Given that the education landscape is continually evolving, to remain relevant Universities must reflect on and respond to changes in students’ needs and expectations. This project was sparked from UNE’s Academic Calendar Working Group which identified the opportunity to embed upskilling/achievement programs throughout the academic year, accessible to all students irrespective of level or course. One model proposed was a 6-week block called ‘Lean into Learning’. The UNE Advantage project set out to examine this purpose and provide recommendations for both generic, and discipline-specific activities that would increase students’ engagement, confidence, and academic success. This report provides an analysis of the current literature that addresses the student experience from national, international and UNE perspectives, and presents the findings of a mixed-method study that explored UNE staff and student perspectives about up-skilling/achievement programs as a way to enhance the student experience.

In Ethiopia, there is no institution, website, association or register for small IPs, which makes it very difficult to find information about IPs. No organisation gives specialised licences to IPs. It is also difficult to access IPs easily and directly. The primary way to find information about IPs is via informal soliciting among court registrars, client-recruiting intermediaries, lawyers or general lawyers' associations with business offices in various places.

These lawyers have an informal referral system, where they refer cases among themselves based on experience, affiliations and expertise on the issues at hand. However, it should be noted that the Ethiopian Ministry of Justice undertakes the licensing and supervision of all lawyers (advocates) in the country, including lawyers who may serve as IPs. With the Attorney General, the Ministry prepares and keeps a "register" or a book of records or database containing complete and up-to-date records of all licensed advocates and law firms, which may include IPs.

This report begins by exploring grey areas at the edges of the definition of volunteering. The term ‘volunteer’ generally designates a person who provides services or benefits to others for motivations other than financial or material reward. Volunteering has also been seen as an activity taking place within the confines of formal organisations promoting a range of good causes. This report sets out the case for expanding the definition of volunteering to include not only formal activity within charitable organisations but also volunteering for emergency services, informal charitable acts undertaken outside the bounds of organisations, and unpaid care of adults with disabilities and the frail elderly. Through the remainder of this summary, the term volunteering should be taken to encompass all these forms of voluntary activity. Nevertheless, the majority of analysis in this report explicitly separates volunteering within organisations (formal volunteering) from other forms of volunteering (unpaid care, unpaid work in the emergency services, and informally helping other people from outside one’s household or the wider community).

This submission will have a particular focus on a matter noted in the PICHR Media Release of 22 March 2023, 'Inquiry into Australia's Human Rights Framework', namely 'whether existing mechanisms to protect human rights in the federal context are adequate and if improvements should be made, including ...to the remit of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights'.

Additional brief contextual consideration will be given to the further noted matter 'whether the Australian Parliament should enact a federal Human Rights Act, and if so, what elements it should include (including by reference to the Australian Human Rights Commission's relevant Position Paper)'.

Due to a cost-of-living crisis, Services Australia has increasingly been receiving calls from a high number of clients requiring supports. This has led to congested phone lines with an ABC article indicating call wait times had increased (<45 minutes), and there was a back log of claims (1.1 million) (Stonehouse, 2024). After Serco Group lost their contract with Services Australia in 2023, a new automated answering service was installed to reduce the number of clients calling to check the status of their claim. The system disconnects users once they indicate they want to use a service that could potentially be accessed online, then if the client calls again within a certain timeframe, they are immediately disconnected. While this system was introduced to reduce call congestion by moving a percentage of clients online, this contributed to 7 million unanswered calls in 2023. These challenges caused frustration, particularly among those people who already experience considerable disadvantage. Even though the Department recruited new staff to respond to a shortage of workers providing client support, training 3000 new staff requires time before they are 'job ready', further exacerbating current access issues. There have been a number of other initiatives to modernise services, including Community Partnership Offices for vulnerable clients. Most of these offices are currently located in metropolitan areas, therefore not assisting those living in rural, regional and remote (RRR) communities.