Letter from the guest editor

Kristen Lyons

As guest editor, it is my pleasure to introduce this issue of Australian Universities’ Review. Most of the issue is ‘special’, on the extremely important topic of academic freedom and its precarious future. My introduction to the special issue introduces the papers and their eight authors. These papers have been written from a range of perspectives, which cover the topic in detail.

Of course, AUR is AUR, and it is a journal that preaches to a broad church. There is also a timely article on the low entry scores required to get into education programs at Australian universities. Robert Lewis describes how the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rankings system works (ATARs), and his stated aim is to highlight the profound systemic problems of falling standards in school student outcomes; in part due to lowered ATARs as well as problematic standards in teacher education.

Book reviews are an important part of AUR’s agenda, and this issue has several such reviews from ‘hardy perennial’ book reviewers Neil Mudford, Paul Rodan and Thomas Klikauer.

All in all, this issue of Australian Universities’ Review is a ‘must read’ in the challenging times in which universities and their workforces find themselves.

Kristen Lyons is a Professor of Environment and Development Sociology in the School of Social Science at the University of Queensland.