2008)

Google Earth to catch a killer?

Homicide detectives are hoping satellite images captured by Google Earth may provide some clues in the recent murder case of a woman in Victoria. More from News Limited.

Labor's full-fee degree abolition

Australia went to the polls late last month and voted in the new Labor government, on a platform of industrial relations, climate change and educational reform. The wave of optimistic euphoria following the change of guard is levelling out somewhat as Labor put their plans into practice. The biggest change ahead for universities is of course the move to abolish full fee degrees for domestic students, in favour of more merit-awarded HECS places.

This would seem to fit in with the UQ's John Quiggin's view that all the FEE-HELP scheme did was lead to overcharging of students. There is a concern however about the hit universities would take financially, and some speculation about whether the government will provide extra funding to compensate.

While Education Minister Julia Gillard maintains that universities will be adequately compensated for the full-fee phase out, the forecast is that universities will be forced to make more places available for full-fee paying international students.

:-) Smiley turns 25

Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman says, he was the first to use three keystrokes -- a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis -- as a horizontal "smiley face" in a computer message.

Read more on CNN.com

Texting, Facebook Used to Alert Students

Trying to make up my mind whether this is a cool adoption by educators of modern technology, or a sad indictment on the gun situation in the US - students are being alerted to the presence of armed and dangerous on campus via text, email and facebook adverts. Read more.

Agents losing student dollar to web

Interesting piece by Milanda Rout from AustralianIT, the increasing role of social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace in recruiting overseas students to universities. Read more.

Rising cost of higher education in Australia

An article from The Age highlights the recent OECD report, which states that Australia has the fourth most expensive degrees in the developed world after the US, Japan and Korea.

There was hope on the horizon some months ago with opposition leader Kevin Rudd's pledge to do "something" about the massive debt shouldered by students; but policy details are lacking and it appears the issue is on the political backburner.

Increasing costs and reduced government funding do not yet appear to have deterred students, and the proportion of university students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds remains steady - but there is argument that the actual effects will take some time to make themselves known.

"University participation direct from school is dropping, particularly among country students, who say they are deferring because of the cost." (Adam Morton, The Age)

Govt schemes in last 30+ years
1974 Gough Whitlam abolishes university tuition fees, arguing higher education is a public good that should be free for all.

1989 John Dawkins, education minister in the Hawke government, introduces the Higher Education Contribution Scheme — a deferred loan system with fees drawn from wages once income passes $22,000. Original flat-fee rate of $1800 a year. The most expensive degree, medicine, costs $10,800.

1997 Howard Government introduces differential HECS. Students pay between $3300 and $5500, depending on their degree. Income threshold lifted from $25,000 to $35,000. Medicine costs $33,000.

1998 Introduction of full-fee places for Australian students.

2005 HECS rates lifted by 25 per cent. Maximum rate of $8018 a year. Medicine costs about $50,000.

2007 Cap lifted on how many full-fee places universities can offer. Full-fee degrees cost up to $250,000.

There are presently three types of university debt HELP schemes:

1. HECS-HELP for eligible Commonwealth supported students;
2. FEE-HELP for eligible full-fee paying students; and
3. OS-HELP for eligible Commonwealth supported students who want to study overseas.

More info www.goingtouni.gov.au.

No more paid content NY Times

Since starting at Uni my research efforts have been thwarted a few times by subscription-only content on the Web. Amongst the various publications, NY Times articles have appeared in search results looking very interesting and relevant, but would only take me as far as a login page.

So it is rather good news that NY Times have decided to do away with online subscriptions. This follows a review of their business model which showed that the potential ad revenue generated by traffic from search engines was greater than the revenue from paid subscriptions.

Read all about it on NY Times - Times to End Charges on Web Site

UNE to act on spate of plagiarism

A report on VillageVoice.com.au (22 Aug, 2007) that the University of New England in NSW has detected a spate of plagiarism amongst theses submitted over the last few years for an IT masters program, and the students involved could be stripped of their degrees.

Notably the theses were all written by international students. Although the report doesn't state where the students come from it is apparent there are cross-cultural factors involved. A search on Google reveals there is much comment on the issue of cross-cultural plagiarism, and it is also the subject of several academic studies.

The report states the students were part of a program run by a commercial partner of UNE. I would hope as well as making a fair decision on what action is taken against the students, that UNE also considers the role and actions of its commercial partner in making students aware of the issue.