Academics and institutional differentiation in Australian higher education

Similarities and differences are explored between academic staff in four different types of Australian universities. Despite an overall high degree of homogeneity amongst academics, those in pre-1987 universities, especially Go8 universities, are better qualified, have appreciably better publication records, spend more time on research and writing, and show more interest in research than academics in post-1987 universities. Pre-1987 universities are more likely than others to have academic organisational units headed by professors and associate professors. Academics in pre-1987 universities have distinctively different views with regard to research funding and the place of research, as well as about academic standards and recent expansion in student enrolments. While post-1987 universities have pockets of research strength, these are small and relatively small proportions of academics produce the bulk of research output. The views of academics generally coincide with those of their institutions on key differentiation issues.     

Analysing the quality of Australian universities’ student anti-bullying policies

ABSTRACT

Bullying has been a topic widely researched in schools and the workplace, however, comparatively there is a paucity of research into bullying among university students. This is an oversight, as bullying may also have negative consequences for university students, ranging from anxiety to suicidal ideation. Anti-bullying policies are an important part of bullying prevention and intervention, however, due to Australian Federal legislation, policies for students are not mandatory at universities. To be an effective prevention and intervention strategy, anti-bullying policies and procedures should be informative, supportive, well publicised, and student user friendly. Through analysing the anti-bullying policies and procedures from 39 Australian universities, using a 37-item analysis tool adapted from Purdy and Smith as well as thematic analysis, this study aims to determine if Australian universities are providing students with the information and support they need to be able to report bullying to their university and study in a safe environment. Both strengths and weaknesses were found in 37 individual universities’ student anti-bullying policies and procedures, as well as overall trends displayed by universities Australia-wide. The overall paucity of information and consistency, as well as the poor user-friendliness of many of the documents, highlights the need for changes to be made. Without the reform of student anti-bullying policies and procedures in Australian universities, students will be unsupported and ill-equipped to identify and report bullying. Universities will also run the risk of gaining a bad reputation and not promoting a bully-free culture for students in which to learn and socialise.     

Using Entrepreneurial Activities as a Means of Survival: Investigating the Processes used by Australian Universities to Diversify their Revenue Streams

This study provides a profile of the actions taken by Australian universities to diversify their revenue streams in order to generate more independent (non-government) income. Marginson’s taxonomy of Australian universities is used to catergorise universities and contrast levels of independent income (Marginson and Considine 2000). This study finds that some Australian universities have used isomorphic tactics in their attempts to diversify their revenue streams. Unitechs (Universities of Technology) and New Universities are over-reliant upon income earned from overseas student fees, whilst earning comparatively small amounts of revenue from Royalties, Trademarks and Licences, Consultancy, Contract Research and Investments. This work discusses the dangers inherent in over-reliance on a single type of independent income. It argues that if Australian universities seek to enhance their success competing in global research, staff and student markets then they need to augment efforts to diversify revenue streams with structural and cultural changes, transforming themselves from being rigid hierarchical public bureaucracies to become more flexible network enterprises (Castells 2000).     

Closing the loop on student feedback: the case of Australian and Scottish universities

Universities have a long history of collecting student feedback using surveys and other mechanisms. The last decade has witnessed a significant shift in how student feedback is systematically collected, analysed, reported, and used by governments and institutions. This shift is due to a number of factors, including changes in government policy related to quality assurance, and the increased use of the results by various stakeholders such as governments, institutions, and potential students and employers. The collection, analysis, and reporting of results are systematically carried out in many institutions worldwide. However, how to use student feedback to effectively improve student learning experience remains an issue to be addressed. This paper will contribute to this debate by comparing how Australian and Scottish universities use student feedback results to inform improvements. Based on thematic analysis of external quality audit reports of all Australian and Scottish universities, this paper suggests that universities have systematic processes to collect student feedback using a range of mechanisms, but limited work is done to use the data to inform improvements. This paper argues the need for universities to genuinely listen to student voice by facilitating partnership between students and institutions to act on their feedback as part of quality assurance.     

Models of Learning Support in Victorian Universities: Issues and Implications

In recent years changes in policy, the spate of amalgamations of tertiary institutions, changes in secondary education and the move in institutions toward intemationalisation, have led to a diversification of student populations in Australian universities. One response to these changes has been the expansion of the provision of student learning support within universities. This study examined the models of such support in Victorian universities. The location of support units, sources of funding, communication between different units at the same institution and staff conditions were identified as core issues in how learning support is delivered. A suggested model for delivery of learning support is proposed.     

Barriers to student success in engineering education

In the UK, the USA and Australia, there have been calls for an increase in the number of engineering graduates to meet the needs of current global challenges. Universities around the world have been grappling with how to both attract more engineering students and to then retain them. Attrition from engineering programmes is disturbingly high. This paper reports on an element of research undertaken through an Australian Learning and Teaching Council-funded Fellowship that investigated the factors leading to student attrition in engineering programmes, by identifying barriers to student success. Here, we contrast a review of the literature related to student barriers and success with student perceptions, gathered through a series of focus groups and interviews at three Australian universities. We also present recommendations for action to try to remove barriers to student success.     

Is the enhancement of student experience a strategic priority in Australian universities?

Universities in many countries are developing strategies to enhance the student experience. This focus has never been so important since the development of rankings and the use of student experience measures in institutional performance assessment. Australian government policies to link student experience measures to performance funding were a key driver to increase the prominence of the student voice between 2004 and 2008. This paper analyses the strategic plans of 33 Australian universities with the aim of outlining the extent to which the enhancement of student experience is embedded as one of their key priorities. This review comes at a time when universities in Australia and elsewhere are realigning their future strategies and directions to achieve government aspirations for tertiary education with the introduction of various policy instruments including the possibility of rewarding universities on the basis of student experience measures. The paper also provides a comparative analysis of government policies in Australia and the UK on the measurement and enhancement of the student experience.     

The Australian University in a Multicultural Environment

This article describes how the Australian university system has become increasingly multi‐ethnic and multicultural as a reflection of the greater Australian society that is also increasingly multicultural and multi‐ethnic. As the universities have evolved from being elitist institutions, based on a British model and accessible to only a small proportion of the population, to units making up a mass system, they have had to contend with two contradictory forces: government mandated efforts to increase the representation on university campuses of disadvantaged groups and pressures to reduce government spending for higher education. Increasing efforts, after 1990, on the part of Australian universities to recruit full‐fee paying foreign students have intensified student multi‐ethnicity on Australian campuses while providing near windfall sources of extra funds. Yet there are voices being raised regarding the propriety and the ethics of selling higher education in this way.     

Student equity’s starring role in Australian higher education: not yet centre field

The field of Australian higher education has changed, is changing and is about to change, repositioned in relation to other “fields of power”. It is a sector now well defined by its institutional groupings and by their relative claims to selectivity and exclusivity, with every suggestion of their differentiation growing. The potential of a “joined-up” tertiary education system, of vocational education and training (VET) and universities, has the potential to further rework these relations within Australian higher education, as will lifting the volume caps on university student enrolments. Moreover, Australian universities now compete within an international higher education marketplace, ranked by THES and Shanghai Jiao Tiong league tables. “Catchment areas” and knowledge production have become global. In sum, Australian universities (and agents within them) are positioned differently in the field. And being so variously and variably placed, institutions and agents have different stances available to them, including the positions they can take on student equity. In this paper I begin from the premise that our current stance on equity has been out-positioned, as much by a changing higher education field as by entrenched representations of social groups across regions, institutions, disciplines and degrees. In taking a new stance on equity, the paper is also concerned with the positioning in the field of a new national research centre with a focus on student equity in higher education. In particular, the paper asks what stance this new centre can take on student equity that will resonate on a national and even international scale. And, given a global field of higher education, what definitions of equity and propositions for policy and practice can it offer? What will work in the pursuit of equity?     

Expansion and equity in Australian higher education: three propositions for new relations

This article outlines three broad propositions for student equity in Australian higher education (HE), arising from the Australian Government's recent policy announcement to expand and widen student participation. The first is that a new relationship between student demand for places and their supply is on the horizon, unlike any other in Australia's history. Specifically, demand will struggle to match the intended supply. Given these new arrangements between government, institution and applicant, the article's second proposition is that governments and universities will need to develop a new regard for the people they seek to attract. And, following on from this, they will need to pay more attention to the nature of HE and its appeal to people who traditionally have not been all that interested. Informing this account are an examination of statistical data, analysis of university outreach programs, and a comparison of current principles of effective teaching in HE. The article concludes that advancing student equity in the current context will require new relations between institutions and students, which include a more sophisticated appreciation for the diversity of students and their communities, and for what they potentially contribute to HE.     

澳大利亚高校计算机房的建设与管理

通过研究澳大利亚高校在计算机房建设与管理方面的特色,找出与我国高校计算机房建设与管理方面的差异,发现有许多东西有所启迪,值得学习,这对改进我们的机房工作具有积极的意义。     

Framing attrition in higher education: a complex problem

This study situates student attrition within the strategic framework of Australian public universities. It draws on organisational theory to describe higher education within a bureaucratic framework. The study uses a quantitative approach to undertake a content analysis of attrition and retention policy statements from all Australian universities. This reveals that Australian universities, and the higher education sector as a whole, are attempting to address attrition within their existing bureaucracies. Attrition however is a wicked problem that includes many variables outside the influence of universities, which limits the potential of strategic approaches to problem solving. The practical implications of these findings are that current approaches to attrition are likely to fail. The wicked nature of the attrition problem needs to be taken into account when developing strategies or policies within higher education.     

The student departure puzzle: do some faculties and programs have answers?

University attrition prevention strategies are typically generic, centrally managed, whole of university strategies that have emerged from an examination of whole of university attrition data. This paper takes an intra‐organisational comparative approach, through the examination of faculty and program attrition rates of students who joined an Australian university in the first term of 2004. The faculty with the highest attrition had a rate two‐and‐a‐half times that of the faculty with the lowest rate, and in programs with 40 or more students enrolled the program with the highest attrition had a rate over five times that of the program with the lowest rate. The paper identifies five practical implications of these findings and concludes that investigating the causes of these differences will help in understanding student attrition. It also suggests that universities wishing to reduce student attrition may benefit from adopting integrated and situated strategies that take into account faculty and program differences.     

Ten ‘Good Practice Principles’ … ten key questions: considerations in addressing the English language needs of higher education students

In response to social, political and educational imperatives, Australian universities are currently reviewing the way in which they provide for the growing number of students for whom English is not a first language. A document recently published by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations has increased the sense of urgency surrounding this activity, for it looks set to form the basis of future audits conducted by the Australian Universities Quality Agency. This paper considers how, in attempting to respond to the document and more effectively meet the needs of this student cohort, universities will need to reflect on a number of fundamental questions. In light of the increasingly global nature of education and the resulting multicultural and multilingual student populations that have become commonplace in higher education, these questions are likely to have resonance not only in Australia, but elsewhere, where English-medium universities face similar issues.     

The emergence of contesting motives for student feedback-based evaluation in Australian higher education

Student feedback-based evaluation performs a significant social role in framing perceptions of the quality of teaching in contemporary Australian higher education. Yet its emergence is a relatively recent phenomenon, having only been in widespread application since the mid-1980s. The early manifestations of student feedback-based evaluation came with newly emerging academic development units with a motive to enhance the quality of local teaching and to afford student retention. However, new motives for assailing student feedback evolved with the rapid growth in student numbers, the introduction of student fees and heightened levels of inter-institutional competition for students. As a result, student feedback-based evaluation progressively became also a powerful proxy measure of teaching and curricula quality assurance at an individual, institutional and sectoral level [Blackmore, J. (2009). Academic pedagogies, quality logics and performative universities: Evaluating teaching and what students want. Studies in Higher Education, 34(8), 857–872. doi:10.1080/03075070902898664]. This generated critical tensions between the seminal motive of student feedback around quality improvement, and the rising quality assurances discourses, academic performance management demands and institutional marketing. In this paper, the complex social origins of these competing motives for student feedback-based evaluation in Australian higher education will be explored and analysed. It is argued this provides an important means of understanding the polarising effects of student feedback-based evaluation in Australian universities.     

Are New Zealand universities underperforming? An analysis of international enrolments in Australian and New Zealand universities

International education is widely recognised as providing a range of positive outcomes for students, universities, and both the source and destination countries. New Zealand politicians, however, see international education as a means of generating significant export earnings able to subsidise the local provision of university education. New Zealand universities have been criticised as underperforming in comparison to their Australian counterparts in attracting revenue from international students. This article explores the evidence of that observation by examining the patterns of enrolment by international students in New Zealand and Australian universities. The analysis identifies significant drivers of the international student enrolments in Australia and discusses potential strategic and policy implications for international education in New Zealand that respond to these drivers.     

From Design and Implementation to Impact of Quality Assurance: An Overview of Some Studies into what Impacts Improvement

Abstract

Access to university has improved following the massification of the Australian higher education sector which started in 1989, with the expansion being funded by a widening of the funding base. In the ten years from 1989, Australian universities enrolled an additional 231,000 students, including an extra 189,000 in undergraduate bachelor degrees. Specific equity policies have further attempted to increase opportunities for students previously excluded from higher education. This paper looks at changes in the composition of the student body, and in the patterns of university funding. Using aggregated national student data sets, some of the changes which have arisen from massification are identified, with particular consideration of designated equity groups.     

学生管理当以学生发展为本——从澳洲高校谈起

学生管理应当以学生发展为本,关注学生发展,引导学生发展,帮助学生发展,促进学生发展,澳洲高校的经验和做法值得我们学习和借鉴。     

Non‐traditional students in Australian higher education: Persistent inequities and the new ideology of ‘student choice’

Abstract

Despite the expansion of access to Australian higher education in the past decade, the participation shares of rural and isolated people and people from lower socio‐economic backgrounds have altered little and remain unacceptably low. This paper reports findings from two national studies at the Centre for the Study of Higher Education that have examined student choices about higher education, especially the inhibiting factors still present for non‐traditional students. The discussion focuses on the dilemmas and challenges for Australian universities in balancing the adoption of entrepreneurial approaches to student recruitment with an unfinished equity agenda. The paper raises questions about the new ideology of individual choice influencing university policy and whether or not this can be reconciled with social equity objectives.