At 12:30 pm on Thursday, 70,000 pens dropped on tables around NSW.

As 77,000 NSW high school students sit their first HSC exams this week, this 17-year-old is doing double duty.

It's a big day for more than 69,000 students across NSW schools sitting their first HSC exam, but a key message this year is directed at parents.

• EXCLUSIVE

Education Minister says it's "not fair" students facing similar disadvantage get $1500 more or $1500 less depending on where they live.

The principal of a NSW Catholic school has come under fire for using an "inappropriate and offensive" image during a speech to high school graduates and their families.

A fitness college empire heavily promoted by Biggest Loser star Commando Steve has attempted to gag a federal government department from speaking about its operations in public during a hearing in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

One of Australia's largest private colleges has gone into voluntary administration leaving up to 16,000 students in limbo.

The day before a gala celebration marking China's National Day was held in Canberra last week, organisers found dozens of posters they had put up at the Australian National University to promote the event defaced with fluorescent green paint.

Taxpayers paid $9 million per graduate in one year at a private Sydney college, an analysis of Department of Education data reveals, as the full cost of the government's failed vocational education program looks set to be revealed in the wake of its decision to shut down the scheme.

The vocational education industry says the government's radical overhaul of the sector could "cripple" legitimate operators and limit student choice.

Australia's top-ranked global university is moving to lower its proportion of Chinese international students, a group it describes as "dominating" international student numbers.

• COMMENT

The party is over for the cowboys, shonks and shysters who grew rich on billions of dollars in public funding through the government's terminal vocational education scheme.

A new snapshot of gender equity in NSW has revealed an unexpected bright spot. 

The School of Music will receive $12.5 million for an overhaul of management.

Critics say the government's new NAPLAN prerequisite puts pressure on kids before they are mature enough to handle it.

An Indigenous student will soon have the opportunity to obtain an education in Rome, 163 years after an Australian boy's adventure went wrong.

There are children who are different - exceptional, even - and then there's Jake Widjaya.

Academics from the University of Sydney are protesting the bestowal of an honorary doctorate on John Howard, saying the former Prime Minister is "considered a racist and a war criminal" and "not a fit recipient of the university's highest honour".

It's 9am on Friday and four-year-old Nicholas has bowled up to class in Leichhardt's Italian Forum, he's sheepishly holding a piece of paper in his hand. It's his homework, he says, as he presents it to his "school readiness" teacher, Violeta Dimeska.

Teaching graduates facing a 47,000 person queue for a permanent job in NSW are being welcomed with open arms halfway across the world.

It's a former industrial site in Pagewood, capped in cracking cement and tufted weeds, soon to be transformed into 256 "luxury" apartments by a Chinese-backed developer. The real estate sell promises gold detailing, marble countertops, rose gold taps and, private landscaped gardens. So far, so Sydney. 

NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli has declared a "war over fairness" and accused the federal government of abandoning public schools.

A "pop-up" primary school for 300 children at Wentworth Park in Ultimo will escape environmental scrutiny, despite lead contamination at the site and the takeover of public recreation space.

Huang Xiangmo, the Chinese businessman who paid a personal bill of Labor senator Sam Dastyari, has resigned as Chair of the China institute at UTS over "coverage about political donations and supposed Chinese influence".

A top Australian university has dropped four places in the world's most prestigious university rankings list, the latest report from Times Higher Education has revealed.

The ANU is Australia's second placed university while the University of Canberra continues to rise as well.

A reading program that has been used in up to 960 schools for more than 30 years has been abandoned.

The fitness college empire that has been heavily promoted by Steve "Commando" Willis has once again come under fire for its lack of facilities, poor training and a "scholarship" scheme that encourages students into $15,000 worth of debt.

Legal claims are mounting against Sydney University over its plan to shut its art school at Callan Park.