University of Newcastle Research Project Receives Special Seed Funding

BY HANNAH-LOUISE ANDERSON

A research project involving antimicrobial resistance run through the University of Newcastle has been included amongst five groups to receive funding as part of a tertiary Impact program.

The initiative run by NUW, an alliance between the Universities of Newcastle, Wollongong and New South Wales, selects research projects every year to receive financial contributions that will aid in resolving problems faced by the broader community. This years recipients have received almost a total of $540 000 in funding to promote their studies.

Newcastle's own Antimicrobial Research Task force run by Professor Peter Lewis was included amongst the successful recipients.

"More and more infections are becoming resistant to antibiotics to the point where there are some infections that we now no longer have any antibiotics available that work against them. We've run out and we need more." says Professor Lewis.

"The funding enabled us to run a workshop where we had researchers from the three universities, and external experts from around the world and around Australia, and we used that opportunity to really try and identify the most common areas where we as a group felt we could collaborate in a productive and mutual way to solve this problem."

Newcastle University Hurt By Massive Government Cuts

BY: ALEX MURRAY

As semester commences for another year at the University of Newcastle, Labor says the Turnbull government's proposed $69 million cuts are threatening to tear a massive hole in their budget.

The federal opposition the overall funding loss across NSW amounts to $736 million.

The department of education data show the cuts will make it even harder for students to function in their institution and afford an education.

Students paying their HECS/HELP debt will also have a double whammy, with the salary threshold at which they have to start repaying their debt lowered by $10,000, making the prospect of affording their degree that much harder.

At a time where education-based skills and new age employment opportunities are on the rise, university education for young Australians is now more important than ever.

Federal Member for Newcastle, Sharon Claydon says, "Although great community campaigns have stopped these cuts in the Senate in the past, regrettably the government has decided to ignore these calls and sneak in $2.2 billion dollars worth of cuts."

"The University of Newcastle's losses are nothing to be sneezed at, while they (the government) are cutting higher education to profit millionaires and multi-national companies."

"There is no way that you can chop out $69 million from the University of Newcastle without it being felt on the ground and hurting students with a number of detrimental effects."

"This university over decades has built a range of good support programs for people in lower socio-economic backgrounds to come into tertiary education and finish the degree with higher prospects."

"All students should be getting onto their local members of parliament and making their voice very loud and clear that these cuts hurt students and families,." Sharon Claydon said.