Some current issues in the administration of Australian universities

The Australian universities have entered a steady-state period in which enrolments and funding are being held with limits predetermined by government instead of being allowed to expand to levels compatible with institutional goals. A model of a university system is emerging from the recommendations of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), and the guidelines set by the Federal Government and the proposals of the State Governments. This model aims to be equitable, accountable, efficient and well co-ordinated but it allows for Federal and State government intrusion into areas of decision-making that the universities have traditionally regarded as their preserves for autonomous action.The Tertiary Education Commission, as the Federal system-authority, has concentrated on the evidence and the need for change in four major areas: the nature of the student population; funding and, consequently, staffing, and procedures for co-ordination and rationalization. The states have shown particular interest in the fourth area and have aligned themselves with the TEC as it has devised a series of proposals, for all four areas, which have ultimately been placed upon the universities in the amended, and sometimes more restrictive form of Federal government guidelines.An examination of the new model of university education that is taking shape and the universities' reaction to it suggests that the universities are faced with three alternatives. They can capitulate and subscribe fully to this model being formulated beyond their campuses or they can unilaterally resist its imposition. Their third option, however, involves both compromise and initiative and it is emerging as the most effective choice for survival in the steady state environment.In taking the third option, the universities will have to adopt a two-pronged approach. Firstly, they will need to anticipate and to adjust to external initiatives by shortterm tactics conducted by an efficient centralized administration. Secondly, and most importantly both the administrative and academic communities will have to accommodate these adjustments to a long-term plan that will determine the role and function of their university and, ultimately, of the entire university system of education amongst the economic, political and social realities of the late 20th century.     

Research and scholarship: Perceptions of senior academic administrators

This paper reports selected findings from the first stage of a study on the research role within academic work in Australian universities. These findings come from the interview component of the study and discuss the perceptions that senior academic administrators hold on research and scholarship. The analysis of the interviews indicates that research covers a wide and varied range of activities across the disciplines found in a university and therefore needs to be defined broadly. However, research has three major attributes: new knowledge, enquiry and publication of results and views. Scholarship was perceived to be part of the research process, providing the context for good research by adding the element of breadth to the depth of research. In addition, scholarship describes the manner of pursuing a serious, sustained line of enquiry as well as the dissemination process.     

The state and the liberal universities in South Africa: 1948–1990

Only the liberal (or open) universities in South Africa publicly opposed the National Government and itsapartheid policies, but for the most part only over issues of university and, later, academic freedom. The history of the period is not simply one of conflict between state and universities, however. It is also one of co-operation in, for example, a programme of state-financed university expansion (from which all races benefited). This article explores the bases for both conflict and co-operation. These include a degree of government respect for higher education and, on the other hand, the availability to the universities of certain political resources. The universities came under considerable pressure from a repressive government, but the story is not a simple one of good against evil or freedom against totalitarianism. It is both more complex and (in my view) more interesting.     

University and community: Evolving perceptions of the African university

For the past two decades universities in Africa have been engaged in a re-examination of their relationship with society. In the light of this, the popular characterization of the African university as reflecting colonial, international, stages of development, or levels of integration models, appears inadequate to describe the challenge involved in creating an African identity for the university. Similarly, conceptions of the university as an instrument for creating an educated, planned or changed society or to think of it in terms of preserving and reflecting the dominant features of society, seem inadequate to describe fully the demands of contemporary and future society upon the university. A new framework of thought is urgently required; such a framework would encompass the desired aims of both the university and society and the relationships - dynamic and organic - between them. This article attempts to formulate such a framework and indicates its implications for the structure, content and operation of the university in Africa.     

Three-dimensional art and sculpture

I am making it BIG (Evan). A secret slide with gold in there (Sydni). Look even a little car could fit in it (Joshua). This is a circle! Round, a tiger jumps through this hoop (Emily). Excitement runs high when children experiment with three-dimensional art projects using paper, boxes and styrofoam.Liz Seelhoff Byrum teaches four- and five-year-olds at a private school in New York City.     

Normative Support for Improving Undergraduate Education in Teaching-Oriented Colleges

A number of recommendations to improve undergraduate education have been put forth in the higher education literature. However, we maintain that the implementation of these recommendations at our colleges and universities is unlikely if norms or group standards of appropriate and inappropriate behavior do not support these recommendations. Consequently, this study investigated the normative support for 6 selected recommendations to improve undergraduate education at teaching-oriented colleges. Results indicate support for 3 of the 6 recommendations: systematic program of advisement, providing students with prompt, formative feedback on assignments, and fostering an egalitarian classroom climate. These are the same recommendations supported by norms at higher education institutions that are more focused toward research and graduate education. The implications suggest that the normative structure that supports teaching improvement efforts may be more similar among various institutions than previous research might have indicated.     

Awareness and use of academic research by doctoral students

Relationships between graduate education and academic research are intuitively accepted, but have been given limited examination. Using concepts suggested by Merton and Hagstrom, this study developed measures of recognition and association to assess student awareness of ambient research in their departments. Usefulness of campus research for the respondent's own work was explored in terms of the kinds of utility and its relative importance compared to other resources. A mailed survey of a sample of Ph.D. recipients in 18 departments from a major research university brought a 68% usable return, 470 subjects. Findings show a high level of research awareness, about 70%. The major utilities of research for doctoral students are identified as the theoretical leads and basic data sources.     

Paranoia: A few final remarks

Paranoid is given a tolerably clear meaning. It is suggested that conceptual understanding must be the first step before seeing how far unconscious or other pressures distract teachers and others from retaining a firm grasp of concepts. Concepts are not relative.     

“The good university teacher” as perceived by the students

Many universities, recognizing the student as the main consumer of college instruction, have begun to seek his views regarding the quality of teaching. In this study the Israeli student's concept of a good teacher has been investigated. A sample of second year university students were asked to select the three most important characteristics of a good teacher from a list of fifteen.It was shown that students attached primary importance to method of instruction. Of secondary importance was the teacher's ability to spark intellectual growth. Research talents, personality, and academic status were of relatively little concern. Social science, life science, law and medical students all concurred in emphasizing the importance of the teacher's ability to communicate ideas, whereas humanities students stressed his ability to stimulate thinking.It appears that undergraduate students rate teachers by their ability to transmit knowledge rather than according to the university's criteria of research and publication.The concepts good teacher and effective instruction are used interchangeably in this article, although they are not identical.     

The Changing Debate on Internationalisation of Higher Education

Internationalisation, the growing border-crossing activities between national systems of higher education is losing ground to globalisation, increasing border-crossing activities of blurred national systems which is often employed to depict world-wide trends and growing global competition. This article addresses recent issues of knowledge transfer. It points out tensions between increasing diversity in higher education and efforts to facilitate recognition of prior studies on student mobility. It shows the diversity of steering and management policies with respect to internationalisation and globalisation. Finally, it asks whether globalisation of higher education has to be viewed as a manifestation of turbo-capitalism or could be viewed instead as a move towards global understanding.     

The applicability of democratic principles and the mission of the university

The university's mission of serving as a fortress for freedom of speech, inquiry, and criticism of established truths is inextricably connected with democracy. Such a mission can be pursued only in a climate of genuine political and academic freedom. Three other aspects of democracy in the university are discussed: equality of access, university governance, and the public utility of the university. It is argued that equal representation or one man one vote cannot be applied in university governance because it comes into conflict with the notion of competence—a conflict that cannot be resolved by taking votes. Interest groups inside and outside of the university cannot be allowed to interfere with the free pursuit of knowledge. The internal audit, that is, peer review (by, ultimately, the international community of scholars) has to take precedence over vertical review by government bureaucracy.     

Teaching and research leanings of biologists in Australian universities

This article compares the attitude, of biologists in Australian universities towards teaching and research and their productivity in research with that of British university teachers, as reported by Halsey and Trow (1971). The remarkable similarity between the two groups is attributed to the influence of the British university tradition on the biologists' perception of their roles. Like British academics, biologists in Australia prefer research to teaching and hold a narrow view of the nature and function of universities. Evidence to support Halsey and Trow's (1971 ) claim that the tengion between teaching and research is a central problem in modern universities is presented and four major problems in undergraduate education are analysed in these terms.     

Toward Identifying Pedagogical Knowledge for Mentoring in Primary Science Teaching

Final year preservice teachers' perceptions of their mentoring in primary science teaching were gathered through surveys from three separate studies. The three studies (n = 59, n = 331, n = 60) provided an indication of the degree of mentoring preservice teachers perceived they received with mentoring practices linked to Pedagogical Knowledge. This research argues that mentors require pedagogical knowledge of primary science for guiding mentees with planning, timetabling, preparation, implementation, classroom management strategies, teaching strategies, science teaching knowledge, questioning skills, problem-solving strategies, assessment techniques, and developing viewpoints on science pedagogy. The key study findings (n = 331, from nine Australian universities involved in primary teacher education) indicated that 55% or more mentees had not received Pedagogical Knowledge for primary science teaching in each of the associated mentoring practices (mean score range: 2.60–2.91, standard deviation range: 1.10–1.32). The study concludes that mentors require further professional development to ensure that preservice teachers (mentees) receive adequate pedagogical knowledge for teaching primary science, which will involve significant collaboration between universities and schools.     

Print and reading: What do preschoolers know?

John Downing, an eminent reading researcher at Canada's University of Victoria, says that many children come to school in a state of cognitive confusion about the functions of reading and the terms we use when we start to teach them to read formally. Adults take for granted that young children know what they mean when they talk about a word, a letter, a sound, and other print-related terms. In his studies done in England and in Canada, Downing (1970; 1973–74) has found that many children, especially those who have not been read to regularly, simply don't understand the conventions of print and really don't understand what reading is all about.Joan T. Feeley is Professor of Reading and Language Arts at William Paterson College in Wayne, New Jersey.     

Transactive Peer Tutoring: Distributing Cognition and Metacognition

ASK to THINK—TEL WHY®© is an inquiry-based model of mutual peer tutoring in which tutoring partners mediate each others' learning in a transactive manner. This tutorial model is designed as a person-plus cognitive partnership that supports the distribution of cognition and metacognition in order to promote complex, higher-level learning. This article focuses on what is being distributed during ASK to THINK—TEL WHY®© (i.e., the cognitive tasks of questioning, explaining, thinking, problem solving, as well as monitoring and regulation of learning) and how these cognitions are distributed across the tutoring pair and various aspects of their learning environment. Results of research on the effectiveness of using this model in classroom contexts has shown that the model promotes students' construction of new knowledge.     

Higher education in the People's Republic of China: New directions in the 1980s

This article addresses the rapidly changing situation in higher education in the People's Republic of China. Although it is impossible to predict the nature of the final product, there can be little doubt that the present vibrant period of intellectual searching and questioning in China is having beneficial effects on Chinese higher education, and on educational exchange with foreign universities. The article examines the state of higher education in China today and investigates why, rather than just the ten bad years of a Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) for the entire country, higher education has suffered from a full twenty bad years. The effects of constant changes in the Party line and the use of class struggle to achieve objectives in higher education are examined as they relate to university administration, curriculum, the university structure, faculty, and libraries. The article focuses on the issues that are now being raised, and the parameters within which future changes in higher education will occur.     

Reforming urban education: A review of recent reports and legislation

Following the National Commission on Excellence Report, A Nation at Risk, a number of additional reports were issued calling for major changes in American public education. Because advocates for poor and minority groups saw a class bias in the recommendations of these reports, there quickly followed a subset of reports arguing that the disadvantaged should not be overlooked in the education reform movement. Not surprisingly, these reports have received less attention than the mainstream ones. This article reviews recent urban education reform reports and legislation, paralleling them to determine whether the reformers have been able to influence policy and whether the reforms they advocate would be likely to benefit the disadvantaged.     

A two-dimensional analysis of student ratings of instruction

Student ratings of instruction were analyzed in terms of two global factors. One factor, which includes items on advanced planning, presentation clarity, and increased student knowledge, was named pedagogical skill. The other factor taps information about class discussion, grading, and the availability of help and was named rapport. Ratings on the skill factor did not covary with class size or the leniency of the instructor's grading but did correlate with a reasonable external criterion of student learning. Ratings of rapport correlated inversely with class size and directly with average class grade and showed only a weak relationship to the external criterion of student learning. The skill factor showed more interclass stability than the rapport factor. Previous research studies which have examined the reliability and validity of instructional ratings and their relationship to student grades and class size have reported inconsistent findings. These inconsistencies appear to result from an inappropriate unidimensional analysis of ratings which should be examined in terms of two of more separate attitude dimensions.     

Whitehead and a new look at teaching elementary science

If Whitehead is right, science teachers who try to increase student interest by making the science they teach more pure and by covering more material are going about their work in just the wrong way. Science, for purposes of precision in measurement, translates the dynamic world of feeling and force, of causal efficacy (for example, the San Francisco earthquake), into a static representation spatialized and given presentational immediacy (for example, the Richter scale). But notice that the Richter scale isn't very interesting (even as abstract art) apart from its connection, via symbolic reference, to the earthquake. Such reference is essential to give both a sense of reality and a feeling of interes to the subject, but it makes the science less pure, and it takes more time to cover the material. An example of teaching pure and impure formal logic is given as a case study.     

The decline of the nation-state and the education of national minorities

Many forces are shifting the role of the nation-state and altering our fundamental understanding of how it should function. The author argues that the transplanted European model of the nation-state has become dysfunctional, creating national minorities, serving as an ideological cloak for various forms of oppression and opposing forms of education that would promote diversity of languages and cultures. The decline of territorial sovereignty under the forces of globalization, the move to supranational forms of organization and the emergence of sub-national areas of economic and social development (often city-regions) provide a new range of opportunities for development of minority schooling.

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Zusammenfassung Viele Kräfte verändern die Rolle des Nationenstaates und ändern damit auch unser grundsätzliches Verständnis zu dessen Funktion. Der Autor argumentiert, daß das übertragene europäische Modell des Nationenstaates außer Funktion gesetzt und damit nationale Minderheiten geschaffen wurden. Somit besteht ein ideologischer Deckmantel für verschiedene Arten von Unterdrückung und Widerstand gegen Erziehungsarten, die eine Vielfalt der Sprachen und Kulturen fördern würden. Der Verfall territorialer Unabhängigkeit unter den Kräften der Globalisierung, die Bewegung hin zu einer supranationalen Form der Organisation und die Schaffung regionaler Gebiete wirtschaftlicher und sozialer Entwicklung (oft Stadtbezirke) bieten neue Entwicklungsmöglichkeiten hinsichtlich der Schulbildung für Minderheiten.

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Resumen Son muchas las fuerzas que están cambiando el papel que desempeña el estado-nación y que alteran nuestro concepto básico de cómo este debería funcionar. El autor argumenta que el modelo europeo trasplantado del estado-nación se ha vuelto disfunctional, creando minorías nacionales y sirviendo de manto ideológico para encubrir diferentes formas de opresión y de oposición a una educación que intenta promover la diversidad de lenguas y culturas. El ocaso de la soberanía territorial bajo las fuerzas de globalización, el cambio hacia formas de organización supranacionales y el surgimiento de sectores subnacionales de desarrollo económico y social (frecuentemente en regiones urbanas) proveen un nuevo tipo de oportunidades para el desarrollo de una educación escolar de minorías.

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Résumé De nombreuses pressions modifient le rôle de l'Etat-nation et transforment notre conception fondamentale de son fonctionnement. L'auteur expose que le modèle européen d'Etat-nation qui a éé transposé dans d'autres régions est maintenant atteint de dysfonctionnement, car il crée des minorités nationales, sert de prétexte idéologique à différentes formes d'oppression et fait obstacle à des modèles d'éducation qui encourageraient la diversité des langues et des cultures. Le déclin de la souveraineté territoriale sous la pression de la mondialisation, l'évolution vers des formes d'organisation supranationales et l'apparition de concentrations régionales du développement éconnomique et social (souvent en tant que régions urbanisées) constituent de nouveaux stimulants pour l'élaboration d'une scolarité adaptée aux minorités.

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