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Definitions of disability are changing, shifting from a narrow medical diagnosis to a biopsychosocial model of disability, where disability is conceptualised as a series of relational conditions that can potentially disadvantage individuals within environments. Implications of this new understanding of disability will have significant effects in the higher education sector, where there is increasing participation of disabled students. In this paper, we discuss one aspect of these implications through the topic of graduate employability. In doing so, we generate a new concept 'Employability for Inclusion' that can be utilised as an equity-focused lens for universities to consider how employability initiatives are inclusive to disabled and/or diverse students. To unpack this concept, we further illustrate how a biopsychosocial model of disability would impact key employability activities (e.g., work-integrated learning) and provide valuable insights into how the higher education sector can adopt emerging conceptualisations of disability and inclusion.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that there is growing concern about increasing administrative burden within universities around the world. At the same time, the literature explicitly devoted to the issue of administrative burden within universities remains relatively scant. Drawing on various bodies of literature and reflections on the situation at Australian universities, this paper (a) presents a conceptualisation of what constitutes administrative burden, considering its organisational implications for universities, (b) interrogates a range of potential drivers of administrative burden, and (c) outlines avenues for both future research into and for practical responses to the issue. The specific contributions of this paper include, first, showing that administrative burden can impact universities' core activities not only indirectly but also more directly, and second, illustrating that some of the key changes that were meant to make universities more efficient may have inadvertently increased levels of administrative burden.

This paper analyses the extent to which intersectionality is considered in university strategic approaches to equity, diversity, and inclusion, and how intersectionality is expressed within strategic plans. Intersectionality is a framework for understanding compounding experiences of those who identify with multiple diversity areas and how these factors interact to create an experience specific to this combination. Through a survey of publicly available diversity and inclusion action plans at Australian universities, this paper maps the extent of both intersectionality awareness and enactment. This paper shows that while there were mentions of intersectionality, these were often limited to aspirational statements and acknowledgements rather than meaningful enactment. This demonstrates a desire by universities to respond to intersectionality in education, but either a lack of action or understanding of how to act for positive impact. This paper provides considerations and recommendations for Australian universities to meaningfully include intersectionality in their strategies and action plans.

The need for universities and industry to collaborate has been well established. In this paper, we present three cases studies, including 14 semi-structured interviews, across a range of disciplines. In the design and analysis of the study, we apply management and political science theories to better understand how stakeholder's motivations influence the development of university industry collaboration within an Australian university environment. We present our findings across cases, and through five emerging themes: (a) stakeholder--trust and respect; (b) business alignment; (c) employability--mutual benefits; (d) commitment to cause--alignment of values; and (e) innovation/research focus. This study provides real-world insight into influencing the development of university industry collaborations enhancing the student experience, and potentially impacting employability after graduation.

The nature of academic appointments in Australia has changed. Given the recent emergence and growth of teaching focused academics roles across countries and contexts, in this conceptual paper we begin by parsing the language and role descriptions used for these academic appointments. Then, we consider what we know about teaching focused academics roles, and the research approaches used in these studies. We identify that teaching focused academics s struggle to understand, capture, and represent the knowledge creation component of their academic workload. We argue there is a need for research that builds a richer and holistic understanding of teaching focused roles and their workloads. We offer a solution: a learning-practice conceptual framework -- combining Ann Webster-Wright's authentic professional learning and Trowler's practice sensibility with Goodyear's framework for design -- to open new vistas of research and policy implementation.

The sabbatical provides an important illustration of the changing nature of academic life and is a symbol of the growing demands of performativity. Drawing on historical literature and archival sources concerning university sabbaticals at Australian and English universities, the paper demonstrates that underlying assumptions about its purposes have changed slowly, but markedly, over time. A shift has occurred from a conception of the sabbatical as a period of rest, recuperation and academic travel to one of hyper-productivity. This change is linked to the emergence of the so-called research university, the rise of performativity, and the increasing demands of an audit culture. The academic sabbatical is also an often forgotten but significant indicator of the internationalisation of universities in the nineteenth and early to mid-twentieth century.

Skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are promoted by the Australian government as pivotal for Australia's economic prosperity. Research on equity groups suggests that group membership is associated with several factors linked to 'leakage' from the STEM pipeline of school, university and transition to work. In this paper we draw on longitudinal Australian data to understand what factors influence the participation of equity group students in university STEM courses, and to explore how the STEM pathways of those groups differ from those of non-equity students. We identified several important factors which influence participation at two critical points of the STEM pipeline; transition from school into university, and transition from university into the STEM workforce. Our results indicated that higher levels of mathematics self-concept and instrumental valuing of mathematics in early adolescence predict continuation in the STEM pathway for all students and particularly those from low socioeconomic status backgrounds.

This paper revisits the issue of institutional diversity in Australian higher education, taking account of international trends and research on the subject. Drawing on empirical studies over the last three decades, I adopt a within-country case study approach to analysing institutional diversity in the Australian higher education policy context and consider post-COVID systemic implications. Catalysts for this analysis include revisions to the Australian provider category standards, government policy shifts influencing the undergraduate curriculum, and the systemic impact of a global pandemic. The paper concludes with three propositions, arguing that institutional diversity will be more important than ever to meet the diverse needs of students and the labour market; an ecosystemic approach to post-secondary education will be a key enabler of sector diversity; and a paradigm shift, enabled by such drivers as government policy and proactive institutional leadership, will be essential to achieve enhanced institutional diversity.

Within the higher education sector in Australia regionality is not well defined, which is a significant issue for regional universities, given the opportunities for development and growth stemming from the Australian Government's focus on regional higher education. This paper contends that if regional universities are to operate successfully in an increasingly competitive sector, they need to centre their operations around a clear definition of regionality. Based on a review of definitions of regionality in international higher education contexts, and an analysis of how regionality is defined outside of higher education, this paper provides a definition of regionality for Australian higher education. Whilst acknowledging the differences in potential contexts and applications, this definition seeks to provide a basis upon which regional universities in Australia can determine the ways in which they may create a strong identity, achieve the Australian Government's objectives for regional higher education, and reap the associated benefits.

The demands arising from the COVID-19 pandemic have amplified the importance of resilience not only for students, but also for academics. This narrative review examines a phenomenon which has received little research attention, despite its significance during the pandemic, namely the resilience of academics in higher education. We refer to this as 'academic resilience'. The review investigates how academic resilience in higher education has been addressed in scholarship, with particular attention to the five major pandemics from 2001 to 2020. A review of fourteen relevant papers shows a lack of attention to the resilience of university teaching staff. Uncovering how academics overcome and withstand adversity on the one hand, and how higher education institutions have managed and supported the resilience of their staff on the other, this paper offers a conceptualisation of academic resilience that goes beyond the individual/environmental binary in scholarship.

Mentoring and coaching are primarily intended to develop "mentees," net of any benefits for mentors. This paper details the construction of a mentor-coaching model to develop leadership capability in Higher Education Academy Fellowship program mentors at an Australian university. We elaborate developmental benefits for mentors of an iterative approach, in which mentee experiences inform subsequent mentor training and help to build community. This serves the key aims of our program, including anticipated benefits for the institution flowing from this strategy for driving broader change in learning and teaching cultures and practices. We propose that dyadic and group mentoring can be structured to support growth in leadership capability in a community of mentors, if participation in that community is framed as a form of continuing professional learning. We detail the program level mechanisms through which this capability building model of mentor-coaching may potentially transform learning and teaching at Deakin University.

In 2019, the Australian Government introduced a new post-study work rights policy as a lever to attract international students to study and work in regional Australia. The aim of this paper is to explore the potential implications of the new policy and consider factors which may impact it from realising the intended benefits. An analysis of historical international student enrolment and post-study work rights data for three regions in Australia was conducted to make assumptions about potential growth in those three regions brought by the new policy. This illustrated that while regions are regularly homogenised in policy discourse, there are a variety of complex place-based factors that may impact the success of the policy such as local employment industries, institutional growth profile and community engagement. It recommends that tertiary education leaders undertake comprehensive place-based planning to support the intended outcomes of the policy change to be realised and sustainable.

Facing increased pressure to improve participation and attainment, and significant constraints in available revenue and resources, regional Australian universities are seeking opportunities to enhance student retention in a way that is sustainable and addresses the unique circumstances of regional universities. Whilst advising models, nationally and internationally, are predominantly concentrated on an expensive and time-poor academic workforce, it is proposed that there exists an opportunity to create an advising workforce from existing institutional support services. This paper provides an analysis of competencies required for academic advisors and suggests that a model that builds on the comprehensive knowledge about course structures and institutional rules, policy, and processes already endemic to staff providing student support services, could create an effective student success advising service using existing professional services staff.

Benchmarking is a formalised evaluation process by which a university can measure the standard of their policies, processes, programmes or strategies through comparison with other universities. Currently, there is a paucity of research that focuses on the documentation associated with external benchmarking undertaken by Australian universities. Given that Australia's higher education regulatory body requires universities to reflect the purposes of external benchmarking within policy frameworks and for external referencing to be overseen by peak academic governance bodies such limited research is of significance. This paper contributes to the literature by investigating whether documented structures, policies and guidelines are in place to inform learning and teaching external referencing processes. Using a qualitative documentary thematic analysis, policies, procedures and guidelines found on university governance websites were investigated and analysed. The findings indicate that many Australian universities are at risk of not meeting mandatory regulatory requirements.

Occupational stress has increased in higher education academic staff over several decades, and this has been particularly acute in Australia and New Zealand. This scoping review sought to understand the causes and impacts of occupational stress among Australian and New Zealand academics. Eight EBSCO databases were searched for key terms: academic and occupational stress and Australia and New Zealand. Twenty relevant papers were sourced, from which five common themes were extracted: (i) balancing an academic workload, (ii) casualisation of the workforce, (iii) the managerialism phenomenon, (iv) transition from field of practice to academia, and (v) academic and other staff. Further research in the Australian and New Zealand context is required to identify the nature of specific stressors and how these impact health and well-being.

Higher education has existed in Australia for 170 years, yet Indigenous Australians have participated for only half a century. One key change the Australian higher education sector has witnessed over the last decade is the steady increase of people occupying senior Indigenous leadership roles. These positions are indeed relatively new and have not been empirically investigated until now. Reporting on findings from an Australian Research Council funded study on Indigenous leadership in higher education, this paper highlights some of the discrepancies in how the skills of Indigenous leaders are interpreted by the academy, with a hope to challenge the sector's next senior non-identified appointments to ensure that Indigenous people become integral architects in designing the future Australian higher education sector.

Although common barriers to studying abroad are well documented, this paper proposes a more-overarching barrier is that prevalent evaluation strategies provide little evidence of how study abroad contributes to discipline-specific learning outcomes. Such direct evidence is likely to encourage more employers to view studying abroad as adding value to a graduate resume and hence motivate more students to participate. Studying abroad is often represented in the literature as delivering a transformative impact for all students, regardless of their specific academic programme. While this may be true, it frames the benefits of studying abroad as being generic and supplementary to any discipline-specific curriculum. This paper provides a specific example derived from an Australian national data set and reviews other methodologies that can deliver outcomes data for specific disciplines and for different study programmes, enabling more effective programme evaluation and more effective promotion of the benefits of studying abroad for different students.

This paper responds to a growing literature arguing that change in higher education institutions might be better understood and managed if such institutions are understood as complex systems with emergent properties. Based on complexity theory, the paper articulates a set of characteristics that might be expected if institutions are in fact acting as complex systems. The utility of these characteristics for identifying complexity in the field is tested in the context of a large partnered research project involving the mathematics, science and education colleges from six Australian universities and their local K-12 schools. The study finds evidence of subsystem variations on the initial partnership priorities, including substantial boundary crossing, leading to emergence and co-evolution, indicating that a macroscopic view of emergent variation rather than 'micromanaging' may be an essential factor in scaling and sustaining collaborative partnerships.

In 2017 Universities Australia initiated their "Indigenous Strategy 2017-2020" which outlined a clear commitment for each university to appoint at least one Indigenous person to a senior executive role. Many universities are yet to realise this promise. In some cases, it is a situation of nil intent to do so, while others have an underlying desire to adhere to their commitment but with minimal success. Drawing on a larger study of Indigenous leadership in higher education, this paper focuses on the experiences of three recruiters who have been responsible for recruiting a senior Indigenous appointment. It provides an understanding of cultural complexities, recruitment barriers and key strategies which the sector can incorporate into their business activities to secure the best person for such positions. Notably, this paper argues there is no template for such positions and they are usually diverse in terms of their responsibilities and strategic outcomes.

The decision-making around resource allocation in universities is complex. It plays out through the structures of governance and bureaucracy, through interactions with colleagues, workplace cultures and through day-to-day individual work practices. To survive and succeed within this complex environment, teaching support staff need to be sensitive to the cues provided by their institution. This paper focuses on the cues available to teaching support staff within university strategic plans and considers the effects these cues may have on their day-to-day decision-making. The results provide a sample of the competing cues that have an impact on teaching support staff and provide a foundation for a reconsidered approach to university strategic planning.

Discusses the changing role of government as Australian universities face restructuring including: (1) shaping the system for national policy purposes; (2) funding research and teaching; (3) setting industrial relations and related policy parameters; and (4) quality assurance and accountability. Urges universities to tackle their problems without waiting for government direction. (DB)

Leadership matters for the success of large enterprises and this is also the case for higher education institutions and universities. Yet, the public nature of universities and of academia means these institutions are usually highly dependent on external actors, in particular government. Viewed through a lens of distributed leadership, this paper explores how leaders in universities, national academies and government view and rate key changes associated with this pervasive reorientation and reorganisation of public higher education. It asks where do the views of leaders within universities and those outside universities converge and diverge and what patterns are evident in the differences between leaders? Drawing on 116 in-depth interviews and 114 follow-up surveys with senior higher education leaders in Australia, of which just over half were university senior executives, this paper concludes that all leaders surveyed are largely aligned in their views of most issues.

Conceptualising the quality of higher education as "fitness for purpose" begs the question of "whose purpose"? Thus, understanding who has dominance over Australia's higher education system, and what purpose it is seen to fulfil, is important for ensuring that current quality assurance methods are effective. This paper presents the findings of a discourse analysis conducted to explore the unspoken purpose contained in the documents published by the Australian higher education regulator and quality assurance agency. Through the analysis of the Act, newsletter articles published by the agency, and selected relevant documents, the paper shows that the national system is positioned as an export service industry. The paper highlights some of the implications this has on the methods employed to assure the quality of the national system, including the risk posed to the system by a singularity of purpose, and discusses some of the current conditions which may have led to this state.

While satisfaction, engagement and retention of academics has been widely discussed, there is less acknowledgement that a university must first convince high-quality academic talent of the benefits of joining their institution. This paper sought to identify the key factors that influence early-career and aspiring academics to choose employment with a university. Fifty early-career academics or PhD scholars aspiring to academic careers gave their perspectives on this critical issue. The key findings point to five key factors that enhance the attractiveness of universities in the eyes of this next generation of talent, including reputation, organisational culture, role characteristics, career development and growth, and physical characteristics. We argue that universities, regardless of size, location or ranking, must strive to differentiate themselves and their offerings and focus on some key messages when recruiting academics.

University student volunteering is prevalent in Western countries, but has rarely been critically evaluated by researchers. Little is known about the different ways in which student volunteer programmes are organised. Using a matrix constructed from the publicly available websites of all Australian universities, and 60 interviews with key stakeholders at six universities, this paper identifies nine different models of student volunteer programmes. The models show the different ways in which universities, faculty and students are involved in organising student volunteer programmes. These nine models are presented in a continuum of increasing direct management by universities. In addition to identifying the models, the analysis revealed trends in student volunteering, particularly the way that Australian universities are packaging student volunteering as part of their service learning, leadership or employability agendas. The continuum facilitates a common language and understanding of university student volunteering, leading to cross-disciplinary recognition of the different models available.

For decades Australian universities have used equity scholarships as a tool to widen participation in higher education despite limited empirical evidence about how such scholarships influence students' retention and success outcomes. This paper reports on the first cross-institutional Australian study to investigate the relationship between equity scholarships and recipients' retention and success outcomes. The study used a comparative case study approach to triangulate cohort and survey data in the 2013 academic year for scholarship holders at three Australian universities. Using an established conceptual framework of student engagement, we find that a comparatively small payment can make a difference to retention rates and that selection criteria determine student outcomes. At the same time, scholarships are no panacea. We conclude that eligibility criteria for equity scholarships should be multi-factorial and that financial support should be nested with other supports for optimal benefit.

There has been a gradual shift towards vocational type courses in tertiary education, and subsequently an increasing trend in the employment of those experienced in their profession into academic positions. This paper will focus on the case study of allied health professionals employed under the assumption that people with clinical skills and experience will be able to transfer into academia. Yet the skills required in academia are different from clinical practice. Despite there being a paucity of research exploring this phenomenon, that which does exist suggests that academics transitioning from clinical practice may feel stressed, confused and disillusioned. They can also take many years to establish their academic career. A greater understanding of the transition process is needed, and support strategies for developing academics must be prioritised. These strategies need to be implemented at a systemic level in tertiary education institutions, but also at the individual level by the academics themselves.

The agencies responsible for tertiary education quality assurance in Australia and New Zealand have established regulatory regimes that increasingly intersect with tertiary institution policy management. An examination of university meta-policies identified good practices guiding university policy and policy management. Most Australian and half of New Zealand universities have developed meta-policy, or policy on policy, with the most comprehensive articulating policy definitions, range and application of policy instruments, categorisation, approval authorities and policy cycle stages. Sound meta-policy provides an essential framework for good policy-making, and is the key to the development of positive policy outcomes. Increasing tertiary sector regulation provides a contemporary imperative to embrace university meta-policy as one mechanism to embed good practice policy process to facilitate these improved policy outcomes.

Universities are increasingly utilising social media for student recruitment, the most highly used channel for prospective students. However, research on information gathering and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM)-seeking behaviours on social media is generally absent. This paper explores the information sought by prospective students on social media, by analysing data from actual conversations on Quora, a social media question-and-answer site. Content analysis of 865 questions was conducted to examine the information regarding the factors students seek when selecting a university. The findings report information requirements on five major dimensions, namely reputation, career prospect, learning and leaching, administration and student life. This paper contributes to higher education literature by revealing the university information search factors students most commonly seek on social media, utilising a unique data source derived from actual online questions. Through understanding the eWOM-seeking behaviours of prospective students, universities can more accurately target their social media content.

This paper analyses the international financing of higher education, an important yet understudied facet of contemporary policy and practice. The paper takes the globally significant China-Australia relationship as a case study. This paper argues that analysing the international political economy of the China-Australia case better illuminates the dynamics of financials flow through situating them in their socio-political context. Through such analysis, the paper makes empirical contributions of relevance to policy and practice. It also contributes more broadly to reframing the design of work in this field by asserting the methodological need for analysing international finance and the conceptual need to take such matters into account.

In 2017 Universities Australia (UA), the peak body representing Australian universities released its "Indigenous Strategy 2017-2020." The document unites universities together in common goals for Indigenous achievement, filling a notable gap in the Australian higher education landscape. The "Strategy" outlines a comprehensive plan for enhanced Indigenous outcomes in critical areas of higher education including student access and success, graduate research, and community engagement. This paper focuses on the implementation of Indigenous curriculum for all Australian university graduates which is a key aspect of the "Strategy." The changing Indigenous higher education landscape invites the nuanced analysis that critical examination of universities, as organisations, might elicit. Drawing on de Certeau's notion of tactics and strategies, the paper examines the policy and cultural climate of an Australian university which supports an Indigenous Graduate Attribute curriculum project.

This paper critically explores the opportunity for leadership development in higher education within an interpretative inquiry paradigm from the perspective of middle-level academics transitioning into leadership/management roles in Australian universities. Middle-level academics are described as being at a mid-point in their careers and universally appear to represent a substantial percentage of academic personnel in tertiary institutions. Much has been written about the rapid and seemingly unstoppable changes occurring in the higher education climate as a result of global reform and with it the effect that change is having within the realm of academic leadership. Of some interest particularly is the effect that change is having at the level of middle-level academics in leadership roles. Many universities throughout Australia have established various 'leadership capability frameworks' to meet the need of leadership and management development. However, consideration needs to be given to how well these programs prepare middle-level academics for their leadership roles.

Teaching and learning partnerships in universities have the potential to enhance the interconnections and interdependencies between higher education, society and the economy for the benefit of all stakeholders. The aim of this paper was to investigate five representative Australian universities' engagement in teaching and learning partnerships identifying the prevalence, type and influences. The two data sources were each university's Mission-based Compact and their strategic plans. A total of 134 statements in the Compacts related to teaching and learning partnerships and these statements related to eight themes. These teaching and learning partnerships within a particular time period were influenced by industry-community relationships, accreditation requirements, and the broader social environment. Whilst all universities in the study acknowledge the significance of teaching and learning partnerships, it is the depth and breadth of these teaching and learning partnerships that create distinctions among the universities.

This paper builds on recent studies of institutional diversity in Australian tertiary education by modifying this model and using it to profile Australian pathway providers. The results offer insight into the role and work of this under-represented part of Australian tertiary education, as well as highlighting key strategic issues for these institutions and encourages a self-reflexive stance towards profiling methodologies.

Many universities divide their academic workloads according to a model of 40 per cent teaching, 40 per cent research, and 20 per cent administration and service. Increasing demands on academic time, however, make this balance hard to achieve, since teaching and administration frequently impinge on research time. Moreover, regular academic activities may not fit into the workloaded time available. This paper presents evidence from a 3 month case study of a single academic in an Arts department at a research-intensive Australian university who has a 40:40:20 workload and is encouraged to publish an average of two high quality journal articles a year. Based on the study's findings, a more realistic workload model would be 40 per cent teaching, 25 per cent research and 35 per cent administration, with an adjustment in the amount of quality research outputs expected. A new model should also balance face-to-face teaching time with teaching-related activities.

Within Australian higher education, there has been an evolving of employability policy, realised in curriculum, at an intersection of the constructs of employment, work-readiness, life-long learning, and career development. The enactment of employability policy has driven an evolution in the practices of higher education in both curriculum and student support. This paper presents a case study of an Australian university which has reimagined the delivery of career and student support services through a framework that envisions preparing students for future worlds of work. The emergent policy framework has transformed organisational structures, human resources, and connections between student support practices and curriculum design. This transformation has generated new intersections of practice and is challenging institutional constructs of expertise. This case study provides transferrable learnings for broader considerations of higher education policy and practice as employability becomes the core driver of student success, and explores layered discourses of policymaking across an institution.

Distributed leadership has been explored internationally as a leadership model that will promote and advance excellence in learning and teaching in higher education. This paper presents an assessment of how effectively distributed leadership was enabled at five Australian institutions implementing a collaborative teaching quality development scheme called the Peer Assisted Teaching Scheme. The Scheme brings together expertise from teams of academics, coordinators, and institutional learning and teaching portfolio holders to the shared goal of enhancing learning and teaching quality. A distributed leadership benchmarking tool was used to assess the Scheme's effectiveness, and we found that (i) the Scheme is highly consistent with the distributed leadership benchmarks, and that (ii) the benchmarking tool is easily used in assessing the alignment (or otherwise) of teaching and learning quality initiatives with distributed leadership benchmarks. This paper will be of interest to those seeking to assess implementations of distributed leadership to improve teaching quality and leadership capacity.

A common theme in higher education research is the factors that affect university funding. Studies frequently examine how universities cope with funding cuts and the changes that have stemmed from operating in a neoliberal age, a period that now sees institutions commonly functioning on a cost/benefit basis. This paper offers an original contribution by using the Australian Federal Government Department of Education and Training's document, "Finance 2015: Financial Reports of Higher Education Providers," to problematise the financial assistance individual Australian public universities received from the federal government. The paper acknowledges the factors that can account for some institutions receiving more funding than others but nonetheless highlights the substantial discrepancies concerning government financial contributions that exist between Australia's highest and lowest funded universities. At a time when a performative culture has increasingly become part of higher education, and an institution's research performance is calculable and rankable, it is crucial to Australia's long-term research success that all its universities remain competitive in the race for research and government funding.

One focus of gender equity policies in universities has been the creation of "retention" part-time work for professional staff, which allows employees to move between full-time and part-time hours at their request. This paper examines whether such "good" part-time jobs can contribute to or at least not impede women's career advancement. The paper examines the correlation between job classification and part-time work, and whether a period of part-time work acts as a significant "brake" on a woman's career trajectory. This study uses data from the 2011 Work and Careers in Australian Universities survey. Part-time work is used extensively by lower-classified women, but rarely by those in higher classifications. Part-time work stalls career advancement compared to working full-time, but this brake is reduced if a woman transitions back to full-time work.

In 2012, government changes to higher education shifted Australia to a demand driven funding model. The consequential increase in student numbers, along with greater focus on retention and student satisfaction, resulted in rising customer expectations. There are now strategic imperatives to change administrative cultures to focus on delivering service excellence. This study analyses customer service behaviours of student administration staff at one Australian university. Using a conceptual framework of motivations, attitudes, perceptions and skills towards customer service, this small-scale study suggests that staff are intrinsically motivated and have largely positive attitudes towards their student customers. A gap was identified between individuals' perceptions of their customer service delivery compared with that of colleagues, while staff learn informally from their supervisors and colleagues. Finally, this paper explores how universities might develop and embed a workforce that is student-centric, delivering outstanding customer service, while at the same time upholding governance and compliance requirements.

Strategic planning was introduced to Australian universities as part of the Commonwealth Government higher education reforms of 1988. The 'Dawkins Reforms' implemented extensive structural reform, changed executive leadership roles and responsibilities, commenced the 'managerialisation' of the Australian university sector, introduced the Higher Education Contribution Scheme and facilitated the transformation of Australian universities from collegial academies to modern, 'enterprise' universities. There is an abundance of published marketing material celebrating 'effective' strategic planning outcomes in the myriad of strategic plans published by Australian universities. Yet, a recent study indicates that strategic planning remains a contested internal leadership function in Australian universities almost 30 years after traditional academic planning was replaced with commercially-focused strategic planning. This paper will review the effectiveness of strategic planning practices in Australian universities guided by the rhetorical question: 'how good are we and how do we know?'

Student attrition remains a persistent problem within the Australian higher education sector. Contributing factors include financial, reputational and quality issues, which can pose significant risks for a university's sustainability. Institutional culture is fundamental to decisions student make about withdrawing or remaining in higher education. Therefore, student retention requires a sustained, deeply embedded commitment from all parts of the institution, placing student experience at the forefront of all activities in the student lifecycle. Applying a lifecycle approach to the way in which institutions think about student retention benefits students by providing comprehensive and consistent support. Given that less is known about how professional staff contribute to student academic learning journeys as part of whole of institution responses to student retention, this paper focusses on the contributions that professional staff make within the student lifecycle and how they can most readily map their contributions to student retention and success.

Many Australian universities have prioritised improving discipline performance on the national research assessment--Excellence for Research in Australia. However, a "culture of secrecy" pervades "Excellence in Research for Australia" (ERA). There are no specified criteria for the assignment of ratings on a 5-point scale ranging from "well above world standard" (5) to "well below world standard" (1). No rationale is provided to institutions for their discipline ratings and university staff on the ERA panels sign confidentiality agreements. However, what is available to universities are the research strategies that each university documents to improve its ERA performance in its Mission-based Compact, a government funding agreement. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the similarities and differences in the research strategies that universities with different performance profiles employ. Following an analysis of the strategies, substantial commonality was identified in strategy use. However, what was different was how universities employed these strategies and the associated contexts.

The importance of transnational programmes as part of the internationalisation of higher education has grown rapidly in importance in recent years. In this paper, transnational higher education is defined as the delivery of programmes overseas by a parent institution either operating directly or in association with an international partner. Whilst such programmes have been considered from a paedagogic perspective, their impact on institutional management is under-researched. Yet, it is clear that management practice is critical to success or failure. This paper is based on a detailed analysis of institutional audit reports prepared by the Australian Universities Quality Agency in the period 2008-12. The reports are used to identify key issues for institutional management. Building on this analysis, the paper aims to offer a theoretical insight into governance and leadership of transnational programmes and thereby provide practical guidance for strategy formation.

Most Australian universities have among their goals to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at their institutions. In the Australian higher education context, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are seriously under-represented, particularly in business education compared to other disciplines. An understanding of why a larger proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students do not choose to study a discipline that provides promising employment opportunities, is fundamental to improving the status quo. This paper reviews the literature to identify key barriers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students' participation and engagement in business education. Apart from multiple general barriers to participation in higher education, factors specific to business as a profession and as an academic discipline are also considered. The paper then discusses a number of strategies Australian educational institutions could pursue when seeking to increase participation and engagement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in business. Drawing on the review, the paper concludes with recommendations for higher education institutional policy to further improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student participation and engagement in business studies.

In this paper, a model and tool is proposed to assist universities and other mission-based organisations to ascertain systematically the optimal portfolio of projects, in any year, meeting the organisations risk tolerances and available funds. The model and tool presented build on previous work on university operations and decision support systems with an added robust process element to the task of reviewing projects that form part of a budget. In addition, the model and tool enable review of risk and return and assists universities and other organisations to determine the optimal mix of projects within a portfolio that provides the greatest financial return and the greatest contribution to the organisations mission. While the paper utilises key academic concepts, it has been created for practical use either inside or outside the budget cycle to assist decision-makers at universities and mission-based organisations. The aim has been to present in a manner to appeal to those with broad finance and accounting skills and to those with a more theoretical understanding of statistics.

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.

The much-discussed potential of "technology-enhanced learning" is not always apparent in the day-to-day use of digital technology throughout higher education. Against this background, the present paper considers the digital devices and resources that students engage most frequently with during their university studies, what these technologies are being used for, and perceptions of "usefulness" attached to these uses. The paper draws upon data gathered from a survey of undergraduate students (n = 1658) from two Australian universities. Having explored a variety of factors shaping student engagement with digital technology within these university settings, the paper considers how ongoing discussions about digital technology and higher education might better balance enthusiasms for the "state of the art" (i.e. what we know "might" be achieved through technology-enabled learning) with an acknowledgement of the "state of the actual" (i.e. the realities of technology use within contemporary university contexts).

This paper uses a framework analysis to explore the opinions a cohort of Australian academic staff hold towards professional staff. Five indicative themes were identified from the extant literature on university professional staff: the professional other; managerialism; an expensive bureaucracy; complementary agendas; and the third space and beyond. These five themes formed the basis of an online survey and semi-structured interviews that gathered data on academics' opinions towards professional staff at both the local, departmental level and of those in central, divisional units. The interview and survey results revealed that the academics involved in this project held departmental professional staff in high esteem but that there was ambivalence directed to those in central units. The second part of this paper uses Sharrock's "Four Agendas" model to consider ways in which institutional leaders can capitalise on the existing strengths in the academic-professional working relationship towards fulfilling their strategic goals in a rapidly changing environment.

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.