Papers by Andrew Wearring
This survey finds that young Australians are struggling to cope with stress as they strive to ach... more This survey finds that young Australians are struggling to cope with stress as they strive to achieve their goals in life. Overview This year, 13,600 young Australians aged 15-19 took part in Mission Australia's 13th annual youth survey. The 2014 survey explored what young people value, their issues of concern, where they turn for help, their engagement in community activities and feelings about the future and included a particular focus on young people's aspirations. The survey revealed that while over 8 in 10 young people felt that achieving career success and being financially independent were highly important, only around 6 in 10 of young people who highly valued these aspirations felt that they would be achievable. At the same time, the issue of greatest personal concern for young people in 2014 was coping with stress, with more than one in three respondents expressing high levels of concern, highlighting the immense pressure young Australians are facing in their final years of school. Other survey highlights Around 80% of young people ranked education and hard work as the top two factors they believe will influence their career opportunities in the future Almost 50% of young people dbelieve where they live will affect the career opportunities available More than 70% of young people ranked owning their own home as a key aspiration, and most felt this was also achievable despite falling rates of home ownership in Australia Coping with stress is the number one personal concern for young people, alongside school or study problems. Young women in particular are increasingly overwhelmed with more than half saying they are either extremely or very concerned about coping with stress
Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal
While the Australian arts and cultural sector has been adept at shaping the national conversation... more While the Australian arts and cultural sector has been adept at shaping the national conversation around its economic significance, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought multiple and serious challenges. Weakened by years of government defunding, the sector now faces the shocks of shutdowns and social distancing on their bottom line. Post-COVID we propose that arts and culture organisations in the Not-for-profit sector express their contribution to society as social impact, in order to access more diverse sources of funding. This paper looks first at established ways of assessing economic value, then discusses the broader social value of arts and culture organisations. It then explores methods by which this can be measured and reported. Lastly, a review of relevant literature and best practice approaches to social impact measurement is provided, outlining a framework to produce evaluations that both strengthen their programs and enhance their ability to communicate their value to funders.
The International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives, 2015
Universities are increasingly catering to this wider market, which is especially enticing to inst... more Universities are increasingly catering to this wider market, which is especially enticing to institutions given that working, sometime mature-aged students may have deeper pockets and so often prefer to enrol into graduate and/or full-fee paying programs. International students are an important part of this more complete image of the university sector globally today. This paper will explore perceptions of Vietnamese international students studying with regard to their experience on teaching and learning in Australia through series of qualitative interviews. The findings indicate that Vietnamese students struggled with language, assessment, Western teaching and learning style. Many interviewees felt that local students often lumped them together with other international students, who sometimes had no desire to befriend or even work with them. The paper will provide recommendations on how to improve students’ experience perceived as customers in the higher education context and adds ...
Literature Aesthetics, Sep 27, 2011
Sydney Studies in Religion, Sep 19, 2008
Sydney Studies in Religion, Jun 19, 2008
As I am sure many reviews of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code have observed, it is a book which has,... more As I am sure many reviews of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code have observed, it is a book which has, for better or worse, been the subject of much, often heated, discussion and debate. It has created a veritable industry of supposedly serious works that purport to debunk or affirm the various claims made within its pages: Secrets of the Da Vinci Code, Cracking the Da Vinci Code, Breaking the Da Vinci Code, or even The Da Vinci Deception and The Da Vinci Con. 1 Brown's claims have evidently been something of a revelation for the majority of his readers, and clearly they have been left wanting more. Its wellestablished place at the top of bestseller lists around the world is testament to its popularity, and few would question the influence it has had on its readers. But what exactly is it that has struck such a chord with readers? To briefly summarise, The Da Vinci Code claims: that Jesus was fully mortal; that he married Mary Magdalene and had children by her (as represented by the allegory of the Holy Grail: chalice = womb; blood = bloodline); that his descendents survived in France, that the Catholic Church has suppressed this information since its inception and that Jesus' divinity was 'decided by a vote,' with motivations that were purely political. These claims, while no doubt sensational for many, are hardly new. Strangely enough, this is something Brown seems to want to reiterate again and again. For his part, however, this is due to the fact that he wants to paint the picture of a conspiracy on the part of the Catholic Church to cover up information held-continuously since the death of Jesus-by an unorthodox underground, one that he no doubt includes himself in. The real reason that these ideas are in no way new is that they were all claimed in the monumental pseudo-history of 1982, The Holy Blood
International students are an important part of today’s global university sector. This paper expl... more International students are an important part of today’s global university sector. This paper explores perceptions of Vietnamese international students studying with regard to their experience on teaching and learning in Australia through 10 in-depth interviews. The findings indicate that Vietnamese students struggled with language, assessment, and Western teaching and learning styles. Many interviewees felt that local students often lumped them together with other international students, who sometimes had no desire to befriend or work with them. The paper provides recommendations on how to improve students’ experience and adds to the current debate on international students’ satisfaction, with general implications for international education.
Journal of Religious History, 2010
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Papers by Andrew Wearring