Discussion about University Rankings

On Radio National this morning Fran Kelly talks to Jamil Salmi, World Bank’s Tertiary Education Coordinator, about the the competitiveness of the higher education industry and university international rankings.  How accurate are international rankings tables? And do rankings really reflect the value of a university and what it can offer? Aspects discussed include research, equity and community.

Travel back in time

 A little tip for those of you that feel frustrated when a link has moved or a page has changed its content. The internet has its own backup of sorts.

While not completely comprehensive you can still find old or changed pages using the Wayback machine at the Internet Archive.  Just cut and paste the old link into the URL search box to see if the page has been archived. If it has, then select the year and date of the Archive snapshot of the page and watch it appear before your eyes.

So just remember …be careful what you put up as some mistakes may never go away.

Looking for Course Outlines?

You will need to log on to the secure gateway to access your Course Outlines. They are available via Student Admin. Services.

https://gateway.unsw.adfa.edu.au/isas/current_students/outlines/11-2/

BOOKO – an aid to buying books online

Booko is a site which can help you find the cheapest books and DVDs in Australia.  It is not an online shop but a kind of search engine which goes out to the Internet and looks up book and DVD prices for you.

To find the cheapest price for the book or DVD you want to buy, enter your search in the search box (you can search by Author/Title/ISBN/EAN). When the search results arrive, click on the title that you’re looking for. This will trigger Booko to go out to the internet and find online bookshops that have the title. You will then be presented with a list of online bookshops that offer the title you want and their price. Prices quoted are converted to Australian dollars. Make sure to check that the date the prices were found is recent enough and otherwise click “Update prices now” to get a more up to date price. Click on the shop name you have selected and this should take you their website.

The Book Depository bookshops (both the US and UK) are often the cheapest option and more importantly, they don’t charge for shipping.

www.booko.com.au