Showing papers in "The Australian Universities' review in 2014"

Agility: A Crucial Capability for Universities in Times of Disruptive Change and Innovation.

Abstract: Government funding cuts have provided a new impetus to Australian universities to re-examine their value proposition and corporate focus. While the sector has gone through waves of change in recent times, institutions are now scrambling for their place in a highly competitive market. Institutions explore new revenue opportunities and digital transformation to achieve cost savings and efficiencies. The digital world is driving innovation and continuous change at such a rapid and random rate that universities are struggling to keep up with demand.

Students' early departure intentions and the mitigating role of support

Abstract: In many higher education systems around the world increasing retention is vital if institutions are to produce the number of graduates identified through government projections to meet industry needs. Taking Australia as an example, the analysis uses results from a large-scale survey of undergraduate students to review rates and rationales for students giving serious consideration to departing before graduation. Demographic, educational and contextual concomitants of departure intention are explored. From there, the analysis looks at the role played by student support in mitigating departure intentions, showing that effective provision and use of support is strongly correlated with retention. Yet there are major disjunctions between the support used by students and the support they need, disjunctions that evidence-based practice can do much to resolve. In closing, the paper makes research-driven suggestions about how institutions can increase student support and retention.

Enthusiasm and the effective modern academic

Abstract: Academics today face an array of challenges to their enthusiasm, including teaching students from diverse backgrounds with wavering levels of engagement with their studies. Furthermore, reform to the tertiary education sector has seen the corporatisation of universities with management increasingly measuring academic outcomes in respect of both teaching and research. This is proving to be problematic, particularly in measuring and recognising good teaching. With these select measurements, academics can feel that a substantial part of their work is not recognised in a meaningful way, which may impact morale, intellectual time and autonomy. This limited recognition can result in academics' enthusiasm, especially towards teaching, waning. This could result in unfavourable outcomes, as an academic's lack of enthusiasm may have an adverse impact on student learning, may also affect their own wellbeing and, ultimately, be detrimental to the institution they work for.

Universities and the public good: A review of knowledge exchange policy and related university practice in Australia

Abstract: Australian policy relating to knowledge exchange has never been well articulated, notwithstanding that the nexus between knowledge, engagement and higher education in Australia has been on the national agenda for several decades (Grattan Institute, 2013). In universities, this policy deficit is reflected in a lack of project management and collaboration skills, and limited motivation of researchers to engage in collaborative knowledge exchange processes. Taken together, poor policy and inadequate practice constrain the effective use of knowledge in socioeconomic development and national innovation. This paper primarily focuses on the knowledge exchange policy-practice nexus in Australia. We adopt the term 'knowledge exchange' while acknowledging many other related concepts, such as knowledge transfer, university community engagement, integrative applied research and engaged scholarship. We draw attention to international contexts in which universities, governments, industry and funding agencies are now explicitly supporting and facilitating collaborative knowledge exchange activities. Our review suggests that Australia needs a clearly articulated national knowledge exchange policy, along with enhanced university capacity to implement knowledge exchange initiatives.

Love, fear and learning in the market university

Abstract: This is a lightly edited and updated transcript of the NTEU Occasional Lecture given on 24 April 2013 at the University of Sydney. My thanks to the NTEU University of Sydney Branch for the invitation to give this lecture, and to Leslie Marsden for making this text possible.

Why write book reviews

Abstract: The pressure to publish or perish or, more recently, to be visible or vanish, marginalises a culture of critical reading and reflection that has historically been the province of book reviews. Today, book reviews are roundly rejected by academic bureaucrats as unimportant, easy to write and hence, easy to get published, mere summaries, uncritical statements of praise, marketing gimmicks and poorly cited so they are shunted to the tail-end of academic tasks. Historical dialectical analysis shows that the disdain for book reviews is implicitly related to their non-pecuniary characteristics. One contradiction in the status quo is that academics expect to be served but they are discouraged from serving and hence are led down a line of being selfish. Writing book reviews, therefore, is good not only for its many academic and social uses, but also for political and ethical reasons. A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W

Towards post-colonial management of transnational education

Abstract: Increasingly, universities in developed countries are engaging in transnational education. Responsibilities and opportunities to exercise management and leadership in the provision of transnational education depend on the organisational model adopted and whether the academics involved are on home or international campuses. Models range from neocolonial control to transnational partnerships. In the Australian Office for Learning and Teaching study that informs this paper, good practice in allocation and exercise of management and leadership responsibilities was identified and recommendations developed. A balance was struck between the home institution's quality assurance obligations, which imply a high level of home-based control, and the value of a degree of local control to the commitment of local academics involved, to their career opportunities, and to the educational experiences of their students.

Democracy and International Higher Education in China.

Abstract: There is substantial evidence that supports the theory that higher education and democracy are highly correlated. Throughout modern history, students have been at the forefront of democratic movements, including the 1989 pro-democracy uprising in China. Since then, and despite the increased availability of Western-style education within and without its borders, China has bucked the trend. Using system justification theory as its theoretical framework, this study investigates why a Western-style education in China has done little to inculcate revolutionary movements. Findings indicate that a Western-style education does not facilitate student desire for democratisation in China because of the control imposed on student behaviour by Chinese authorities, including student subscription to Chinese Communist Party-endorsed notions of national pride and student ambition for postgraduate socioeconomic reward. Culturally grounded notions of social harmony were less evident than might have been expected.

Engaging or Training Sessional Staff: Evidence from an Australian Case of Enhanced Engagement and Motivation in Teaching Delivery.

Abstract: This paper examines the effectiveness of a programme of weekly meetings between sessional staff and the unit coordinator of a large first-year class at an Australian university. Interviews with sessional staff indicate that, in addition to training and targeted professional development initiatives, management initiatives that promote engagement matter for the motivation of individual sessional staff members and the overall quality and cohesiveness of course delivery. This result aligns with a key finding from the employee engagement literature, namely, that a local manager who is directly concerned with the day-to-day work of employees plays a crucial role in translating their knowledge and skills into high quality outcomes. In this instance, it is quality learning outcomes for undergraduate students. We discuss potential benefits and impediments to a serious focus on the employee engagement of sessional staff, which we contrast with the current focus within the higher education sector on generic training and skills development initiatives.

The ethics and politics of ethics approval

Abstract: The regulatory scope of Human Research Ethics Committees can be problematic for a variety of reasons. Some scholars have argued the ethics approval process, for example, is antithetical to certain disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, while others are willing to give it qualified support. This article uses a case study to cast the debate about how to address the weaknesses in ethics approval processes into the context of an ever-increasing level of managerialist interference in the work carried out by researchers. The problems attached to the former are unlikely to be resolved, while the latter is allowed to continue.

Another Matrix Revolution? The Overlap of University Work.

Abstract: There may be a perception among academic staff that professional staff are remote from academic activities (Wallace and Marchant, 2011), however, recent research demonstrates that professional staff, across a range of roles and seniority levels, are interested and engaged in supporting positive student learning outcomes (Graham, 2012, 2013a, 2013b). The improved understanding of the work of professional staff that is emerging provides opportunity for substantial changes to practice and policy. Building on Whitchurch's (2008a, 2009) typology of bounded, cross-boundary, unbounded and blended professionals, this research shows that professional staff span all four professional identities and show movement towards the third space (Graham, 2013a). Although Whitchurch (2008a) developed her framework for professional staff at management levels, this research extends the framework to more junior roles, reinforcing Whitchurch's contention that third space work is 'indicative of future trends in professional identities' (2008b, p. 377). Yet, like the overlap model (Schneijderberg and Merkator, 2013), the Whitchurch typology describes a linear continuum of professional identities from routine professionals through to traditional academics. This limitation may miss a deeper complexity of higher education professional identities, which is addressed in the proposed matrix model.

Higher Education and the Minerals Boom: A View from the Regions.

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of the minerals boom to date on the demand for higher education in Central Queensland, and the sustainability of higher education providers in high economic growth environments. Several datasets were used to examine changes in the demand for higher education among specific student groups within the region, the impacts upon currently enrolled students, and some of the potential consequences for regional employers and long-term regional competitiveness. It identifies challenges facing higher education providers operating in such environments and the policy implications of these challenges for government.

The tertiary debate: A case study analysis of factors considered when applying for university entry by traditional age school leavers in Brisbane

Abstract: Many interacting factors contribute to a student's choice of a university. This study takes a systems perspective of the choice and develops a Bayesian Network to represent and quantify these factors and their interactions. The systems model is illustrated through a small study of traditional school leavers in Australia, and highlights similarities and differences between universities' perceptions of student choices, students' perceptions of factors that they should consider and how students really make choices. The study shows the range of information that can be gained from this approach, including identification of important factors and scenario assessment.

Expectations of student learning quality An introductory study

Abstract: Without a direct measure of learning, universities and lecturers do not have reliable evidence of changes, past or present, in the academic merit of a unit. By using grade data to develop a variable called Academic Merit, all university units were measured for their percentages of academic merit over one semester at an Australian teaching-intensive regional university. Although the results revealed units with excellent percentages, there were others with percentages that were other than excellent. The implication is that an opportunity exists to understand the quality of the learning merit in those units with a view to enhancing student academic learning. A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W

Neo-Conned University.

Abstract: 'Censorship, says Australian political theorist John Keane (1991), can 'echo within us, take up residence within ourselves, spying on us, a private amanuensis who reminds us never to go too far ... It makes us zip our lips, tremble and think twice' (p. 39). It can also make us sick. At least that is my argument here: that, in the context of higher education, the demands made on academics by the commercial-in-confidence university, particularly for censorship of self and others, are detrimental to their health and wellbeing.

Confronting academic snobbery

Abstract: Snobbery in academia can involve academics, general staff, students and members of the public, and can be based on degrees, disciplines, cliques and other categories. Though snobbery is seldom treated as a significant issue, it can have damaging effects on morale, research and public image. Strategies against snobbery include avoidance, private feedback, formal complaints and public challenges.

Indigenous employment and Enterprise Agreements in Australian universities

Abstract: Considering the benefits that enterprise agreements (EAs) can bring to Indigenous employees, this paper considers the question of whether respectful cultural policies that are aligned with reconciliation and included in EAs can be achieved to Close the Gap on reducing Indigenous disadvantage. A document analysis of EAs at eight Australian universities was conducted to conceptualise and compare information about Indigenous staff needs and remuneration. A number of specific sections relating to Indigenous employment and leave arrangements were identified.

Sense out of chaos [Book Review]

Abstract: Review(s) of: On the purpose of a University education, by Luciano Boschiero (ed.), ISBN 9781921875854 pb, 137 pp., Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2012.

Is there a correlation between US university presidential pay and performance

Abstract: This paper scrutinises the escalating salaries of US college and university presidents (vice-chancellors, or rectors, as they might be known in other parts of the world). Some research suggests that presidential pay is largely correlated with factors that have little or nothing to do with performance and may, therefore, overstate the benefit that presidents bring to their institutions while giving too little consideration to the costs. The paper also discusses presidential pay in the broader socioeconomic context, summarises available research findings and suggests ways institutions might strengthen the link between pay and performance in order to broaden the talent pool of capable institutional leaders.

To market, to market...

Abstract: In earlier pieces (O'Neill, 2002, 2010, 2012), I chewed on and tried to digest newspaper advertisements made by universities. Byproducts did not come out smelling like roses: universities are scarcely able to present themselves without boasting, crass displays of salesmanship and brazen invocations of virtue. Now I hark to their recruiting calls by taking a sample (the bias is all mine) from recent announcements. Maybe universities went about seeking employees differently in the good old days - I don't go into that - but these days they are, as I hope to show, besotted with marketing brands as they seek acolytes to join them in the vision splendid.