Government to launch My University website

Following on from the popularity of the My School website, the Federal Government will introduce a similar website for Australia’s 39 universities.

Speaking at the Universities Australia Higher Education Conference yesterday, Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Julia Gillard said the My University website will inform students about institutions, courses and pathways and showcase the quality of Australia’s higher education providers.

The My University website could include:

• student to staff ratios
• results of student satisfaction surveys
• measures of graduate skills
• graduate outcomes
• information about fees
• information about access to student services, and most importantly
• quality of teaching and learning outcomes

The Government wants students to use this data to make their choice about their university on the basis of information about quality rather than students having to rely on hearsay, inference from entry requirements or the perceived prestige of universities. Read more

Thank You Febusave

I’m a little saddened by the fact that ANZ Febusave 2010 is officially over – it’s been a great ride. My involvement with the Febusave initiative began in December 2009 when I was asked to be one of the original blog ambassadors. My initial thoughts were that this could be an opportunity to promote Australian Women Online and increase our reach on the internet. But over the past two months Febusave has come to mean so much more to me than that.

After a slow start, female bloggers from around Australia really got behind the initiative in the lead up to ANZ Ladies Day at the Australian Open in Melbourne. I was thrilled when I reached my goal of recruiting 10 women for the Febusave Blog Ambassador Program and meeting them in Melbourne was for me, one of the highlights of the entire campaign.

Although I greatly appreciate the efforts of all the bloggers who participated in the campaign, I was especially impressed by the ladies who were unable travel to Melbourne and yet, their dedication to the initiative was no less than those of us who were able to take advantage of the free tickets offered by ANZ.

So without further ado I would like to thank: Read more

Wanted: missing copies of The Australian Women’s Weekly

The National Library needs Australia’s help to ensure that future generations have access to early copies of one of The Australian Women’s Weekly.

The National Library, in association with the Women’s Weekly’s publisher, Australian Consolidated Press and the State Library of New South Wales, will digitise the iconic magazine – from its first issue on 10 June 1933 to when it changed into a monthly, on 15 December 1982 – so it will be available online for everyone to read, now and into the future.

At the same time, the National Library wants wants to make sure their own collection of the magazine is complete. So to fill the gaps in their collection, the National Library has called for public help to find some missing issues.

Director-General of the National Library, Jan Fullerton, said the digitisation process combined cutting-edge technology with a 76-year-old Aussie icon.

“The Women’s Weekly has a special place in the heart of most Australians. And following on from the success of our newspaper digitisation campaign, we are pleased to be working towards making the Women’s Weekly available online too,” she said. Read more

Helen Clark highlights importance of gender equality for PNG

During a recent visit to Papua New Guinea, former Prime Minister of New Zealand and current United Nations Development Programme Administrator, Helen Clark (pictured), highlighted the significant opportunities which exist in PNG to promote investment in public service delivery, empower women, and advance the country’s development agenda.

During a 3 day visit, Miss Clark launched the Second National MDG (Millennium Development Goals) Progress Report together with the Minister for National Planning and District Development, Mr Paul Tiensten. As the report highlights, Papua New Guinea is currently off track to meet the Millennium Development Goals, including in areas of responding to HIV, reducing child and maternal mortality, and promoting gender equality.

Miss Clark also met with one of three family sexual violence units at the Boroko police station in Port Moresby which assists survivors of gender-based and domestic violence.

“The sad truth is that where we see progress towards the MDGs lagging the most is often where the needs and status of women and girls are accorded low priority,” she said. Read more

Women warned against taking aspirin for breast cancer

Recent research from the US suggests women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer may benefit from taking aspirin. But the National Prescribing Service (NPS) in Australia is warning people to talk to their health professional before self-medicating.

The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, has received significant media attention, with some reports suggesting aspirin could be a miracle treatment.

NPS CEO, Dr Lynn Weekes says such media reports are concerning and people should not underestimate the strength or effectiveness of a medicine just because it can be purchased without a prescription.

“Like all medicines, aspirin has benefits but it also has potential harms. Aspirin is a salicylate drug, commonly used to relieve minor aches and pains, reduce fever, and as an anti-inflammatory agent,” Dr Weekes said. Read more

Clean Up Australia Day celebrates 20 years in 2010

2010 marks 20 years since Ian Kiernan AO launched Clean Up Australia Day nationwide, urging people to make a difference by cleaning up their local areas for a couple of hours. Since then, Ian’s simple idea has evolved into Australia’s largest community-based environmental event and has also become recognized on a global scale with the launch of Clean Up the World in 1993.

“It’s been an amazing 20 years and we’re aiming to make 2010 Clean Up Australia Day’s biggest year yet. Communities have been able to achieve so much, so there’s a lot to celebrate as we look forward to the next 20 years and plan for the future,” said Ian Kiernan.

In the past 20 years volunteers have spent over 24 million hours Cleaning Up Australia and cleaned up almost 130,000 registered sites. Plastic has been the most common category of rubbish, with chips/confectionery wrappers, bottle caps and drink containers the most common items found. Cigarette butts have remained at the top of the rubbish list, with glass alcoholic beverage bottles consistently ranking as the 2nd most commonly removed item. Outdoor transport sites, like bus stops and train platforms, have been the most polluted areas with beach/coastal sites coming in second. Read more

Tiger could be finally out of the Woods after Apology

Results from a media study among 1,090 Americans revealed that 60 percent indicated that Tiger Woods’ apology was sincere after viewing a video clip from his most recent press conference in the US.

The study was conducted by HCD Research using its MediaCurves.com® website, to obtain viewers’ perceptions of statements by Tiger Woods during a press conference on February 19, in response to his extra-marital affairs.

Viewers were split on whether Woods’ statements changed their perception of him, with more than half reporting that their perception of him had not changed; 31% indicating that their perception had changed in a positive way; and 17% indicating that their perception of him had changed in a negative way.

But some good news for Tiger Woods after the results revealed the majority of viewers (64%) reported that Tiger Woods’ apology was sufficient.

Hopefully this will put an end to the media circus surrounding the champion golfer and the next time we see Tiger Woods it will be on a golf course.

After all, if the American people can forgive Bill Clinton for having ’sexual relations’ in the White House, surely they can forgive Tiger.

Source: HCD Research

New website aimed at increasing internet safety for children

Australian families will be better prepared to protect children from online sex offenders, cyber bullies and scammers with the national rollout of the school-based cyber safety program – ThinkUKnow – launched by Minister for Home Affairs, Brendan O’Connor in Brisbane today.

After running the program in New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT, Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Microsoft are expanding the ThinkUKnow program to help educate children throughout Australia about cyber-safety and security.

The program involves AFP and Microsoft volunteers providing free interactive training sessions to enable parents, carers and teachers to educate children about cyber-safety and security.

AFP Commissioner Tony Negus said the Internet is a wonderful tool for both parents and children, but like any other part of life, there are some dangers.

“This program aims to open the lines of communication between parents and children about online safety,” he said. “The hope is that young people will be confident going to their parents when they have a problem online, and parents will have a better understanding of how to deal with these issues and where they can go for help.”

“The AFP will also continue to work closely with industry, government and local and international law enforcement agencies to protect children online through education initiatives and operations against online sex offenders,” he said. Read more

When Money was the Root of all Evil

I was raised to believe that money was ‘the root of all evil’. While this certainly made it easier to accept the fact that we didn’t have any money when I was growing up, it has also caused some major problems for me as an adult.

When I came of age in the late 1980s, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) from the movie Wall Street was telling millions of cinema goers around the world, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good”. These immortal words would have had a far greater impact on me personally, if the characters weren’t actually indicted at the end of the film. But ‘Greed’ is after all, one of the 7 deadly sins here on earth, as it is in heaven.

These days Gordon Gekko is just as likely to be a TV evangelist as a high flyer on Wall Street. But long before the first wave of millionaire preachers began sprouting their own version of the ‘greed is good’ philosophy, me and my siblings were being loaded on to a bus headed to bible study camp. It was at bible study camp where I learned to be thankful for our daily bread and to wear poverty like a badge of honour. The Christian message at that time was clear: wealth creation is a sin. Read more

Over a million cases of household property damage in Australia

Australian households experienced approximately 1.6 million incidents of malicious property damage according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The ABS Crime Victimisation Survey found that 912,500 households in Australia were victims of at least one incident of property damage in a 12 month period.

Conducted in 2008-09, the survey asked Australians aged 15 and over whether they experienced a crime in the preceding 12 months for a selected range of personal and household offences including; physical assault, threatened assault, robbery, break-in, attempted break-in, motor vehicle theft, theft from a motor vehicle, malicious property damage and other theft. Read more

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