News 27/4 – Sparrows, Wine and Olympians

April 27th 2010 at 7:54am, By Dave Guerin

The Sparrow The Sparrow, by William Carlos Williams, was one of my favourite poems when I studied at university (“…how he loves to flutter his wings in the dust…”), but postgrad arts students at the University of Auckland are apparently being tormented by sparrow poop on their computers, slow and unreliable computers (due to age, not the sparrows) and bad chairs. The Arts Graduate Action Group has a Facebook page to push their case, but so does William Carlos Williams for that matter.
UV and Wine Lincoln University scientists are looking into the effect on ultra-violet light on sauvignon blanc, given the hig UV levels in NZ.
Olympians Studying Queenstown Resort College is celebrating its biggest intake ever (68), including two Winter Olympians (pictured).Hospitality Degrees Steve Hanrahan, HSI CEO, apparently said recently that we should not be “too concentrated” on degrees in hospitality as Level 4-5 national certificates are often sufficient. AUT and Lincoln University have responded but they seem to be talking past Steve’s points – they argue about the generic need and value of degree education, not whether more are needed as a proportion of all training.
CRI-Uni Cooperation Victoria University and Industrial Research Ltd (a CRI) have joined forces to offer four PhD scholarships.
Twin Graduates There’s a nice media release out from the University of Waikato about twins graduating this year.
Otago Design Design students at the University of Otago met yesterday to consider the proposals to close their department.
Saudi Arabia The Dominion Post has a short story about education oportunities in Saudi Arabia.
Governance Stuart Middleton’s column this week is on education governance.