The Future of Higher Education in Australia: Ten Years On

During 1975 a group of Monash University academics, who became nicknamed the “crystal ballgazers” began to meet with the aim of forecasting the future of higher education in Australia in the nineteen eighties and nineties. The predictions were published and by 1983 many of the forecasts had already proved remarkably accurate — and few, if any, of the pro‐active strategies that were suggested as a way of influencing the future had been adopted.

This paper provides two retrospective analyses of that work. in the first we present some of the actual forecasts and their accord with reality, and then juxtapose the reasons for our forecasts upon the reasons being proposed now for the trends that have emerged. In the second analysis, we examine the failure of the work to influence the power brokers in Australian higher education to adopt a longer term and a more pro‐active planning role.     

金缕梅科(广义)的叶结构及分类

金缕梅科(广义)Hamamelidaceae包括29属，约140种。  此科的化石出现得较早，是双子叶植物中的一个比较古老的科。 本文的目的是系统研究此科透明叶的各种性状特征，并检验它们是否具有分类学意义。 本文研究了金缕梅科29属、60余种的叶的各种性状在科内的分布及演化趋势，并根据这方面的证据对此科的分类提出一些修正意见，系统描述部分介绍了金缕梅科各属叶的形态特征。     

Perceptual completion in newborn human infants

Despite decades of studies of human infants, a still open question concerns the role of visual experience in the development of the ability to perceive complete shapes over partial occlusion. Previous studies show that newborns fail to manifest this ability, either because they lack the visual experience required for perceptual completion or because they fail to detect the pattern of motion. To distinguish these possibilities, newborns' perception of a center-occluded object was tested, using stroboscopic motion. Infants (mean age of 72 hr) perceived the object as a connected unit, providing the first evidence that the newborn is capable of filling in gaps in the visible surface layout when the relevant visual information can be detected by his or her immature visual system.     

Volunteering for Museums: The Variation in Motives across Volunteer Age Groups

Abstract The value of volunteering is well documented, and though there is a readily available recruitment pool for volunteers, many come from an aging population that is also relatively affluent and has many more opportunities and demands for their free time in retirement. This paper examines the motives of older volunteers in a state museum in Australia with the aim of differentiating motivations within subsets of volunteering groups. The study undertook a census of 450 volunteers at the museum, using the Voluntary Functions Inventory (VFI). The findings reveal various levels of motivation within the older age groups. Such findings can assist volunteer agencies in enhancing the quality of their volunteers’ experience.