tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/undergraduate-degrees-17664/articlesUndergraduate degrees – The Conversation2021-06-04T05:02:26Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1604612021-06-04T05:02:26Z2021-06-04T05:02:26ZIn this ‘job-ready’ era, it’s worth looking at how a US-style broader education can benefit uni students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404144/original/file-20210603-21-157lrsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C3458%2C2290&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rob Crandall/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.studyassist.gov.au/news/job-ready-graduates-package-higher-education-reforms-0">Job-Ready Graduates Package</a> is nearing the end of its first full semester of implementation. Its basic premise is that the main reason the modern Australian university exists is to train the next generation in areas of economic need. </p>
<p>“Universities must teach Australians the skills needed to succeed in the jobs of the future,” <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tehan/minister-education-dan-tehan-national-press-club-address">said</a> the then federal education minister, Dan Tehan, when introducing the package. His successor, Alan Tudge, has <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-universities-with-the-most-unhappy-students-during-the-pandemic-20210318-p57c1w.html">described</a> this task as universities’ “core business”. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-governments-funding-changes-are-meddling-with-the-purpose-of-universities-141133">The government's funding changes are meddling with the purpose of universities</a>
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<p>As former University of Melbourne vice chancellor Glyn Davis has <a href="https://meanjin.com.au/essays/the-australian-idea-of-a-university">pointed out</a>, our universities have <em>always</em> had a strong focus on professional vocational preparation. Yet even alongside enhanced international research <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-global-ranking-system-shows-australian-universities-are-ahead-of-the-pack-152313">rankings</a>, Australian higher education has drifted further towards massified vocational training over the past decade (the demand-driven era). The 2020 legislation accentuated this trend, in terms of both the government’s “job-ready” rhetoric and <a href="https://theconversation.com/3-flaws-in-job-ready-graduates-package-will-add-to-the-turmoil-in-australian-higher-education-147740">financial incentives</a> to <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/more-science-and-tech-enrolments-followed-uni-fee-revamp/news-story/d279ecfd129e74ce2616b750c55b0775?btr=5a57b820f16b8162eb895fec0010d5a1">deter enrolment</a> in courses deemed to lack immediate vocational focus. </p>
<p>This reshaping of the meaning of higher <em>education</em> raises significant concerns. If our universities are to retain some balance between the imperatives of education and training, perhaps the time has come to reimagine the possibilities. </p>
<p>One way of doing so is to consider the merits of North American-style “general education”. How might it be applied in Australia’s quite different system? </p>
<h2>Contrasting models of higher education</h2>
<p>To use very broad categorisations, Australian undergraduate education essentially follows the <a href="https://www.studyacrossthepond.com/degrees-programs/undergraduate-degrees-uk">English</a> (not <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/undergraduate/student-life/academic/degree-structure/degree-structure#:%7E:text=Scottish%20degree%20programmes%20are%20designed,add%20depth%20to%20your%20education.">Scottish</a>) model. It is based on three-year discipline-specific courses that prepare graduates for employment. Comparable <a href="https://www.richmondfed.us/-/media/richmondfedorg/publications/research/econ_focus/2012/q4/pdf/feature2.pdf">European systems</a> enhance this with deeply integrated industry apprenticeships. </p>
<p>In contrast, the traditional <a href="https://shorelight.com/student-stories/the-us-higher-education-system-explained/">North American system</a> works on the basis of a four-year bachelor’s degree. Roughly a third to a half of that comprises elective studies, before the student selects a major. </p>
<p>If the English/European undergraduate systems prioritise <em>depth</em> of specialisation, the North American system prioritises <em>breadth</em>. The former assumes general education is the job of secondary schooling. The latter provides advanced general education well into university. Technical professional training is provided largely at postgraduate level.</p>
<h2>Models of general education</h2>
<p>“Gen ed” is itself diverse, and each model has its own benefits. </p>
<p>Some approaches simply prioritise “breadth requirements”. This ensures students deepen their experience of a range of disciplines in their first and second years. They can then choose their major in a more informed way. </p>
<p>Other models focus more strategically on developing <a href="https://www.american.edu/provost/undergrad/core/">transferable skills</a> – critical thinking and problem solving, teamwork, leadership, adaptability, communication and so on. These skills are applicable across industries. </p>
<p>Some have a strong focus on civics and global citizenship. It is worth noting the attraction of North American gen ed for many Asian universities, including institutions in <a href="https://commoncore.hku.hk/introduction/">Hong Kong</a>, <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1170324.pdf">Taiwan</a> and <a href="https://www.routledge.com/General-Education-and-the-Development-of-Global-Citizenship-in-Hong-Kong/Xing-Ng-Cheng/p/book/9781138701113">mainland China</a>. </p>
<p>Further, “core curriculums” have different emphases. Some programs have a decidedly “<a href="https://grahamschool.uchicago.edu/academic-programs/liberal-arts/basic-program/core-curriculum">great books</a>” approach focusing on intellectual and literary heritage. Others have more mission-focused curriculums such as those developed by <a href="https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/integritas/issue/view/601">American Catholic universities</a>. </p>
<p>Of course, such models are not mutually exclusive. Aspects of each can be productively combined.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/pandemic-widens-gap-between-government-and-australians-view-of-education-148991">Pandemic widens gap between government and Australians' view of education</a>
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<h2>Why bother with gen ed?</h2>
<p>Admittedly, arguments based on affordability and immediate employability contribute strongly to the case for specialised undergraduate degrees. But is the education of the average 17 or 18-year-old matriculant sufficiently broad and deep to then focus simply on career training? </p>
<p>Further, significant specialisation is already baked into Australian Year 11-12 schooling. This is a result of ATAR scores inevitably being prioritised in the quest for entry into professional undergraduate courses. For many students, broad education in the humanities and the natural and social sciences is heavily curtailed by the age of 14-15. </p>
<p>In this context, gen ed advocates point to the intrinsic, if hard to quantify, benefits of a citizenry that is highly and broadly educated and critically trained. They also cite the pragmatic benefits to both <a href="https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/161216/1/dp10593.pdf">individual</a> long-term prospects and to the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5149947_Skill-Specific_rather_than_General_Education_A_Reason_for_US-Europe_Growth_Differences">economy</a> as a whole. </p>
<h2>Can gen ed work in Australia?</h2>
<p>As long as the three-year undergraduate degree continues to shoulder the burden of pre-employment professional training, significant gains in this area will be difficult. Australia’s most ambitious recent effort in this regard is the so-called <a href="https://about.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/20426/20101012-davis.pdf">Melbourne Model</a>. As its framers concluded, moving unilaterally to a North American four-year undergraduate structure is currently untenable. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/monash-v-melbourne-model-one-size-doesnt-fit-all-1059">Monash v Melbourne Model: one size doesn't fit all</a>
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<p>Meanwhile, professional accreditation requirements within three-year vocational degrees leave little room for elective subjects. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, several Australian institutions already carve out limited space for broader strategic educational goals. Examples include the core curriculum programs run by <a href="https://bond.edu.au/current-students/study-information/enrolment/program-structure-and-sequence/core-curriculum">Bond</a> (focusing on transferable skills), <a href="https://www.acu.edu.au/study-at-acu/find-a-course/core-curriculum">ACU</a> and <a href="https://www.notredame.edu.au/about/schools/sydney/philosophy-and-theology/course-descriptions">UNDA</a> (focused on the Catholic intellectual tradition).</p>
<p>Amid the fetishisation of “job-readiness”, Australian universities would do well to look at creative ways to develop a more holistic educational experience for all their students. This would contribute to the long-term benefits of broadly educated and critically skilled graduates.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160461/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Colledge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many Australian students specialise before they’ve had a good general education. American undergraduates do get that, and perhaps Australia has gone too far down the path of early specialisation.Richard Colledge, Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching), Faculty of Theology & Philosophy, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1009992018-08-27T10:46:30Z2018-08-27T10:46:30ZThe few humanities majors who dominate in the business world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230619/original/file-20180803-41354-1lwhwq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students often believe a STEM degree will serve them better in the job market.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/science-vs-humanities-traffic-sign-two-454914721?src=4VcA46_ZUFa5f7PwCJAZ2A-1-90">M-SUR/shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the mid-1990s, technology-driven economic growth <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/03/the-myth-of-the-science-and-engineering-shortage/284359/">induced a strong demand</a> for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, skills. </p>
<p>This development came at the <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/06/05/analysis-finds-significant-drop-humanities-majors-gains-liberal-arts-degrees">expense of humanities</a> and liberal arts.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/11/princeton-grad-student-takes-humanities-crisis-decidedly-gendered-perspective">More people, especially women,</a> enrolled in STEM fields rather than humanities and liberal arts studies. </p>
<p>Students <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/11-reasons-to-major-in-the-humanities-2013-6">often falsely assumed</a> that a humanities or liberal arts degree has far less employment potential <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/emsi/2016/10/19/what-can-you-do-with-that-useless-liberal-arts-degree/#396cfda041b8">than one in STEM</a>. <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/11/17/southern-illinois-u-carbondale-wants-dissolve-academic-departments-all-them">Universities shuffled resources away from</a> humanities and liberal arts toward STEM over the last three decades.</p>
<p>As researchers at a business school that trains many STEM graduates in management and leadership, we see no reason why humanities graduates too cannot expect to excel in the corporate world. We believe that humanities departments at universities should work more closely with business schools to better prepare humanities majors for the corporate world.</p>
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<h2>Humanities leaders</h2>
<p>In the U.S., some high-profile humanities and liberal arts graduates have left their mark on the corporate world. <a href="http://time.com/3964415/ceo-degree-liberal-arts/">A 2015 Time magazine list</a> of humanities business luminaries includes Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who studied communications; HBO CEO Richard Plepler, who studied political science; and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, who studied history and literature. </p>
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<span class="caption">John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, studied philosophy and religion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Richard Drew</span></span>
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<p>We analyzed <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/solutions/professionals-data">data from S&P Global</a> on 2,262 corporate leaders – vice presidents and C-suite executives – in the U.S. today. According to the data, only 1.5 percent graduated in a humanities or liberal arts field. </p>
<p>History and psychology graduates are the two groups of humanities graduates most common in the executive ranks of the business world, followed by philosophy and linguistics graduates. People with degrees in music, drama and fashion were the least common.</p>
<p>The data also show that only 23 percent of humanities and liberal arts executives pursued an MBA, lower than the 26 percent rate for the total population of executives. A higher proportion of humanities and liberal arts executives also had Ph.D.’s or master’s degrees.</p>
<p>We found that only a little under 12 percent of humanities and liberal arts graduates in the corporate world attended Ivy League schools. However, that figure is higher than 7.6 percent of the total executives who attended Ivy League schools.</p>
<p>More than six in 10 humanities majors in the corporate world work in the consumer products industry. </p>
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<h2>Promoting business skills</h2>
<p>In 2016, there were <a href="https://datausa.io/profile/cip/240101/">more than 310,000 graduates</a> in the humanities and liberal arts in the U.S. That suggests to us that the humanities and liberal arts represent a vast pool of untapped leadership for U.S. corporations. That’s especially important today, when <a href="https://hbr.org/2010/06/5-steps-to-addressing-the-lead">60 percent of American companies</a> face leadership talent shortages that impede their performance. </p>
<p>It’s in the humanities and liberal arts, after all, that students learn about the complexities of human behavior – which is useful when trying to understand consumer behavior, users’ needs and interpersonal relationships in the business world.</p>
<p>We see two steps that universities can take to promote humanities leadership in the business world. First, they can make training in the humanities and liberal arts more relevant to business and job market needs. Second, they should incorporate humanities and liberal arts training into STEM itself – for example, by introducing mandatory modules that would include learning about major works and key ideas in anthropology, philosophy and psychology. </p>
<p>We believe that integrating humanities and business at the university level would help develop a more agile and versatile workforce whose members can adapt much quicker to the marketplace’s changing needs.</p>
<p>What’s more, many business are emphasizing big data and analytics more and more. That means that responding to the nuances of individual and community behaviors will offer a competitive advantage. We think that humanities graduates would be more adept at detecting, analyzing and understanding such nuances.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100999/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A handful of high-profile executives have humanities degrees. But those standouts make up a small proportion of the total pool of American executives.Sami Mahroum, Senior Lecturer, INSEADRashid Ansari, Researcher, INSEADLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/862552017-10-26T10:42:53Z2017-10-26T10:42:53ZThe university must be the site of the next Reformation – here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191812/original/file-20171025-25518-1go77ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Piotr Wawrzyniuk / Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Legend has it that Martin Luther nailed his <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/martin-luther-posts-95-theses">95 theses</a> to the church door at Wittenberg Castle on October 31 1517, sparking the Protestant Reformation. Regardless of <a href="http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2014/10/reformation_day_did_martin_lut.html">whether the event itself actually happened</a>, the target was clear: the practices of the Roman Catholic Church. As we commemorate the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/reformation-500-45049">500th anniversary</a> of Luther’s protest, there is a comparable institution whose practices might be targeted by a latter-day Luther: the university. But first we need to examine what bothered Luther and his followers back then – and then ask what might cause a similar bother today.</p>
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<span class="caption">Martin Luther, 1529.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1529MartinLuther.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>At the outset, it is worth recalling that Luther was committed to the religion against which he protested. He was Professor of Moral Theology at a university under Roman Catholic authority when he came to the conclusion that the Church’s own institutions had abandoned the spirit that had led him to join it in the first place.</p>
<p>Luther’s protest focused on the practice of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/indulgence">indulgences</a>, which provided a means by which Christians could increase their chances of salvation by confessing their sins and paying some money to a priest. It would be tantamount to cancelling a debt, which was often how sin was portrayed to believers at the time. But Luther believed that this practice corrupted not only the Church to which he had dedicated his life – but also people’s relationship to God.</p>
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<span class="caption">The Pope as the Antichrist, signing and selling indulgences, 1521.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Antichrist1.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>The Church was obviously corrupted by indulgences because the money usually did not go to relieve the material conditions of the believers <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/indulgence">but to improve those of the Church officials</a>. The believers themselves were perhaps more insidiously corrupted because they were left with the impression that they could simply buy their way to Heaven.</p>
<p>I would like to suggest that the dispensation of academic credentials performs the same function in 2017 as the dispensation of indulgences did in 1517. </p>
<h2>Credentials as corruption</h2>
<p>Credentials are a form of payment and ritual that students are told they must undergo at university in order to be absolved of their ignorance and be permitted to enter a world of lifetime employment – the proverbial “Heaven on Earth”. I use the word “proverbial” deliberately: it is by no means clear that universities can, or should, promise any such thing.</p>
<p>Credentials come in the form of degree certifications, which students receive once they have paid tuition fees and have submitted themselves to a set of examinations. Traditionally students have also had to attend lectures and seminars, though these have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-all-university-lectures-be-automatically-recorded-39158">increasingly made optional</a> thanks to reliance on information technology. Just as attendance in church came to be seen as optional once believers acquired access to the Bible in their native languages, the same applies to students nowadays who turn to online sources to replicate what might otherwise be of value in live performances.</p>
<p>Here’s a way to assess the value of credentials. Suppose you hire someone with a good degree in physics. Are they capable of constructively contributing to an engineering project, let alone to the solution of a longstanding problem within physics itself? The answer is bound to be mixed because physics degrees are in the first instance what economists call “virtue signalling” devices. The employer is invited to trust a candidate’s competence because they have somehow managed to pay enough money (perhaps with the help of sponsors) and passed enough tests (presumably <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-stop-cheating-in-universities-85407">by their own efforts</a>) to be in a position where a potential employer can take them seriously.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191819/original/file-20171025-25497-15eqwxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191819/original/file-20171025-25497-15eqwxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191819/original/file-20171025-25497-15eqwxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191819/original/file-20171025-25497-15eqwxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191819/original/file-20171025-25497-15eqwxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191819/original/file-20171025-25497-15eqwxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191819/original/file-20171025-25497-15eqwxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Are degrees less meaningful than we believe?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What is missing from this blaze of credentials – aside from the potential mismatch to the job at hand – is any sense that the candidate understands either the limits of the applicability of her field’s knowledge or how the very basis of her field’s knowledge might be constructively extended. After all, students are not formally examined on either. Rather, they are tested on “state of the art”, of the moment knowledge, which, inevitably, changes over time as the field and its examiners change.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, both students and their potential employers are led to believe that academic credentials confer on students that what they have learned at university constitutes knowledge that is more durable than it really is. And all of this is made possible simply because self-certifying “knowledgeable” people – in other words, academics – have said so.</p>
<h2>Hints of a second Reformation?</h2>
<p>The financial interest of academics in continuing to promote this idea – from the beleaguered lecturer to the over-remunerated vice chancellor – should be obvious. Perhaps only slightly less obvious is why students continue to believe it. After all, no sound theory of knowledge, or <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-you-know-that-what-you-know-is-true-thats-epistemology-63884">epistemology</a>, backs this modus operandi, which reeks of a mindless deference to authority. This is especially apparent in societies where people are presumed to be literate, have been given the right to vote for generations and for the past generation have been given free access to the internet. </p>
<p>To be sure, the tide has begun to turn. One of the world’s leading accountancy firms, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/01/07/ernst-and-young-removes-degree-classification-entry-criteria_n_7932590.html">Ernst & Young</a>, and the UK’s leading right-leaning intellectual magazine, the <a href="https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/09/the-spectators-48-year-old-intern-shows-why-its-time-to-dispense-with-cvs/">Spectator</a>, have begun to administer their own in-house examinations, which are open to anyone who wishes to apply. More aggressively, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel launched his “<a href="http://thielfellowship.org/">Thiel Fellowship</a>” in 2011, whereby top-flight high school graduates are lured from elite universities to spend time developing innovations to bring to market. In all these cases, the employer or funder takes full responsibility for certifying candidates, without any formal academic mediation.</p>
<p>So: a new Reformation is slowly happening. But how should universities respond? Luther’s anniversary should remind us that we are living in an increasingly competitive environment for the providers and consumers of knowledge. Universities cannot presume to hold an institutional monopoly over it. This may require academics to engage in a more direct appeal – both in terms of curricular offerings being justified more explicitly and academics presenting themselves in person and print less formally – to demonstrate that a university-based education can provide some added value that cannot be provided elsewhere. </p>
<p>In Luther’s day, this was called “evangelism”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86255/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Fuller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>University degrees perform the same function in 2017 as indulgences did in 1517.Steve Fuller, Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/588152016-05-04T03:12:02Z2016-05-04T03:12:02ZHigher education in policy paralysis after Budget 2016 – what now?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121127/original/image-20160504-11494-ksrs4m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Uncapping fees for some degree courses is still an option. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Higher education is in policy paralysis. This year’s budget set us back to 2014.</p>
<p>In the 2014 budget, the government announced that <a href="https://theconversation.com/uncapping-education-fees-and-unleashing-the-unscrupulous-26810">fees would be deregulated</a>. While this was a toxic political move, it wasn’t toxic enough to be dumped from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/pyne-fails-to-deliver-any-surprises-in-the-higher-education-budget-41741">2015 budget</a>, which was another lost year for higher education.</p>
<p>While, <a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-budget-2016-education-experts-react-58592">this year</a>, the government finally ruled out full fee deregulation, it is still contemplating uncapped fees for some courses in its higher education <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/driving-innovation-fairness-and-excellence-australian-education">consultation paper</a>. It has also dropped all the worthwhile proposals from 2014, such as extending the demand-driven system to sub-baccalaureate programs.</p>
<h2>Cuts and government values</h2>
<p>As expected, the government added cuts of A$152.2 million over four years, or 22%, from the Higher Education Participation Program – which funds universities to bring in students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. It also cut $20.9 million over four years by closing the Office for Learning and Teaching, which supported scholarship on major improvements to teaching and learning. </p>
<p>All that remains is $4.5 million a year for <a href="http://www.olt.gov.au/awards">good teaching awards</a>. As valuable as these are, they recognise individual performance rather than disseminate good practice throughout the sector. </p>
<p>While the government has relegated the improvement of teaching and learning to universities, it has increased funding for co-operative research centres by $46 million, or 32%, by 2020. </p>
<p>This reinforces the view that while teaching and learning is universities’ most important role, in national policy, it is very much a second priority to research.</p>
<h2>Running, jumping, standing still</h2>
<p>Rather than announcing any changes, the government released a <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/driving-innovation-fairness-and-excellence-australian-education">consultation paper</a> on proposals for tackling many of higher education’s unresolved issues.</p>
<p>While the sector generally welcomes the belated consultation, as the government is <a href="https://theconversation.edu.au/article-58076">moving the election forward to July 2</a>, it doesn’t have any time before the election to progress any of the options it canvasses.</p>
<p>The government, from Tony Abbott to Malcolm Turnbull, has spent a whole term in higher education policy paralysis. </p>
<h2>The reform options being discussed – deregulating fees for some courses</h2>
<p>Nonetheless, the Coalition is still contemplating uncapped fees, initially for only some courses that would be proposed by universities. </p>
<p>The government’s consultation paper states that it is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… committed to providing universities with additional flexibility to innovate, differentiate themselves and offer students more choice and higher quality offerings. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The paper suggests that giving:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… universities flexibility to attract additional revenue in courses where they have developed particular expertise would enable them to innovate and differentiate themselves and pursue their individual vision for higher education excellence.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While the government adopts from the 2011 higher education base funding review the term “flagship courses” for programs with uncapped fees, its proposals are markedly different from those recommended by that review. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A49506">It recommended</a> that funding for flagship programs be increased by up to 50%, with the additional funding “met through a matched increase in both government and student contributions”. </p>
<p>In contrast, the consultation paper proposes that government funding for flagship programs be cut and that fees be uncapped and monitored by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, or be approved by an independent body. </p>
<p>If they don’t cause too many problems, the flagships will become a fleet of deregulated fees. The government will expose itself to similar problems that arose from 2009 when the then-Labor government relaxed conditions for the loan program for vocational diplomas, called VET FEE-HELP.</p>
<p>As successive governments found in trying to curb the runaway explosion of VET FEE-HELP loans, doubtful debt and scams, withdrawing concessions is much harder than granting them. </p>
<p>If a re-elected Coalition government manages to uncap fees for some programs from 2018 there should be a simple but strong mechanism for returning fees to their caps should the experiment go as badly wrong as many fear.</p>
<h2>Ideas for how to reduced student loan debt</h2>
<p>The higher education consultation paper has several proposals to reduce the cost to government of the Higher Education Loan Program (HELP): </p>
<ul>
<li><p>introduce a loan fee for all HELP loans;</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/is-lowering-the-student-loan-repayment-threshold-fair-for-students-56814">lower the repayment threshold</a> from $54,126 to around $40,000–45,000;</p></li>
<li><p>introduce a higher contribution rate for high-income earners;</p></li>
<li><p>index repayment thresholds to a lower index;</p></li>
<li><p>introduce a household income test for HELP repayments;</p></li>
<li><p>restrict the availability of HELP loans or Commonwealth subsidies to those who have left the workforce permanently;</p></li>
<li><p>recover outstanding loan amounts from deceased estates; and </p></li>
<li><p>remove the <a href="http://studyassist.gov.au/sites/studyassist/payingbackmyloan/hecs-help-benefit/pages/hecshelpbenefit">HECS-HELP benefit</a>, which reduces HELP repayments for education, nursing and other graduates working in a related occupation.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Before the budget, the government released a discussion paper on <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/2017-vet-fee-help-scheme-redesign-discussion-paper">redesigning VET FEE-HELP</a>, which proposes several measures to end the scamming of the program. </p>
<p>As a result of these measures, and the withdrawal of the decision to uncap fees, the government estimates that the proportion of new debt not expected to be repaid in 2017 is 18%. This is markedly down from the 21% estimated in last year’s budget and the 23% in the 2014 budget.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Gavin will be on hand for an Author Q&A between 11am and noon AEST on Thursday May 4, 2016. Post any questions you have in the comment section below.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58815/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gavin Moodie is an adjunct professor at RMIT University which is likely to be affected substantially by the Government's budget and the proposals in its consultation paper.</span></em></p>While the government finally ruled out full fee deregulation in its 2016 budget, it is still contemplating uncapping fees for some degree courses. Here’s what else is being discussed.Gavin Moodie, Adjunct professor, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/444802015-07-13T04:29:40Z2015-07-13T04:29:40ZDecolonise more than just curriculum content – change the structure, too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88070/original/image-20150710-17456-1h8ezae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A student protests against colonial-era statues at the University of Cape Town. Changing the curriculum structure is another way to decolonise South Africa's universities.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mike Hutchings/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is critically important that we decolonise South Africa’s universities. This will involve creating a <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-take-the-curriculum-back-from-dead-white-men-40268">radically altered curriculum</a> and producing a genuinely <a href="https://theconversation.com/professors-arent-born-they-must-be-nurtured-43670">diversified</a> academic population. </p>
<p>But there’s another aspect of the decolonisation debate which has received less attention and yet is the most crucial: the entire curriculum structure is part of our <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/pre-mandela-period-colonial-history-south-africa-1652-1917">colonial inheritance</a>. </p>
<p>The three-year bachelor’s degree offered by South African universities is not a universal norm. Many countries around the world – including the <a href="http://study.com/4_year_degrees.html">US</a> and China – have a four-year undergraduate degree. Hong Kong <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/world/asia/31iht-educLede31.html?_r=0">overhauled</a> its colonial era higher education system significantly in 2012 to start offering four-year undergraduate degrees.</p>
<h2>What’s wrong with three year degrees?</h2>
<p>A look at the national data on drop-out rates shows that <a href="http://www.sajs.co.za/sites/default/files/publications/pdf/Murray_Research%20Article.pdf">many students</a> are simply not prepared for university. Professor Ian Scott has <a href="http://www.inyathelo.org.za/about-us/inyathelo-s-blogspot/676-invite-to-are-our-universities-failing-us-10-march.html">argued</a> that our higher education system is failing most South Africa students by refusing to acknowledge the persistent inequalities in education. The playing field is not level.</p>
<p><a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2013-05-17-dropout-rate-points-to-lack-of-support">Almost half</a> of the students who enter South African universities drop out without completing their degrees. A lack of funding is one reason frequently given for dropping out. </p>
<p>Others say that institutions <a href="http://www.moneyweb.co.za/archive/south-africas-high-university-dropout-rates/">don’t do enough</a> to support students negotiating the transition from poorly resourced secondary schools to university. High dropout rates are common worldwide, but South Africa is also dealing with a low participation rate – only <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2014062015083621">about 18%</a> of the population enrols in higher education.</p>
<p>The gaps between primary and secondary schooling and the university system educationally disadvantage a significant proportion of students. This contributes to feelings of humiliation and failure; and ultimately, to unacceptable, racialised differences in academic results. </p>
<p>At the moment, an <a href="http://www.science.uct.ac.za/sci/undergrad/overview/extended-degree-programme-edp">extended degree</a> is offered only to specific students. It allows them to carry a lighter course load in first year and extends the traditional three-year curriculum to four.</p>
<p>Extended degrees should not be reserved for a small minority of <a href="http://www.bizadvance.co.za/content/definition-black-people">black</a> students. They should be the norm. This would acknowledge that a significant proportion of our students – even those who have benefited from good public schooling – are not adequately prepared for university, and particularly for the programmes that <a href="https://africacheck.org/reports/is-sa-bottom-of-the-class-in-maths-and-science-why-ranking-is-meaningless/">require maths and science</a>.</p>
<p>A four-year degree can offer great opportunities beyond simply levelling the playing fields. For instance, all students could then take an <a href="https://theconversation.com/african-languages-have-the-power-to-transform-universities-40901">African language</a>, pick up electives outside their major and take courses to broaden their perspectives. All of this can strengthen their future job prospects.</p>
<h2>The logistics</h2>
<p>This change requires significant work and resources upfront – Hong Kong spent ten years preparing to implement the four-year degree. South Africa’s Council on Higher Education (CHE) has <a href="http://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/Full_Report.pdf">suggested</a> that this “flexible” degree be piloted nationally in just one qualification. </p>
<p>The council did not suggest any particular qualification, but an obvious candidate would be the Bachelor of Science. In this degree, completion rates are <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2015-06-18-dismantle-colonialisms-assumptions">particularly poor</a>, and the South African economy badly needs skills in the fields of science, engineering and technology.</p>
<p>Teams of academics around South Africa would need to work on this pilot project, developing a four-year curriculum and placement mechanisms for those students who can still finish in just three years. All the implementation challenges could be tested. </p>
<p>Even if this process takes five years, it is a step in the right direction. Even if we only ended up with a four-year Bachelor of Science, we would be better off than we are now. </p>
<p>Can we afford this extended degree? By the CHE’s calculations, given the current wastage in the system due to drop-outs, a flexible degree structure is the most cost-effective option. It would produce more graduates and improve the higher education sector’s utilisation of human and material resources as well as its return on investment.</p>
<h2>Radical – and necessary</h2>
<p>This is a much more radical proposal for curriculum transformation than the demands that are currently <a href="http://www.thedailyvox.co.za/rhodes-must-fall-the-university-must-be-decolonised/">on the table</a> at my institution, the University of Cape Town, and <a href="http://www.financialmail.co.za/features/2015/05/14/stellenbosch-university-talking-transformation">elsewhere</a> in South Africa. Colonialism hasn’t just insinuated itself into the curriculum content but into the very structures of the curriculum. </p>
<p>You can add or replace one content for another – which is important – but unless the very structure of the curriculum is reformed, very little may be achieved in the end.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44480/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suellen Shay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s not just the content of South Africa’s university curricula that needs to be re-examined. The country’s degree structure should be reconsidered, too.Suellen Shay, Dean and Associate Professor, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/427472015-06-05T03:53:16Z2015-06-05T03:53:16ZCurriculum reform at Sydney uni - separating the glitz from the grit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/84028/original/image-20150605-3387-1pca72j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The big news here is the changes to culture and curriculum, not degree length. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dylansworld/16980212029/">Dylan's World/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The University of Sydney has announced an overhaul of its undergraduate teaching. A <a href="https://intranet.sydney.edu.au/content/dam/intranet/documents/news-initiatives/strategy/Strategy-Discussion-Paper-Education.pdf">discussion paper</a> proposes reducing the number of degrees, increasing the length of degrees, and a host of other curriculum and cultural reforms. If achieved, some of these reforms could be revolutionary, but much of the media attention has focused on the less important aspects.</p>
<p>That there’s a domestic and international marketing element to this is without question — <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newscategoryid=15&newsstoryid=15056">Vice-Chancellor Michael Spence has talked about</a> “restoring” the university’s “historic” position as “indisputably the best university in the nation”. He referred to Sydney as one of the two best universities in the country. Coming from the University of Melbourne, I naturally assume he is referring to Melbourne as the other, but I’m not sure how Australia’s other universities, notably the other Group of Eight members, would feel about that assessment.</p>
<p>Is this symptomatic of a university seeking to differentiate itself within a sector under pressure? Well, yes, and from one point of view, that’s not a bad thing. But is this an interesting new riff from an established performer, or just an upbeat cover of an old song?</p>
<h2>Fewer, longer degrees?</h2>
<p>The headline act, so far as much of the media coverage is concerned, is the reduction in the number of degrees. This was the main aspect of reports by the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-02/sydney-university-looks-to-cut-undergraduate-degrees/6514194">ABC</a>, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3107583/Sydney-Uni-considering-ditching-100-degrees-make-students-employable.html">Daily Mail</a> and <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/sydney-university-to-introduce-fouryear-degrees-and-reduce-double-degrees-20150601-ghe5f7.html">Fairfax media</a>.</p>
<p>Reducing the number of degrees offered may offer efficiences from the administrative and marketing points of view, but the impact on students of this change at least is likely to be minimal. At best, the new system will be less confusing (perhaps if only from the outside) and maybe more flexible if you change your mind about your study interests part-way through your degree. Otherwise, this proposal will likely have little impact on the student experience.</p>
<p>The change in degree length will lead to “more expensive” degrees, according to the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-02/sydney-university-looks-to-cut-undergraduate-degrees/6514194">ABC</a>, and “better employment outcomes”, according to the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Education), Pip Pattison. </p>
<p>The discussion paper <a href="https://intranet.sydney.edu.au/content/dam/intranet/documents/news-initiatives/strategy/Strategy-Discussion-Paper-Education.pdf">presents some data</a> that shows a four-year degree probably doesn’t have a negative effect on international enrolments.</p>
<p>A student has more opportunities for meaningful educative interactions with a university in four years than three. However, given the high numbers of students who previously went on to Honours study, and that an Honours equivalent will be more or less embedded within the four years, this won’t change much for a lot of students.</p>
<p>What does potentially change the cost burden for students is an increased focus on vertical degree structures - having generalist undergraduate degrees, followed by professional postgraduate degrees. Increasing the number of postgraduate degrees financially supported by the government would be necessary to avoid an increased financial burden for aspiring professionals whose accrediting degrees have been shifted from undergraduate to postgraduate.</p>
<h2>Curriculum change</h2>
<p>For the sector, though, this might be one of those nights out where the supporting acts are more interesting than the headline.</p>
<p>What <em>is</em> worth watching in all this are the more fundamental changes the university is proposing for its classroom experience and culture. An elite program for high-achieving students would be almost unique in Australian higher education. It could be a good drawcard for prospective gifted students here and internationally.</p>
<p>The university also proposes offering professional skill-building and industry-based experience in the final year in some courses. This would also be valuable considering graduate employability is never far from people’s thoughts. </p>
<p>Perhaps even more importantly, Dr Spence <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/sydney-university-to-get-a-major-makeover/story-e6frgcjx-1227380173810">calls</a> the university a “white bread institution” with “old, white and male” leadership. The discussion paper suggests that staff believe not enough is done to attract and support promising students from a diverse range of social and cultural backgrounds.</p>
<p>Confronting and changing the relative lack of diversity and issues (or at least perceptions) of privilege and background that still afflict a lot of the universities, particularly the Group of Eight, would be a remarkable achievement, if it were achieved.</p>
<p>The discussion paper also proposes some <a href="http://www.itl.usyd.edu.au/graduateAttributes/policy_framework.pdf">changes to the university graduate qualities</a>. Graduate qualities are (often vague) statements about the attributes students should possess upon graduating, like “depth of disciplinary expertise”, “critical thinking and problem-solving skills” and “cultural competence”. </p>
<p>The new graduate qualities are actually quite similar to the current set. What <em>would</em> be revolutionary is if the university uses these proposed changes as an opportunity to embed these attributes in a meaningful, assessable and quantifiable way.</p>
<p>Until now, universities have been more or less left to their own devices in training graduates to an appropriate standard. Some industry groups have input into course content via accreditation, but the public has had to take on trust that graduates have their supposed qualities.</p>
<p>If graduate attribute statements are ever to be more than just aspirations, or more than just marketing nonsense - and they should be, as a key part of the contract institutions make with students and society - universities need better processes to evaluate and ensure the standards of their graduates.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the sector’s ability to do that is still in its infancy. If the University of Sydney can develop clear and concrete measures of graduate qualities, one would think that there would be significant commercial advantage for them in producing that evidence and marketing it to prospective students. That would be a show worth seeing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42747/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan Naylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The University of Sydney has announced an overhaul of its undergraduate teaching. If achieved, some of these reforms could be revolutionary, but much of the media attention has focused on the less important aspects.Ryan Naylor, Lecturer in Higher Education, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.