Six of the nine Australian universities which made the Times Higher Education world university rankings have slipped out of the top 200 since last year amid funding cuts.  

Global rankings editor Ellie Bothwell, says things aren’t all rosy in Australia’s higher education system as the national picture is a cause for concern, with many universities remaining stagnant and even declining.

Without universities sustaining investment there is a high risk that many could continue to decline on the world-stage.

Queensland Minister for Training and Skills Development Shannon Fentiman may be referred to the parliamentary ethics committee after failing to provide information on Commonwealth Games tickets purchased by TAFE Queensland for board members and staff.

The LNP has written a letter to Speaker Curtis Pitt after TAFE Chief Executive Mary Campbell revealed the total cost of tickets purchased was over $230,000 in an estimates hearing, a figure which Minister Fentiman diverted answering in Parliament.

37 new spider species have been discovered this week on Queensland's Cooloola Coast, and biologists believe there are more waiting to be found.

Volunteer and spider enthusiast, Robert Whyte says the most interesting newly discovered species is the 1.14mm-long Baalzebub, which has been named after the god of darkness.

While the spiders have venom to hunt their prey, none of the species are dangerous to humans.

The team of scientists and volunteers will return to rainbow beach to continue their search of more spiders.

Tesla Chief Executive, Elon Musk, is being sued by US Securities and Exchange Commissions with security fraud after he allegedly misled investors.

Mr Musk tweeted in early August stating that he had secured funding to privatize the company at $420 a share, which led to a brief spike in Tesla shares.

US Securities and Exchange Commission's aims to stop Mr Musk's company from being a publicly-traded company.   

200 people have been killed and 285,000 have lost their homes due to severe flooding across Nigeria after an unusually severe rainy season.

Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency’s incident coordinator Brandon Walson says, in some communities, people are trapped while officials are trying to make arrangements to evacuate them.

Anambra, Delta, Kogi and Niger are the four worst-affected states and have been declared national disaster zones. 

Tony Abbott has been criticised for his first tour of the Northern Territory since being appointed Special Envoy for the Indigenous Affairs Minister.

Community members at the Borroloola School were confused by his attendance at a school council meeting, describing Mr Abbott as arrogant and reporting that he didn’t listen to concerns expressed by the community.

The NT Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Ken Vowles, says Mr Abbott’s recent trip was nothing more than a photo opportunity to say he is on the job.

Professor Bruce Bonyhady, chair of the National Disability Insurance Agency and economist says spending on the NDIS is expected to run $5 billion under budget by the end of the financial year.

His comments come after it was revealed on Tuesday that spending for the scheme came $10 billion under budget in the last financial year.

The Treasury attributes the figure to lower numbers of participants joining the scheme and less uptake of individual packages than anticipated.

Documents revealed to the Senate have shown officials in the Federal Department of Environment and Energy attempted to cover up the extent of the controversial $444 million grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

One document shows an email to colleagues from a Department Communications Manager describing the best way to refer to the grant, saying, “hopefully this will be too much bureaucratic detail for a journalist anyway”.

The Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission says the Premier may have been exposed to bribery charges in a parliamentary debate on immigration.

During the debate, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk threatened to revoke extra staff funding for members of Katter’s Australian Party if they refused to condemn their federal senator Fraser Anning’s use of the term ‘final solution’ in reference to Australia’s immigration intake.