QTAC offers for 2019 have revealed one-third of courses chosen by prospective Queensland university students are health-related.

QTAC chief executive John Griffiths said the demand for allied health workers in disability, aged care and mental health sectors was largely behind the push towards such courses.

More than 12 000 allied health jobs are expected to be created by the National Disability Insurance Scheme in Queensland.

Within Australia, it is estimated that 1 in 5 individuals will experience a common mental illness every year, and around 45% will experience it throughout their lifetime, but only half will access treatment.

Under a funding model shakeup, mental health services around Australia will share $1.45 billion offering local organisations, staff and patients greater long term certainty.

At least 11 people have been killed in a suspected terror attack at a hotel compound in Nairobi carried out by Somali Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab.

The attack began in a bank parking lot inside the complex, with an explosion targeting three vehicles, followed by a suicide blast in the hotel’s foyer.

Kenyan security forces have secured the buildings where the attack took place.

A University of Queensland international research team has found potentially life-saving bat peptides within the venom of vampire bats located in Mexico.

A new class of blood pressure-regulating peptides found in the bat’s venom could help revolutionise treatments for conditions such as hypertension, heart failure, kidney diseases and burns.

This research, however, has come to a complete stop as Mexican drug lords take control of the field site, with Associate Professor Bryan Fry saying this could set research back years.

Cotton seeds taken to the Moon by China’s Chang’e-4 mission have started to sprout according to the China National Space Administration.

This marks the first time any biological matter has grown on the Moon, and is a significant step towards establishing a future in long-term space exploration, such as trips to Mars.

By establishing crops on the Moon, astronauts could potentially harvest their own food in space, reducing the need for consistent trips to Earth to resupply.

Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary has selected “Me Too” as its 2018 word of the year, with “big dick energy”, “single use” and “deepfake” missing out on the annual honour.

In a statement, the committee said the fact that the MeToo is now being used as a verb and an adjective, combined with the undeniable significance of the movement, made the decision a straightforward one.

New South Wales is well behind on developing water sharing plans for its rivers, and is unlikely to meet June deadlines, putting in doubt its claims that water is being shared fairly between farmers and the environment.

Water resource plans set the detailed rules for sharing water between irrigators and the environment in each catchment and NSW is yet to submit first drafts of 12 of 20 required plans, instead operating under old unaccredited plans.

Anybody travelling to the Namibian desert may now be lucky enough to hear the unmistakable sounds of Toto’s, Africa.

An art installation made up of six solar powered speakers and an MP3 player with a singular song on it has been placed somewhere in the coastal desert.

Namibian artist Max Siedentopf set up the piece as a homage to “what was probably the most popular song of the last four decades”, and hopes it plays for all of eternity.

British MP’s have voted against Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal by a large margin, which has triggered political upheaval that could result in a reversal of the 2016 referendum to leave the European Union.

MP’s voted by 432 votes to 202 to reject the deal, which is the largest parliamentary defeat for a government in recent British history and displays a lack of confidence in government, according to Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn.