Three private universities offer the best student experience out of all Australian institutions according to the latest student experience survey, with the University of Divinity ranked number one overall.
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With national attention already focused on campus free speech, the assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University has intensified a fractious moment for higher education. Voices on the right have blamed colleges for Kirk’s death, calling them “indoctrination camps” and comparing them to “madrassas that radicalize jihadis.”
Though the suspect is not a student, Kirk’s killing has intersected with concerns that students are increasingly unable or unwilling to engage with dissenting views. Critics have cited the most recent FIRE College Free Speech Rankings survey, which shows that one in three students thinks it’s acceptable to use violence to stop a speaker.
Colleges did not cause Kirk’s death, but leaders cannot ignore the finding that a third of students support using violence against a speaker. Though most students will never resort to violence, the possibility forces colleges to reassess campus security. UVU’s police chief admitted more than half his force of 15 officers wasn’t able to secure the crowd of 3,000 people at the Kirk event. Security experts noted that stopping a shooting from the top of a building hundreds of feet away requires Secret Service–style sweeps. The incident raises questions about bringing outside speakers to campuses. With so many budget problems in higher ed, who will cover the costs of keeping them safe?
Yet on the ground at UVU, life on campus looked far different from critics’ portrayals. In the hours after the shooting, the student newspaper, The UVU Review, reported that professors reached out to students to offer resources and reprieves from coursework. Students called everyone in their phone to tell them they were safe. Strangers hugged each other and students offered a ride home to anyone who needed it. They put aside their differences to grieve together. “It feels like life stopped for us,” said one student. “But it kept going for everyone else. I’m ready for life to start again, no matter how changed it’ll be.”
Given Kirk’s prominence, students across the country will feel like this incident has changed their lives, too. With more than 850 campus chapters, Turning Point USA is an organization where conservative students have found community. And even for students who disagreed with Kirk he inspired them to engage with political issues and debate their ideas.
But the reactions to Kirk’s death reveal that the ideological fissures on campus have only deepened. At least 15 faculty and staff members have been fired for appearing to condone the shooting on social media, many after online campaigns called for their dismissal. Meanwhile, at a candlelit vigil at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—a campus that has faced its own tragedy—student Walt Wilson told The Daily Tarheel he was mourning Kirk even though he disagreed with him. “Getting killed over debate and fostering free speech, especially in a place like a university where that is supposed to prosper, is a real tragedy and shows an issue of communication and reconciliation,” he said.
Free speech survives only if protected in practice. This moment will test higher education’s resolve: Will political pressure drive colleges to retreat, or will they recommit to free expression as a path through turmoil?
New College of Florida plans to honor recently murdered conservative activist Charlie Kirk with a statue on campus, the public liberal arts institution announced on social media earlier this week.
Kirk, who founded the organization Turning Point USA, which has chapters at hundreds of colleges, was shot and killed while speaking outdoors at Utah Valley University last week. Kirk has since been eulogized by multiple conservative figures, including President Donald Trump.
“Today, we announced that we will commission a statue of Charlie Kirk to honor his legacy and incredible work after his tragic assassination last week. The statue, privately funded by community leaders, will stand on campus as a commitment by New College to defend and fight for free speech and civil discourse in American life,” New College officials wrote Monday on X.
Where on campus the statue would go has not yet been announced.
NCF appears to be the first to announce such a move to honor Kirk, though more than a dozen congressional Republicans are seeking to place a statue of Kirk in the United States Capitol. Additionally, Iowa representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks has called on the University of Iowa to name its new Center for Intellectual Freedom after the activist as a tribute to his legacy.
Although a public institution, NCF made national headlines in early 2023 when Republican governor Ron DeSantis appointed a swath of new members to its Board of Trustees and tasked them with shifting New College in a conservative direction akin to the private Hillsdale College.
New College’s announcement generated millions of impressions on social media, including concerns about whether the statue would be vandalized, prompting DeSantis to respond, “If a student defaces the statue, then the student will be sent packing. Go ahead, make my day!”
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The Australian National University (ANU) is one of the most prestigious universities in Australia and is regularly ranked among the world’s best.
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Caps on international student places, set at 270,000 for 2025 and rising to 295,000 in 2026, are intended to manage growth and safeguard integrity in the sector.
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The Albanese government has asked universities, researchers and businesses for feedback on joining the world’s largest research program.
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In this episode of HEDx, Kylie Readman, the University of Technology Sydney’s deputy vice-chancellor of education and students, outlines a new venture in global online education.
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Several historically Black colleges and universities locked down and canceled classes Thursday after receiving threats to campus safety, according to notices from campus officials and media reports.
The affected institutions include Alabama State, Bethune-Cookman, Clark Atlanta, Hampton, Southern and Virginia State universities.
Alabama State canceled all campus activities Thursday after receiving a “terroristic threat,” according to media reports. Although university and law enforcement officials issued an all-clear notice in the afternoon, the institution said it remained closed to the public and asked on-campus students to keep sheltering in place.
At least four of Georgia’s HBCUs likewise locked down after Clark Atlanta University received a threat, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Each institution — which included Spelman and Morehouse colleges — lifted their lockdown orders by early afternoon.
In Virginia, at least two institutions also received threats.
Hampton said it would halt all nonessential activities through Friday after getting “notice of a potential threat,” according to a social media post from the institution.
Virginia State likewise went into lockdown as law enforcement investigated “the credibility of the threat” it received Thursday, the university said on social media. Later that day, Virginia State President Makola Abdullah said the lockdown had been lifted.
“To those who seek to silence or scare us: we will not be intimidated,” Abdullah said. “For over a century, Virginia State University and other HBCUs have stood as a beacon of knowledge, excellence, and resilience. Today’s events only reaffirm our commitment to providing a safe and empowering environment for our students, faculty, and staff.”
Southern University, in Louisiana, Thursday afternoon lifted the lockdown order imposed following a “campus safety threat,” it said in a social media post. However, the university canceled all classes and campus activities through the weekend.
In Florida, Bethune-Cookman officials canceled classes due to a “potential threat to campus safety,” it said in a social media post. The university ordered employees on campus to head home and others to work remotely. It also advised students to shelter in place in their dorms.
Police gave the all-clear notice for the campus in the early afternoon, The Daytona Beach-News Journal reported.
On the other side of the state, Florida A&M University had not received a threat but was monitoring the situation, it said in a social media post. “We stand in solidarity with institutions currently under lockdown or threat and extend our support during this time,” it added.
In early 2022, HBCUs received waves of bomb threats that forced them to lock down their campuses and cancel classes. Later that year, the U.S. Department of Justice said it identified a juvenile it believed to be behind what it called racially motivated threats.
Thursday’s threats came just one day after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot in the neck on Utah Valley University’s campus during an event that drew some 3,000 attendees.