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This paper examines responses to the trend for increasing participation in tertiary education, linking developments in higher education with those in apprenticeship systems, in Australia and the United Kingdom. In both sectors, expansion proceeded for several decades, but was robustly criticised in both countries. The expansion of access to these two forms of tertiary education, therefore, was contested and potentially precarious. The paper finds, through analysis of official data, that participation in higher education and in apprenticeship was actually almost static, or fell, in both countries in the 2010s. Yet criticism of expansion continued in media commentary during this decade. The paper both explains and takes issue with the arguments against expansion, which have been influential in both sectors. It discusses some ways forward to understand the phenomenon better, and also the need to address the problems caused by the restriction of opportunities. Comparative analysis between the two sectors has not previously been undertaken. It is argued in the paper that such analysis enriches the theoretical lenses through which expansion of access may be viewed, and that it may suggest avenues for future research, and perhaps, for advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reappraises the view of John McPeck that critical thinking can only be taught within rather than across the disciplines. In particular the paper explores one aspect of McPeck's position: his resistance to teaching informal logic as a means of teaching critical thinking. The paper draws upon the author's experience of teaching critical thinking in the USA, Britain and Australia to outline some of the challenges and issues arising in devising and teaching courses in reasoning and informal logic and seeks to show that McPeck's misgivings are not entirely well-founded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings from an empirical study of key aspects of the teaching and research priorities, beliefs and behaviours of 72 professorial and associate professorial academics in Science, Information Technology and Engineering across four faculties in three Australian universities. The academics ranked 16 research activities and 16 matched learning and teaching (L&T) activities from three perspectives:job satisfaction,role model behaviourandperceptions of professional importance. The findings were unequivocally in favour of research in all three areas and remarkably consistent across the universities. The only L&T activity that was ranked consistently well was ‘improving student satisfaction ratings for teaching’, an area in which academics are increasingly held accountable. Respondents also indicated that their seniors encourage research efforts more than L&T efforts. Recommendations include that higher education rewards for quality L&T are maintained or improved and that recognition of L&T research domains is further strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a review of the literature relating to hard-to-reach families which has been published over the last 12 years in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia. The purpose of the review was twofold: to gain insights to understandings of the term ‘hard-to-reach’ within these services – education, health and social – which might be aiming to access such families in order to help them improve their life chances and to explore the ways in which services have been successful in engaging the families. A consistent message to emerge from the review is that complex issues need complex solutions which in turn need time to implement. Additionally, it is clear that services need to develop diversity of support provision in order to meet the varying needs of families and that services need to develop a shared script for working with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper examines the emergence of education as a marketable service with institutions now seeking to market themselves in a professional manner. A comparison is made between two samples- one of administrators within educational institutions in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and United States, the other of college and university students in Australia. Statistical analysis identified a series of key factors considered critical to the successful marketing of these institutions. A comparison of institutional and student views is made concluding that significant differences exist between the two groups. Managerial and research implications are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Debate on teacher quality and quality in teaching and teacher education has been as vigorous in Australia as it has been in the UK and the USA In Australia, however, reform in teacher education has been subsumed within a national metapolicy of corporate federalism which is an amalgam of beliefs or discourses including neo-corporatism, economic rationalism, corporate managerialism and human capital The paper analyses the most recent document on reform of teacher education in Australia (the Ebbeck Report) and shows how its policy formulation is influenced by the discourse of corporate federalism It also shows how micro-economic reform in this sector is related to reforms in other sectors of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nursing profession has experienced significant change over the last 100 years. Consequently, the work-force of the 21st century is a diverse entity that is edging toward the specialization of nurses in a specific clinical setting. In such an environment, a common knowledge base is demanded of nurses - a factor that has affected the development of second level, or enrolled nurses (ENs). The forces at play raise questions about nursing roles and scopes of practice. The establishment of education pathways that promote career development has been the stimulus for conversations about the effectiveness of the transition of EN to registered nurse (RN). This paper presents a review of the literature that identifies and explores common emerging themes (making the move from EN; adapting to Bachelor of Nursing; transitioning to RN) associated with this transition through the process of undertaking baccalaureate studies in nursing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the history of relations between colonialism, schooling and social change in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Ireland, countries that were once part of the British Empire. It indicates that responses to schooling ranged from acceptance and tolerance, to modification and rejection, depending on the country, the issue, and the historical period. There were also differences in the historical connections in schooling between Britain itself and each country: regarding Australia, the relationship was predominantly unidirectional, from the centre to the Antipodes; in PNG British educational ideas which arrived were filtered through the Australian administration; while in Ireland, British initiatives in schooling contributed not only to social change there, but also helped produce loyal personnel to work in Britain and the colonies. Attention is also given to areas of interdependence and interconnectedness, and to illustrating how conducting such case studies is important in order to help counter alternative interpretations promoted by powerful sectors in society in the interest of reproducing their social privilege. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been much recent debate, both in the media and in academic journals, as to the meaning of the term university. This article explores the legal meaning of the term, and the historical contingencies which have surrounded various understandings of the term. It compares the structure of the Eleemosynary Corporation—the individual colleges in Oxford and Cambridge in the United Kingdom, from which many of our conceptions of a “real” university arise—with the realities of the statutory university in the United Kingdom and Australia. It concludes that the term, although with a loaded legal and institutional meaning, is bereft of any inherent meaning conveying function, and that a debate on the role and independence of the university must be policy‐oriented but not reliant on the historical meaning of the word. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to review and critique the current state of information literacy education, and propose a way forward. Key developments in the UK, USA and Australia are reviewed, including standards and models of information literacy. The place of information literacy in the higher education curriculum is discussed. Problems with current practice are identified, in particular, prescriptive guidelines which encourage a surface learning approach; delivery by librarians who may lack both educational training and power to influence the curriculum; and poor assessment methods. Alternative approaches are highlighted. A case study of a credit bearing information literacy class, offered by the authors to undergraduates at Strathclyde Business School, is analysed, to argue that information literacy can stand alone as a subject of study, with appropriate learning and teaching methods. The article concludes by proposing models for the information literate student and the information literate university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]