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Purpose – Graduate attributes are about to be policed by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) in Australia. All universities proclaim them on their public web sites. The aim of this paper is to determine whether distinct patterns or clusters are apparent in the declared graduate attributes declared by Australian universities on their web sites. Design/methodology/approach – Work by scholars in the field of graduate attribute building is discussed, with particular reference to the tension between disciplinarity and attribute building and the relative failure of techniques so far espoused to demonstrate student attainment of graduate attributes. Some promising approaches to the serious problems of building and demonstrating graduate attributes are captured, and some recommendations for addressing the urgent and serious issues confronting the sector are put forward. Findings – Graduate attributes of each university are publicly available and these can be related to discussions of employer satisfaction and university value systems. An inspection of the top five attributes for each cluster of universities reveals significant cross cluster variation. Research limitations/implications – Content analysis of web sites is a crude instrument for gauging the real importance universities attach to their graduate attributes, even at the level of their discourse. Further research is needed on the isomorphism and decoupling going on with graduate attributes and employer expectations of universities. Social implications – There are grounds for hope that universities have not completely forgotten their role in society in favour of their competitive market gameplays. Originality/value – This is the first paper to display graduate attributes as ranked by clusters of Australian universities and by the whole sector; it is the first paper to link the accreditation risk from TEQSA with the relative vacuity of GA embedding processes to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Teaching and unit evaluations surveys are used to assess the quality of teaching and the quality of the unit of study. An analysis of teaching and unit evaluation survey practices in Australian universities suggests significant changes. One key change discussed in the paper is the shift from voluntary to mandatory use of surveys with the results used to assess and reward academic staff performance. The change in the direction is largely driven by the introduction of performance-based funding as part of quality assurance arrangements. The paper aims to outline the current trends and changes and the implications in the future such as increased scrutiny of teaching and intrusion to academic autonomy. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on the analysis of current teaching and unit evaluation practices across the Australian university sector. The paper presents the case of an Australian university that has introduced performance-based reward using various measures to assess and reward academic staff such as the outcome of student satisfaction surveys. The analysis of external quality audit findings related to teacher and unit evaluations is also presented. Findings – The findings suggest a shift in trend from the use of voluntary to mandatory tools to assess and reward quality teaching. The case of an Australian university outlined in the paper and the approach taken by seven other universities is largely driven by performance-based funding. One of the key concerns for many in higher education is the intrusion of academic autonomy with increased focus on outcomes and less emphasis on resources needed to produce excellence in learning and teaching and research. The increased reliance on student happiness as a measure of educational quality raises the questions on whether high student satisfaction would strengthen academic rigour and student attainment of learning outcomes and generic skills which are seen as key factors in graduate exit standards. Practical implications – The renewal of quality assurance and performance-based funding using student satisfaction as a measure of educational quality will result in increased use of student voice to assess learning and teaching outcomes. Such direction will increase the accountability on academics to improve student experience and the measures will be used to assess academic staff performance. Originality/value – The paper outlines the trends and changes in the teacher and unit evaluations in Australian universities and its implications in the future. The paper also provides a case of an Australian university that has recently made teacher and unit evaluations compulsory with the results used in academic staff annual performance review and linking reward with performance outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to make a contribution to the current lack of literature in the Australian context by reviewing qualitative feedback collected from students in five private higher education institutions. In particular, the paper seeks to examine factors influencing student choice to study at private higher education institutions and student perceptions of such institutions. Previous studies on this topic are mostly focussed on universities with lack of research with the booming private higher education sector. Design/methodology/approach – This study draws data from five different private for-profit higher education institutions in Australia. It involved feedback from 120 students undertaking higher education courses in different discipline areas at different stages of study. The study involved 15 focus group interviews with eight students in a group. The selection of students was based on the representation of different characteristics of student such as: male/female, domestic/international, and discipline areas. Findings – An analysis of the data collected from the students across these five institutions indicated that the main factors influencing student choice can be grouped in six domains. These are: student perception; access and opportunity; learning environments; quality of teachers; course design; and graduate success. This study reinforces that student perception of the private for-profit higher education institutions is an important factor in influencing student choice to study at the institution. Research limitations/implications – The limitation of the study was the ability to interview more students from larger colleges, across all discipline areas. However, the time and length of the focus group interviews was largely managed by the five institutions. Originality/value – The private higher education sector has experienced consistent growth in the last few years in Australia. Currently, there is no qualitative research done in Australian private higher education on factors influencing student choice to study with private institutions. The rise of such providers require research on insights about student choice, student expectation and their experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of the paper is to report on the perception of students in regard to critical antecedents, dimensions and consequences of service quality with an aim to develop a theoretical model in the context of a university in Australia. Design/methodology/approach - This research used focus group discussions with 19 students who had been studying in undergraduate and postgraduate level programs at an Australian university. Findings - The findings show that the critical antecedents to perceived service quality are information and past experience. There are three aspects of perceived service quality, namely, academic, administrative and facilities. Student satisfaction and student trust are found to have direct and positive relationships with perceived service quality as consequences; and brand performance and behavioural intention are found to have indirect relationships with perceived service quality mediated through satisfaction and trust. Originality/value - This paper found three separate themes and their relationships with service quality in the context of a university. These themes are: information, past experience and brand performance. Perceived service quality was found playing an important role in this theoretical model. The model provides a good explanation of university brand performance and students' behavioural intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Australia has enjoyed two decades of growth in international student enrolments. This phenomenon, combined with the evolution of quality assurance policy frameworks, has stimulated interest in the social and academic experiences of international students and their educational outcomes. The Australian Universities Quality Agency's (AUQA) second round of quality audits assessed and reported on the performance of Australian universities in the area of "internationalisation". AUQA findings and recommendations for required action send powerful messages to guide university priorities, practices and strategies in pursuit of quality enhancement in relation to student engagement. This paper seeks to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses a thematic analysis approach to explore "internationalisation" in 14 AUQA audit reports published between 2006 and 2010. Findings – This paper identifies three key areas arising from AUQA audit reports that form a basis for discussion in this paper. These areas are: the social and academic engagement of both international and local students, and matters relating to English language standards and support. Observations arising from AUQA university reports direct attention to examples of initiatives that appear to be enriching the quality of the student engagement and indicate where further development may be required. Practical implications – In seeking strategies for enhanced student experience, AUQA supports collaboration across universities in devising models for identifying student needs and creating mechanisms that bring about quality student experience, engagement and language outcomes. This analysis of the reports will likely assist those stakeholders working in universities who wish to identify successful approaches to promote the engagement of international students and refine existing useful and positive strategies in implementing and developing ideas in their own individual university contexts. Originality/value – Analysis of the substantial text of AUQA reports have been underexploited by researchers to date. This paper is likely to be of interest to those stakeholders of international education in universities, not only in Australia but in other national contexts where international students are significantly represented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the challenges of post-traditional, distance PhD supervision and suggest pedagogical interventions to bridge the distance. The paper investigates the skills and understandings necessary for mediating the supervisor-supervisee dyad within faceless encounters. Design/methodology/approach – Grounded in a literature review and using interview-based narratives, the paper describes a case study investigating the needs and experiences of three part-time, trans-Tasman PhD students, writing practitioner- or practice-led research (PLR) higher degrees by research (HDR) by artefact and exegesis. Findings – Findings reveal the importance of proactivity, dialogue and mutual trust and the necessity of knowing which interactions, including e-moderated supervisions and fast-turnaround electronic communications, potentially help to bridge the gulf. Research limitations/implications – While this small-scale study makes no major claims that results can be generalised, the results are pertinent to those involved in distance HDR supervision, particularly in PLR. Originality/value – As distance supervisions become increasingly commonplace, HDR supervisors need to build best practice models from shared personal and professional understandings of effective supervisory interventions in this mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on pedagogy as a crucial element in postgraduate research undertakings, implying active involvement of both student and supervisor in process of teaching and learning. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on Australian higher degree research supervision practice to illustrate their argument, the authors take issue with reliance on traditional Oxbridge conventions as informing dominant practices of supervision of postgraduate research studies and suggest pedagogy as intentional and systematic intervention that acknowledges the problematic natures of relationships between teaching, learning, and knowledge production as integral to supervision and research studies. Findings – The authors examine issues of discursive practice and the problematic nature of power differentials in supervisor-supervisee relationships, and the taken-for-grantedness of discursive practice of such relationships. The authors do this from the perspective of the student involved in higher degree research programs, a departure from the bulk of the literature that has as its focus the perspective of the supervisor and/or the institution. Originality/value – The paper examines the perspective of the student involved in higher degree research programs, a departure from the bulk of the literature that has as its focus the perspective of the supervisor and/or the institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the suggestive possibilities of an approach to undergraduate English teacher education that the author has called the 3D Approach - Develop professional knowledge, Display professional knowledge, Disseminate professional knowledge - in relation to a number of groups of first year pre-service teachers (PSTs) engaging the teaching and learning materials of their English education course. Design/methodology/approach - The paper examines ways in which this approach has been assessed by the PSTs themselves, constructing this as an expression of their lived experience as PSTs. The author draws on Vygotsky's concept of the Zone of Proximal Development, initiates a systematic and orchestrated program of explicit scaffolding of first year PST learning and draws on University-generated student assessment of their courses, focus groups and individual interviews to investigate ways in which the 3D approach may be considered as enhancing first year PST learning. Findings - PSTs' own informed evaluations of their own developing knowledge have made visible the teaching and learning that they have engaged and articulated. What the author outlines in this paper is not a "Eureka" moment for first year PSTs, but it is the result of careful scholarly considerations of what careful scholarly considerations by first years in Education courses may engage. For this cohort of PSTs, and for the author, it is a particular form of engagement with pedagogy. It is a pedagogy for teachers, part of active engagement on the part of the teacher and the learner, producing knowledge together. Research limitations/implications - Lack of generalisability from case study research may be considered as a limitation, but the author would argue that it is the details thrown up for careful examination in a case study which may serve to inform professional discussion and debate. Practical implications - Negative press of inadequate teachers emerging from universities, with their specious claims will not progress reasoned discussion; research on how the PSTs are themselves taught and how they develop as professionals will. PSTs' own informed evaluations of their own developing knowledge will go some way towards enabling this to happen. This sort of research opens up possibilities for starting with the right sort of questions, a shift from asking the wrong sort of questions, which the author would argue is that sort on which the media are basing their opinion pieces. Social implications - Continuing public discussions, usually conducted in and by the media, about teacher quality, particularly as this tends to be tied to notions of teacher pay, indicates a wider social concern about the need for quality teachers. This sort of social concern is also a major concern for teacher educators, and is to be addressed as such. This paper addresses some of those concerns. Originality/value - The paper engages issues about teacher education raised publicly in the media and ties these to the more private domain of university practice in a given teacher education course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Few studies have evaluated the satisfaction of mature-aged postgraduate students. The purpose of this paper is to determine postgraduate coursework students' service expectations in regard to academic course quality, university services and industry links. Design/methodology/approach – A case study of 51 taught postgraduate students enrolled in the School of Public Health nested postgraduate courses was conducted. Students completed an online self-complete survey (response rate of 58 per cent). Descriptive statistics and univariate analysis (chi-square) were used to explore associations between variables. Findings – Postgraduate taught students come from a variety of career backgrounds. They place a great deal of importance on their educational experience, especially in regard to academic factors: reputable degree; skilled engaging teachers; access to online resources; ready contact with academics; and supportive enrolment processes. Practical implications – A greater awareness of student expectations equips universities to provide a more meaningful pedagogical experience and to better address the unique needs of postgraduate students. This is likely to enhance lifelong learning and support retention and progression rates. Originality/value – This research provides a case study of a specific group of postgraduate students and helps understand some of the unique requirements of this postgraduate group, which is largely older, female, domestic students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]