Accord

• A review team is due to finish a draft report in June and a final report in December 2023.
• raised concerns about insecure work and underpayment in the higher education sector, particularly for casual or sessional staff.
• We must stop treating casuals as though they are an afterthought, rather than a vital part of higher education.

A huge rise in casual staff

• Employment of casual staff has been on the rise since the late 1980s.
• The union also estimates more than A$100 million in unpaid wages is owed to casual academic staff in Australia.
• This has also been reported in media investigations about casual staff in the higher education sector.

Our research: ‘a trend of overwork’

• Between 2018 and 2019, we spoke with 27 academics employed in a range of insecure roles at universities in Australia and the UK.
• I think really […] if you can just get a job and keep working, that’s an achievement in itself.
• I think really […] if you can just get a job and keep working, that’s an achievement in itself.
• Read more:
  'Some of them do treat you like an idiot’: what it’s like to be a casual academic

What needs to happen instead

• Universities should also recognise the diversity of employees’ employment aims and focus on fair conditions for all staff.
• For example, not all academics would like to work full-time or undertake research.
• Australia spends 1.8% of GDP on research, down from 2.25% in 2008 and well behind the OECD average of 2.68%.
• If staff are more secure and better supported, this will also support improvements in teaching and learning as well as world-leading research.

• The owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, had allegedly been told by an engineer the day before that the building was not safe and should be evacuated.
• Ten years on, the murder trial against him and another 35 defendants has still not been concluded.
• The tragedy shed a light on the appalling conditions that sometimes exist in the global retail supply chain.

The response to Rana

• These focused on things like increasing building fire and safety audits and inspections, with some success in factory safety for workers.
• Without getting into the fine detail of exactly where this applies, it arguably includes Rana Plaza.
• Many wealthier jurisdictions including the UK, France, Germany, the EU and Australia have enacted legislation to tackle forced labour.
• There are also proposals for a mandatory due diligence directive across the EU, though it’s not yet clear whether this will go ahead.

Our findings

• Indeed, the situation was aggravated by COVID 19.
• Yet no suppliers took customers to court for cancellations or refusing to pay for goods.
• Three-quarters of factories were still selling to brands at the same prices as in March 2020.

The situation today

• In Bangladesh, unions are demanding that the legal minimum wage for garment workers be almost tripled, but so far with no success.
• Garment exports have increased more than 35% since the start of the pandemic yet wages and employee numbers have stayed the same.
• When Misguided went under, this meant not getting paid at all, leading to hundreds of workers being made redundant.
• Until a regime is in place with genuine teeth to ensure retailers toe the line, the modern slavery behind high-street fashions will only continue.

• The federal government is calling ideas to “reshape and reimagine higher education, and set it up for the next decade and beyond”.
• A review team is due to finish a draft report in June and a final report in December 2023.
• Rigid, traditional assessments need to make way for a more flexible, personalised way of working out what students know and can do.

Students with disability need a different approach

• Our research shows university students with a disability are disadvantaged by current assessment formats.
• It shows adjustments – which are legally required for those with disabilities – don’t always adequately compensate students.
• Just over 7% of university students reported a disability when they enrolled in 2020.

AI has radically changed the playing field

• We know ChatGPT can write material that is good enough to pass exams.
• So essays and take-home assignments that simply ask students to provide chunks of information will no longer work.

We also need to do better with feedback

• Feedback is an incredibly important part of learning but current assessment approaches obscure helpful feedback to students.
• To have the best impact on learning, feedback should not happen at the same time as students get their marks or final grade.

How to improve assessment

• There is a lot that could be done to improve assessment.
• Students should have choice in assessment Assessment should promote individuality.
• Offering choice in assessment can also reduce anxiety and improve confidence in study as students are doing tasks that are more meaningful to them.
• All assessment should be inclusive All assessments need to be designed in ways to minimise additional challenges for students with disabilities or learning differences.
• If implemented as a matter of routine, assessment for inclusion has the potential to improve the learning experience of many students from diverse backgrounds.

• We're working to develop the deepest portfolio of biosimilars to enhance the patient experience and improve the cost of care across the continuum."
• HLX02 was originally developed by Accord's business partner Shanghai Henlius Biotech, Inc. headquartered in Shanghai, China.
• In 2021, Henlius granted Accord BioPharma the exclusive rights to develop and commercialize HLX02 in the U.S. and Canada.
• The clinical results demonstrated that HLX02 and reference trastuzumab are highly similar in terms of quality, safety, and efficacy.