ALTRAV, I don't always read your posts, particularly those appearing to be nothing more than long winded dribble. Was your startling "proof", re Australian Micky Mouse status for universities contained in a long winded dribble post, or in one of your regular blowing my own trumpet posts? Please enlighten, and I will read it.
As I said, I have done my own research on the world standing of Australian universities, and to my satisfaction there are at an acceptable level. Saying that, its not proof, as you claim you have, it is my opinion.

Paul, so you had the presence of mind to read my comment on page 11, but you chose to refer to the 'Mickey Mouse' statement and not the reference to the 'world rankings of Australian uni's'.
This actually says more about you than me, so if you don't mind or if you really do want to know the TRUTH, which I know you don't because it will vindicate me once again, please go back and read it, and weep, before you say another word.
Having read/seen the rankings, I find them typically at a standard of a Mickey Mouse level.
If you don't agree, it simply means you are the type of person who settles for mediocre as opposed to a higher standard, which would explain a lot about the left and how it see's the world and the level of education they perceive as being 'world class'.
Well you may be right, in YOUR WORLD!
Now will you guys admit you're flawed and get with the 'real' program and step into the 'REAL WORLD' where I and many other like minded, well informed, mature people on OLO live.

ALTRAV //As you can see for yourself, one chart gives four ranking systems. The first three are enough to make my point yuda, yuda yuda// I went to page 11, there must be some malfunction with my computer, for I see no such charts, nor do I see a link to any charts. Maybe they only exist in your distorted minds eye. Then again I might not be getting the same Google results as you. Oh dear things are tough. As I said I have done my own research and I have come to a different conclusion to you. Short of us both discovering that Australian universities hold all top one hundred ranking positions with all, we are probably not going to agree on the relative merit of Australia's tertiary institutions. Rankings are rather subjective at best, but of some merit. PO the Yankee and Pommie joints an Australia look rather good.

Paul, your really not trying are you?
The word imbecile comes to mind as I won't accept that you could not find my reference to Uni rankings.
I don't know how to link so that's why I mention the name of the site.
But if I must say it then I will.
Your fanciful idea that Aussie uni's are ranked in the top 100 internationally is a good thing, only confirms my comments, that your expectations are mediocre at best.
Having 5 or 6 uni's out of 37 in the top 100 is absolutely abysmal and shows us how our uni's have dumbed down or fallen so far down the in their world rankings, they are an irrelevance.
When you consider the 37th. is around 800th in the world, well no need to say anything, I think the rankings speak for themselves.
And you pretend you don't know Aussies are amongst the dumbest in the world.
You must still live under a rock if you haven't been following the scathing condemnations about the numeracy and literacy standards being the lowest in the developed world, right here in Australia.
Is it as someone has suggested, to facilitate the wannabe abo's or something?
Anyway Paul, I've proven my point, so it is irrelevant to me and the rest of OLO if you believe me or not.

Individual,

With respect, your comments about federal funds being siphoned off into university bureaucrats' Super funds is neither here nor there, in relation to Indigenous university participation. If it happens, it happens across the board of federal funding for universities, not just in relation to Indigenous participation.

You touched earlier on an important issue though, the disconnect between 'communities' and Indigenous university participation. To be at all effective, 'communities' need a strong economic base, but very few seem to be interested in build up their economic bases, so there may not be any scope for professionals involved in such activity: 'community' members seem to be preoccupied with money, no-work welfare, housing and health, rather than anything leading to economic activity.

And you probably know the anyIndigenous 'blow-ins' get short shrift from the pissy-local power structures, and those who do want to go to 'communities' are harassed and disillusioned, perhaps beaten up, and leave, never to return.

After all, the great majority of Indigenous graduates are urban-born, urban-raised, urban-based. Overwhelmingly, their first (and effectively only) language is English. If they go out to 'communities', they very likely do not have relations, family and clan members, there. Thy most likely won't even be considered to be Aboriginal by the locals. So why on earth should they bother ?

I had faith in the 'community' idea for maybe thirty years, but suspect that, except in very unusual cases, it has nothing going for it. Not only is it a dead notion, but it perhaps never got off the ground. Family and clan are the drivers of Indigenous destinies, not 'community'. And unless they get their act together, education, employment and economic activity are not on their agendas. No-work welfare is, almost solely. And dialysis machines.

When my late wife realised that about her own birth-community, she was devastated: to an extent, genuine community development was the be-all and end-all of what she was trying to do all her life. I'm sure that very many Indigenous people have had the same experience.

Cheers,

Joe

Alt Rave,

There are tens of thousands of universities across the world. For any university to come in the top 100 is an amazing achievement - within the top 1 % across the world ? What's not to like ?

Any other irrelevant whinge ?

Joe