Managing a modern university: is it time for a rethink?

The corporate approaches introduced in the late 1980s and now prevalent in universities in Australia have led to irrevocable changes in the way universities are managed and academics work. The management approaches widely applied in Australian universities are largely based on a top‐down corporate management model, with central control over policy and budget driven by the need to meet stringent external accountability requirements. This form of management rewards compliance and predictability. The economic environment over this period has changed drastically, becoming more global and uncertain. The prevailing management processes are not suited to the modern economic environment. A modern university is expected to operate more as an enterprise, but to do so effectively it needs flexible and responsive forms of management that are more inclusive of academics in the decision making process. This paper explores the organisational management literature and links it to the context in which universities operate. It considers the implications for managers and academics, as key stakeholders in a modern university, in this changeable environment.     

Learners’ perceptions of instructional design practice in a situated learning activity

This case study investigated learners’ perceptions of value from participating in a learning activity designed to model professional instructional design practice. Learners developed instructional design products for a corporate client in the context of a classroom-based course. The findings indicate that learners perceived different kinds of value which varied according to the degree of integration of learners’ goals with client’s goals, ranging from (a) co-constituted value (in which learners perceived the value of their participation as being inextricably bound to creation of value to the client) to (b) satisficing value (in which learners engaged with the activity so as to generate value for themselves while providing sufficient or good enough value to the client) to (c) salvage value (in which learners did not participate in the activity in the manner intended, but attempted to salvage some personal value from their participation). A framework relates these learners’ perceptions of value to three main features of such learning activities: what you do, how you do it, and who you are accountable to. The relative worth of these different kinds of value is discussed, and proposals for influencing learner perceptions of value are presented.     

Storytelling in troubled times: what is the role for educators in the deep crises of the 21st century?

This essay examines the role of educators in the tangled economic, social, environmental and technological crises of the present time. It argues that a central purpose of education in this period is to support students to imagine and make liveable futures on their own terms. To do this, the paper proposes that the colonizing, optimizing and catastrophic stories that dominate accounts of the relationship between education and the future should be replaced by a recognition of students and worlds as co‐emerging. It introduces resources from the fields of anticipation, temporality and decolonial studies that gesture towards a new educational practice. It concludes by arguing that supporting students to make, tell and listen to stories has a critical role to play in enabling students to identify and articulate desires, hopes, fears and dreams for the future and to engage with the rich complexities of the present.     

‘You need a system’: exploring the role of data in the administration of university students and courses

Universities generate a mass of data related to students and the courses that they study. As such, ‘data work’ using digital technologies and digital systems is integral to educational administration within higher education. Drawing on in-depth interviews with administrative and managerial staff in an Australian university, this article examines the data practices and processes that have grown up around students and courses. In particular, the article explores the ‘back-stage’ issues surrounding data – e.g. concerns and tensions associated with appropriate uses of data; the organisational cultures that form around the use of data; and the (un)intended consequences of data work. These findings point towards an implicit ‘black-boxing’ of data that shapes the generation and use of digital data in ways that are predominantly restricted and bounded. The article concludes by considering how these constrained forms of data use might be problematised and reconsidered.     

Images in biology: are instructional criteria used in textbook image design?

This paper analyses the extent to which textbook images are designed using the Instructional Criteria for Image Analysis (ICIA) model in textbooks. The ICIA proposed that learning through images involves interaction between the learner, the image, and the activities with images proposed to the student. Images from the main text and activity section of eleven primary and secondary school textbooks on the human body were analysed regarding the extent to which they fit the proposed criteria. Images in the main text were analysed according to size and type, presence of visual elements (graphical elements, colour, enlarged details), verbal elements (caption, labels) and reference to the image within the text, while images in the activity sections were analysed according to learning involved (task type, procedure, processing level). Results show unequal presence of these criteria in both primary and secondary school textbooks. There are some differences between primary and secondary levels (predominant image type, degree of image contextualisation and processing level required). Images should not be considered self-evident. Images should be designed based less on aesthetic and decorative criteria and more on instructional criteria such as ICIA proposed in order to support image-based learning processes and increase the potential value of images as learning tools.     

Mixed messages in education policy: Sign of the times?

Abstract

The education policy of Conservative governments in Britain since 1979 is sometimes said to be contradictory. It purports to empower the consumer, but legislation has given the lie to this, vesting ever greater powers in central government, less so in Scotland, the more so in England and Wales. In short, education policy contains mixed messages, or contradictions. But these contradictions to some extent express the tensions which have become apparent in an age of transition: that between the modern and the postmodern, or between Fordist and ‘disorganised’ forms of capitalism. A new mode of regulation is being established within the agencies of the welfare state. It reveals an isomorphic structure ‐ at the level of the pupil, the teacher, the parent and the school ‐ whose purpose is the management of consent, and whose justification appeals to the culture of consumption. The analysis is illustrated mainly with reference to Scotland.     

Are instructional design elements being used in module writing?

This paper discusses the elements of instructional design (ID) and technical design in module writing. An evaluation instrument was developed to evaluate the modules written by course lecturers from the School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia. In the study, fifty modules (12%) were selected from the Arts, Science and Engineering courses. The findings of the evaluation showed that instructional modules were weak in a number of elements. The study recommended that multimedia and distance learning strategies should be integrated in the learning activities. Post-test and pre-test may be considered to make the learning modules more self-contained, self-instructional, and interactive. Courses on distance learning theories, instructional design and development, media selection, media attributes, multimedia production, media integration, utilisation and management in distance and open learning may help course writers to write better modules. The Centre needs to have a standard guideline for module writing. The present guidelines need to be improved to include other ID and technical elements in module writing.     

The role of Diaspora in university–industry relationships in globalised knowledge economy: the case of Palestine

University–industry (U–I) linkage is not a new concept. Although there are models for such linkage that have been tested or used, they may remain unsuitable in certain countries and communities. With the unique situation of the Palestinians, the existing models may fall short of meeting the specific needs and targets of establishing such a relationship. This paper aims at building a framework for stronger relationships between Palestinian universities and industries and entrepreneurial network of the Palestinian Diaspora based on a strong supporting platform of Science, Engineering, Technology & Innovation (SET&I). This would in turn strengthen the SET&I platform rendering it an enabled and enabling platform. Several interviews were conducted with people seen as experts and/or representatives in this field. University–industry collaboration, knowledge networks, Diaspora, researchers, investment, spin off, spill over, brain drain, Palestinian skilled immigrants and others are pieces of a puzzle. This puzzle can be put together in many ways. Looking through the eyes of Palestinian Diaspora entrepreneurs, U–I collaborations are a ready platform that could support their mobilization and movement towards challenge and socio-economic satisfaction in Palestine.     

The role of school-based research champions in a school–university partnership

The value of teachers’ engagement in and with research is long recognised and it is acknowledged that school–university research partnerships are one way of enabling such engagement. But we know little about how research-based knowledge is negotiated into school practices. Here we draw on data from nine ‘research champions’, who are teachers in schools which are part of the Oxford Education Deanery, a research partnership with a university department. Taking a cultural/historical approach, the study examined the strategic intentions and actions in the activities of the champions as they negotiated research-based knowledge into their schools. Data comprised 59 completed templates that described what they did and why. Findings revealed differences between those with close links with senior leaders—who could take a whole-school approach—and those whose reach was restricted by their position in school practices. Nonetheless, all the champions carefully selected and targeted research in ways that reflected their knowledge of local contexts. The findings point to the need to incorporate the champion role into school systems and for universities to value the role as they develop their own research agenda.     

‘Measuring Up’? Assessment and students with disabilities in the modern university

In this article, I ask how university students with disabilities negotiate with staff arrangements for alternative assessment practices. I draw on three case studies using a personal pronoun perspective to challenge the conventional view that educational policy and teaching practice are forms of rational action. I demonstrate how the lives of students and staff are typically characterised by unexpected events, disorder, emotion and prejudice. The analytic perspective offered here establishes how meanings, intentions and different viewpoints and alliances emerge as social actors work to create specific faculty and institution cultures. The case studies also reveal what does and what does not work – some of the obstacles – and what needs to be done if we are serious about equity and inclusive education. They include practical assistance in recognising the specific requirements of students with disabilities and how to design alternative assessment for students with specific ‘conditions’. I argue that professional development and specific techniques in curriculum design are needed. Some staff also require help in recognising their policy and legal obligations. A cultural change which identifies and challenges prejudice is a larger task if universities are to become places in which equal opportunity principles and inclusive education are present and actively practised.     

‘Epistemic chaos’: the recontextualisation of undergraduate curriculum design and pedagogic practice in a new university business school

This paper is based on a qualitative case study of undergraduate curriculum design and pedagogic practice in the new University Business School (UBS). Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 24 academics from across a range of business sub-disciplines together with an extensive documentary review of materials relating to two undergraduate degree programmes. The case study found that the UBS curriculum had become recontextualised as a ‘business project’ in which programmes were constructed as ‘products’ for the higher education market. The associated pedagogy was largely confined to behaviourist problem–solution routines based on narrow projections of the ‘real world’ of business. This paper contends that UBS undergraduate programmes were designed in a generic mode in response to the material and discursive influences of marketisation. As a consequence, ‘epistemic chaos’ had arisen in which knowledge and pedagogy had become fragmented and amorphous.     

Struggling with theory? A qualitative investigation of conceptual tool use in instructional design

This study employed a qualitative research design to investigate instructional designers’ views and uses of conceptual tools in design work (e.g., learning theories and design theories). While past research has examined how instructional designers spend their time, how they generally make decisions, and expert-novice differences, little attention has been paid to the value and perceptions of conceptual tools, from the perspective of practicing designers. Based on intensive interviews of practitioners, our findings included ten themes organized according to three meta-themes: (a) using theory, (b) struggling with theory, and (c) connections between theory and intuition in craftwork. While these results substantiate (to some degree) the claim that practitioners often find theory too abstract or difficult to apply, they also suggest that practitioners use theory in several important ways and tend to view theory with ambivalence rather than indifference or dislike. Other conclusions regarding the role of theory in design are provided and future directions for theorizing and research are discussed.     

Academicians＇ self-efficacy in the application of TEC learning curriculum instructional design in Malaysian public tertiary education

This research is attempted to examine universities＇ academic staffs＇ curriculum instructional design in the teaching and learning process in applying the technology enhanced classroom （TEC） learning. The universities have embarked on a costly project to create an innovative and creative learning and teaching environment to promote and establish a state-of-the-art, smart, efficient, effective and high quality education. The teaching and learning culture of universities have great influence on determining the level of students＇ achievement. Seven dimensions of public universities in Malaysia were examined to determine the percentage of academic staffs＇ self-efficacy in the application of TEC learning. There is a significant difference among factors concerning the academic staffs＇ self-efficacy in their teaching and learning processes in the classroom management. Their self-preparedness in using the provided technology is closely related to the experiences and practicality of the teaching materials. This study represents an addition to the extant literature on universities＇ academic staffs＇ self-efficacy in the application of TEC learning. Academic staffs＇ self-efficacy in using TEC learning instructional design is of the utmost important to disseminate knowledge to students, which will also fully help utilize the government＇s effort in providing technology to the additional instructional design, so as to achieve high quality education and technological enhance education to pave the way to achieve a techno-education environment for all public universities in Malaysia. This study provides furtber groundwork to assist existing tertiary educational managers to improve smart teaching and learning environment and to retain high quality academic staffs in the day-to-day classroom curriculum.     

Remedial education for high-risk university freshmen – the case of a university of technology in Taiwan

Potential high-risk freshmen for three core courses (BasicMath, Calculus, and Computing) in the university were identified based on the “College Students’ Adjustment Check List (CSACL)” data available with the Student Development Centre in the Office of Students’ Affairs of the university. The study demonstrates that to ameliorate the problem of unpreparedness of freshmen, to check failure rates, and efficient use of limited resources, an effective remedial system could be developed by the combined inputs from the Office of Students’ Affairs, Computer Centre, Academic Affairs, and the Institutional Research. Our study corroborates the findings of other researchers that gender, teacher, department, high school performance, enrolment channel, and loads during remedial course influence the learning outcome. Also, it was found that the use of multi-evaluation approaches in different enrolment channels can attain higher retention rates.     

Do values drive the plan? Investigating the nature and role of organizational values in university strategic planning

Strategic planning is a common practice at higher education institutions. Furthermore, it is assumed that identifying organizational values is an essential part of the planning process. Values are often construed as foundational elements of strategic thinking that serve to ‘drive the plan’. However, there is little conceptual or applied evidence to support the effectiveness of coupling organizational values articulation with strategic planning processes. The author reports on a study that was designed to effectively conceptualize organizational values, and foster a deeper understanding of organizational values application in higher education administration. This research involved a textual analysis of strategic planning documents pertaining to organizational values from Canadian universities. Research results offer concrete ways to conceptualize and apply organizational values within university settings. The results serve as a foundation to explore small-group-focused approaches to both policy creation and evaluation pertaining to the articulation of organizational values in university administration.