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One fundamental aspect of organizational transformation in higher education is the change to the profile of universities' non-academic workforce. Key staffing trends identified in recent studies conducted in a variety of national settings include an increase in the proportion of non-academic staff at universities and a shift toward more highly qualified and remunerated non-academic roles. This paper examines the extent to which these trends have played out at Australian universities over the period 1997 to 2017. Drawing on unpublished sets of staffing data, the analyses show that while the proportion of non-academic positions at Australian universities has remained largely stable, there has been a striking and uniform growth in management-rank positions, concurrent with a substantial decline in lower-level and less expensive support roles. This has some significant implications, in particular the growth in more complex "corporate" structures, the relatively fewer staff to support academic work, and the increase in the relative costs associated with maintaining the non-academic workforce at Australian universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth in student numbers from the Indian subcontinent countries has increased exponentially in the Australian higher education system over the past decade. Unfortunately, this growth has not been accompanied by initiatives to address the distinctive cross-cultural challenges faced by this cohort. This paper seeks to identify academic and professional staff perceptions of how they can help alleviate the social and academic challenges faced by subcontinent students. Thematic analysis of multiple focus group interviews established a range of simple initiatives that university staff and decision-makers could introduce to alleviate these challenges. Academic and professional staff should clearly and repeatedly articulate course, assessment and integrity expectations and make use of pre-arrival and orientation interactions. The pedagogic environment should be customised to subcontinent students in the classroom, and written teaching materials should be supplemented with engaging videos, ideally subtitled. The introduction of cross-cultural awareness training for academic and professional staff would improve the learning experience of subcontinent students. Adequate resourcing of academic skills and English language support and mental health support services also emerged as valuable initiatives. The cross-cultural awareness training for academic and professional staff should also be customised to their specific roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring effective university governance and leadership is more important than ever before given contemporary transformations of higher education functions, institutions and social roles. This paper reports contributions which seek to stimulate research in this field. Drawing from the formative case study of Australian universities, it discusses prevailing insights and gaps in leadership research, and articulates theoretical dimensions of good governance, an analytical framework for studying the empirical nature and work of university senior leaders, and the characteristics of contemporary arrangements. The paper contributes methodological approaches, analytical frameworks and empirical insights which are designed to generalize and replicate in broader research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a university business faculty-based workload model (WLM) is described. The WLM incorporates all the activities associated with university academic life and serves as a base for the management and/or change management of any of these. The WLM also provides an objective, transparent and equitable mechanism for the allocation of workload for all academics in the faculty, recognizing that there are certain activities which have strategic importance and need to be encouraged. In this paper, the strategic academic activity selected for illustration is research activity and output (within an Australian context). The WLM can be adapted to suit most other country's higher education systems. The WLM per se explicitly incorporates an element of research management which is supplemented, due to the research context adopted in this paper, by a sub-model, the Research Quantum management Model (RQMM), whose specific intent is the (change) management of research activity and its subsequent output (research quantum). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the nascent field of risk management in higher education, which is of particular relevance in Australia currently, as the Commonwealth Government implements its plans for a risk-based approach to higher education regulation and quality assurance. The literature outlines the concept of risk management and risk-based approaches to quality assurance across numerous private and public sector environments, primarily in the United Kingdom and Australian contexts. The objective is to shed some light on the appropriateness of such an approach, based on the success (or otherwise) of risk-based quality assurance models deployed elsewhere. In the final analysis, in seeking to find answers to the research question posed, this paper throws up many questions about this relatively new field. In doing so, it provides some sense of how this issue can be further explored to enhance the possibilities for achievement of Australia's higher education objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to explore the changes taking place in the Australian higher education sector and to discuss the implications of these changes in planning education. In addressing this aim, this paper draws from theories of reflexive modernisation to discuss how processes of individualisation, risk and reflexivity are shaping the behaviours and decisions of university managers, students and academics. These shifts and challenges are important for employers, just as they are for academics, to understand. The paper calls for more strategic and informed engagement in higher education policy and with the student communities to complement the growing dialogue between academics, the planning profession and employers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the challenges facing those responsible for service provision in universities is ensuring that service is provided at the right point in the organisation. Service delivery points can exist at the school/department level, faculty/division level or central unit/university wide level. This does not always follow organisational logic, common sense, the interests of stakeholders, or an organisational service strategy or plan. Many universities have established 'one-stop shops' for student services. These have taken many forms and include a range of services, from student administration and student support services, to information technology support and cashier/student financial services. Different management arrangements, including the use of service agreements, have also been used across the sector in Australia. There are additional levels of complexity caused by multiple campuses, differences in the composition of the student body, differences in teaching arrangements, organisational structures and resource arrangements. This paper focuses on student administration and support services. It analyses a range of current models in universities and provides some suggestions for assessing the logic of the models, using a set of underlying principles to help make decisions. The paper considers the services provided, staffing and resource levels, organisational structures and student feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an analysis into the global phenomenon known as credential/qualification fraud, a $US 1 billion dollar ‘cottage’ industry which has tainted higher education in Australia, and does not appear to be abating. The study is developed through a conceptual framework of credentialism, degree creep and screening theory, which the author theorises spawns the demand for degree qualifications, both legitimate and ‘less‐than‐wonderful’ along continuums of legitimacy and acceptability. The paper suggests several key resources and tools that can be used by administrators of universities, non‐self accrediting higher education providers and industry human resource managers. The paper concludes by reviewing key‐global practices currently employed as proactive measures to minimise credential fraud, moving towards a best practice framework for Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 knowmightbe 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). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to explore the issues arising for women and men in senior management in New Zealand and Australian universities where life course and career trajectories intersect, and analyses how the stereotypical masculinist culture of universities can create additional problems for women. Design/methodology/approach -- The data presented here comes from 47 interviews undertaken with women (27) and men (20) senior managers -- a total of 26 interviews from New Zealand universities and 21 from Australian universities. "Senior Management" was defined in this study as those academic managers with university wide responsibilities, who were currently in senior management positions. Findings -- Life-course issues for women aspiring to senior management roles in universities are framed around hegemonic constructions of masculinity; notions of academic careers subsuming personal life in professional roles; and structural constraints making rational choice impossible for many women. Furthermore, the excessive hours worked in such roles equate with the definition of extreme jobs. The paper concludes that the way in which women and men in senior HE endeavour to balance work and family life differs but creates issues for them both. Research limitations/implications -- The structure and operation of Australian and New Zealand universities make gender diversity and management difficult to operationalise, given the competing imperatives of work and other life course trajectories. It is crucial to reframe life course and career intersections are conceptualised to ensure that diversity can be maximised. Originality/value -- This paper focuses on women and men in senior management positions in New Zealand and Australian universities, but the findings can be generalised to other countries with HE systems based on the British University model. In discussing how institutional culture affects the intersection of career and life course trajectories, this paper highlights the detrimental outcomes for individuals and the resultant lack of diversity in the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years there has been a shift within Australian Universities to a corporate model of management rather than the collegial approach of the past. Concomitantly, Federal government funding mechanisms have required greater accountability for its financial investment in the sector's research activities. In turn, the daily life of an Australian scholar has undergone a significant transformation. In this current audit culture, academic staff are required to deal with the conflicting demands of onerous teaching commitments, emphasis on increased research production and the devolving of ever burgeoning administration to their own desktops. While University research communities were negotiating the requirements for the 2009–2010 Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) assessment, academic life proved particularly challenging for scholars whose work spans both traditional and non-traditional forms of research publication. This paper considers the implications of ERA for staff working in non-traditional research areas and the various negotiations they had to make between the requirements established by ERA and university administration and their own research inclinations. In particular, it focuses on the activities of the ‘champions’, those assigned the task of collecting and collating the information, the challenges they faced and the strategies they employed to deal with often conflicting impulses; on one hand the need to comply with reporting requirements and on the other, the reticence of their colleagues as well as their own misgivings. In so doing this paper reflects upon the tensions encompassing contemporary scholarly affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses responses provided by 31 Pro Vice-Chancellors (PVCs) and Deputy Vice-Chancellors (DVCs) who were part of a larger study of more than 500 higher education leaders in roles ranging from DVC to head of programme in 20 Australian universities. Using both quantitative and qualitative data the paper gives an insider's perspective on what the roles of DVC and PVC are like at the daily level. It identifies the key focus of the roles, highlights the criteria these leaders use to judge that they are effectively performing them and outlines the relative impact of different influences on their work. It then discusses their views on what being in such a role is like, including its key satisfactions and challenges; and identifies the capabilities seen to be central to managing in such a context. Finally, it provides insights into how such leaders have gone about learning their role. The paper indicates how these findings can be used to address the current succession crisis for leaders in such critical roles. It shows how the data generated can be used to build leadership from within by identifying leaders with potential early on in their career, how the findings can be used to give selection processes more focus and how leadership development programmes can best be shaped to be effective. Having a high level of emotional intelligence is identified as a key ingredient in the successful delivery of such roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents measures of the research output of Australian economics departments. Our study covers the 640 academic staff at rank Lecturer and above in the 27 Australian universities with economics departments containing eight or more staff in April 2002. We construct publication measures based on journal articles, which can be compared with weighted publication measures, and citation measures, which can be compared with the publication measures. Our aim is to identify the robustness of rankings to the choice of method, as well as to highlight differences in focus of departments’ research output. A striking feature of our measures is that the majority of economists in Australian university departments have done no research that has been published in a fairly long list of refereed journals over the last dozen years. They may publish in other outlets, but in any event their work is rarely cited. Thus, average research output is low because many academic economists in Australia do not view research as part of their job or, at least, suffer no penalty from failing to produce substantive evidence of research activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the restructuring of Australia’s university system and the introduction of corporate managerialism has changed the work performed by academic staff. The paper illustrates how the emergence of higher education as both a major export industry and a vehicle for attaining greater international competitiveness has led to more intense regulation of academic work. Within a context of funding cutbacks, substantial inequities have emerged between and within universities, as they compete more aggressively for higher education markets. Hierarchical line management, with clear divisions between different categories of academic staff, has substantially replaced collegial forms of administration. This paper demonstrates how these processes have worked to undermine the effective implementation of Equal Employment Opportunity initiatives, as women remain concentrated in the lowest paid and least secure positions within universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a research project that aims to address the binary/irony of the central physical and teaching space that women casual academics inhabit within Australian universities, against their lack of presence in the existing discourses around higher education. The invisibility of women casual academics within the discourses around higher education generally, and scholarship around sessional staffing more specifically, provoked an arts-informed narrative inquiry into the lived experience of women casual academics. In this paper I offer an overview of the investigation and present extracts from a verbatim drama based on the words and worlds of women sessional staff in order to create congruency between the narrative communications of women causal academics’ lived experience, and to make a space for the acknowledgement of women casual academics and a place for their voice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last couple of years have witnessed a growing debate about online learning in higher education, notably in response to the global massive open online course (MOOC) phenomenon. This paper explores these developments from an institutional policy perspective, drawing on an analysis of the initial stages of different approaches to MOOCs and e-learning being taken up at three Australian universities. It points to four commonalities emerging from the institutional constructions of these initiatives including (1) the use of e-learning policy as a vehicle for curriculum redesign; (2) an emphasis on internal curriculum redesign as a core rationale for MOOCs; (3) a desire to capitalise on promotional opportunities but a reticence around wholly embracing the concept and structure of MOOCs and (4) the absence of access-driven concerns in university policy despite the prominence of such concerns in broader public debate. The approach is framed by a consideration of change dynamics in higher education and highlights the emphasis on internal university work within the policy narrative, suggesting this could represent an attempt to reframe the debate about MOOCs away from popular arguments about systemic disruption and instead use them to progress forms of change that align to broader strategic objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines what it means to be an activist and to do activist work in the Australian contemporary university. In a context of globalisation, massification and marketisation, what does academic or scholar activism look like? In a time of political uncertainty about fee deregulation, further cuts to public funding and changes to the income-contingent loans scheme, what does it mean to be an activist or to do activist work? And what happens when activist attention turns to the higher education sector and the operations of the university? This paper examines these broad questions at an intimate level, presenting a reflective narrative of an individual career in academic activism marked by a long-standing scholarly interest in the nature and work of universities, academic and professional roles, teaching experience in multiple disciplines and involvement in union representation. In this paper, the reflections of an individual academic activist, Rosie, are embedded in a contextual discussion of university governance, regulatory and auditing frameworks, the academic workforce, gender inequality, and learning and teaching in higher education in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an account of the undermining of collegial governance at the University of Alberta in relation to the restructuring of the university in 2020 by the senior administration and board on advice provided by the Australian consultancy firm, the Nous Group. The current president of the university has publicly promoted the restructuring in venues including the Times Higher Education supplement as a model for other universities. The model, a disastrous one for collegial governance, demands widespread attention along with the means by which it was achieved. As Bill Readings declared in his 1997 book The University in Ruins, "the changing institutional form of the university is something that intellectuals cannot afford to ignore." At the University of Alberta, that changing form is being determined by fossil-fuelled academic capitalism. The account of what has happened is provided by a professor who has served on the university's senior academic body, the General Faculties Council, for almost a decade. It concludes with several concrete recommendations for bolstering collegial governance at universities in Alberta, elsewhere in Canada, and possibly worldwide--wherever collegial governance is being undermined by restructuring, the corporatization of the academy, academic capitalism, or the disrespect of university boards for the authority of faculty and the academic mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curriculum development and student feedback strategies in higher education contexts are entwined in multiple ways. The belief that curriculum development and student feedback are intricately linked as strong catalysts in the enhancement of learning has been exhaustively researched and promoted in the literature (Gravestock and Gregor-Greenleaf, 2008; Hubball and Burt, 2004). Few institutions have addressed the need to connect the two portfolios in a meaningful way. However, one institution in Canada combined both components (curriculum design and student feedback) of higher education practice into a dynamic academic portfolio that engaged senior administrators, teaching staff, and students in dialogue. This innovative model of embedding an evaluation culture was both an exhausting and exhilarating experience. It brought to the fore many critical issues that require further consideration of the impact of the model on all stakeholders. This paper presents a constructive critique of that model with recommendations for advancing higher education practice in embedding an internal evaluation culture. Based on the application of the Canadian model, it was found that inherent in an embedded evaluation model are the following imperatives, among others: * Equity, diversity and inclusivity * Commitment from stakeholders (teaching staff, administrators and students). * Respectful and transparent communication * Proactive and future oriented goals [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the findings of a study of Multiple Modes of Delivery in Australian universities that was commissioned by Australian Universities Teaching Committee over the period 2001-2004. The project examined and described the various means of educational delivery deployed by Australian universities. It identified the pedagogical, organisational and environmental factors impacting on university decisions to diversify course delivery across more than one location or mode. In this paper the authors report briefly on the first matter - the modes of delivery employed by Australian Universities. The paper focuses on the second issue - factors influencing university decision-making about modes of delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interim, discontinuous or 'acting' management is an increasingly ubiquitous feature of universities. This paper asks: What are the implications of this for good academic governance? Should we understand this managerial dance as a symptom of the collapse of good managerial order or, by contrast, as a symptom of the robustness and flexibility of the organisational culture of the university? Or both? This paper answers 'all of the above' to these questions. It reaches that conclusion by examining relevant literature, theorising a methodology for reading the field of interim management, and by applying this theorising to an analysis of qualitative data collected as part of a national collaborative research project conducted in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dissatisfaction with the ‘corporate’ model for university governance, a model advocated by both sides of the Australian parliament and adopted by Australian universities over the past two decades, prompted the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee (AVCC) in 2003 to suggest an alternative ‘trusteeship’ model. The paper discusses how this model differs from the traditional ‘collegial’ and ‘corporate’ models in a number of key areas and attempts to determine whether good reasons exist to justify changing from the current ‘corporate’ style to a ‘trusteeship’ form of governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — This paper aims to explore the ways in which recent ‘managerial’ changes in Australian universities affect academics' experiences of their working lives; and the significance of time and space in academics' resistance to managerialism. Design/methodology/approach — This paper draws on interviews with 27 academics from eight Australian universities, in which they explored their experiences of managerialism. The analysis reported here focuses on academics' experiences of time and space in the managerial university. A Foucauldian approach to power and resistance underpins the overall research approach employed in this study. Findings — The paper finds that academics in this study argued that managerial practices in their universities imposed significant time-burdens in already full workloads. However, many of them also employed time and space — often in highly creative way — in resisting these same practices. Much of this resistance involves academics ‘fiddling’ time and space from themselves in order to fulfil their obligations as teachers and research. Such resistance has implications for further academic demoralisation and burnout. Originality/value — While other studies have acknowledged academics' opposition to managerialism in their universities, this study focus specifically on the ways in which this opposition is enacted in resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost half of current academic staff will need to be replaced within three years in the Australian academic workforce. Literature suggests that casual academics are a potential solution, yet they are frequently excluded from the career development opportunities that would allow them to fulfil an ongoing academic role. Most academic development programmes designed for and delivered to casual academics are constructed by academic developers with little or no input from casual academics themselves. This paper documents what casual academics determine to be their academic development needs and how they could be addressed using three pathways of professional and career development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper addresses the positioning of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) outreach programmes within universities' operations. Though universities in many respects form a rather homogenous international community, there is wide diversity in regard to the provision of STEM outreach by different institutions. To explain this diversity, a conceptual framework was developed by using the Theory of Legitimacy as an organising concept. The framework considers two opposing scenarios that form a continuum between them, namely: 'top-down' initiative by the university governance versus 'bottom-up' grass-roots initiative. Using the Theory of Legitimacy, internal and external outreach relationships are characterised and explained under the two scenarios. The framework was applied to two settings chosen due to their essential differences in outreach provision, namely, Australia and Israel. The differences that were found in internal and external legitimacy provide a useful lens for examining the low-performing, fragile system in Australia as compared with the high-performing, thriving system in Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports on an empirical study based on qualitative interviews with staff from four Australian universities. These universities are shown to be undergoing significant social change as processes of marketisation impact on the everyday practices of academic workers. The universities are analysed as sites of contestation between the new professional managers and the established academic profession over the control of the conditions of work, the production of expert knowledge and the worksite itself. The theory of academic capitalism is examined, and the relevance of Bourdieu’s work for the analysis of a university sector in a context of marketisation is assessed. Bourdieu’s interlinked concepts of capital, habitus and the field are employed to investigate the nature of the contestation, revealing a dynamic process in which academics innovatively respond to threats to reduce their autonomy, to increased levels of surveillance and other constraints on practice. In addition, the study illustrates the processes through which actors within the sector, through acts of both conformity and resistance, contribute collectively to the growth of academic capitalism in the neoliberal university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deputy Vice Chancellor and Pro Vice Chancellor positions have proliferated in response to the global, corporatised university landscape [Scott, G., S. Bell, H. Coates, and L. Grebennikov. 2010. “Australian Higher Education Leaders in Times of Change: The Role of Pro Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor.”Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 32(4): 401–418]. Senior leadership is the sphere where academic and management identities are negotiated and values around the role of the university are decided. This paper examines the changing and gendered nature of the senior leadership setting and its implications for diversity in and of university leadership. The analysis draws from a three-year empirical study funded by the Australian Research Council on leadership in Australian universities. It focuses on executive leaders in three universities – one which is research-intensive, the second, in a regional site, and the third, university of technology. The article argues that the university landscape and its management systems are being restructured in gendered ways. It utilises the notion of organisational gender subtexts to make explicit how gender works through structural and cultural reform. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

‘First know your students’, is a well-known saying in teaching. But do Australian universities really know their students? In this paper we present findings from research conducted in remote and very remote Australia where Aboriginal higher education students and educators were asked about their learning and teaching needs, and their views on things the sector could do to better support them in their journey into and through university. They shared with us experiences and thoughts about their ways of learning in face-to-face and online contexts, in particular the role of cultural security; community partnerships; Aboriginal knowledges; pathways and transitions; and student assessment and support strategies. The depth and richness of the skills, knowledges, and capacities of Aboriginal learners, and indeed of the communities in which they reside and study are vital foundations for participation, retention and completion. However, respondents related that in the main, these attributes are not acknowledged by metropolitan-based course designers nor university administrations. We conclude that learning experiences and university operations that are designed to embrace these students’ strengths and to work in and with their communities, are more likely to retain Aboriginal students and facilitate their participation and success, enabling beneficial outcomes for all university students and ultimately society as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As with higher education institutions in other Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, Australian universities are facing significant challenges. One particular challenge is that of the declining quality of the teaching and learning experience within the academy. This paper describes an attempt to sustain the quality of a ‘flagship’ postgraduate academic programme through an action research initiative intended to distribute the programme’s leadership across its stakeholder community. One year into the intervention, while its achievements include new collaborative arrangements with the university, as well as unconventional teaching/learning partnerships and enriched stakeholder learning, its standing within the university remains uncertain. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Following the trend of many comparable countries, Australian universities are now part of a massified system which is a significant contributor to the national economy. The commercial university is solicitous as to its product and its position in the market, but must also navigate the regulatory environment. Uncontrollable aspects of the university, including staff and student organisations, can threaten the marketable image of the university corporation and its relationship with government. This paper considers the creation and regulation of student organisations in Australia. In Australia's federal system some state legislation accorded student organisations a legitimate place in university governance; most universities accepted the role of student organisations as beneficial to both students and the university itself. Since the 1980s, however, the financial leverage of the federal government purchased increasing intervention in universities, and this extended to the rearticulation of the role of the student organisations in 2006. The reorientation of the university sector has been facilitated by a reconfiguration of important relationships in the sector – between universities and students on the one hand, and universities and student organisations on the other. The contractualisation of relationships in the sector enables the modelling of the university on the commercial enterprise, creating other techniques of control, within a wider regulatory system steered by funding arrangements. The resulting depoliticisation of student organisations is part of a wider process of disengagement of universities from public critique and its embrace of commercial forms of governance generally. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper identifies common timetabling issues and options as experienced in Australian universities, and develops a rationale to inform management decisions on a suitable system and the associated policies, procedures, management structure and resources at the University of Newcastle, to enable more effective timetabling in line with the needs of its students and staff, and the organisation. To strive for effective management and production of timetabling there are key elements to consider. These are policy and process; technology; people including culture; and communication. The change has to be managed and led, and each stage considered and evaluated. The literature and responses to the survey that was sent to a number of universities to complete, provided an overview of what is effective at a number of institutions in terms of a timetabling system, policy, procedures, structure and resources. It also identified key issues and how they were resolved, worked around or are still being tackled at various universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities put considerable resources into developing learning and teaching plans. In this paper, we examine the purpose of these plans in the context of legislative requirements, public accountability and the quality agenda. We analyse a sample of Australian university learning and teaching plans using a framework we have developed based on theory and research on strategic planning and core themes in learning and teaching. Analysis reveals considerable variation in plans' form and format, planning characteristics and learning and teaching themes addressed and omissions of key characteristics and themes. We consider the ability of such plans to meet the needs of internal and external readers, we discuss implications for their capacity to direct and motivate changes aimed at improving learning and teaching and we challenge the higher education sector to determine more clearly the role of learning and teaching plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The corporate approaches introduced in the late 1980s and now prevalent in universities in Australia have led to irrevocable changes in the way universities are managed and academics work. The management approaches widely applied in Australian universities are largely based on a top-down corporate management model, with central control over policy and budget driven by the need to meet stringent external accountability requirements. This form of management rewards compliance and predictability. The economic environment over this period has changed drastically, becoming more global and uncertain. The prevailing management processes are not suited to the modern economic environment. A modern university is expected to operate more as an enterprise, but to do so effectively it needs flexible and responsive forms of management that are more inclusive of academics in the decision making process. This paper explores the organisational management literature and links it to the context in which universities operate. It considers the implications for managers and academics, as key stakeholders in a modern university, in this changeable environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the introduction in 2006 of the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund (LTPF) the Australian Government has provided around $220 million to reward universities for excellence in learning and teaching. This has stimulated in Australian universities a renewed focus on the quality of teaching and learning and the establishment of institution wide performance indicators to measure and reward teaching excellence. This paper reports on the pilot of an on-line scheme designed to reward quality teaching, foster scholarship in teaching and improve the external profile of a large multi-campus Australian university. The scheme rewarded high scores on student evaluations of teaching, course review and benchmarking activities, scholarship in teaching and the design of high quality teaching resources. An evaluation of the scheme highlighted the complexities involved in measuring teaching quality and the difficulties of gauging the potential for the scheme to achieve its stated aims. Nevertheless, the funds were welcomed by staff and there were indications that the scheme had impacted on teacher behaviours and was driving organisational change. There was also an increased focus on the quality of teaching and a robust dialogue about how the quality of teaching and learning can best be measured and improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing demands on academic work have resulted in many academics working long hours and expressing dissatisfaction with their working life. These concerns have led to a number of faculties and universities adopting workload allocation models to improve satisfaction and better manage workloads. This paper reports on a study which examined the workload models in use across a large Australian university. Analysis revealed that the various models could be categorised into three types. The pros, cons and impacts of these three categories of model were compared from both a management and staff perspective. The study found that while models of all types can lay the foundation for equitable distribution of workload, some categories of model can have unintended consequences with negative effects on the work culture and hence staff satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education in Germany and Australia is being subject to pressures of market forces, internationalisation and financial constraints. This had led to both systems experiencing significant crisis and change over the past 20 years. In this paper, frame analysis is used to compare the changing policies in each nation and examine the extent to which the landscapes of each system have been transformed. It is found that higher education policy in both nations underwent significant change in the late 1980s and again in the early 2000s, impacting on system structures and institutional forms. There is now evidence of further change occurring in both nations that may mark a transition to a ‘post-public era’ in higher education. This analysis reveals a degree of convergence in the neo-liberal policy trajectories of both nations but differences in the rate and nature of the transitions taking place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper presents an innovative approach to the teaching of policy skills across the two years of an Australian Social Work degree programme. It argues that placing policy back into practice and teaching the skills involved provides social work practitioners with a better capacity to effect change. Australian Catholic University, School of Social Work is located in Australia's capital city. The policy units have a clear framework within which to understand policy development and provide students with real hands-on policy experience combining an experiential based learning approach with traditional teaching methods. The second year subject is structured around a number of policy workshops. Each workshop deals with a current policy problem and examines a different stage of policy development. It has as a consultant to the process a social worker who works as a policy practitioner providing a role model of practice in a policy area. Feedback from students has been extremely positive reporting increased confidence in policy skills and a recognition of the importance of these skills in social work. This teaching experience reinforces the need to focus on the educational considerations in teaching a subject where conceptual, theoretical and skill components are equally important if policy practice is to effect change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University department chairs/heads in the United States and Australia function under increased uncertainty and stress: a diverse student population, funding shortages, demands for great quality, finding the upside to downsizing, and balancing academic/administrative roles. This paper examines the environmental pressures on academic department heads, suggests beneficial strategies that American and Australian chairs might learn from each other, and recommends ways in which department chairs might improve their functioning and reduce work-related stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Introduction: Increasingly, universities are allocating substantial resources and efforts towards developing their own student-led clinical services (SLCS) within university health clinics (UHCs). For that reason, under the umbrella of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators (ANZAPHE), clinical educationalists from 12 Australian universities have come together as a hot topic action group (HTAG) to collaboratively explore and enhance learning outcomes from this setting. Context: SLCS within UHCs increase placement capacity to meet growing demand. Moreover, SLCS within UHCs have the potential to provide an outstanding learning opportunity through high-quality supervision and activities designed to develop clinical competencies. However, the benefits of providing clinical education experiences for health and medical students in this setting has not been formally assessed. Typically, SLCS within UHCs are developed through consultation between universities and local health providers and are purposefully designed clinical placements with a focus on clinical educational activities for pre-registration students. UHCs may be located on or off campus and offer SLCS or other services to university staff, students and/or the wider community. In SLCS, students' delivery of health services is supervised by university employed health professionals. Scope: The work of the HTAG to date is presented in this paper, which defines the setting and outlines assumptions, aspirations, challenges and enablers. The next phase of work for the HTAG is to formally explore the educational value for health professional students' of SLCS delivered in UHCs and to develop resources and a quality assurance framework to guide the evaluation of these services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate over managerialism has been the most controversial issue in Australian public administration journals in recent years. Although most articles have been critical, there have been responses in favour of the changes by senior public servants. One unfortunate consequence of this debate has been the appearance of a gap between academic public administration and public service practice. This paper argues that, from several angles, the work now carried out by public services is management rather than administration. It argues that managerialism is a long-overdue reform to a model which has outlived its usefulness. The traditional model of public administration was an irrelevance for many years; it was never efficient or effective and deserved to be replaced. However, public management does not necessarily mean the widespread and uncritical adoption of practices from the private sector. What it should mean is that a distinctive public management needs to be developed. This should take account of the differences between the sectors, but still recognise that the work being done by public servants is now managerial rather than administrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a perception that radical change in the higher education sector is inevitable. This paper argues that the university model of higher education is fundamentally sound and by implication, is not necessarily subject to the same forces acting on other industries. If changes are to affect higher education, these are likely to come from forces seeking to capitalise on the success of the higher education model, and in doing so place the entire model at risk. This issue is discussed in relation to one real proposal as an example of the actual (rather than the perceived) threats to the university sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work integrated learning (WIL) is in growing demand by multiple stakeholders within the higher education sector in Australia. There are significant and distinct legal risks to universities associated with WIL programmes. University lawyers, along with WIL administrators and university management, are responsible for managing legal risk. This quantitative study of 41 Australian university lawyers offers awareness and insight into their role, the legal risks and their risk management practices with respect to WIL programmes. The results furnish university management, WIL administrators and university lawyers in all jurisdictions with a series of issues related to risk management that warrant further consideration. In particular the authors suggest that the appointment of a dedicated WIL lawyer, a clear delineation of risk management responsibilities through university policy and education and greater collaboration between university lawyers and WIL administrators has the potential to improve institutional risk management in the specific context of WIL programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Advancing the development of good practice around the teaching team has been the focus of a recently completed, nationally funded Australian grant entitled Coordinators Leading Advancement of Sessional Staff (CLASS). The project focused on developing leadership capacity of subject coordinators to provide supportive contexts for sessional staff to enhance their knowledge of teaching practice and contribute to subject improvement through a team approach. An action learning approach and notions of distributed leadership underpinned the activities of the teaching teams in the program. This paper provides an overview of a practical approach, led by the subject coordinator, to engaging sessional staff through the facilitation of a supportive network within the teaching team. It addresses some of the gaps identified in the recent literature which includes lack of role clarity for all members of the team and provides some examples of initiatives that teams engaged with to address some of the challenges identified. Resources to support this approach were developed and are shared though the project website. Recommendations for future direction include improved policy and practice at the institutional level, better recognition and reward for subject coordinators and resourcing to support the participation and professional development needs of sessional staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the Australian Higher Education sector a focus on quality is driving a new paradigm for learning and teaching: quality standards. One challenge is to engage all academics with this progress towards systematic quality enhancement and assurance. Sessional staff, who provide most of the face-to-face teaching in Australian universities, remain at the periphery of learning and teaching. Any development of standards must therefore proactively address the role of sessional staff in attaining and achieving quality learning and teaching. Building on seminal research on sessional staff, this paper argues the need for standards as a potential strategy for quality learning and teaching with sessional staff. The rationale for, and process of, developing national standards is outlined and the learning and teaching standards are introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most undergraduate teaching in Australia's universities is now performed by hourly paid staff, and these casual academics form the majority of the academic teaching workforce in our universities. This recent development has significant implications for the careers and working lives of those staff, for other academic staff, and for students, implications which are yet to be closely examined. Investigation of the working conditions of casual academic teaching staff is important, as the ageing of the continuing academic workforce suggests the universities will need to consider workforce development and renewal, and the casual academic workforce may represent an important source of labour. This paper examines the support casual academic staff receive from their universities to undertake their work, and how this level of support has an impact on their job and career satisfaction. It uses data from the Work and Careers in Australian Universities Survey, conducted in 2011 across 19 universities. Casual academic teaching staff answered questions which provided information on a range of demographic details, conditions of work, their motivations for casual work, and their access to a range of job and career supports. The research found that there is variation among universities in their provision of physical supports such as provision of a desk and computer, supports for collegial inclusion such as meeting attendance, and access to professional training. The range of assistance provided to these staff had an impact on their job and career satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]