Straight talking from the Aussies

I always enjoy the Australian optical magazine Insight. Its editor, Neil Forbes, is a bit of a legend and just the kind of character you expect to be:

a. Australian

b. editing a newspaper

As well as providing a glimpse of how optics is faring on the other side of the world Insight also carries the Pluvius column. This deliciously irreverent commentary on everything optical carries the kind of punch that would give my limey media lawyer a heart attack.

This month a range of optically-related people come in for a roasting. Just as the UK university lecturers and authorities have stood meekly by as tuition fees are piled onto the students so have the Australians. Most recently they have taken the brakes off of the level of  fees can be charged.  That region too has seen an increase in the number of institutions offering optometry degrees. Pluvius lambasts the vice chancellors, some earning 990,00 Australian dollars a year, from the group of eight sandstone universities for meekly standing by. ' You should all be ashamed of yourselves,' Pluvius concludes.