Deakin Speaking

The caps are coming off and university administrations are nervous. Just what a demand driven system means for university recruitment, no-one really knows for sure.  What I know for sure is that as well as ensuring recruitment targets are met, we need to be ready to ensure the success of the students we recruit, especially the ones who are from underprivileged backgrounds. 

I think we should give them all schoalrships, bursaries, stipends and all the other versions of free money available.  Lucky I don't rule the university world or we'd be spending a bit of money (and maybe keeping more students to completion...ahem).

We also need to assist those who aren't familiar with the discourses and norms of higher education to understand what is expected of them as university students and to learn to perform in ways that ensure their success.  Easy to type, hard to do.  But some research I led last year has some cool tips.

The link between success and luck is stronger than most people think, writes Economist Robert Frank of Cornell University in The New York Times. The difficulty that some have with his argument is that it challenges everything about the American dream. But, sadly for all those people who like to think that they are fully responsible for "pulling themselves up by their boot strings", "brushing themselves off", and "thinking about tomorrow", it is very much the truth.