Search

This article considers issues that continue to shape doctoral education in Australia in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of relevant issue, and to identify opportunities for future research. It describes examples of responses taken at an institutional level, and their implications for the norms and practices associated with postgraduate research, supervision and candidate support. Comments from discussions with a small number of Australian Deans of Graduate Research are used to illustrate the challenges faced, and the responses taken. The article provides a concise outline of the policy and historical context for these responses, and concludes by considering some of the issues that continue to shape doctoral education in Australia today. It highlights the rise of location-independent graduate research and the prospect of generational change in the higher education workforce as significant factors in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as potentially fruitful avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the role of the government in the higher education sector in Australia. Importance of governmental support to the changes needed by the universities; Role of the government in research and teaching funding; Functionality in the development of industrial relations and other related policies; Responsibility in shaping the higher education system for national policy purposes.

In light of widening participation initiatives internationally, including those in Australia, much has been written about equity policies in education. There is a growing body of research related to the outcomes of such policies and the experiences of non-traditional students, including those from low socio-economic status (LSES) backgrounds and students who are First Generation and/or First in Family, as well as other equity groups. This paper presents data related to a less researched effect of widening participation: the experiences of and impact on academic staff and those providing support services to students. We focus particularly on students from LSES backgrounds. Qualitative data were collected through focus groups with academic and student support staff in a large regional Australian university, with several themes emerging. In this paper, we investigate staff experiences related to diversity in student cohorts, drawing on Bourdieu's concept of capital. Results show that the academics are supportive of LSES students and sensitive to the range of student backgrounds in their courses, including differences in cultural capital and students experiencing extreme hardship, but the support provided is affected by staff gender. It is evident that staff endeavour pedagogically and pastorally to support students, often at personal cost. There are workload and welfare implications evident for staff, institutions and funding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is incumbent upon universities to deliver quality degree programs that produce employable graduates with discipline-specific knowledge and a well-developed set of generic skills known as graduate attributes. To safeguard the achievement of these outcomes, this paper argues for a holistic, longitudinal approach to degree planning known as programmatic assessment. The status of this relatively new phenomenon in the Australian university landscape is examined through an analysis of assessment-related policies from twenty-two of Australia's top-performing universities. Discourse analysis was employed to determine how programmatic assessment is depicted in policy, how key players are positioned in this space, and the discursive practices used to imbue policy with hortatory intent. The results of this analysis are outlined and indicate that policy constructions of a program-level approach to assessment are inconsistent across different universities and very few policies have specific guidelines about how programmatic assessment should be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the intensely competitive international higher education sector, universities can still play a role in providing public good through building social solidarity and mobility in volatile and increasingly divided societies. This paper draws on a longitudinal narrative enquiry that follows 22 students from asylum-seeking backgrounds in Australian universities—a distinct group within the category of forced migration whose university experiences have rarely been studied. It explores the students' visceral realities and tensions as they attempt to navigate government and institutional policies and practices which fail to recognise the unique category and needs of this distinct group. The paper develops a conceptual frame comprising a critical theory of recognition (Axel Honneth) and the feminist developments of recognition (Nancy Fraser). It explores how competing discourses are being played out in Australian universities about the educational needs of students from asylum-seeking backgrounds. Finally, it critically reflects on the role of universities' policies and practices in enabling and/or constraining public good through recognising the unique needs of students of asylum-seeking backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research in Health and Physical Education has repeatedly highlighted that curriculum development is an ongoing, complex and contested process, and that the realisation of progressive intentions embedded in official curriculum texts is far from assured. Drawing on concepts from education policy sociology this paper positions teacher educators as key policy actors in the interpretation and enactment of new official curriculum texts. More specifically, it reports research that has explored four teacher educators' engagement with a specific feature of the new Australian Curriculum in Health and Physical Education (AC HPE); five interrelated propositions or 'key ideas' that underpinned the new curriculum and openly sought to provide direction for progressive pedagogy in Health and Physical Education. The paper provides conceptual and empirical insight into teacher educators consciously positioning themselves as policy actors, motivated to play a role in shaping policy directions and future curriculum practices. As such, the teacher educators in this project are identified as policy entrepreneurs and provocateurs. The paper details a dialogic research process between the researchers that was designed to make curriculum interpretation a more transparent, collaborative and generative process. The data reported illustrates the research process supporting teacher educators to engage in productive debate about the possible meanings and enactment of the five propositions. Analysis reveals differing perspectives on the propositions and a shared investment in efforts to support their progressive intent. Empirically, the paper highlights the critical role that teacher educators will play in the ongoing enactment of a new curriculum that is overtly identified as 'futures oriented'. Conceptually, the paper adds depth and sophistication to understandings of teacher educators as policy actors. Methodologically, we propose that the research process described can be usefully adopted by other teacher educators and teachers engaged in similar processes of curriculum development, interpretation and enactment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decade has witnessed a significant growth of private higher education around the world. The growth included the number of private education providers, and also the growing number of students. While some countries are experiencing trend growth, others are witnessing decline. Some of the reasons for the decline include increased regulation and stringent accreditation and reaccreditation of higher education institutions and courses, government policies to encourage the growth of public universities, and acquisition of small providers by large private education institutions. The growth of private higher education has increased competition, and it has also established collaboration with public institutions. The growth of private higher education has also raised concerns about ethical governance, maintenance of academic standards, and mechanisms to plan, review, and improve educational outcomes. This paper focuses on Australia where despite growth, there is limited research about private higher education. This paper reviews literature on the global growth and decline of private higher education. It then analyses the trends in Australia and possible scenarios for the future of private higher education in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the changing terrain of disability support policy in Australia. Drawing on a critical disability framework of policy sociology, the paper considers the policy problem of access to education for people with disabilities under recent reform by means of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which commenced full roll-out across the country from July 2016. The paper reviews NDIS reports, legislation and associated literature to consider how eligibility to scheme participation and education services are shaped, and how education is positioned in the development and implementation of the NDIS. The analysis highlights tensions that exist for people with disabilities and their families who both access the scheme and who might draw on its provision to support their education, because of the way the policy is oriented towards pathological categorisation, standardised outcomes and service delineation rather than integrated support and informed involvement. The paper concludes by arguing that despite the policy priority across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries of increasing lifelong learning opportunities, fragmented NDIS policy in Australia prevents people with disabilities from achieving this ideal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graduate employment rates and self‐reported employability are increasingly a feature of higher education funding measures. However, graduate outcomes do not denote the whole learning experience of the student nor is the student experience reducible to a single statistic. This paper discusses a design‐centric approach to employability development which was enacted within a hybrid learning space. The study engaged 52 final‐year speech pathology students, their lecturer, the lead researcher and a career practitioner (advisor) at an Australian university. Students first created personalized employability profiles using an established online self‐reflection tool. The online tool produced a personalized report and enabled students to access developmental resources relating to employability and student success. The project team used anonymized student data to transform a previously generic "careers" workshop into a targeted workshop in which students explored individual and cohort findings and participated in developmental activities informed by the data. The initiative's contribution to learning space research is in its composition as a hybrid learning space in which educators and students engaged as learners and developers of their online learning spaces, and educators collaborated to analyze student data and inform learning and teaching enhancements within the same study period. It is anticipated that the data from subsequent years will inform the curricular review, particularly if subsequent student cohorts express similar concerns. Implications for higher education policy and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A century on from the height of John Dewey’s educational writings and the reputation of the Gary Schools Plan as a model of progressive education, the paper reappraises two key matters: the relationship between John Dewey and William Wirt, the first superintendent of the Gary Schools in Gary Indiana, and the coherence between John Dewey’s progressive pedagogies and the early years of the Gary Schools Plan. Through drawing on a range of primary and secondary sources of information, the paper analyses the connections between John Dewey, William Wirt and the Gary Schools Plan in their shared quest to extend progressive education into new urban and industrial schooling contexts. The paper highlights areas where existing assumptions require review and the extent to which the relationship and connections between Dewey and Wirt’s work were mutually beneficial. The paper ends by calling for further related research based on the archival material available. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines school principal responses to the policy discourse of widening participation in higher education. As a critical analysis of how policy is produced, read and responded to by principals [Bacchi, C., 2009.Analysing policy: what's the problem represented to be?New York: Pearson], the paper questions the assumptions underpinning policies aiming to widen participation of young people in schools where families have traditionally not viewed higher education as a possible or desirable option [e.g. Bok, J., 2010. The capacity to aspire to higher education: ‘It's like making them do a play without a script’.Critical studies in education, 51 (2), 163–178]. Policy is adopted, adapted, ignored or countered by principals and teachers due to ‘situated necessity’ resulting from the history, location, pupil and parental social mix, staffing, material and economic conditions of the school and community infrastructure [Braun, A.,et al., 2011. Taking context seriously: towards explaining policy enactments in the secondary school.Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 32 (4), 585–596]. The data are drawn from principal interviews undertaken when researching a Year 8 Mentoring and Tutoring programme, one component of a three-year Access Express programme, a federally funded Higher Education and Partnership and Participation Programme, developed by a collaboration between a Victorian university and 7 secondary schools. Access Express’ focus on university-school partnerships captured the trend in Australia, the UK and USA during the 2000s to facilitate transitioning out-of-school through long-term university-school partnerships [Armstrong, D. and Cairnduff, A., 2011. Building university-school partnerships.In:D. Bottrell and S. Goodwin, eds.Schools, communities and social inclusion. South Yarra: Palgrave Macmillan, 268–279]. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an analytical overview of the current state of entrepreneurship education (EE) in Australia; placing emphasis on programs, curricula and entrepreneurship ecosystems. Design/methodology/approach – The authors performed a contextual review of the literature by delineating entrepreneurship education programs, the entrepreneurial ecosystem and EE learning and teaching. The review was enhanced by a systematic collection of data from higher education institutions web sites, depicting the prevailing situation of entrepreneurship programs, courses, subjects and their ecosystems. Findings – A number of interesting findings emerged from this study. From a curricular perspective, Australian universities offer 584 subjects related to entrepreneurship. This includes dominance at undergraduate level, representing 24 minors/majors and specializations in entrepreneurship. In total, 135 entrepreneurship ecosystems were identified. Research limitations/implications – This paper presents findings from university web sites and as such requires introspection to validate individual university offerings. Practical implications – The study provides the status of EE in Australia, and may guide academic and policy decision makers to further develop entrepreneurship initiatives. Originality/value – This paper provides the first analytical overview of EE in Australia and paves the way for further evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social inclusion in Australian higher education was high on the agenda of the recent Rudd/Gillard Australian Government. This paper offers an assessment of that agenda, particularly the extent to which it worked in favour of under-represented groups. It argues that the Government's widening and expansion policies and its equity and aspiration strategies lacked sociological imagination, projecting deficits onto individuals who refused to be taken in by its ambitions for higher education participation. The paper concludes that in the absence of a sociological imagination in government policy, the freedoms of disadvantaged groups continued to be curtailed: not just to choose futures in keeping with their goals but also the freedom to formulate choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalent knowledge economy discourse has direct implications for higher education policies and practices. It is expected that the higher education sector supports national economic competitiveness mainly through promoting scientific research, supporting technological transfer and innovation, and producing 'knowledge workers' such as higher degree by research graduates. However in the context of changing work requirements and fast paced technological progress, the 'skills gap' between the labour market needs and the actual attributes of graduates has emerged as a tangible concern. This paper explores the issue of research graduate employability in Australia. Drawing on critical frame analysis, the paper particularly problematises the way research graduate employability has been framed in relevant policy texts, and shows what issues are excluded from the policy agenda and why. By way of demonstrating exclusions from the current debate on doctoral graduates' skills and employability, we briefly report on new data on the level of industry-engagement of research students at one large Australian university to argue that assumptions about the need to 'fix' the skills deficit of graduates have excluded from view high levels of industry engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The higher education policy of the previous Australian government aimed to achieve an internationally competitive higher education sector while expanding access opportunities to all Australians. This policy agenda closely reflects global trends that focus on achieving both quality and equity objectives. In this paper, the formulation and implementation of the policy are examined according to the policy cycle approach, drawing on additional theories and analytic frameworks as applicable. The analysis explores why such an ambitious policy approach was taken, how it was implemented and factors affecting its achievability. Indicators suggest the policy was not delivered successfully within the term of the Labor administration. It also highlights an ongoing policy trend to unify the higher education sector, despite evident divisions within the sector and between levels of government administration. The paper concludes with recommendations to diversify the system so that the equity and quality policy agendas can be implemented concurrently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of quality rankings of academic journals generated a great deal of debate and opinion in Australia during their time at the forefront of interest in the mid-to-late 2000s. However, there has been little empirical research to inform the debate. This paper reports on and analyses the journal ranking experiences of one small discipline - Vocational Education and Training - at the time of the now-defunct Australian Research Quality Framework, and discusses the differences between the discipline's own rankings and those allocated to its journals by the broader Education discipline. The paper then reports on a 2010 survey of members of the discipline's research association, showing broad-based support for journal rankings among practitioner as well as academic members of the Association. The findings in this paper are set against an explanation of the broader Australian journal ranking process and its national introduction and abolition, and in the broader context that rankings of journals continue to be used in some disciplines and in other countries. The findings form a contribution that may help to inform future debates about journal quality and rankings in Education and more broadly across disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student attrition continues to be a significant and costly challenge for higher education institutions across the globe. In Australia, universities cite the importance of addressing student attrition through strategic statements and policy documents, and expend time and resources on the problem. Despite vast expenditures, they have made little impact on student attrition, which continues to negatively impact reputation and revenue. Using a regional Australian university as a case study, this paper analyses a student exit survey to identify the complex and inter-related array of factors that contribute to student attrition. It was found that attrition would be better conceptualised as a wicked problem, which is one that cannot be strategically addressed using traditional approaches to problem-solving. The practical implications of these findings reinforce that current approaches to attrition are likely to fail. Therefore, the wicked nature of the attrition problem needs to be taken into account when developing strategies or policies within higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Cultural exchange is privileged in many higher education programs across the globe. The Australian government’s New Colombo Plan refers to a ‘Third Wave’ of globalisation which foregrounds global interrelatedness through developing student capabilities to live, work and contribute to global communities and aims to make the global an ‘everyday’ experience for students. Mobility programs are promoted as the main strategy for fostering global perspectives, contradicting the idea of the global as an everyday experience. This paper unpacks constructs of global citizenship that underpin Australia’s recent international and global engagement policies, and implications for the ‘global’ wave in ‘local’ parochial contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The use and creation of Open Education Resources (OER) is becoming increasingly prevalent with teachers and learning designers at universities around the world. OER allows educators to create content and make their content available to the world under an open licence, and also provides the opportunity to use and adapt other OER content. Whilst the use and creation of OER in tertiary institutions is not yet considered the 'norm', many jurisdictions around the world have taken steps, to fund, support and encourage the use of OER in their educational institutions. The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has developed an Open Education (OE) initiative to support the use and creation of OER at QUT. Policy is often the foundation stone, which supports progress and change. The underlying policy provides the framework and often points to the legal parameters that guide the objectives of the project or movement. The importance of policy is evident in the way in which QUT has developed and implemented an OE initiative to promote and support the creation and use of OER. This paper considers the history and development of OER, using QUT's OE initiative as an example of the ways in which policy and implementation can lead to positive change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a critical discussion of contemporary policy agendas to raise aspirations for university study among students from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds. It traces the politics of aspiration from the working class ‘poverty of desire’ thesis propounded by British socialists at the turn of the twentieth century to recent concerns about the educational aspirations of low SES groups. These concerns are manifest in the current aspiration-raising agenda in Australian higher education, which aims to realise equity objectives by cultivating market-rational behaviour and dispositions to maximise self-investment in human capital. However, changes in contemporary global education and labour markets present significant obstacles to the ‘good life’ promises made by advocates of human capital theory, and even when these promises are realised, deficit constructions of aspirations persist. The paper identifies a tension in aspiration-raising logics between (1) human capital promises of economic rewards for enterprising behaviour and (2) the policing of aspirations and associated behaviours according to dominant social values. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

During the latter half of the twentieth century, Australia, like many countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, experienced rapid expansion in participation in higher education which was supported by government through increases in the number of publicly funded university places. However, in spite of this expansion, a disproportionately large share of the undergraduate student population is still drawn from higher socio-economic backgrounds. This paper seeks to understand the persistence of inequality in higher education by examining changes in patterns of participation in Australian universities since the 1970s. Using logistic regressions to analyse data collected by three Australian surveys conducted between 1987 and 2005, the authors examine the influence of having a university-educated parent on an individual’s chances of obtaining a higher education degree. They find that although the expansion of higher education has had some impact in terms of reducing inequality, having a university-educated parent continues to exert a direct effect on an individual’s propensity to graduate from university. The paper draws on the theories of maximally maintained inequality and relative risk aversion to interpret institutional and student behaviour. The policy challenges of addressing structural inequality in higher education are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the repositioning of state curriculum agencies in response to the establishment of the Australian Curriculum and the key national policy organisation responsible for its development: the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). I begin with an analysis of the federal Labor government's role in the early years of the Australian Curriculum reform, arguing that Labor was afforded a rare window of political opportunity that enabled the fundamental restructuring of curriculum policy at the national level, and which has significantly altered intergovernmental and inter-agency relationships. Following this, I engage with research literature that has sought to theorise the changing nature of Australian federalism in relation to schooling reform. I then present an empirical analysis based on interviews with policy-makers in ACARA and curriculum agencies in four Australian states (Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria). My analysis draws attention to three dominant trends: powerful new roles for ACARA in driving national reform and inter-agency collaboration; increased policy overlap and blurred lines of responsibility; and an uneven playing field of intergovernmental and interagency relationships and powers. I conclude by considering the implications of emerging reform trends for conceptualising the shifting dynamics of federalism in Australia and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As with other countries, Australia has been grappling with the identification, measurement and impact of disadvantage in higher education. In particular, the measurement of socio-economic status (SES) has been of central concern. The immediate solution in Australia has been the introduction of an ‘area’ measure in which students' SES is categorised on the basis of census data for their neighbourhoods rather than on individual or household data. This paper assesses the veracity of the area measure in capturing individual SES for school-aged entrants, using a longitudinal data set, the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, to construct individual measures of SES and a national ranking of sample individuals on the basis of probability of attending a higher education institution. The results demonstrate the tendency for area measures to misclassify individuals' higher education opportunity and the associated potential for perverse policy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014, the Australian Federal Government attempted to de-regulate higher education fees so as to allow universities to set their own tuition fees. The associated public debate offer critical insights into how the identity of a student as a 'customer' of higher education is understood and deployed when developing higher education policy. This paper uses the 2014 Australian higher education reforms as a lens through which to further scholarly research into the student-as-customer metaphor and to see how it is influenced by the perceptions and understandings of policy actors external to the higher education sector. These include politicians, special interest groups, the students and their parents and prospective employers. This study reveals that the public/private nexus-both of funding and benefit-problematizes traditional conceptualisations of students and others as higher education customers. In turn, this restricts the ability or desire of policy actors to describe how the student functions as a customer as a consequence of market reform. This inability compromises the development of effective and sustainable higher education policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I reflect on three questions arising from my recent research on student equity in higher education and gender in education. These questions relate to the goals, focus and politics of student equity research in the context of a changing higher education landscape in Australia. The paper concludes with an argument for student equity scholarship cognisant of, yet independent from prevailing policy imperatives and discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proportion of students enrolled at university from the lowest quartile of socio-economic position has remained static at around 15% for at least the past 15 years (DEEWR, Transforming Australia's higher education system, ). This paper argues that the apparent lack of progress towards equity of access has been exacerbated due to how socio-economic position (SEP) is measured within higher education. Three major methodological issues are identified: (a) the use of socio-economic indicator for areas (SEIFA) at an inappropriate unit of geographic area (postcode), (b) an inappropriate choice of index (education and occupation), and (c) using the index of education and occupation as the sole indicator of SEP thereby increasing the risk of misclassification of individuals through the operation of ecological fallacy. This paper argues that to address these methodological deficiencies, alternative methods of determining SEP are required at both the aggregate and individual level. Possible options are proposed for use as replacements for the geographic area (postcode) and index (education and occupation) as well as additional measures at the individual or household level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has recently been a shift towards private expenditure in the tertiary education sector accompanied by a shift of public subsidies to students themselves. Implicit in this shift is the message that tertiary education is a private rather than public good, belonging to individual students rather than society. This paper explores the research on the wider social benefits of higher education and the data and methodologies that exist to underpin it. Its focus is on benefits to society but, since individual social benefits are entangled with wider benefits, both are discussed. The paper finds that little research has been undertaken in Australia even though understanding the wider social benefits of higher education is considered important to policy development. Longitudinal survey data do exist that could be extended and harnessed for such research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to examine the social sustainability of academic work in Australian tertiary institutions, in addition to offering a summary of recent research on social sustainability with a particular emphasis on Barron and Gauntlett's work. Design/methodology/approach - Barron and Gauntlett's principles of social sustainability are used as a lens to investigate some of the current conditions of the academic profession. Findings - It appears that Australian universities often fail to perform in a way that complies with the principles of social sustainability. This paper identifies examples in the literature of conditions which inhibit academic staff's ability to work in socially sustainable ways. Practical implications - The paper proposes that universities incorporate principles of social sustainability into their planning and change management policies and processes. Originality/value - The paper recognises the importance of social sustainability in contemporary discourses of higher education. It contributes to the debates on both social sustainability and the ways in which corporatising universities impacts academic staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While diversity and commonality are not necessarily contradictory aspirations in relation to contemporary teaching in higher education, they exist potentially in a state of dynamic tension, fostered by market-based and government-induced policies that strive to have the largest and widest possible client- or customer-base, while reducing costs by standardising delivery and assessment. This paper explores this dynamic tension between diversity and commonality through three empirical cases of different types of students at Central Queensland University in Australia: Indigenous, pre-undergraduate and international students. The paper presents an analytical synthesis of the particular teaching strategies developed by academic staff working with students in each case: experiential learning, transformative learning and culturally-situated pedagogy. The authors argue that these strategies constitute a potentially effective means of helping to resolve the dynamic tension between, and of unravelling the Gordian knot linking, diversity and commonality in Australian contemporary higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper reviews some of the major governmental policy directions that are shaping Australian universities in terms of funding, teaching and learning, research and community engagement, and international development, and draws out the implications of these for social work education and its relationship to the social work profession and the wider human services field. The paper is designed to provide an Australian context for the discussion of higher education policy. However, it recognizes that, given the pace of change in Australian government policy in higher education, such analyses are merely a snapshot at a point in time and that social work educators need to be constantly monitoring the higher education policy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article questions the assumption that increasing competition among higher education institutions is the best method of achieving a strong higher education sector in developing countries. It notes that there has been increasing emphasis on the importance of higher education institutions for sustainable development, particularly because of their importance to the global knowledge economy. For the same reason, the appropriate management of the relationship between the state and higher education institutions is vital to a strong and dynamic future for these institutions. This paper proposes a menu of options for higher education governance, grouped around ‘state-centric’ and ‘neo-liberal’ models of development. The ‘state-centric’ model proposed is based on a variety of examples of high performing Asian economies, in particular, while the ‘neo-liberal’ model is based on emerging trends in higher education management in countries such as Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. The paper suggests that despite pressure across the globe to encourage a market among universities, this may not always be the most efficient use of resources, or the best way to integrate universities in a country’s drive for economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines 2 recent Australian government issues papers on higher education and research policy, indicating areas both of concern and opportunity for Australian higher education providers in theology and their research efforts. The paper then offers suggestions as to how providers of theological education might position themselves as research institutions in the emerging higher education environment in Australia, and how educational policymakers might regard research in the theological sector of Australian higher education. This paper is directed, within the new research environment in Australia, to 2 groups of readers: those concerned with the administration of theological institutions, and those whose responsibility it is to draft policy with regard to research funding. To the theological institutions I want to say: (1) become more familiar with the emerging higher education culture, especially as it affects research, and pay attention to ensuring your institution's own quality assurance controls; (2) avoid being sidelined in the new environment, seek strategic partnerships with other institutions with a similar vision and mission to your own; and (3) attempt to state clearly the role and value of your own discipline in the Australia of the 21st Century. To the policymakers I say: recognise the value of research done, often in small private but not‐for‐profit institutions, in the theological and biblical disciplines. Recognise it as genuine research. Listen to the particular needs of these institutions, which may be quite different from larger institutions with more attention‐grabbing research profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For more than a decade professional doctorates in Australia have continued to grow and diversify across a broadening array of disciplines. An empirical study of “The Doctoral Education Experience” in Australian universities included an examination of doctoral experiences in departments offering both PhD and professional doctorates. This paper discusses professional doctorates in education, management, law and the creative arts, remarking on similarities and differences found between PhD and professional doctorate programs, providing an insight into practice. Three specific areas are discussed. The first is the recruitment and selection of students, student choice of professional doctorates and perceived career benefits. The second area is the structure and organisation of PhD and professional doctorate programs, including the identification of the research topic. The third area is the perceived status of professional doctorates vis-à-vis the PhD. The findings are discussed within the context of government policy on postgraduate education and the emerging literature on professional doctorates. The concluding section of the paper considers the issue of differentiation between the doctorates and possible future developments. Within the context of Australian higher education the main difference could become the capacity to pay: attempts to impose fees in advance for professional doctorates are reinforced by recent government policy on student financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will explore private sector participation in public sector education in the Australian context, focusing on case studies of Queensland and New South Wales, with reference to developments in other states and territories and internationally. In Australia, most states and territories have PPP policies and key projects include the Southbank redevelopment in Brisbane and the ‘New schools’ Project in Sydney. The case studies are both supported by Labor state governments and typify the state of affairs nationally, For Queensland, the Southbank TAFE Institute and Brisbane State High School have been brought into a new education precinct in order to ‘free up’ the system by outsourcing non-core services and ‘free up’ valuable inner-city land. In NSW, nine new public schools are being built by a private consortium, for a cost of $100 million as part of a program totaling $5 billion in areas under-serviced by government schools. Yet despite a concerted effort to sell the value of PPPs, Australians appear to be ambivalent about ‘privatization’ of public services. This paper will look at whether PPPs are robbing the public sector to pay the private sector, and where this strategy is taking Australia and the future of our education systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports issues arising from a longitudinal study of 1991 to 2002 Australian higher education equity data. The national equity framework uses an empirical performance indicator system to monitor access, participation, success and retention of six designated equity groups. The paper examines three possible approaches for defining new groups. It finds no support for an exploratory empirical approach, or for an approach based on definitions of multiple disadvantage, but supports an approach which takes account of secondary school attendance. A case is made for a more sophisticated and contextualised approach to national reporting, to increase the responsiveness and productivity of the policy framework. While the benefits of a national equity policy framework are acknowledged, the paper proposes possibilities for new approaches to monitoring and measuring disadvantage in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies a number of strategies employed by policy actors in the production of Australian higher education entry policy during the period 1987 to 1996, with a particular focus on the production of Queensland higher education entry policy text in 1990 (Viviani, 1990, The Review of Tertiary Entrance in Queensland, 1990, Department of Education, Queensland). The paper begins from the premise that while policy is often intended to be read as if spoken with a single voice, suggesting rational debate and (then) consensus among policy producers, it is more cogently understood as the product of struggle and conflict. Informed by 27 semi-structured interviews with politicians, political advisers, bureaucrats, academics, institutional administrators and independent authorities, the paper addresses the temporary settling of these actors' struggles and conflicts in contexts of policy making through strategies of negotiation. Rather than providing a sequential account of higher education policy that weaves its way through these negotiations, as grand narrative, the paper is more sporadic in its representations of strategies, identifying them in 'local' and specific knowledges and practices. Drawing on Foucault, what emerges is both an archaeology and genealogy of policy production (Gale, 2001, Journal of Education Policy, 16(5), pp. 379-393). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper makes three claims: first that regulatory state making and market making in higher education is intertwined through a project of market citizenship that shapes the 'publicness' of higher education. Second, we argue that these projects of market citizenship are variegated and in Australia has taken the form of accommodation-via regulation tools-between social democratic and market elements, and finally we argue that the effect of this new regulatory state is a strategy to depoliticise the governance of higher education. Policy making appears to be the application of a set of technical rules rather than political decisions about the allocation of values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of universities in the twentieth century is, at least from the perspective of growth, a massive success. Australian higher education is no exception. Prior to the Second World War, Australia had six universities and approximately 10,500 students. Now there are in excess of one million students attending 39 institutions. In each phase of student expansion, governments have sought to make universities accessible to new segments of the community, a pattern that informs contemporary social inclusion initiatives. This paper focuses on two successive periods – the 1940s/1950s and the 1960s/1970s – during which university participation expanded. Comparing two universities which were at that time very different from one another – the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales – I consider the ways both universities approached admissions to understand what each institution hoped to achieve in attracting students beyond the traditional elite. This helps move beyond government strategy and rhetoric to consider what universities believed was at stake as they enabled new students to enter their communities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article uses the narrative case study approach to document the shifts in research and teaching in the contemporary Australian higher education environment. The release of the Federal Government's 'Australia in the Asian Century' White Paper in 2012 is considered here as the formal starting point for a shift towards a more transnational paradigm in terms of research content and approaches, as well as course curricula. However, both appear to continue to be marked by ethnocentrism and instrumentalism in the mainstream. Some strides are being made towards amplifying previously marginalised voices and enhancing cross-national and intercultural links at home and abroad by associations such as the Asian Australian Studies Research Network. Institution-based projects such as the 'Transnational Teaching Teams' project at the University of Wollongong documented here are attempting to bridge the gap in terms of creating an internationalised curriculum and linking the same to student progression and learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent Australian government targets for higher education participation have produced a flurry of activity focused on raising the aspirations of students from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. In this paper we test two key assumptions underpinning much of this activity: that students from low-SES backgrounds hold lower career aspirations; and that outreach activities appropriately target secondary school students, given that younger students' aspirations are relatively under-developed. Drawing on a sample of 3,504 students, we map the intersection of the career aspirations of students in Years 4, 6, 8, and 10 with SES and other demographic variables in order to contribute to the evidence base for academic, educational, and political work on access to higher education and the policies, practices, and outcomes that might ensue. Aspirations are assessed in terms of occupational certainty, occupational choice, occupational prestige, and occupational justification. We found fewer differences by year level and by SES than expected. Our analyses demonstrate both the complexity of students' career aspirations and some of the challenges associated with undertaking this kind of research, thus signalling the need for caution in the development of policy and interventions in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I analyse the history of teacher education in Australia from 1974 to the current policy moment in which questions are increasingly being asked about the quality of teaching and teacher education. Teacher education is, and has been, a highly scrutinised domain in Australia. Since the 1970s, we have seen more than 100 reviews of teacher education in Australia, with another one recently announced in 2014. I focus on three phases in the growth and development of teacher education in the past 40 years by considering the ways in which teacher education (and teaching) has been thought about at various points in time and analysing the related policies for funding governance and regulation. I finish by focusing on the current policy moment in Australia which is positioning teacher education as a ‘policy problem’ requiring a national solution and consider the role of research in, on and for, teacher education into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The objective of this paper is to identify the impact of current national policies and emerging curricular practices on master’s by coursework students in Australia. It is argued that the rate of top-down policy change, together with bottom-up innovation, is resulting in a high level of complexity that is challenging providers, staff and student alike. Findings from a national study that elicited the views of key stakeholders on aspects of the master’s by coursework degree including its adequacy as a preparation for doctoral study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational research has long been the subject of lively and agitated debate, not least because of its diversity. Ranging in scope from academic development and broad-scale policy research through to student engagement and discipline-specific research, it includes methods of traditional academic inquiry and investigations and also less traditional modes of research. However, the topography of Australian educational research and the characteristics of the people who undertake this complex body of work are currently unclear. This paper explores some of the complexities of the Australian research community, drawing on the findings of a national online survey of academics who identified as researching in the field of education from within and outside education schools and faculties. The survey attracted 504 responses from 38 of Australia's 39 universities, and just over two-thirds of respondents were located in a school or faculty of education. We draw on the results to answer the questions of who is undertaking educational research and who how they might be supported. We utilise a conceptual model that 'segments' the educational research workforce represented by the survey respondents, and we conclude by indicating strategies that might be utilised to address research barriers indicated by educational researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Higher education institutions that teach both on-campus and at a distance are challenged to provide all students with equitable access to learning. While the concept of blending or converging learning environments supported by technology and Internet use is common in Australian universities, institution wide implementation is rarer. This paper provides a case study of an Australian regional university that investigated institutional processes and teaching and learning approaches that would facilitate diverse students' equitable access to learning. This investigation identified facilitators and barriers to systemic implementation of blended learning. It was found that as teaching and learning environments are socially dynamic, strategic institutional change will only happen if there is a shared vision and energy that touches all parts of an organisation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In 2007 the Rudd Labor government in Australia introduced significant changes to education policy for the nation. The Skilling Australia's Future (Rudd et al. Skilling Australia for the future. Election policy document, 2007) policy was meant to redress a perceived failure by the previous Howard federal Liberal-National Coalition governments to fund and manage vocational skills training adequately. The Skilling Australia's Future policy established a number of areas for immediate action. This paper looks at one of these areas from the policy document, namely, the Rudd government's plan for addressing skills shortages (Rudd et al. , pp. 4-9) through the establishment of Trade Training Centres in schools. The policy is analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis, featuring the semiotic concept of intertextuality. Findings from the application of this method suggest that Skilling Australia's Future (2007) belongs within a history of like-minded policy and, although a new direction is provided by the allocation of Trade Training Centres to selected high schools, the policy is not clearly separable from the market-driven discourse that has pervaded education policy since the 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Not having clear pathways, or the social means and personal capacities to make a productive transition from schooling, can inhibit young people's participation in social and economic life thereafter. This paper advances an analysis of how policy documents associated with senior schooling from across Australian states address the needs of students who are most at risk of not securing productive transitions. The review identifies that many of the goals emphasised the autonomy of students in taking control of their own transitions. However, such individualistic views downplay the importance of the mediating role that access to cultural, social and economic capital is likely to play in the negotiations involved in making a productive transition. Thus, the needs of 'at-risk' students who may have limited access to the forms of capital offering the best support for these negotiations are not well acknowledged in the policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the way that learning technologies frame teaching practice in higher education using both autoethnography and discourse analysis (interpretative repertoires). The analysis juxtaposes our own experience in the form of data from two interviews, with teaching and learning policy documents from the group of five Australian Technology Network universities, as a means of investigating the centrality of these technologies in the reconfiguring of teaching practice in higher education for the networked university. The data yielded three distinct discourses: technology as a bridge to globalised opportunity; technology as delivery of learning; and technology as communication and building relationships for learning. The first repertoire provides a utopian vision which glosses over the complex practice of implementation. The second repertoire also omits details of implementation, presenting learning technology unproblematically. The third repertoire, not present in the policy documents, but central to the autoethnographic accounts, focusses on both the possibilities and challenges of learning technologies in practice, and points to the potential for a complementary approach which foregrounds the student-teacher relationship. How these discourses can be reconciled is a central issue for academic teaching practice in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been considerable interest in generic attributes in higher education for over a decade and yet while generic skills or attributes are an important aspect of policy, there is often a lack of consistency between beliefs about the importance of these skills and attributes and the degree to which exist in teaching practice. There has been an assumption that these attributes exist outside of the disciplinary context, yet the findings of this study suggest that they are strongly influenced by the disciplinary culture in which they are taught. The study reported in this paper examines the apparent gap between ideal notions of generic attributes and their enactment in teaching practice. This qualitative study examined the teaching of generic attributes in five disciplines (physics, history, economics, medicine and law) in two Australian universities. It found that the notion of generic attributes is highly complex and while attributes such as critical thinking, problem solving and communication are valued by teaching staff they are often implicit in teaching. This gap between what is valued and what is actually taught is a result of variation in interpretation of generic attributes, the difficulties of reducing complex attributes to definable learning outcomes and practical constraints on teaching caused by factors such as large classes. Furthermore, it can be explained by the finding that generic attributes are part of the epistemic culture of the disciplines and often remain tacit. The findings of this study have significant implications for scholarship, policy and pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]