tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/tertiary-education-9126/articlesTertiary education – The Conversation2024-02-26T19:00:35Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2242492024-02-26T19:00:35Z2024-02-26T19:00:35ZUniversities Accord: almost 50% students don’t feel like they belong at uni. We need to fix this if we’re going to double enrolments<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577797/original/file-20240226-26-7k28xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C62%2C5919%2C3898&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-gray-shirt-sitting-on-bed-3954635/">Andrew Neel/Pexels </a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The federal government has released the final report on a Universities Accord. Taking more than a year to prepare, it is billed as a “blueprint” for reform for the next decade and beyond. It contains 47 recommendations across student fees, wellbeing, funding, teaching, research and university governance. You can find the rest of our accord coverage <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/universities-accord-121839">here</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The Universities Accord final report hopes more Australians will get a tertiary education. This calls for a huge increase in the numbers of university students: from 860,000 today to more than 1.8 million by 2050. </p>
<p>To achieve this, Australia will need more students from currently underrepresented backgrounds going to university. The report also notes the importance of keeping students at uni once they get there. </p>
<p>As the <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/australian-universities-accord/resources/accord-interim-report">interim report</a> noted last year, “too few” Australians are finishing their university degrees, with completions of a first bachelor degree “at their lowest since 2014”.</p>
<p>All of this is happening at time when the nature of university study is changing. Gone are the days when students spent all their time on campus, in lecture halls and tutorial groups with teachers and other students. University life is increasingly spent online. </p>
<p>This makes it harder to ensure students have a sense of belonging, which in turn impacts upon their wellbeing and capacity to succeed with their studies. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-accord-final-report-what-is-it-and-what-does-it-recommend-224251">Universities Accord final report: what is it, and what does it recommend?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is belonging and why is it so important?</h2>
<p>A significant part of this picture is students’ <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2023.2238006">sense of belonging</a>. Humans have a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-021-09633-6">psychological need</a> to have mutual and meaningful connections with others. A <a href="https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/is-having-a-sense-of-belonging-important">low sense of belonging</a> has been linked to lower self-esteem, greater mistrust, feeling rejected and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00332747.2015.1015867">mental health issues</a> including depression and anxiety. This can make it harder for students to persist with and stay resilient about completing their studies.</p>
<p>The accord final report notes how important it is for universities to ensure learning environments are welcoming and inclusive, saying students need to: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>feel a sense of connection and belonging to their university, which can have positive impacts on wellbeing, student transition and retention and academic outcomes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But recent research suggests belonging is a significant issue for Australian students and universities. The <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/surveys/student-experience-survey-(ses)">2022 national student experience survey</a> found only one in two (46.5% of undergraduates and 44.7% of postgraduates) students felt they belonged at university. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two young men sit side by side at an outdoor table, looking at a notebook." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577809/original/file-20240226-30-azi9om.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577809/original/file-20240226-30-azi9om.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577809/original/file-20240226-30-azi9om.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577809/original/file-20240226-30-azi9om.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577809/original/file-20240226-30-azi9om.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577809/original/file-20240226-30-azi9om.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577809/original/file-20240226-30-azi9om.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Having a low sense of belonging has been linked with low self-esteem and mental health issues.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/happy-diverse-male-students-working-on-home-assignment-in-park-5553938/">Armin Rimoldi/ Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The move online makes things more difficult</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://needednowlt.substack.com/p/why-dont-students-belong-a-transition?r=1ol322&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&open=false">2023 study</a> we used machine learning (or artificial intelligence) to analyse data from the student experience survey on more than one million students between 2013 and 2019. We looked at what factors helped students have a sense of belonging at their university.</p>
<p>We found the most important demographic feature contributing to a sense of belonging was whether the students studied online or on campus. This was more important than gender, age, where they were up to in their degree, or the language they spoke at home</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the momentum post-COVID is towards more online learning, not less. As the final report notes, the pandemic saw physical university spaces shut down and there has been a “profound shift” towards virtual classrooms. </p>
<p>In 2023 <a href="https://www.qualitymatters.org/qa-resources/resource-center/articles-resources/CHLOE-8-report-2023">online learning grew</a> by 34% in US universities and face-to-face learning declined by 24%. It is likely <a href="https://www.statista.com/outlook/dmo/eservices/online-education/australia#revenue">Australia</a> shares similar growth. </p>
<p>The accord report notes the growth of technology to communicate with students, use of artificial intelligence in curriculum and support services (such as chatbots), “can affect students’ sense of belonging to their universities”. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In this sense, technology has undermined a formerly unique advantage of campus life.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The review also notes many students also need to work to fund their studies, which also makes it difficult for them to spend time on campus, even if their courses are in-person.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-accord-the-final-report-mentions-equity-200-times-but-can-it-boost-access-for-underrepresented-groups-224248">Universities Accord: the final report mentions 'equity' 200 times, but can it boost access for underrepresented groups?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How can we facilitate belonging?</h2>
<p>So if we can’t necessarily rely on traditional in-person approaches, what can universities do to help students feel as though they belong?</p>
<p>During the pandemic, universities began to grapple with this issue. Some <a href="https://doi.org/10.53761/1.18.4.2">approaches included</a> informal peer-to-peer time before online classes and peer-to-teacher time afterwards. </p>
<p>This was to mimic an on-campus class waiting space and catching the teacher before they leave the lecture theatre. Initial feedback from students and staff about these measures was positive. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man stands in front of a seated audience and points at a board" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577804/original/file-20240226-17-zet7wz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577804/original/file-20240226-17-zet7wz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577804/original/file-20240226-17-zet7wz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577804/original/file-20240226-17-zet7wz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577804/original/file-20240226-17-zet7wz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577804/original/file-20240226-17-zet7wz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577804/original/file-20240226-17-zet7wz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">During COVID, some universities encouraged social time before online classes to help students feel more connected to each other.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-in-beige-blazer-holding-tablet-computer-3184328/">Fauxels/ Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Mentoring, meeting and working together</h2>
<p>In preparing the final report, the Universities Accord review panel commissioned 19 reports on specific issues. In my report for the panel on belonging, I suggested some other approaches universities could take to help students feel connected. These include: </p>
<p><strong>1. a peer mentoring system</strong>: formal mentoring between different year group students, such as pairing first and last year students, can help younger students in particular see their way through difficult patches and understand they are not alone </p>
<p><strong>2. keeping in touch with teachers</strong>: university often means having different teaching staff for different subjects and year levels, which is necessary to support academic specialisation. But universities should look at ways students can maintain contact with the same academic staff throughout their studies, to provide further opportunities for mentorship and connection</p>
<p><strong>3. orientations</strong>: universities should have compulsory mandatory orientations or inductions to create space for students to make their first university friends. These should preferably be in person and at least be in the first semester, but reinforcement each semester can also help</p>
<p><strong>4. teamwork, not group work</strong>: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2023.2238006">research</a> suggests “teamwork” skills matter a lot for belonging, but “group work” does not. Group work is more about multiple people being involved in a task, such as a group assessment. Team work is about team members having skills to communicate clearly, plan together, solve conflicts and collaborate. Universities can train academic staff in creating collaborative learning environments online. This means teachers can then facilitate high-quality team interactions before setting group-based assessments </p>
<p><strong>5. structuring opportunities to meet in person</strong>: if courses are all or mostly online, universities should look at onsite intensive sessions, informal but mandatory events such as guest speakers or assessments done face-to-face. While these will be logistically challenging – particularly in regional and remote learning – they can create important opportunities for students to connect</p>
<p><strong>6. encouraging students to come to campus</strong>: there is a growing number of students studying online in the city they live in. These students ought to be encouraged to study in the campus library or attend a free food event, even if they are considered “online” or “distance” students. And when procuring on-campus shops and cafes, universities can also ensure they have features that encourage connection and a social atmosphere. These might include plenty of tables, places to meet, internet connections and spaces to work.</p>
<p>The accord’s final report places contains ambitious targets to see more Australians educated at tertiary level. This is welcome but we need to acknowledge the nature of university life is changing rapidly. Universities will need to change their approach to ensure students feel like they are a part of a something and not just on the receiving end of a pre-recorded lecture or online task.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/help-to-settle-in-and-friendships-beyond-class-what-makes-students-feel-like-they-belong-at-uni-210632">Help to settle in and friendships beyond class: what makes students feel like they belong at uni</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224249/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph Crawford 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 push to increase enrolments to 1.8 million by 2050 comes at a time when classes are heading online. This makes it harder to foster a vital sense of belonging for students.Joseph Crawford, Senior Lecturer, Management, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2101942023-07-25T03:04:30Z2023-07-25T03:04:30ZA changing world needs arts and social science graduates more than ever – just ask business leaders<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539141/original/file-20230725-29-22m2a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C5455%2C3628&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The headline job loss figures from New Zealand’s university funding crisis are in the public domain: over 100 gone at <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/494134/university-of-otago-makes-more-than-100-staff-redundant-in-cost-cutting-bid">Otago University</a>, with as many as 250 potentially about to go from <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/490714/victoria-university-lack-of-government-funding-blamed-for-proposed-job-cuts">Te Herenga Waka–Victoria</a> and <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/300931718/please-dont-let-it-happen-protesters-front-up-to-massey-university-council-over-restructures">Massey</a>. But these are only the losses we know of. </p>
<p>Behind the institutional veil, academic and administrative staff are quietly upping sticks for other, more secure working environments. </p>
<p>The proffered reasons for the proposed cuts include the loss of international students during the COVID-19 years, a steep <a href="https://www.newsroom.co.nz/pro/the-crisis-in-tertiary-education-caused-by-inadequate-funding">reduction in the value</a> of the public subsidy for domestic students over the past decade, and a funding model that encourages competition in a shrinking demographic pool. </p>
<p>More broadly, the sector-wide retrenchment is also framed around accountability to the taxpayer. What has not been interrogated more deeply is what price the notional taxpayer will pay over the long term if cuts of this magnitude occur.</p>
<p>The threat to the country’s research and development strategy from underfunded science departments is perhaps clearer. But the risks from losing more staff in the humanities and social sciences (where I work) are arguably less well appreciated.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1680662471869186048"}"></div></p>
<h2>Thinking critically</h2>
<p>Essentially, studying social sciences and humanities subjects is about making sense of things: oneself, the societies in which we live, the connections between past, present and future. </p>
<p>If that sounds a little “ivory tower”, it is in fact a <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/0038/latest/LMS202213.html?search=sw_096be8ed81d0f262_critic_25_se&p=1&sr=0">statutory obligation</a> of tertiary institutions to be a “critic and conscience of society”. That is, to enable people to think for themselves, challenge received wisdoms and ask questions of those in positions of power.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-campus-numbers-plummeting-due-to-online-learning-do-we-need-two-categories-of-university-degree-208172">With campus numbers plummeting due to online learning, do we need two categories of university degree?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>More practically, the attributes and dispositions imparted in the humanities and social sciences – the capacities to think critically, synthesise complex information and hold contradictory ideas in balance – are extremely useful in today’s rapidly changing labour market. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, it has been fashionable (at least in New Zealand, less so in more mature societies) to deride the bachelor of arts degree as one that won’t get you far. The old joke that BA stood for “bugger all” never seems to get old.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1682207036803813376"}"></div></p>
<h2>Business and the humanities</h2>
<p>And yet, the hard-headed world of business and commerce is <a href="https://www.bca.com.au/the-true-value-of-humanities">increasingly aware</a> of the value of just such an education. Maybe most famously in New Zealand, the highly successful international property developer Bob Jones has long <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/education/the-art-of-business-success/QSNAYZSYXPTRTUAUQ7BLZARYKM/">expressed a preference</a> for employing arts rather than business graduates.</p>
<p>More recently, the former CEO of Westpac Institutional Bank, Lyn Cobley, <a href="https://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A84189">spoke about</a> the need for the kinds of diverse skills an arts degree can provide: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’re not focusing as much on the traditional skillset that we once thought was necessary in banking – financial modelling, accounting, commerce – but rather we’re looking for people who display diversity of thought, critical thinking skills, cultural awareness, communication and collaboration skills. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Paul Newfield, philosophy graduate and now CEO of infrastructure company Morrison & Co, is another who is <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300812373/ceo-paul-newfields-journey-from-backpacker-philosophy-to-global-infrastructure">acutely aware</a> of the importance in business of diverse views and backgrounds:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The magic for us is being a culture where people respect different perspectives, and really engage in debate and in the ideas, and then you get good answers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, workplace-specific skills can be taught on the job. But that’s a lot easier to do when you’re working with curious people possessed of good, nimble minds – the kind of minds fostered in the arts disciplines.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/starved-of-funds-and-vision-struggling-universities-put-nzs-entire-research-strategy-at-risk-207708">Starved of funds and vision, struggling universities put NZ’s entire research strategy at risk</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>No technical fixes</h2>
<p>The sense-making skills cultivated in the humanities and social sciences are <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/10/top-10-work-skills-of-tomorrow-how-long-it-takes-to-learn-them/">valued by employers</a>. But they are even more important in the wider context of a world facing numerous challenges.</p>
<p>Highly complex issues – the climate crisis, the emergence of artificial intelligence, disinformation and <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/undercurrent">political extremism</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/09/here-be-trolls-new-zealands-female-politicians-battle-rising-tide-of-misogyny">race</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/09/here-be-trolls-new-zealands-female-politicians-battle-rising-tide-of-misogyny">gender</a> prejudice, and <a href="https://www.inequality.org.nz/understand/">social inequality</a> – are not wholly amenable to technical fixes. </p>
<p>Each has fundamentally to do with human behaviour and interactions. And therefore each requires the sorts of practices cultivated in the arts disciplines: careful thought, calm deliberation and meaningful collaboration.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nz-music-schools-under-threat-we-need-a-better-measure-of-their-worth-than-money-209323">NZ music schools under threat: we need a better measure of their worth than money</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>And this isn’t simply special pleading from those within the threatened disciplines and departments. </p>
<p>Robert May, president of the Royal Society, member of the House of Lords and Chief Scientific Adviser to the British government, put it this way: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think many of the major problems facing society are outside the realm of science and mathematics. It’s the behavioural sciences that are the ones we are going to have to depend on to save us.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The proposed reductions in staffing within those disciplines in New Zealand universities run counter to that sentiment. Public policy, functioning democracy and social cohesion are all at stake in the longer term.</p>
<p>Archaic assumptions about the “value” of the disciplines of the humanities and social sciences need to be put to rest. We need to acknowledge their importance to the economy and society. </p>
<p>Filling a hole in this year’s budget may only mean the price we pay in years to come will be far larger.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210194/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Shaw is a member of the Tertiary Education Union.</span></em></p>From commerce to public policy, cuts to New Zealand’s university humanities departments will have repercussions well beyond the so-called ‘ivory towers’.Richard Shaw, Professor of Politics, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2077082023-06-19T00:59:52Z2023-06-19T00:59:52ZStarved of funds and vision, struggling universities put NZ’s entire research strategy at risk<p>The crisis in Aotearoa New Zealand’s university and wider research sector did not happen overnight. While funding shortfalls and <a href="https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2306/S00012/protests-against-university-staff-cuts-in-new-zealand.htm">sweeping redundancies</a> are now making headlines, the underlying problems have been evident for years.</p>
<p>As I <a href="https://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2022/05/19/sciences-slice-of-budget-2022-expert-reaction/">wrote after last year’s budget</a>, financial support for research across our universities and crown research institutes “is steadily eroding and has been doing so for some time”, given the impacts of inflation.</p>
<p>The year before was no better. “The 2021 budget is not the investment we needed to see,” I <a href="https://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2021/05/20/budget-2021-expert-reaction/">wrote then</a>. “Anything other than an increase in line with inflation is rather a slap in the face.”</p>
<p>And of 2020’s COVID-dominated budget, I could <a href="https://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2020/05/14/budget-2020-expert-reaction/">only say</a>: “Under normal conditions, I might describe this as a disappointing budget for science […] missing not merely in action, but in aspiration.”</p>
<p>It was a <a href="https://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2019/05/30/budget-2019-expert-reaction/">similar story in 2019</a>, with a 1.8% increase to tertiary tuition subsidies only slightly alleviating inflation pressure; and in 2018, when the government <a href="https://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2018/05/17/budget-2018-science-and-innovation-expert-reaction/">restated its intention</a> to lift research funding to 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) over ten years.</p>
<p>That 2% of GDP target has been around for a long time now, with <a href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/science/15-05-2023/the-research-sector-needs-investment-now-for-the-good-of-our-planet-and-people">little significant movement</a> and a <a href="https://www.newsroom.co.nz/budget-2023-wont-move-dial-on-rd-hole">current spend</a> of 1.47%. The lack of new funding for science and research in recent successive budgets <a href="https://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2023/05/18/budget-2023-expert-reaction/">might once have been explained</a> by sector reform being a work in progress. But time is running out.</p>
<p>With redundancies wreaking havoc across the university sector in particular, getting new funding into the system should have been a priority in this year’s budget. The opportunity cost of not doing this is simply too great.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1668848560593354753"}"></div></p>
<h2>Challenge and capacity</h2>
<p>The university sector is now <a href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/science/31-05-2023/when-downsizing-means-destroying-our-universities">undeniably in crisis</a>, with the scale of the cuts – most seriously at Otago and Victoria University of Wellington, but also at Waikato and Massey – becoming clearer in the past few weeks. </p>
<p>The prime minister and minister of education refuse to interfere in what they see as operational matters, saying universities need to adapt to changing realities.</p>
<p>And there is little doubt universities face real challenges, from the changing nature of work, to increased expectations of digital learning, and the implications of artificial intelligence tools. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/university-funding-debates-should-be-broadened-to-reflect-their-democratic-purpose-97075">University funding debates should be broadened to reflect their democratic purpose</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But cutting staff undermines the sector’s capacity to deal with those challenges in the first place – because capacity lies at the heart of this issue. As former prime minister Helen Clark said last week:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It has taken decades to build the current capacities of our universities. That should not be destroyed by short-term budgetary considerations. The money required to maintain viable and comprehensive universities is small in the overall scheme of things.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The missing money may indeed be small. But a lack of inflation adjustment over multiple years has created real problems – especially given universities did not qualify for any financial support during COVID-19, and have cut or not replaced staff over the past three years already. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1669390970474102786"}"></div></p>
<h2>A system at odds with itself</h2>
<p>This year, the key budget hole is traceable to a dip in student numbers, likely related to sub-optimal student experiences during the pandemic, and perhaps the relatively strong job market. It’s easy to sympathise with this, and to hope those students return to tertiary education in future. The question is, what will our universities look like if and when they do? </p>
<p>That research funding target of 2% of GDP – reiterated again in this year’s budget – has been with us since 2017. </p>
<p>Patience was encouraged on the basis that, while government funding was below target, business expenditure on research and development (R&D) was even worse. We needed to wait for R&D tax credits to move that dial before government funding would increase. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-arts-helped-us-through-the-pandemic-nzs-budget-should-radically-rethink-how-and-why-theyre-funded-182278">The arts helped us through the pandemic – NZ's budget should radically rethink how and why they're funded</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But the reverse is now true. As last year’s <a href="https://www.mbie.govt.nz/science-and-technology/science-and-innovation/agencies-policies-and-budget-initiatives/te-ara-paerangi-future-pathways/te-ara-paerangi-future-pathways-white-paper/white-paper/">white paper</a> from science sector reform programme Te Ara Paerangi-Future Pathways made clear, it was no longer business R&D capacity that was holding us back – it was capacity on the public side:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The current [research, science and innovation] system is poorly placed to utilise increased funding to prepare us for [the] future.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That the loss of capacity threatened by current university cuts seems not to have raised concerns in government about the viability of its own research strategy suggests something is profoundly wrong.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1669028967775608832"}"></div></p>
<h2>Simple funding solutions</h2>
<p>The immediate solution shouldn’t be that hard. As has been pointed out elsewhere, money to cover projected higher student enrolments was originally budgeted for by the government. </p>
<p>The decision not to allocate that money due to lower than expected enrolments is really a question of funding priorities and structures.</p>
<p>The research activities of universities are supported first through baseline funding to ensure there is available capacity; and secondly through contestable grants that allow governments to invest in research areas on strategic grounds (such as health or economic development). </p>
<p>A shift in the balance between baseline and per-student funding is not a dramatic structural change. An alternative might be to set a floor on how much per-student funding can be cut from one year to the next – just like the government sets a cap on raising student fees, for example.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-new-zealands-universities-doing-enough-to-define-the-limits-of-academic-freedom-172297">Are New Zealand’s universities doing enough to define the limits of academic freedom?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A coordinated national strategy</h2>
<p>In the longer term, it would also be good to see stronger coordination and collaboration between universities at both governance and academic levels. </p>
<p>Perhaps a “supercouncil” composed of representatives of each university council could provide the forum for this. It would help ensure individual university strategies were complementary, making the most of their distinctiveness and responsibilities to local communities. </p>
<p>And to address those concerns about adaptation to modern realities, a ministry of education initiative to develop strategic plans for disciplines and programmes (with academic input) would be welcome. </p>
<p>The relationship between university research and teaching, mandated in the Education Act, should mean that changing research realities have implications for how and what we teach. </p>
<p>It is a matter of academic freedom that universities and academics make these decisions themselves. But having national strategic thinking available to support those decisions could only be a good thing. </p>
<p>At the very least, it would be rather more strategic than making these decisions based on the order in which staff apply for redundancy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207708/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicola Gaston receives funding from the Tertiary Education Commission, as Co-Director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. She also receives funding from the Marsden Fund, administered by the Royal Society Te Aparangi.
</span></em></p>The crisis in New Zealand universities is directly traceable to years of sustained underfunding and means they now lack vital research and development capacity.Nicola Gaston, Co-Director of the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata RauLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2076192023-06-15T20:03:46Z2023-06-15T20:03:46ZThinking about a microcredential course? 4 things to consider first<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532088/original/file-20230615-21-cowfhs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C34%2C5722%2C3786&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is increasing talk about microcredentials in higher education. Earlier this week, the federal government announced the first group of courses it is supporting in a microcredential <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/microcredentials-pilot-higher-education">pilot program</a>. </p>
<p>Microcredentials have been around in vocational circles for several years but are starting to be offered more widely by universities. The Universities Accord review panel <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/australian-universities-accord/resources/australian-universities-accord-panel-discussion-paper">has noted</a> “microcredentials are likely to be increasingly in demand” as industries encourage lifelong learning. </p>
<p>The government’s pilot involves 28 courses in IT, engineering, science, health and education. But they can also be offered in fields as diverse as law, psychology and architecture. </p>
<h2>What are microcredentials?</h2>
<p>Microcredentials are small courses in a specific area of study. </p>
<p>They focus on updating or gaining new skills in a short time frame, typically ranging from a few weeks to a semester of study. They are viewed as a way to meet industry and employee needs quickly and address critical skills gaps. </p>
<p>For example, the pilot program includes a microcredential on <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-phonics-and-why-is-it-important-70522">phonics</a> for teachers to develop their skills in literacy teaching. It also includes a course in disease management outbreaks for GPs and other health-care workers. </p>
<p>The cost varies but can range from a few hundred dollars to more than A$4,000. At the end of a microcredential, you may receive a stand-alone certificate, or the microcredential may provide a credit transfer pathway and count towards a degree.</p>
<p>They have been part of Australia’s industry skills landscape for a while now and have been delivered by TAFEs, industry organisations, and even by employers. However, they are still quite new in universities and many of the professions that universities have traditionally supported.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two nurses with stethoscopes around their necks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532089/original/file-20230615-29-uvh1y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532089/original/file-20230615-29-uvh1y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532089/original/file-20230615-29-uvh1y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532089/original/file-20230615-29-uvh1y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532089/original/file-20230615-29-uvh1y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532089/original/file-20230615-29-uvh1y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532089/original/file-20230615-29-uvh1y4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">At the end of a microcredential you may receive a certificate or credit towards a degree.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The benefits of short-term study</h2>
<p>Microcredentials can address critical skills gaps. They offer a way to update and progress your career without the long-term commitment and expense of a traditional graduate qualification. </p>
<p>You can also mix and match education and training to form a more bespoke study plan. </p>
<p>So it is no surprise microcredentials are gaining a lot of attention in the higher education sector. Most universities <a href="https://www.microcredseeker.edu.au">already offer</a> “short courses”, “professional certificates” and “executive education”. These are all microcredentials by another name.</p>
<p>However, all this flexibility can be confusing and it may not be clear whether a microcredential is the right choice for you. Here are four things to consider. </p>
<h2>1. What do you want out of further education?</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A woman sits at a desk with a laptop" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532090/original/file-20230615-20396-yp6r6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532090/original/file-20230615-20396-yp6r6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532090/original/file-20230615-20396-yp6r6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532090/original/file-20230615-20396-yp6r6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532090/original/file-20230615-20396-yp6r6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532090/original/file-20230615-20396-yp6r6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532090/original/file-20230615-20396-yp6r6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If you need a specific skill, then a microcredential is a good idea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ivan Samkov/Pexels</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Microcredentials have a different purpose to traditional degrees. </p>
<p>Microcredentials can feel more like vocational education and training – highly targeted to cover precise competencies in a specific setting. This means they are rarely designed to develop broader capabilities and frameworks of professional practice you can normally expect from a degree program. </p>
<p>So in your career and educational planning, it is important to think through what you really need. </p>
<p>In a nutshell, if you need a specific skill, then a microcredential is ideal. However, if you need support bringing together diverse skills, knowledge, and dispositions to extend your professional practice, then a traditional degree may be a better investment. </p>
<h2>2. What specific skill is on offer?</h2>
<p>If your career plan does call for an improvement of specific skills, there are some important questions you should ask yourself before you enrol in a microcredential course. </p>
<p>The first is simply “does this course offer a skill I actually need?” Unlike the vocational system (such as TAFE), universities’ microcredential catalogue is still relatively small. The skills government and industry are choosing to support at the moment may not be the skills you need in your context or to advance your career.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/microcredentials-what-are-they-and-will-they-really-revolutionise-education-and-improve-job-prospects-169265">Microcredentials: what are they, and will they really revolutionise education and improve job prospects?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. Am I suited to this type of study?</h2>
<p>In the hustle and bustle of a microcredential course, it is often assumed participants will be well prepared to manage their own learning.</p>
<p>Because they are so short, microcredentials generally focus very strongly on the content itself. How you learn it, is often up to you. </p>
<p>To be successful, you may be required to take greater personal responsibility for all your own learning strategies. This might include recognising what you already know (or don’t know) about the topic, taking a quick look at the readings to get an overview before reading them carefully for more details, and adopting processes to critically question learning materials.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A pile of open text books, with some sticky markers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532091/original/file-20230615-21-g95njl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532091/original/file-20230615-21-g95njl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532091/original/file-20230615-21-g95njl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532091/original/file-20230615-21-g95njl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532091/original/file-20230615-21-g95njl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532091/original/file-20230615-21-g95njl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532091/original/file-20230615-21-g95njl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Microcredentials can focus heavily on content, rather than giving students help to learn.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lum3n/Pexels</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. How will I use this in my job or profession?</h2>
<p>You also need to think about how you will transfer your microcredential learning into your everyday work habits. </p>
<p>A science teacher who learns some physics content, for example, may need to alter their wider assessment strategies to incorporate what they learned. A physiotherapist with a new treatment technique may need to decide how to explain it to the clients they work with. </p>
<p>Traditional degrees are usually designed to help with this translation-to-practice work. Part of the trade-off with microcredentials is they can throw this translation work back to the course participant. </p>
<p>For this reason, microcredentials will work best for people who have established good professional development practices like reflection and peer-review, or for those who can engage in active and ethical experimentation with the new skill in their real-world practice.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teaching-and-research-are-the-core-functions-of-universities-but-in-australia-we-dont-value-teaching-203657">Teaching and research are the core functions of universities. But in Australia, we don't value teaching</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Choose wisely</h2>
<p>Preparing people for professional environments has always been a core purpose of universities, and the adoption of microcredentials will likely expand the ways this can be done. </p>
<p>A microcredential, however, is a different educational proposition to a traditional degree course. So it is important the consumer chooses wisely. </p>
<p>But even though they are different, the two are still compatible. You may even find yourself engaging in both traditional university courses and microcredentials as you evolve and adapt throughout your career.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207619/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Leonard works for the University of South Australia. He receives funding from the Australian Government's National Careers Institute, the South Australian Department for Education, and Trinity College, Gawler. </span></em></p>Microcredentials are short courses in a specific area of study and are becoming more popular in universities. They offer quick study but may not be for everyone.Simon Leonard, Associate Professor of STEM Education, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2052532023-05-14T06:11:43Z2023-05-14T06:11:43ZIt’s important to rethink the purpose of university education – a philosopher of education explains why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525141/original/file-20230509-29-koy7o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Universities should be in the business of fostering understanding.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Goodboy Picture Company/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most philosophers of education or philosophically inclined scholars of education in the past century and a half would agree with the claim that, ideally, education should be the practice of freedom. That is, it ought to cultivate the ability to intelligently decide how we want to shape our lives. The aim of education should be to foster human autonomy.</p>
<p>I’m thinking here of a diverse array of scholars. Among them are some of the most influential philosophers of education and educational theorists of the 20th century: the American <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Dewey">John Dewey</a>, Brazilian <a href="https://www.freire.org/paulo-freire">Paulo Freire</a> and Indian Nobel Laureate <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1913/tagore/biographical/">Rabindranath Tagore</a>. </p>
<p>Yet there’s little evidence that their views have played any significant role in shaping the global contemporary education sector, including the tertiary sector. </p>
<p>If these scholars are correct, universities and educational institutions too often don’t understand what they are doing. It’s a shocking indictment on the higher education sector. After all, educational institutions are in the business (or should be) of fostering understanding. </p>
<p>I am the director of the <a href="https://www.ru.ac.za/agcle/">Allan Gray Centre for Leadership Ethics</a>, located in Rhodes University’s Department of Philosophy in South Africa. I have for many years been trying to make sense of education’s purpose and wondering why there is such a great discrepancy between what scholars of education have been telling us and what happens in the classroom. </p>
<h2>What the big thinkers have had to say</h2>
<p>The aforementioned authors believe that education should help to shape well-adjusted individuals who can contribute to the common good – as opposed to merely lending a hand to what is already there. Merely lending a hand is expressive of a limited understanding of the norms guiding professional work, and hence distorts autonomy. </p>
<p>Dewey thought that education should promote “intelligent growth”, the sort that defines an autonomous agent. In Dewey’s <a href="https://www.schoolofeducators.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/EXPERIENCE-EDUCATION-JOHN-DEWEY.pdf">own words</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Impulses and desires that are not ordered by intelligence are under the control of accidental circumstances. It may be a loss rather than a gain to escape from the control of another person only to find one’s conduct dictated by immediate whim and caprice; that is, at the mercy of impulses into whose formation intelligent judgement has not entered. A person whose conduct is controlled in this way has at most only the illusion of freedom. Actually he is directed by forces over which he has no command.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>An educated person can adapt to life’s challenges by critically and sensitively engaging with what is given. The alternative is what Dewey describes as someone “whose conduct is controlled … by forces over which he has no command” and hence lacks freedom. This is a subject who is unable to develop a proper understanding of the forces that undermine freedom. </p>
<p>Sadly, it is this sort of existence that very many contemporary universities promote. Universities aim to produce efficient professionals rather than autonomous agents who are able to adapt to life’s challenges and understand the forces that impinge on their formation. </p>
<h2>The reality</h2>
<p>Universities follow on from primary and secondary education by training students to be uncritical servants of the status quo, to apply their intelligence in specific spheres of life and not to ask too many questions beyond the narrow scope of their engagements. </p>
<p>It is this approach that the American philosopher and linguist Noam Chomsky describes in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdNAUJWJN08">an interview</a> when speaking about the contrast between indoctrination and genuine education. </p>
<p>This sort of narrowly circumscribed thinking lacks the expansiveness of the critical mind – a mind able to stand back, consider and influence autonomous action.</p>
<h2>Intellectual subordination</h2>
<p>In an interview which forms part of the 2012 documentary The Lottery of Birth, Jeff Schmidt, a physicist and <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780742516854/Disciplined-Minds-A-Critical-Look-at-Salaried-Professionals-and-the-Soul-battering-System-That-Shapes-Their-Lives">the author of</a> Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul-battering System That Shapes Their Lives, says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Professionals are deliberately produced to be intellectually and politically subordinate.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He illustrates this idea with the anecdote of two young nuclear weapons designers working in a nuclear weapons design laboratory. When asked by a journalist what the worst part of their job was, they rejoined that it was dealing with unstable computers lacking sufficient capacity. </p>
<p>They were not, it seems, able to consider the higher purposes they were blindly serving. The scope of their concerns was subordinated to the aims of others in power – their employers.</p>
<h2>Education as freedom</h2>
<p>There are ways in which this approach to education can be challenged. For instance, at the Allan Gray Centre for Leadership Ethics, we’ve developed a programme called <em><a href="https://www.ru.ac.za/agcle/studying/">IiNtetho zoBomi</a></em> (isiXhosa for “conversations about life”).</p>
<p>It aims to complement the current university offering to foster the educational ideals propounded by the scholars I’ve discussed here. Service-learning activities are a core part of the programme. Students are encouraged to take the course only if they are interested in “understanding how your life – including your inner life – is formed by the world you inhabit”.</p>
<p>Is it working? I hope so. But the growth we aim to foster is hard to measure. </p>
<p>What I can confidently say, however, is that the effect of such programmes at any university would be far greater if there was more institutional buy-in than there currently is. </p>
<p>The idea that education is the practice of freedom cannot be separated from the idea that education should aim to equip students to critically and creatively engage with reality to transform it for the better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205253/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pedro Tabensky 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>Why is there such a great discrepancy between what scholars of education have been telling us and what happens in the classroom?Pedro Tabensky, Director, Allan Gray Centre for Leadership Ethics, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2003072023-03-23T13:34:58Z2023-03-23T13:34:58ZWomen occupy very few academic jobs in Ghana. Culture and society’s expectations are to blame<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516646/original/file-20230321-1480-be3c0y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There is a dearth of women teaching at institutions of higher education in Ghana</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In many parts of the world, men dominate the higher education sector. A 2022 UNESCO <a href="https://www.iesalc.unesco.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/SDG5_Gender_Report-2.pdf">report</a> found that, globally, fewer than two out of five senior academics are women. In an earlier report it showed that <a href="http://uis.unesco.org/en/topic/women-science">less than 30%</a> of the world’s researchers are women.</p>
<p>Ghana is no exception. The country has made some progress in improving gender parity and inclusion through various <a href="https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-gender-gap-report-2017">national policies</a>. But this progress has not extended to jobs in the higher education sector. In 2009, drawing on data from six of the country’s public universities, the regulator for tertiary institutions, National Council for Tertiary Education <a href="https://gtec.edu.gh/download/file/FINAL-STATISTICAL-REPORT-ON-TERTIARY-EDUCATION16.pdf">reported</a> that just 19.5% of academic staff were women. </p>
<p>Our recent <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2022.2048636">research</a> suggests these figures have not improved in the past few years. We set out to understand why so few women occupy academic positions in Ghanaian universities. We did this because understanding the reasons will help efforts at developing appropriate policy responses. </p>
<p>Our findings showed that traditional gender norms were the main barrier to Ghanaian women pursuing academic careers. There are set ideas in Ghanaian society about what women can and should do. Examples include the fact that women are seen primarily as caregivers and mothers rather than as professionals seeking careers. Entrenched ideas about what women can or should do is a major issue because it evokes negative gender stereotypes. Many women have in many circumstances internalised these stereotypes and shared them. In turn, this has contributed to the low numbers of women academics in Ghanaian universities. </p>
<h2>Low representation</h2>
<p>The gender composition from nine Ghanaian universities based on <a href="https://gtec.edu.gh/download/file/Tertiary%20Education%20Statistics%20Report%202018.pdf">data</a> from the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission showed that:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Only 10.2% of all full professors – the most senior academic level – were women</p></li>
<li><p>Women accounted for just 14.2% of those ranked as Associate Professors</p></li>
<li><p>Only 13.4% of senior lecturers were women; the figure was 22.8% for lecturers and 26.4% for assistant lecturers.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These numbers reflect similar numerical trends elsewhere in the world. <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/higher-education-statistics/staff-data">For example</a>, in Australia, women held 54.7% of lecturer ranks, 46.8% of senior lecturer ranks, and only 33.9% of women held ranks above senior lecturer. In Nigeria, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1261106/female-staff-in-nigerian-universities/">women represented </a> only 23.7% of academic staff in universities in the 2018/2019 academic year. In Sierra Leone, out of the 1779 full time academic staff only 267 were women <a href="https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/857591468302730070/pdf/ACS43930PNT0P10x0379833B00PUBLIC00.pdf#page=23">representing only 18%</a> of the total academic staff . </p>
<h2>What women told us</h2>
<p>We interviewed 43 female academics who represented a variety of academic disciplines categorised into three academic domains. These were biological/agriculture sciences, humanities and social sciences, and engineering/Information Technology. </p>
<p>Respondents included 3 professors/associate professors, 4 senior lecturers, 29 lecturers and 7 assistant lecturers. The interview questions were centred on participants’ own experiences and events within their work environment and the wider society. We also asked about female employment participation in higher education.</p>
<p>A number of respondents said that society expected them to have children while they were still young and that there was a perceived age limit for getting married. Education was only valued up to a point, as one respondent explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Everybody would want to see their child complete (a) first degree and once you are done with that you are virtually on your own. A lot of us would want to get married right after and that’s when you are lucky to have been grabbed whilst you were in school. And the next thing you have in society is that you get married and settle. And once you get married, in the first year everybody is expecting you to have a child. If you are deferring your childbearing to pursue education, society will raise a lot of concerns.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Others said that being highly educated limited their prospects of marriage. Ghanaian society felt men should care for women rather than women having a career of their own or being more successful than their husbands.</p>
<p>An interviewee told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… usually (in families) the man is known as the bread winner, so it is just normal that they will sacrifice the woman’s education for the man to improve and to be more economically secure to be able to take care of the family.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Cultural and societal norms meant that men were viewed as being better suited to teaching at a university level and forging careers in academia. Women, on the other hand were considered to be better teachers at the basic education level. </p>
<p>The interviewees also told us that, in their experience, academic institutions were unaware of the bias against them. </p>
<p>An interviewee told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… Many of our institutions are gender-blind in the distribution of PhD scholarships and other career development opportunities. They do not even know that the small number of women lecturers in the departments and faculties is a problem and that they need to do something urgently to address it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is known as <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-gender-blindness-5204197">gender blindness</a>. It shows that, even with the rise and widespread dissemination of national policy actions on gender equality, inclusion and grassroots activism, changes in behaviour and attitudes have not reached all institutions.</p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>There is a great opportunity to alter social structures to improve employment outcomes of women in the higher education sector – starting from societal norms, where attitudes and behaviour need to change. </p>
<p>This requires a multidimensional approach including social reconstruction through advocacy, social change activism and legislation. While the state should be driving legislation and social change advocacy, gender-based civil society organisations, universities, families and individuals also have a role to play. </p>
<p>The limited number of women occupying academic positions in Ghanaian universities undermines government efforts and national policy actions designed to improve gender equality in the workforce across the different sectors of the economy. <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/delivering-through-diversity">Research</a> has shown that there is significant value in a diverse gender mix in employment. It can help to achieve social justice and social inclusion with major economic benefits to the economy.</p>
<p>Changing society’s expectations is crucial. But Ghanaian universities should establish transparent gender-neutral policies towards recruitment and promotion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200307/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Desmond Tutu Ayentimi 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>Ghanaian traditional gender norms are the main barrier to Ghanaian women pursuing academic careers.Desmond Tutu Ayentimi, Senior Lecturer in Management, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1935202022-11-23T18:46:33Z2022-11-23T18:46:33ZDon’t cut them off: low-performing students benefit from continued access to loans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496593/original/file-20221121-18964-1clq6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C7%2C4997%2C3333&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past decade, there has been a growing debate about the value of student loans and the long-term impact of debt for those entering the workforce – particularly for students who struggled to complete their studies. </p>
<p>In the United States, where the average student loan is US$30,000 per borrower, the Biden administration recently announced plans to cancel <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2022/08/16/biden-cancels-39-billion-of-student-loans">US$32 billion</a> worth of loans. This move has been <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/14/biden-student-loan-debt-relief-plan-appeals-court-rules.html">blocked indefinitely by the courts</a> but it has put the spotlight squarely on student debt both in the US and elsewhere.</p>
<p>In New Zealand, some <a href="https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/213752/GAV-0741-Student-Loan-Scheme-Annual-Report-2021_web.pdf">70% of all students</a> borrow from the government to study. The collective student <a href="https://www.renews.co.nz/how-we-racked-up-16-billion-in-student-debt-in-nz/">debt is NZ$16 billion</a>, with the average debt per borrower sitting at around $24,000. </p>
<p>As students rack up ever-increasing levels of debt, the question has been raised about whether low-performing students should have their loan access cut off. </p>
<p>Considering the debate around borrowing for study and calls for the debt to be wiped, my colleague and I investigated the <a href="https://openaccess.wgtn.ac.nz/articles/journal_contribution/Do_Academically_Struggling_Students_Benefit_Fr%20om_Continued_Student_Loan_Access_Evidence_From_University_and_Beyond/21100480">effects of access to student loans</a> on university re-enrolment, graduation and earnings for academically struggling students. </p>
<h2>The student loan debate</h2>
<p>Despite <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/128585237/why-student-loans-need-to-come-with-a-serious-financial-health-warning">concerns around using student loans for study</a>, funding higher education through government-funded loans can have advantages. At their most fundamental level, student loans reduce the cost of the tertiary education system on the broader tax base, striking a balance between <a href="https://www.newyorkfed.org/newsevents/speeches/2015/mca150205">public investment</a> and individual responsibility.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/advanced-degrees-bring-higher-starting-salaries-but-also-higher-debt-133328">Advanced degrees bring higher starting salaries – but also higher debt</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Student loans give students more choice as to where to study and thus can enhance <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775716302643">competition across education institutions</a>. Loans also offer an incentive for students to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272721001298">put more effort into study</a> as they share some of the education cost. </p>
<p>Sharing costs allows the government to fund more students. Student loans can also <a href="https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/maori/english-medium-education/2191">reduce barriers to study</a> resulting from tuition fees, offering students from lower income families access to tertiary education. </p>
<p>While most students who complete their qualifications will <a href="https://www.universitiesnz.ac.nz/latest-news-and-publications/degree-smart-investment">increase their earning potential</a> and be able to pay off their debt, there is a concern for low-performing students who may accumulate a <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/118854795/student-loan-arrest-debt-at-crisis-level">large amount of debt</a> but fail to graduate.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1564346724281634816"}"></div></p>
<p>Student loans account for nearly half of government expenditure on tertiary education. Students borrow roughly $10,000 for one year of full-time study, costing the government about <a href="https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/financial_support_for_students">45 cents</a> on the dollar. The introduction of free tuition for the first year has reduced the total amount borrowed by students but hasn’t changed the <a href="https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/213752/GAV-0741-Student-Loan-Scheme-Annual-Report-2021_web.pdf">average borrowing per year</a> – partly because the government allows students to borrow more in living and course-related costs. </p>
<p>Considering the significant cost to both students and taxpayers, many experts advocate <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/should-anyone-be-eligible-for-student-loans-1456715824">restricting loan access</a> based on student performance and expected future earnings to reduce the risk for borrowers. But is this really the best option?</p>
<h2>Long-term benefits of student loans</h2>
<p>The linked administrative records from the New Zealand Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) allow us to follow students for up to nine years, from the start of university into the labour market.</p>
<p>We began our analysis looking at the data from all students starting university in 2008-2011. Our main analysis focused in on a small subset of students whose grades were around the 50% cutoff. </p>
<p>To continue qualifying for a student loan in New Zealand, students must pass at least 50% of their classes after two years of study. Some 10% of students fail this requirement and are considered low-performing students. </p>
<p>We compared outcomes for students just above the 50% pass rate threshold to those just below. These students are similar in all aspects except for loan access. Therefore any differences in outcomes can be attributed to whether or not they were able to access a student loan. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-public-good-to-personal-pursuit-historical-roots-of-the-student-debt-crisis-79475">From public good to personal pursuit: Historical roots of the student debt crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Several findings emerged from our work. First, in what may not be a surprise, three-quarters of students struggled to find other funding and were not able to re-enrol in study without loan access. </p>
<p>Second, low-performing students with loan access – those who just made it over the 50% threshold – were about 60 percentage points more likely to graduate than those without, even though they take roughly six years to complete a three-year bachelor’s degree. </p>
<p>Third, those low-performing students who retained access to student loans earned $2,000 more per month and rose 40 percentile points in the earnings distribution of earners around age 25. This finding suggests the earning returns from a university degree for low-performing students are similar to an average degree holder. </p>
<p>Finally, while students who retain access to student loans initially accumulate significantly greater student loan debt – around $30,000 more than students who lose access – the student loan balance goes down rapidly once students enter the labour market. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1272755786108882944"}"></div></p>
<p>Its important to note that New Zealand’s tertiary education sector is generally well-regulated. This is different from some other countries grappling with the issue of student loans. Our findings suggest that, instead of limiting individuals’ loan access, regulating low-quality education providers and their access to student loan dollars is more effective in places such as the US.</p>
<h2>Individual responsibility and a public good</h2>
<p>Even after repaying the debt, the net present value of a student loan for someone who works 30 years is estimated to be around $300,000. </p>
<p>Considering the life-long benefits of higher education, there is an argument to be made that low-performing students should retain student loan access, even if they are struggling to pass. </p>
<p>In fact, our calculation shows that providing these students with loans is a good public investment because the generated income tax will exceed the cost to the government. </p>
<p>Ensuring students access through the loan scheme is an effective way to guarantee access to tertiary study and, consequently, economic potential in the long run, regardless of grades.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193520/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yu-Wei Luke Chu receives funding from the Royal Society Marsden Fund. </span></em></p>Student loans offer access to higher education, but should low performing students face restrictions on borrowing? Our research suggests not.Yu-Wei Luke Chu, Senior Lecturer, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1696252021-10-19T19:13:32Z2021-10-19T19:13:32ZHow a maximum security prison offers a pathway to academic excellence and a PhD<p>The person taking notes during our meeting, we later learn, is averaging a high distinction in their studies for a bachelor degree. If this level of performance is maintained this student is heading for a university medal – an award recognising exceptional academic achievement. Clearly this is a highly motivated student. </p>
<p>Our PhD candidate was happy he could concentrate on our conversation and didn’t need to worry about keeping notes. Besides studying for a PhD, the candidate is training five prison inmates in a specialised professional 3D design and manufacturing software package typically used in the design industry. </p>
<p>Sounds very busy and under pressure to perform. Yet, in his first months as a PhD student, his paper was accepted at an international sustainable design conference. </p>
<p>Where did we find such high-achieving students? Inside a maximum security prison in New South Wales! It seems it is possible to excel at university studies in jail. </p>
<p>Furthermore, the <a href="https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/perspectives/PE300/PE342/RAND_PE342.pdf">US</a> and <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/524013/education-review-report.pdf">UK experience</a> suggests inmates who undertake higher education re-offend at dramatically lower rates than others following their release from prison.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="university graduation ceremony" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426127/original/file-20211013-17-h4lctg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426127/original/file-20211013-17-h4lctg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426127/original/file-20211013-17-h4lctg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426127/original/file-20211013-17-h4lctg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426127/original/file-20211013-17-h4lctg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426127/original/file-20211013-17-h4lctg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426127/original/file-20211013-17-h4lctg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When prison inmates join the ranks of university graduates their rate of re-offending after release falls dramatically.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.inside.unsw.edu.au/campus-life/8000-graduates-join-the-ranks-unsw-alumni">UNSW</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/by-freeing-prisoners-from-cycle-of-crime-education-cuts-re-offending-42610">By freeing prisoners from cycle of crime, education cuts re-offending</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What sort of prison is this?</h2>
<p>The corrections officer accompanying us said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The inmates have been judged in a court by a judge, so we don’t need to do it again.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>His statement reflects the spirit of this institution. Its focus is on genuine rehabilitation through being respectful, building skills and encouraging further education. It also has a strict anti-violence policy.</p>
<p>The jail that enables these endeavours is not the sort we’re used to seeing in popular movies. Features of the Macquarie Correctional Centre include private bathrooms, and beds are in private cubicles in a dorm with a kitchenette. The inmate are afforded privacy and dignity. </p>
<p>These are features based on <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330237153_Understanding_desistance_a_critical_review_of_theories_of_desistance">desistance theory</a> of how criminal offenders stop their offending behaviour. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/crime-and-punishment-and-rehabilitation-a-smarter-approach-41960">Crime and punishment and rehabilitation: a smarter approach</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zGUEVpGREVo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">At Macquarie Correctional Centre, inmates have greater access to education and programs to rehabilitate them and reduce re-offending.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After passing through security and being escorted to our meeting, my colleague was a bit uneasy as we passed inmates in the long corridors. After all we were inside a maximum security prison. The inmates were there for offences that warranted maximum security incarceration. </p>
<p>However, the people we encountered were polite and greeted us in a friendly manner.</p>
<p>This environment was familiar to me because I’ve been to jail a few times myself – not as an inmate, but as a facilitator and participant in <a href="https://avp.international">Alternative to Violence Project (AVP)</a> workshops. </p>
<h2>What are the challenges of studying ‘inside’?</h2>
<p>When studying “inside”, there is no internet access. Emails are printed out or relayed. If information needs to be viewed online it is under supervision of an authorised officer. To quickly check a fact or find a reference from the online library is not possible. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/offline-inmates-denied-education-and-skills-that-reduce-re-offending-38709">Offline inmates denied education and skills that reduce re-offending</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>All these study activities need to be planned and approved and timed. Procedures and processes need to be learned, understood, applied and adhered to. My colleague struggled at first to come to grips with this, and so did the university’s postgraduate school. </p>
<p>To even get enrolled into a PhD was no easy feat, despite a well-developed research proposal. The inmate had previously applied unsuccessfully to another university. Today, less than a handful of inmates have completed a PhD while incarcerated in NSW.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.2025.unsw.edu.au">UNSW’s 2025 Strategy</a> has a strong commitment to improving quality of life, sustainable development and to equity, diversity and inclusion. Therefore the Graduate Research School could approve this rare request. </p>
<p>There were many more problems to overcome. While it is possible to watch online tutorials without a full name being disclosed or face shown (to stop being identified as inmates for legal reasons), it is not possible to actively participate while maintaining complete confidentiality. Also how to access the ubiquitous <a href="https://moodle.telt.unsw.edu.au/login/index.php">online learning platform</a>, submit online assignments and meet supervisors?</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"653178176173006848"}"></div></p>
<p>Working from home and online learning are now commonplace. Yet at first in this case it was not thought possible. However, support from the prison administration made it possible.</p>
<p>The student proposed, designed and made a special computer desk to enable participation in supervisory meetings. This solution was driven by the prison education officer. We can now see and talk to our student and vice versa.</p>
<h2>It isn’t just the inmates who benefit</h2>
<p>Besides these issues, what good will university study do? </p>
<p><a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/524013/education-review-report.pdf">UK data</a> on re-offending highlight the difference university education can make. In the UK, 46% of all prisoners will re-offend within a year of release – this rises to 59% for short-sentence prisoners. Among prisoners who undertake university courses less than 5% of parolees re-offend. </p>
<p>Rates of re-offending are similar in NSW. The <a href="https://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/Pages/bocsar_pages/Re-offending.aspx">percentages of sentenced prisoners who re-offended</a> within a year of release from 2017-2019 were a pretty steady 42% of adults and about 64% of juveniles.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tq9l2dmZ444?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The PBS series College Behind Bars explores how education can change lives, slashing rates of re-offending in the process.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teaching-in-americas-prisons-has-taught-me-to-believe-in-second-chances-112583">Teaching in America's prisons has taught me to believe in second chances</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>So what is our PhD candidate investigating? The topic is <a href="https://cea.cals.cornell.edu/about-cea/">controlled environment agriculture</a> in correctional facilities. </p>
<p>Currently, prison food is centrally prepared and delivered over long distances. These “food miles” have significant economic, health and environmental impacts. Producing food on site also helps reduce opportunities to smuggle in contraband, increasing inmate safety. </p>
<p>Growing fresh produce “inside” would increase sustainability, improve nutrition and reduce economic and mental health impacts. The result could be a commercially viable food-production system, franchised to other NSW, Australian and international prison facilities. <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-press-club-address-ian-jacobs-on-universities-australias-hidden-asset-101517">Education</a> is one of Australia’s <a href="https://www.rba.gov.au/education/resources/snapshots/economy-composition-snapshot/">biggest industries</a>, and this is an opportunity to expand it further.</p>
<p>Maximum security prisons have the potential to become centres of academic excellence. It would surely be a win for correctional facilities, inmate food quality, health and wellness, society and the environment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169625/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christian Tietz has previously received funding from the Federal Government Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. He has also been a facilitator of Alternative to Violence Project (AVP) workshops.</span></em></p>Prisons seem an unlikely source of outstanding university students, but it is. What’s more, those who have done such study are much less likely to reoffend when they get out.Christian Tietz, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Design, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1689552021-10-03T08:31:22Z2021-10-03T08:31:22ZPasha 126: Four factors that make a graduate more employable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423790/original/file-20210929-32-vlr6ta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>South Africa has an extremely <a href="https://www.news24.com/fin24/economy/sas-unemployment-rate-hits-record-344-20210824#:%7E:text=The%20official%20unemployment%20rate%20is%20now%2034.4%25.&text=The%20official%20unemployment%20rate%20is%20at%20a%20record%20of%2034.4,favourable%20to%20men%20than%20women.">high unemployment rate</a>. A qualification from a tertiary institution usually means the chances of landing a job are higher. Research shows that within five years of graduating, 84% of the graduates <a href="https://www.ufs.ac.za/docs/librariesprovider34/post-docs-thesis-abstracts/theses/phdthesis_final_f-somerville_2021.pdf?sfvrsn=cafc7f20_2">were working</a>. But it’s not a guarantee. Graduates, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds, remain jobless.</p>
<p>Nevertheless there are certain aspects that make a graduate more employable than others. Our guest in today’s episode of Pasha is Fenella Somerville a post-doctoral research fellow in the SARCHI Chair Higher Education and Human Development research group at the University of the Free State. Her work found that four things counted when a graduate was looking for employment, </p>
<ul>
<li><p>The reputation of the institution</p></li>
<li><p>Networks and connections</p></li>
<li><p>Experience, and</p></li>
<li><p>Type of work.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Today’s episode of our podcast looks at what counts the most when a graduate looks for work. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/four-things-that-count-when-a-south-african-graduate-looks-for-work-164751">Four things that count when a South African graduate looks for work</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Photo:</strong><br>
“South Africa High Resolution Job Concept”
By xtock found on <a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/south-africa-high-resolution-job-concept-189183218">Shutterstock</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Music:</strong>
“Happy African Village” by John Bartmann, found on <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/happy-african-village">FreeMusicArchive.org</a> licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0 1</a>.</p>
<p>“Expressions of the mind (Piano loop)” by ShadyDave, found on <a href="https://freesound.org/people/ShadyDave/sounds/325647/">Freesound</a> licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">Attribution Noncommercial License.</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168955/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Skills, knowledge and a qualification does not ensure successful employment outcomes for graduates.Ozayr Patel, Digital EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1482862020-10-29T14:26:48Z2020-10-29T14:26:48ZUniversities enrich communities, as well as educating students – new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366418/original/file-20201029-21-nty031.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C5104%2C2874&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/large-group-multi-ethnic-students-listening-1077839387">Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Education helps us share knowledge, develop understanding, and supports our connection with each other. As the COVID-19 pandemic has continued, governments have been preoccupied with how to re-open schools. </p>
<p>However, there has been more doubt about universities. Discussions about the rise in COVID-19 infections in student populations have often raised the question as to why students are at university at all, running risks for themselves and <a href="https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/worried-exeter-residents-living-inside-4584293">local populations</a>. These questions often link with views of universities as expensive, elitist – and perhaps <a href="https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/university-education">not worth it</a> at all. </p>
<p>Together with colleagues, I have conducted research commissioned by the <a href="https://www.britishcouncil.org/research-policy-insight/research-reports/tertiary-education-development">British Council</a> to assess the value provided by higher education. We reviewed 170 research studies published since 2010 on the contribution universities make to societies. </p>
<p>Our survey showed that the value of universities lies not just in the education they provided to students, but in a host of other additional areas. These include expanding the economy, supporting democracy, and advancing equality and sustainability. </p>
<h2>The role of universities</h2>
<p>We looked in particular at low and lower middle income countries, with a gross national income of below US$4,125 (£3,178) per person. Our research sought to assess the economic, social and political benefits – or disadvantages – universities and other other forms of tertiary education brought to these societies.</p>
<p>The studies we reviewed explored how universities improve knowledge and skills, and how they contribute to economic development and support innovation. They investigated how universities help reduce poverty and create sustainable jobs, and whether they support the needs and rights of groups that have suffered discrimination and exploitation.</p>
<p>We found a number of criticisms of the role universities play in wider society. A recurring point was that universities did not deliver well on goals for social development and inclusion. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young woman working on laptop" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366423/original/file-20201029-15-14cdoxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366423/original/file-20201029-15-14cdoxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366423/original/file-20201029-15-14cdoxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366423/original/file-20201029-15-14cdoxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366423/original/file-20201029-15-14cdoxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366423/original/file-20201029-15-14cdoxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366423/original/file-20201029-15-14cdoxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Evidence suggests universities can do more to promote gender equality.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-hispanic-ethnic-teen-girl-college-1740966179">insta_photos/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Instead, the students enrolled are disproportionately from
economic, racial or ethnic elites. Although women make up an increasing proportion of students, there are many allegations of sexual harassment and gender-based violence on campuses.</p>
<p>In some countries, there were complaints that universities did not communicate well with employers or community groups. In some cases, research showed that university planning was not guided by local, national or international needs. It focused on enrolling large numbers of students in poor quality learning environments. Courses were based on standardised learning aims and were out of touch with local contexts.</p>
<p>However, as we surveyed the evidence, the value universities bring to societies became overwhelmingly clear. There is a definite link between the proportion of the population with a university or other <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13639080.2018.1473561">higher education qualification</a> and enhanced <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271583302_Education_and_economic_growth_in_Pakistan_A_cointegration_and_causality_analysis">economic growth</a>. </p>
<p>University education also contributes to sustainable <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1129589">economic development</a>. It provides skills and work opportunities to groups that continue to experience discrimination. This includes members of indigenous minorities, those from <a href="https://in.one.un.org/task-teams/scheduled-castes-and-scheduled-tribes/">scheduled castes</a> in India, and women from a wide range of backgrounds.</p>
<h2>Local benefits</h2>
<p>Universities bring social and economic benefits on a more local level. In small towns, universities bring investment, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/18146627.2015.1112131?tab=permissions&scroll=top">jobs and trade</a>. Graduates may help to build up <a href="https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/30705/">local industries</a>. </p>
<p>University education was linked to a reduction in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13600818.2012.706275">food poverty</a>. It expands the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220388.2012.716151">range of occupations</a> available to people in rural areas. It can assist with accessing <a href="https://academic.oup.com/cdj/article-abstract/50/3/463/356046">information technology</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students taking an exam" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366426/original/file-20201029-13-y49tbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366426/original/file-20201029-13-y49tbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366426/original/file-20201029-13-y49tbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366426/original/file-20201029-13-y49tbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366426/original/file-20201029-13-y49tbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366426/original/file-20201029-13-y49tbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366426/original/file-20201029-13-y49tbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students at the University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/peshawar-pakistan-aug-06-students-busy-303680636">Asianet-Pakistan/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A university education can lead to graduates demanding equality. Some studies show how young people born poor or in excluded groups have gained skills to advocate for their rights, and have gone on to campaign for social change. </p>
<p>Graduates contribute to health, education and peace building. They assist civil society organisations in holding governments to account. Initiatives <a href="https://search.proquest.com/docview/894513296?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true">like internships</a> foster better connections between government departments and civil society organisations.</p>
<p>The teaching and learning style associated with universities – focused on discussion, evaluation and critical thinking – also led to wider gains. It has been shown to support better <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Developing-a-pedagogy-of-mutuality-in-a-capability-Murphy-Wolfenden/90ad0af05e52daf28df9700783ccf8f777ee6836">teaching in schools</a>, more understanding about epidemics like HIV, and improved knowledge about <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v39y2011i7p1133-1142.html">confronting corruption</a>. Other benefits include a link between higher education and improved <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14767724.2015.1127749">recovery from conflict</a>. </p>
<p>Without doubt, university teaching, research or community service could be improved. But running through these studies is evidence that university education, if well delivered, can help overcome political, economic, social and cultural divisions.</p>
<p>As the pandemic has progressed, we have looked to universities for their expertise on vaccines, treatments and assessments of risk. But this research suggests they will have additional potential in helping societies to recover from the effects of COVID-19. They help people think about how our lives interconnect, and how our skills can be useful to each other. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, COVID-19 is unlikely to be the last global crisis we will confront. University education cannot prevent crises from happening. But it has a crucial role to play in responding to global challenges and helping people prepare better and support each other through periods of hardship, loss and uncertainty.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148286/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elaine Unterhalter receives funding for her work on higher education from the ESRC, Newton Fund, British Council, GCRF . She has worked for ActionAid, Oxfam and is a member of the Labour Party.</span></em></p>Universities expand economies, support democracy and promote sustainability.Elaine Unterhalter, Professor of Education and International Development, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1479842020-10-26T01:56:50Z2020-10-26T01:56:50ZFor the first time, Closing the Gap has a higher education target – here’s how to achieve it<p>The new <a href="https://www.closingthegap.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/national-agreement-ctg.pdf">National Agreement on Closing the Gap</a> has a <a href="https://www.closingthegap.gov.au/students-reach-their-full-potential-through-further-education-pathways">higher education target</a> for the first time. </p>
<p>It’s also the first time an agreement between governments on Indigenous issues was negotiated and signed by Indigenous Australians. The <a href="https://www.naccho.org.au/programmes/coalition-of-peaks/">Coalition of Aboriginal Peak Organisations</a> represented Indigenous Australians. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-have-16-new-closing-the-gap-targets-will-governments-now-do-whats-needed-to-meet-them-143179">We have 16 new Closing the Gap targets. Will governments now do what's needed to meet them?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Endorsed by the National Cabinet on July 30 this year, the ten-year agreement replaces the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BriefingBook44p/ClosingGap">2008 National Indigenous Reform Agreement</a>. </p>
<p>To reach the higher education target, universities and vocational education providers must overcome the educational and social barriers Indigenous students face. Higher education providers can also have an impact on all the agreement’s target areas as well as the reform agenda set out in the agreement. </p>
<h2>What is the target?</h2>
<p>The higher education target is for 70% of Indigenous Australians between 25 and 34 years of age to have a tertiary qualification by 2031.</p>
<p>In 2016, 42.3% of Indigenous Australians in this age group had tertiary qualifications at the target’s required level. The proportion had more than doubled from 18.9% in 2001. By contrast, however, 72% of non-Indigenous Australians had such qualifications in 2016. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364674/original/file-20201021-13-1g3nhuu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing proportions of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians with tertiary qualifications" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364674/original/file-20201021-13-1g3nhuu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364674/original/file-20201021-13-1g3nhuu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364674/original/file-20201021-13-1g3nhuu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364674/original/file-20201021-13-1g3nhuu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364674/original/file-20201021-13-1g3nhuu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364674/original/file-20201021-13-1g3nhuu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364674/original/file-20201021-13-1g3nhuu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.closingthegap.gov.au/students-reach-their-full-potential-through-further-education-pathways">Data: Australian Census of Population and Housing, 2001-2016, Closing the Gap</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The target includes all university qualifications and those in vocational education <a href="https://www.aqf.edu.au/aqf-qualifications">above Certificate III level</a>. Tertiary qualifications at these levels prepare Indigenous Australians for jobs. </p>
<h2>Helping students take the next step</h2>
<p>Year 12 completions are one factor with an impact on tertiary outcomes. It is encouraging to see <a href="https://www.closingthegap.gov.au/students-achieve-their-full-learning-potential">growing numbers</a> of Indigenous students completing high school. In 2020 this target was on track.</p>
<p>However, schools need to ensure Indigenous students who complete Year 12 are academically equipped for further university education and/or vocational training. More focus is needed on educational attainment in schools. Options for Indigenous students can also be broadened, including stronger pathways in secondary school mathematics and science. </p>
<p>Many Indigenous students are the first in their family to enter higher education. To support their journey, universities and vocational education providers need to develop long-term relationships with schools and Indigenous communities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-coronavirus-universities-must-collaborate-with-communities-to-support-social-transition-140541">After coronavirus, universities must collaborate with communities to support social transition</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What higher education providers can do</h2>
<p>Indigenous university enrolments continue to grow. In fact, Indigenous enrolments increased by about 100% over the decade from 1996.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364878/original/file-20201021-13-dj8qfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing increases in Indigenous and non-Indigenous commencing student enrolments" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364878/original/file-20201021-13-dj8qfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364878/original/file-20201021-13-dj8qfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364878/original/file-20201021-13-dj8qfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364878/original/file-20201021-13-dj8qfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364878/original/file-20201021-13-dj8qfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364878/original/file-20201021-13-dj8qfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364878/original/file-20201021-13-dj8qfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Source: AIHW analysis of Department of Higher Education Statistics Collection</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, Indigenous attrition rates continue to be high. This is a key issue that demands attention.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364883/original/file-20201022-19-j90lef.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing Indigenous and non-Indigenous higher education attrition rates" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364883/original/file-20201022-19-j90lef.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364883/original/file-20201022-19-j90lef.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364883/original/file-20201022-19-j90lef.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364883/original/file-20201022-19-j90lef.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364883/original/file-20201022-19-j90lef.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364883/original/file-20201022-19-j90lef.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364883/original/file-20201022-19-j90lef.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Source: AIHW analysis of Department of Higher Education Statistics Collection</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A number of things can be done to improve university completions and lower attrition rates. Targeted education support is sometimes needed for Indigenous students who have gaps in their earlier education. Universities should also continue to provide appropriate social and cultural support. </p>
<p>The university sector has already taken some important steps to address these issues. It’s important to maintain the momentum for reform, particularly while we respond to the challenges posed by COVID-19.</p>
<p>Indigenous students are enrolled in vocational education <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0031/484447/Indigenous-VET-participation,-completion-and-outcomes.pdf">at a higher rate</a> than their non-Indigenous peers. However, enrolments tend to drop off significantly above Certificate III level. There is, however, <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0031/484447/Indigenous-VET-participation,-completion-and-outcomes.pdf">some evidence</a> this pattern is changing.</p>
<p>Educational strategies to improve literacy and numeracy will improve progression to higher levels of vocational education. Strong regional links between employers and vocational education will help ensure training lines up with jobs. </p>
<h2>Leading change in other ways</h2>
<p>Higher education providers also can contribute across all priorities in the Closing the Gap agenda. The new agreement has 16 targets. The targets cover: health, early childhood and child protection, education, housing, employment, community safety, language and land. </p>
<p>Higher education providers can better equip all their students to engage with these priorities over their professional lives. <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-university-can-embed-indigenous-knowledge-into-the-curriculum-and-why-it-matters-147456">Embedding Indigenous knowledge</a> in curricula is a key to this. So too is research undertaken to investigate Indigenous disadvantage and identify strategies to improve the quality and impact of Indigenous services. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-university-can-embed-indigenous-knowledge-into-the-curriculum-and-why-it-matters-147456">How a university can embed Indigenous knowledge into the curriculum and why it matters</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The agreement has a particular focus on Indigenous-led initiatives. </p>
<p>An important reform is shared decision-making between governments and Indigenous Australians. The agreement also outlines reforms to strengthen the Indigenous community-controlled services sector. Finally, there is a focus on Indigenous-led evaluation and data management.</p>
<p>To that end, it is important that universities and vocational education providers think about how they can lead change. They should consider how they invest in Indigenous leaders within the sector. They should also consider the quality of the Indigenous partnerships they develop. </p>
<p>The National Agreement on Closing the Gap presents some new challenges for higher education providers. The first is to focus on improving educational outcomes for Indigenous Australians. However, these providers have a broader contribution to make; their role in producing the knowledge and workforce for change is equally important.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147984/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Anderson worked for the Australian Public Service from 2017 until March 2020 and during that time worked on the negotiations that led to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.</span></em></p>The tertiary qualifications target requires higher education providers, schools and communities to work together. But higher education can also help close the gap in the other target areas.Ian Anderson. Palawa, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Student and University Experience, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1447982020-09-30T04:19:26Z2020-09-30T04:19:26ZDo Australians care about unis? They’re now part of our social wage, so we should<p>In 1988, then federal education minister, John Dawkins, drew upon the politics of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvh4zj6k.10?seq=15#metadata_info_tab_contents">class privilege</a> to justify rolling out HECS student loans. A university user-pays system was needed, he argued, because Labor was not in the business of funding “middle-class welfare”. At the time, one reason a neoliberal appeal by Labor to its base could deflate widespread public opposition was that just <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/education-and-work-australia/may-2019/62270do028_201005.xls">7% of working-age Australians</a> held a degree. </p>
<p>Three decades on, Education Minister Dan Tehan is also dog-whistling up the politics of class to cut off the loans system to first-year students who <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/failing-university-students-to-be-kicked-off-hecs/news-story/eee39ecaf01b8521a9d3821926052e65">fail</a> half their subjects, <a href="http://www.nteu.org.au/article/Fake-culture-wars-a-distraction-from-fee-hikes%2C-cuts---chaos-%28Sentry%2C-August-2020%29-22217">ramp up</a> fees for many others, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/25/four-private-australian-universities-allowed-to-access-jobkeeper-payments">deny JobKeeper</a> to workers in the sector and <a href="http://www.nteu.org.au/fundunifairly/crossbench">cut funding</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-would-save-1-billion-a-year-with-proposed-university-reforms-but-thats-not-what-its-telling-us-142256">The government would save $1 billion a year with proposed university reforms — but that's not what it's telling us</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Dawkins’s representation of the policy problem framed higher education as a bastion of privilege. It relied on the relative absence of working-class students and the irrelevance of higher education to their parents. </p>
<p>For Tehan the problem is represented by these students’ overabundance — particularly in courses that do not produce workers with the specific technical skills he claims are <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-22/university-fee-changes-dan-tehan-capitalist-economics-analysis/12377498">in demand</a> by employers. Tehan’s call to rid the system of failing students is couched in paternalism, a hallmark of the welfare system. </p>
<h2>Agenda predates COVID</h2>
<p>On the surface, a small cohort of students mostly from low socioeconomic backgrounds appear to be the target. Politically, however, it neatly links with the government’s broader restructuring agenda across the campuses. For higher education students and staff alike, it epitomises what the National Union of Students (NUS) president has called a neoliberal way to “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-13/university-hecs-limits-for-failing-students-explained/12553548">incentivise success through fear of punishment</a>”.</p>
<p>The restructuring goes well beyond the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. An explosion of casual employee networks <a href="https://www.facebook.com/NHECN">across the country</a> and a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/aug/25/hundreds-of-university-academics-around-australia-vote-to-take-unprotected-strike-action">recent national assembly</a> of nearly 500 academics voting to build towards unprotected industrial action have boosted campaigning by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and NUS against the current cuts and broader restructuring agenda. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-universities-face-losing-1-in-10-staff-covid-driven-cuts-create-4-key-risks-147007">As universities face losing 1 in 10 staff, COVID-driven cuts create 4 key risks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What has changed since 1988?</h2>
<p>There are optimistic grounds for thinking that broader societal support is now more likely than in 1988 for this defence of universities as a freely accessible public good. </p>
<p>In May 2019, a <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/education-and-work-australia/latest-release">third of the working-age population</a> (20-64 years) held at least a bachelor degree. That’s almost five times more than in 1988. And nearly two-thirds of this group had a degree, diploma or post-school certificate. </p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/education-and-work-australia/may-2019/62270do028_201005.xls">46% of women and 35% of men</a> between the ages of 25 and 34 have a degree. Soon most women in this key working-age cohort will be university graduates, alongside a significant proportion of men.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360677/original/file-20200930-16-160no5w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="graph showing increases of women, men and all Australians holding at least a bachelor degree from 1988 to 2019" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360677/original/file-20200930-16-160no5w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360677/original/file-20200930-16-160no5w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360677/original/file-20200930-16-160no5w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360677/original/file-20200930-16-160no5w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360677/original/file-20200930-16-160no5w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360677/original/file-20200930-16-160no5w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360677/original/file-20200930-16-160no5w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/education-and-work-australia/may-2019/62270do028_201005.xls">Data: ABS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Social wage has widened</h2>
<p>This mainstreaming of university education means the sector joins health and welfare as a core part of the social wage. Australian government spending on keeping the workforce skilled, fit and able to work accounted for more than 60% of its <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Budget_Office/Publications/Chart_packs/2019-20_Budget_Snapshot">2019-20 budget</a>. Health-care spending, whether provided by employers (such as US insurance schemes) or more commonly via <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/harman/2009/zombiecap/00-intro.html">the state</a>, is in reality part of our wages whether it is paid in cash or kind or goes to workers collectively rather than individually. </p>
<p>The social wage came to prominence in the 1980s as a key part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-prices-and-incomes-accord-75622">Prices and Incomes Accord</a>. The Labor government reached agreement with trade unions and employers that they would trade off wage increases for better social security benefits and progressive education and health reforms. Political economist Elizabeth Humphrys <a href="https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1360-how-labour-built-neoliberalism">has explained</a> how these trade-offs strengthened the hold of neoliberalism and weakened trade unions. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-prices-and-incomes-accord-75622">Australian politics explainer: the Prices and Incomes Accord</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The social wage is the collective part of our overall wages. This understanding provides broad-based, industrial grounds to defend its provision. </p>
<p>Just as it has been unfortunately shown that wage cuts are <a href="https://www.solidarity.net.au/unions/strategy-needed-to-halt-uni-bosses-job-cuts/">not stopping job cuts</a> in the university sector, cuts to our social wage are also not in our collective self-interest. </p>
<p>For example, we need to loudly call out that the framing of social security payments as handouts for the poor is a cynical attempt to cultivate “<a href="https://insidestory.org.au/them-and-us-the-enduring-power-of-welfare-myths/">them and us</a>” divisions. In reality, between 2001 and 2015, <a href="https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/hilda/publications/hilda-statistical-reports">over 70% of Australian working-age households</a> required income support at some stage. These payments helped smooth the financial risks of unemployment, low wages, caring responsibilities, injury, frailty or disability. </p>
<p>Arguments for the JobSeeker supplement to be kept after the pandemic – such as by the <a href="https://raisetherate.org.au/">Raise the Rate</a> campaign – are gaining widespread traction. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/unemployment-support-will-be-slashed-by-300-this-week-this-wont-help-people-find-work-146289">Unemployment support will be slashed by $300 this week. This won't help people find work</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A similar basis of mass support exists for campaigns to have equitable, accessible and quality higher education. Secondary school students and their parents, casualised and ongoing staff and the wider trade union movement all have a stake in rejecting the current round of university cuts and restructuring. Higher education is now firmly part of our social wage, and we must defend it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144798/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcus Banks is involved in various research collaborations with the Brotherhood of St Laurence Research and Policy Centre. He is an NTEU delegate and member.</span></em></p>Three decades ago, in another time of upheaval in higher education, 7% of working-age Australians had a degree. Today 33% have one. More people than ever have a stake in what happens to universities.Marcus Banks, Social policy and consumer finance researcher, School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1439192020-08-25T14:31:39Z2020-08-25T14:31:39ZNigerian university students find online learning painful: here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353862/original/file-20200820-18-rr2gen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nigerian university students. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Frédéric Soltan/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In response to the <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200320124504312">compulsory closure </a> of institutions of learning as part of measures aimed at curbing the spread of<a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/nigeria/"> COVID-19 in Nigeria</a>, efforts were made to keep students busy with academic activities during the lockdown. </p>
<p>Thus, schools, especially privately owned universities, engaged students in different kinds of online learning approaches. This was limited to private schools because the government owned universities were on strike. </p>
<p>To fully understand how students feel about online learning during COVID-19 pandemic, <a href="https://www.ppacjournals.org/get.php?filename=ISRAELVOL6.2020PP1-11.pdf">our study</a> investigated the views of students of <a href="https://aul.edu.ng/">Anchor University</a>, a private higher education institution owned by the Deeper Christian Life Ministry in Lagos, Nigeria.</p>
<p>We found that <a href="https://aul.edu.ng/">Anchor University</a> was one of the private tertiary institutions in Nigeria that took the initiative to respond to the challenge. </p>
<p>Lecturers went the extra mile to ensure that students had meaningful learning experiences. They engaged students with materials varying from text notes and voice notes, to animated videos. They also used different online tools and platforms like Google classroom, Google meet, WhatsApp, and YouTube. </p>
<p>So how did the students feel about this? </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ppacjournals.org/get.php?filename=ISRAELVOL6.2020PP1-11.pdf">Our findings</a> showed that the students had negative dispositions towards online schooling. Some of these views were tied to their home front situations. The challenges they mentioned included higher data consumption, distractions from the neighborhood, friends and relatives, erratic power supply and internet network fluctuations.</p>
<p>Most of the issues they complained about would have been taken care of in the school environment of Anchor University if the students were physically in school.</p>
<h2>The research</h2>
<p>To arrive at <a href="https://www.ppacjournals.org/get.php?filename=ISRAELVOL6.2020PP1-11.pdf">our findings</a>, we collected data from 104 students out of about 500 students. Participants were drawn from the sciences, arts and the social sciences disciplines. </p>
<p>The participants, whose age ranges between 17 and 22 were drawn from classes between 100 and 400 levels. They all responded to an online questionnaire regarding their disposition to online teaching and learning at the early part of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. </p>
<p>The results showed that students were not in favour of online teaching and learning. They had a preference for face-to-face learning and wished the practice would not be retained, post COVID-19.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ppacjournals.org/get.php?filename=ISRAELVOL6.2020PP1-11.pdf">Over 60%</a> of the participants did not find it fun learning through uploaded videos and other online learning channels. For example, majority of the students say they concentrate more with a teacher in the class than when watching a video online. </p>
<p>Some students said they are not learning more content from online teaching than they would have in a face-to-face approach. Others said they would rather all the online lectures be repeated in the classroom after the lockdown. </p>
<p>Our findings surprised us. </p>
<p>The assumption has always been that students would readily welcome online learning given that they enjoy watching films on television and are familiar with modern technologies including laptop computers and mobile hand-held devices like smart phones and iPads. </p>
<p>Our findings contradict research done elsewhere on online learning. One example is a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280048690_Attitude_of_Students_Towards_E-learning_in_South-West_Nigerian_Universities_An_Application_of_Technology_Acceptance_Model">report</a> done six years ago that assessed the attitude of students towards e-learning in South west Nigerian universities. </p>
<p>Also, our findings are not in tandem with a <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e5be/4cf1e0d292d14920d852093e951bdc3785be.pdf">research report</a> done 4 years ago analysing students’ attitude towards e-learning at Babcock University, Nigeria. The report showed that students have positive attitude to online learning.</p>
<p>Another <a href="https://www.readkong.com/page/assessing-the-impact-of-educational-video-on-student-5574297">report</a> done 2 years ago among Purdue University students, US, found that video provides great benefits to teachers and learners, stimulating stronger course performance in many contexts, and affecting student motivation, confidence and attitudes positively.</p>
<p>The contradictions could be traced to the fact that students did not really expect the sudden shift to complete online mode of learning.</p>
<h2>Recommendations</h2>
<p>Based on the <a href="https://www.ppacjournals.org/get.php?filename=ISRAELVOL6.2020PP1-11.pdf">findings</a>, we made a number of recommendations that tertiary institutions could follow should they continue learning and teaching via online channels and platforms:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>They should provide adequate training for lecturers to acquire requisite skills to effectively facilitate online delivery of learning content.</p></li>
<li><p>They should provide adequate orientation, motivation and training for students to acquire relevant skills to maximally benefit from online teaching and learning. They should be exposed to modern information technology applications to support their learning.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>We also made some <a href="https://www.ppacjournals.org/get.php?filename=ISRAELVOL6.2020PP1-11.pdf">recommendations for parents</a>. They should try to provide an enabling environment for students at home. They should try as much as possible to provide support ranging from making available the necessary electronic gadgets (such as laptops and android phones), access to electricity power supply (generating sets and solar panels) and sufficient data for strong and consistent internet connection.</p>
<p>Parents should also provide an emotionally enabling environment so that students can benefit from the face-to-screen online teaching and learning. These would help the students to benefit maximally from online schooling.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143919/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Israel Olasunkanmi 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 assumption has always been that students would enjoy online learning but our research, during COVID-19 lock down, found otherwise.Israel Olasunkanmi, Lecturer, University of Ibadan, University of IbadanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1433552020-08-09T20:12:40Z2020-08-09T20:12:40ZWhy regional universities and communities need targeted help to ride out the coronavirus storm<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351670/original/file-20200806-18-17ckwgu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=164%2C5%2C1436%2C937&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/usqedu/photos/usqs-main-campus-is-located-in-toowoomba-come-and-visit-us-and-experience-all-th/10156410166848453">USQ/Facebook</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australian universities are expected to lose billions of dollars in revenue due to the impacts of COVID-19. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-what-australian-universities-can-do-to-recover-from-the-loss-of-international-student-fees-139759">estimated lost revenue</a> from international students alone is A$18 billion by 2024. While all universities are affected, regional universities and communities are the most vulnerable.</p>
<p>Regional communities have limited resources, so their universities play a pivotal role in their economies. These universities must adjust to the rapidly changing circumstances and government policy changes, or risk jeopardising regional economic growth and jobs. Without targeted government support for these smaller universities, the long-term impacts on regional communities could be devastating. </p>
<p>The Regional Universities Network (<a href="http://www.run.edu.au/">RUN</a>) includes CQUniversity, Southern Cross University, Federation University Australia, University of New England, University of Southern Queensland, University of the Sunshine Coast and Charles Sturt University. CQUniversity, where <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/23/regional-universities-push-to-trial-a-return-of-international-students-to-australia">39% of students</a> are international students, has a revenue shortfall of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-11/central-queensland-university-to-cut-jobs/12233482">A$116 million</a> for 2020. Charles Sturt University (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/23/regional-universities-push-to-trial-a-return-of-international-students-to-australia">32% international students</a>) faces a loss of about <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-05/charles-sturt-university-job-cuts-flagged-due-to-covid-19/12214920">A$80 million</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351674/original/file-20200806-42399-10p6ggb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Charles Sturt University campus at Bathurst, NSW" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351674/original/file-20200806-42399-10p6ggb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351674/original/file-20200806-42399-10p6ggb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351674/original/file-20200806-42399-10p6ggb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351674/original/file-20200806-42399-10p6ggb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351674/original/file-20200806-42399-10p6ggb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351674/original/file-20200806-42399-10p6ggb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351674/original/file-20200806-42399-10p6ggb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Charles Sturt University has announced cuts to courses and jobs because of its deficit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/geoffwhalan/38249215815/in/photolist-21gXehc-21cYnxx-GS8NhV-e1GYAV-ZuoUVq-ZJXe8j-2iEYBih-2iEUnVj-2gMiwBv-2gMiwJQ-2idaon7-bZokcG-fcgHMF-27qxes5-fcgQvz-KmQAMU-pdAkNK-2iEUnT5-266TSnH-21HLLYd-YEzfSV-266TRF2-ZtT2zt-fcweAo-fGDybe-6yKWz3-p1sJc1-fGW5Mb-24wf3YE-fcgMRi-2idaojG-6yKX2u-fcwaDs-DGveLS-8vqHEN-fcgKYp-oWtthF-q3W68A-8vqJiu-oWuCcb-nBUxqi-86yeHH-qy1Voa-4LURju-8vnF94-8vqHA5-fcvNFh-8vqHJQ-oWuk6g-6yFRQ6">Geoff Whalan/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What are the regional economic impacts?</h2>
<p>All universities face job losses as a result of COVID-19. But the impacts of these job losses are greatest for regional economies. </p>
<p>RUN chair Helen Bartlett <a href="http://www.run.edu.au/cb_pages/news/regional_loading.php">told</a> a federal parliamentary committee hearing in May:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Job losses from regional universities have a significant impact on regional communities when there are few alternatives for professional employment locally.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351513/original/file-20200806-20-1o4vtrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="RUN chair Helen Bartlett" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351513/original/file-20200806-20-1o4vtrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351513/original/file-20200806-20-1o4vtrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351513/original/file-20200806-20-1o4vtrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351513/original/file-20200806-20-1o4vtrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351513/original/file-20200806-20-1o4vtrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351513/original/file-20200806-20-1o4vtrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351513/original/file-20200806-20-1o4vtrc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The RUN chair, Professor Helen Bartlett, notes that when regional universities shed jobs their local communities have few professional employment alternatives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.usc.edu.au/about/usc-news/news-archive/2020/february/university-welcomes-next-vice-chancellor">USC News</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>She <a href="http://www.run.edu.au/cb_pages/news/regional_loading.php">called</a> on the government to double the annual regional loading funding of A$74 million. </p>
<p>Regional universities educate around <a href="http://www.run.edu.au/cb_pages/news/economic_impact_Nous.php">115,000</a> students each year. That’s about 9% of enrolments at Australian public universities.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.run.edu.au/resources/RUN%20Economic%20impact%20report%20final.pdf">2018 study</a> found regional universities inject A$1.7 billion a year into their local economies. And seven out of ten graduates go on to work in regional areas.</p>
<p>Regional universities also <a href="http://www.run.edu.au/cb_pages/news/RUN_conference_promo.php">contribute</a> over A$2.1 billion and more than 14,000 full-time jobs to the national economy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351503/original/file-20200806-20-vh52zr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351503/original/file-20200806-20-vh52zr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351503/original/file-20200806-20-vh52zr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=60&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351503/original/file-20200806-20-vh52zr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=60&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351503/original/file-20200806-20-vh52zr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=60&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351503/original/file-20200806-20-vh52zr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=75&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351503/original/file-20200806-20-vh52zr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=75&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351503/original/file-20200806-20-vh52zr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=75&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351507/original/file-20200806-22-7dr4f5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Table showing the three main effects of regional universities on their regions" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351507/original/file-20200806-22-7dr4f5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351507/original/file-20200806-22-7dr4f5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351507/original/file-20200806-22-7dr4f5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351507/original/file-20200806-22-7dr4f5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351507/original/file-20200806-22-7dr4f5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351507/original/file-20200806-22-7dr4f5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351507/original/file-20200806-22-7dr4f5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.run.edu.au/resources/RUN%20Economic%20impact%20report%20final.pdf">'The economic impact of the Regional Universities Network'/RUN</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-universities-could-lose-19-billion-in-the-next-3-years-our-economy-will-suffer-with-them-136251">Australian universities could lose $19 billion in the next 3 years. Our economy will suffer with them</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is the government doing?</h2>
<p>In April the federal government guaranteed A$18 billion in university funding this year to help the sector through the coronavirus crisis. It also provided A$100 million in regulatory fee relief.</p>
<p>The chair of Universities Australia, Deborah Terry, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/12/australian-universities-warn-covid-19-relief-package-not-enough-to-stop-21000-jobs-losses">welcomed</a> this as a “first step”. However, she warned an estimated 21,000 jobs would still be lost.</p>
<p>In June, the government announced the <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready">Job-ready Graduates Package</a>. It plans to lower student fees for selected courses (and raise others) to encourage study for what the government deems to be jobs of the future.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-is-making-job-ready-degrees-cheaper-for-students-but-cutting-funding-to-the-same-courses-141280">The government is making ‘job-ready’ degrees cheaper for students – but cutting funding to the same courses</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Extra support <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready/better-university-funding-arrangements">announced</a> for regional universities includes:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>3.5% growth in Commonwealth Grant Scheme funding to regional and remote campuses</p></li>
<li><p>A$5,000 payments for students from outer regional, remote and very remote areas who transfer to Certificate IV study or higher, for at least one year</p></li>
<li><p>a new A$500 million-a-year fund for programs that help Indigenous, regional and low socioeconomic status students get into university and graduate</p></li>
<li><p>A$48.4 million in research grants for regional universities to partner with industry and other universities to boost their research capacity</p></li>
<li><p>A$21 million to set up new <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/regional-university-centres">regional university centres</a></p></li>
<li><p>guaranteed bachelor-level Commonwealth-supported places to support more Indigenous students from regional and remote areas to go to any public university.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The government has also <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tehan/national-priorities-and-industry-linkage-fund-working-group">promised</a> a A$900 million industry linkage fund. The aim is to help universities build stronger relationships with STEM industries and provide work-integrated learning opportunities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-modelling-shows-the-importance-of-university-research-to-business-132442">New modelling shows the importance of university research to business</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What does this mean for regional universities?</h2>
<p>The Regional Universities Network welcomed the package. Bartlett <a href="http://www.run.edu.au/cb_pages/news/reform_package.php">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Lowering the cost of the student contribution for courses such as nursing, allied health, teaching, agriculture, engineering, IT and maths should encourage greater uptake by regional students in these areas. It is estimated that there should be more places in the regions. More graduates from our universities will produce more graduates to work in regional Australia in areas of skills need.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As the COVID-19 economic battle is ever evolving, the tertiary education sector must be vigilant. Spending should be prioritised to make it equitable for all universities and their communities. Decision-makers need to be aware of the key issues affecting the success of tertiary education in the regions and their dependent communities. </p>
<p>Regional engagement activities and programs, backed by increased funding, improve the prospects of successfully weathering the COVID-19 storm. Regional universities can deliver national benefits, by overcoming skill shortages and meeting local workforce needs, while contributing to public and private community services such as schools and health services. </p>
<p>The government package is important for all universities, but this support is the only means of regional universities surviving. If they are not supported and are forced to close, regional education and economies will suffer for many years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143355/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mehmet Aslan 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>All universities face job losses. But the impacts of these job losses are greatest for regional communities.Mehmet Aslan, Honorary Fellow, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1438932020-08-05T02:35:21Z2020-08-05T02:35:21ZIndia’s impressive new education policy could create opportunities for Australian universities and young people<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350986/original/file-20200804-18-18615ey.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/three-portrait-girls-smiling-school-1st-1244852419">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent days, the <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/national-education-policy-2020-all-you-need-to-know/articleshow/77239854.cms">Indian government approved</a> a new education policy — the first for 34 years. The policy comes after an expert group produced a <a href="https://theconversation.com/india-is-reforming-education-for-the-first-time-since-1986-heres-why-australia-should-care-121812">draft report</a> last year. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/india-is-reforming-education-for-the-first-time-since-1986-heres-why-australia-should-care-121812">India is reforming education for the first time since 1986 – here's why Australia should care</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What’s in the policy?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English_0.pdf">National Education Policy</a> (NEP) is an impressive document. It would help deliver a school curricula that’s more flexible and multidisciplinary, and less exam-focused.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1288672658473639937"}"></div></p>
<p>It is also ambitious: the Indian government plans to have 50% of 18-21 year olds enrolled in university by 2030, an almost doubling of enrolment in ten years. </p>
<p>Among many notable features, the report focuses on universities as sites for holistic student development; calls for multidisciplinary approaches that combine physical, emotional, moral, social, intellectual and aesthetic learning; and seeks to break down the distinction between “curricular” and “extra-curricular” activities, for example via internships and community-related work. </p>
<p>“Service” is a key theme running through the document. Drawing on historical examples of India’s contributions to university development, the report calls for a new focus on universities as sites in which faculty and students serve their local and regional communities to help fulfil the public mission of universities. As the National Education Policy notes on page 33:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The purpose of quality higher education is, therefore, more than the creation of greater opportunities for individual employment. It represents the key to more vibrant, socially engaged, cooperative communities and a happier, cohesive, cultured, productive, innovative, progressive, and prosperous nation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Building on this vision, the National Education Policy sets out a series of sweeping changes to university education in the country. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>establishing a single national regulatory body to oversee all aspects of university functioning</p></li>
<li><p>setting up a National Research Foundation </p></li>
<li><p>introducing four-year multidisciplinary degrees with multiple exit options (after one, two, three or four years)</p></li>
<li><p>encouraging internationalisation, for example through allowing foreign universities to operate in India</p></li>
<li><p>developing a set of elite multidisciplinary universities geared towards achieving the standing of Ivy League institutions in the US. The National Education Policy sees India as becoming a “world teacher” (<em>vishwa guru</em>).</p></li>
</ul>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1290279797105385472"}"></div></p>
<h2>Will it work?</h2>
<p>There are many issues to think through in relation to implementation. For example, it is not wholly clear how the National Education Policy’s move to introduce a new national test for university sits alongside the emphasis on moving away from exams. Moreover, the process through which universities that currently work in specialist areas transition to become fully multidisciplinary institutions may be difficult.</p>
<p>The National Education Policy will require careful negotiation with state governments, who share responsibility for education, as well as consideration of how to ensure the benefits of educational change occur in all regions of India and benefit communities underrepresented in higher education.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/india-tomorrow-part-6-what-young-indians-want-117024">India Tomorrow part 6: what young Indians want</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But these comments must be read in context: the National Education Policy navigates numerous complexities quite effectively and contains a wealth of important ideas.</p>
<h2>What does it mean for Australia?</h2>
<p>The policy allows for universities in the top 100 in the world to set up in India. Ultimately, this might encourage some Australian universities to start facilities in India. But this change will require the passing of a new law, and foreign universities are unlikely to build new facilities in India in the short term. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351025/original/file-20200804-20-nbe19w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Students gather at a university in India." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351025/original/file-20200804-20-nbe19w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351025/original/file-20200804-20-nbe19w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351025/original/file-20200804-20-nbe19w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351025/original/file-20200804-20-nbe19w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351025/original/file-20200804-20-nbe19w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351025/original/file-20200804-20-nbe19w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351025/original/file-20200804-20-nbe19w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The new policy could also help both countries reflect on the role of universities in the 2020s and beyond.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What is more likely in the short and medium term is that Australian universities will use the National Education Policy and its emphasis on internationalisation and flexibility as an opportunity to enhance collaboration in specific areas such as:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the co-development of new subjects and programs</p></li>
<li><p>the collaborative design of open and distance learning products and facilities, such as virtual classrooms</p></li>
<li><p>greater joint PhD supervision between Indian and Australian researchers</p></li>
<li><p>the development of post-doctoral research opportunities that bridge both countries building on the example of the New Generation Network developed by the <a href="https://www.aii.unimelb.edu.au/programs/new-generation-network/">Australia India Institute</a> </p></li>
<li><p>greater research collaboration on areas of mutual interest, for example in relation to water, health, education, energy, information technology, and the successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals</p></li>
<li><p>greater reflection between Australian and Indian higher educational institutions on how universities engage with industry, government and the community</p></li>
<li><p>building on the principle of India as a “<em>vishwa guru</em>”, efforts by Australian educator and administrators to examine what can be learnt from India’s history of education.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Such collaboration could improve the quality, diversity and relevance of university education and research in India and Australia. It could widen understanding within both countries of the contributions of the other globally. </p>
<p>It could also help both countries reflect on the role of universities in the 2020s and beyond, a theme woven through the National Education Policy and now deserves much greater global discussion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143893/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig Jeffrey receives funding from the Australian Research Council (DP170104376, DP200102424). He is the Director of the Australia India Institute, which receives grants from the Department of Education, Skills and Employment as well as the Victorian Government. The views expressed in the article are the author's own.</span></em></p>India’s new National Education Policy is impressive, and could create opportunities for Australian universities. The key issues, however, relate to implementation.Craig Jeffrey, Director and CEO of the Australia India Institute; Professor of Development Geography, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1395832020-06-08T14:51:43Z2020-06-08T14:51:43ZGhana is considering a new law to govern universities. Why it’s a bad idea<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339211/original/file-20200602-133919-1hihfvs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The University of Ghana is considered one of the leading centers of learning in West Africa</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/university-ghana-education-west-african-countries-619036661">Nataly Reinch/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Academic freedom is supposed to enable academics to conduct scientific enquiry and produce knowledge to be used for the public good. Academics need it so that they can meet their obligation to society. And the state has a corresponding duty to respect this freedom and protect it from abuse. </p>
<p>Academic freedom in Ghana started well with the establishment of the <a href="https://www.ug.edu.gh/content/establishment-university">University of Ghana</a> in 1948. Special measures were put in place to insulate the academic staff from governmental interference.</p>
<p>This trend was continued into independence. But it began to deteriorate when respect for liberal democracy, embodied in Ghana’s <a href="https://www.cvce.eu/content/publication/2015/10/14/631f7166-5664-41f3-a5d1-7cc9d2387f58/publishable_en.pdf">Independence Constitution</a>, started to wane simultaneously as the country morphed into a one-party state and later into military rule. </p>
<p>In 1992, Ghana passed the <a href="http://judicial.gov.gh/index.php/fundamental-human-rights-and-freedom">Fourth Republican Constitution</a>, which explicitly recognises “academic freedom”. This makes Ghana one of only 14 African countries to do so. The constitution bars the president from taking the position of chancellor of any public university. It also gives universities the power to set up their own governing councils. </p>
<p>But the constitution also grants the president the power to appoint a national council for tertiary education to coordinate the functioning of the public universities. </p>
<p>The current government is attempting to circumvent a key aspect of these constitutional provisions meant to promote and protect academic freedom in its attempt to overhaul the running of the universities with a new <a href="https://www.parliament.gh/docs?type=Bills&OT&P=28">Public University Bill</a>.</p>
<h2>The bill</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://www.parliament.gh/docs?type=Bills&OT&P=28">memorandum</a> accompanying the bill states, in part, that it is designed to curb “grave improprieties in the utilisation of resources” in public universities.</p>
<p>Based on this claim, the bill seeks to grant the president the power to appoint the <a href="https://www.ug.edu.gh/paddocs/Basic_Laws.pdf">chancellors</a> of all public universities. The same applies to the appointment of chairs of all university councils. The council is basically the board of the institution. Currently, chancellors are appointed by <a href="https://www.ug.edu.gh/paddocs/Basic_Laws.pdf">university councils</a> whose heads are appointed by the president.</p>
<p>The bill also whittles down the composition of the councils from about 21, depending on the university, to 13. The majority – eight – would be appointed by the president. </p>
<p>The new bill allows councils to appoint vice-chancellors. But the president’s majority stake in council membership means that vice-chancellors would in practice be presidential appointees. </p>
<p>Consequently, all three principal officers of a public university will be beholden to the president.</p>
<p>The president will also have the power to dissolve a university council if he deems there’s an emergency on the campus. The president can replace it with an interim council of his choice. </p>
<p>The universities’ freedom to control their own admission processes is to be replaced by a centralised application board. </p>
<p>These and many other provisions of the bill intrude into the university’s autonomous space.</p>
<h2>Flawed logic</h2>
<p>These attempts by the government to control public universities are unjustified – not only in law but also in fact. </p>
<p>The country has laws that are strong enough to control financial management in the universities. And the ministers of education, finance and others have roles to play in ensuring compliance. </p>
<p>The solution does not lie in making a new law which seeks to control university governance through the back door. </p>
<p>The bill will create more problems than it seeks to solve. For example, it will mean that the minister of education will have to approve applications for grants and even the purchase of equipment to furnish a lecture theatre. </p>
<p>The respected Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, in its <a href="https://www.theghanareport.com/public-university-bill-poorly-motivated-unacceptable-ghana-academy-of-arts-and-sciences/">memorandum</a> to parliament, noted that among the effects of the draft bill will be:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The introduction of direct executive control over public universities, both as corporate bodies and as academic institutions, and</p></li>
<li><p>The constriction of space for differentiation among public universities, for innovation, and for the drive for excellence.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>It concluded that “the proposed draft Ghana universities bill is unnecessary” and should not be allowed to pass.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://educationghana.net/index.php/2020/05/19/utag-submits-recommendations-on-public-university-bill-to-govt/">University Teachers Association of Ghana</a>, on its part, noted in its memorandum that it opposes </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the enactment of a harmonised act and statutes to regulate all public universities under one platform.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In its opinion, the bill sins against fundamental provisions of the Fourth Republican Constitution and if passed in its present form, it will not hesitate to institute legal proceedings to challenge them before the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>The government has already shown itself to have little regard for academic freedom. Recently, its <a href="https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/knust-governing-council-dissolved.html">brusque interference</a> in an impasse at a public university led to the dismissal of a vice-chancellor and dissolution of the school’s governing council. It also tried to control the conversion of polytechnics into technical universities by setting up a state education agency as the <em>de facto</em> governing council for the technical universities. </p>
<p>The bill also reflects tensions around perceived governmental interference in the removal from office of a <a href="https://citinewsroom.com/2019/04/prof-avoke-wont-be-reinstated-uew/">vice-chancellor</a> at the University of Education, and the appointment of a new one.</p>
<h2>What will be lost</h2>
<p>The Public University Bill, if allowed to pass, will take the country back to the 1960s. It will result in the loss of institutional autonomy, self-governance, collegiality, tenure and individual rights and freedoms of academics and students. This will in turn impact negatively on the congenial atmosphere required to promote creativity, innovation and competition on university campuses.</p>
<p>Ghana is considered a bastion of democracy in Africa. It has a large measure of respect for human rights and the rule of law compared with many other African countries. Its democratic credentials will suffer great harm if the bill becomes law.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139583/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua works for the University of Ghana. He receives funding from various sources for his research activities. He is affiliated with the Ghana Bar Association and Scholars at Risk Network. </span></em></p>The government wants more power over university appointments, using financial management as the reason.Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua, Associate Professor of Law, University of GhanaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1364062020-04-27T13:53:41Z2020-04-27T13:53:41ZStudying in the UK is a mixed bag for West African students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328783/original/file-20200417-152585-1cu4fy1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The experiences of British based West African students can be improved</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The number of students travelling abroad for education has increased substantially over the past 20 years. UK Council for International Student Affairs data shows that during the 2015–16 academic year, 19% of students studying in Britain came from outside the European Union. Of these, 8% were from African countries. Most were South African (22%). Just over 20% came from West African countries. </p>
<p>West African students have been travelling to study in the UK <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2020.1723528">since the 1700s</a>. Yet there’s limited research into the experiences of students in British institutions and how they adjust to life and learn in Britain. </p>
<p>In my <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2020.1723528">paper</a>, I explore educational experiences of undergraduate and postgraduate students from three West African countries – Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone – based at a London university. I examine their reasons for studying in Britain, how they adapted to teaching and learning and how far these factors enhanced or undermined their education. </p>
<p>I found that the reasons they came to study in the UK don’t differ markedly from previous generations. In essence, they want to boost institutionalised cultural capital and educational qualifications and enhance their chances of obtaining well paid employment back home. </p>
<p>I also found that some of the issues experienced by previous generations persist. This includes racism against immigrants and black and minority ethnic people in society. </p>
<p>Several students also reported positive learning experiences, like support in transitioning to new approaches to learning and teaching. Many embraced new knowledge and skills. They also recognised a range of excellent opportunities for contributing to university life and developing important networks for their future employability, as well as socially.</p>
<h2>A history of West African Students in the UK</h2>
<p>Among the early<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02619288.1993.9974821">West African university students</a> were children of business traders sent to Britain to enhance their skills. It also included students involved in Pan Africanist political movements, many of whom arrived in the UK during the 1920s, 30s and 40s. </p>
<p>More students were offered bursaries under the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27851186?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">Colonial Welfare Act of 1946</a>, in preparation for the development of institutions in their countries of origin. </p>
<p>During the 1960s, a number of African countries were becoming independent from colonial rule. They required educated people to take up senior roles in the running and development of their countries. This resulted in a number travelling to the UK and US for their education. There appeared to be a preference for those who had received a Western qualifications as they were presumed to have more “skills” and ability. </p>
<p>On reaching the UK, many faced a multitude of difficulties which impeded their progress in achieving their goals. These often stemmed from financial issues. Though students received educational bursaries the money was frequently incommensurate with UK living costs. This meant they had to work alongside studying. </p>
<p>They were also adapting to new course content and different styles of learning. The most notable difference was the move away from “rote” learning to more analytical and self directive approaches. These took time to digest. </p>
<p>Another major factor affecting their experiences was racism in wider British society which was reflected in the education system. Negative representations of their countries of origin shaped how they were regarded in society. Low expectations of their academic abilities were also key facets of their experiences here.</p>
<p>Taken together these factors resulted in a number of West African students not completing their studies. Yet they felt unable to return home, due to the sense of shame associated with not achieving their goals.</p>
<h2>The 21st century experience</h2>
<p>My <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2020.1723528">research </a> entailed in depth interviews with students from Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. This formed part of a wider initiative aimed at understanding the experiences of black and minority ethnic students. Key areas addressed included reasons behind decisions to come to the UK for their education, experiences in transitioning to British culture and life more broadly and also of teaching and learning.</p>
<p>The interviews highlighted the fact that racism faced by previous generations of African students persists. The belief remains that black (African and African Caribbean) home and international students are somehow less academically able than
white students. For overseas students, this is further compounded by the notion that the quality of education that they received in their home country was somehow inferior. </p>
<p>A number of the students I interviewed said they felt that there was more emphasis on what overseas students <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318605859_A_narrative_inquiry_into_the_identity_formation_of_Chinese_doctoral_students_in_relation_to_study_abroad">“lacked” academically and culturally</a>, rather than their contribution to the British education system. </p>
<p>These issues often resulted in lecturers having low expectations of students. Combined with family pressures and high expectations of success this reinforced the sense of “wahala” – or difficulties – sometimes associated with studying in the UK.</p>
<p>Despite these multifaceted issues, students often achieved well.</p>
<p>Students said they benefited from their experiences in UK universities. These included a multitude of transferable skills which could be used to enhance their employability in the UK, or if they returned home. Several reported that they were able to boost their social and cultural capital. Others indicated that they felt a real sense of achievement because they successfully navigated an education system and culture which was very different to their own.</p>
<h2>Understanding the past in preparing for the future</h2>
<p>While it is heartening that several of the participants found studying in the UK to be a positive and beneficial experiences, much still needs to be done to improve things for prospective West African overseas students.</p>
<p>Firstly, there’s a need for greater understanding of their prior educational experiences. This could be achieved via focus group discussions centring on comparisons between approaches adopted in Britain and back home, highlighting gaps, areas for improvement and possible strategies.</p>
<p>A more inclusive curriculum incorporating thinkers from their backgrounds and which offers opportunities to share personal experiences would also facilitate more understanding of students, enhanced engagement and a greater sense of belonging.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136406/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Owusu-Kwarteng 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>More can be done to ease transitions for West African students in the United Kingdom.Louise Owusu-Kwarteng, Senior Lecturer, Programme Leader, Sociology, University of GreenwichLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1294652020-01-09T17:07:58Z2020-01-09T17:07:58ZStudent success is about more than hard work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309078/original/file-20200108-107243-ncyxf9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Entering university from a middle-class family is easier.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is that time of year again when South Africans celebrate National Senior Certificate results, ushering a generation of youth out of the school system and into the world. Of the <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2020-01-08-matric-class-hits-80-pass-mark-for-the-first-time">788,717</a> who successfully completed these exams, 186,058 achieved passes that potentially open the doors of university study. </p>
<p>As we read about the results, we take delight in the success stories, like the student from a poorer background scoring multiple distinctions despite having no properly qualified maths or science teacher. Or the rural student who earned a university entrance despite walking long distances to school each day. These achievements <a href="https://www.politicsweb.co.za/documents/matric-pass-rate-a-poor-indicator--ee">should be celebrated</a>, as they are truly exceptional. </p>
<p>But the problem with these stories, uplifting as they may be, is that they often carry a subtext. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“If he can do it, why can’t <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/363480/4-tables-and-graphs-you-should-see-ahead-of-south-africas-matric-results/">the rest of them</a>?” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The presumption that hard work alone leads to success – and that laziness leads to failure – follows the student into the university. Here, despite a wealth of careful research that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01425692.2011.527723">proclaims otherwise</a>, most people believe that success emerges from the intelligence and work ethic of <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Theorizing-Social-Class-and-Education-1st-Edition/Reay-Vincent/p/book/9780415842297">the individual</a>.</p>
<p>In a recent journal article, we have <a href="http://cristal.epubs.ac.za/index.php/cristal/article/view/184">argued</a> that academics often ignore the research on student failure that shows it emerges from a number of factors. Many of these factors are beyond the attributes inherent in the student. Instead, most hold on to the simplistic common sense assumption that success comes to those who deserve it. Academics who hold this view are prone to assume that students are successful because of what an individual student does or does not do. </p>
<p>But the reality is a far more complex interplay of individual attributes with social structures which unfairly affect some more than others. </p>
<h2>The lure of meritocratic explanations</h2>
<p>There is a widely held view that education is a <a href="http://cristal.epubs.ac.za/index.php/cristal/article/view/80">meritocracy</a>, where success is determined by the merit of the individual. The term was coined in British sociologist Michael Young’s 1958 book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Meritocracy-Classics-Organization-Management/dp/1560007044">The Rise of the Meritocracy</a>. In it, he described a dystopian society stratified by educational level and intelligence. The term has been appropriated to suggest that those who do well at university do so on the basis of personal effort and acumen rather than as a result of their privileged background.</p>
<p>University academics have <a href="https://www.africanminds.co.za/dd-product/going-to-university-the-influence-of-higher-education-on-the-lives-of-young-south-africans/">access to research</a> looking at the complex mechanisms of higher education. Despite this, many are likely to believe that the university <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-class-and-social-capital-affect-university-students-92602">is a meritocracy</a>. Believing that students succeed or fail on their own merits sits more comfortably than scrutinising the role universities play in reinforcing divisions in society.</p>
<p>In every country around the world, higher education success most strongly correlates to <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137534804">social class</a>. Parental education levels, wealth, social influence and status are the strongest indicator of <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/212017/the-tyranny-of-the-meritocracy-by-lani-guinier/">university success</a>. But class does not work in isolation from other forces. </p>
<p>Social class intersects in varying ways with race, gender, language, and so on. In some countries, for example, race is used as a means of dividing society and assigning social class. In many countries, gender too plays a role in who gets access to the powerful knowledge offered by the academy. All of these factors and more have a role to play. But it is social class that most consistently tracks <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/46608">higher education success</a> across geographical contexts.</p>
<p>If you did well at university, chances are that you worked hard and you’re bright. But those two characteristics probably account for a much smaller part of your success than most of us would care to admit.</p>
<h2>What class privilege looks like</h2>
<p>Entering university from a middle-class family doesn’t only confer financial, health, educational, emotional and nutritional benefits. It also provides less visible privileges. A middle-class student probably had role models like relatives who went to university, possibly even the same university, who could explain the university system. It’s likely that they took part in everyday conversations about professional identities, and they could probably draw on social networks to assist them in adapting to university life and then entering the workplace.</p>
<p>The late French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?vid=ISBN0803983204&id=vl0n9_wrrbUC&dq=%22Reproduction+in+Education%22">argued</a> that underprivileged students fail not because they are less intelligent than middle-class students but because the curriculum is biased towards what middle-class students are already accustomed to. It is this that reinforces the relationship between social class and success in higher education around the world.</p>
<p>Many of the privileges that middle-class students enjoy are so arcane as to be invisible, even to themselves. These students often bring with them a sense that their role at university is to engage not just with facts but with the disciplinary rules for how knowledge gets made. Typically they are willing to challenge what is presented to them and to seek flaws in the evidence provided in the texts they encounter. They also have a stronger confidence in their right to be there and to participate fully. These, and many other ways, aid middle-class students to enter the academy primed for success.</p>
<h2>What needs to happen?</h2>
<p>Academics who are committed to social justice often have to grapple with the fact that the university does not reward students on the basis of merit so much as on privilege. This calls for teaching in ways that constantly seek to make the expectations of the classroom transparent and the disciplinary norms and values explicit. </p>
<p>Teachers need to make these practices clear to students and, in the process, harness <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2011.582096">students’ agency</a> to craft their own place in the world and their own contribution to knowledge. Regular feedback on student work, for example, allows students to begin to see what counts as knowledge in the particular discipline.</p>
<p>It is also important to expose academic practices to scrutiny. Increasingly the academy is being challenged to consider forms of knowledge long omitted by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-cant-decolonise-the-curriculum-without-defining-it-first-63948">colonial order</a>. </p>
<p>The university promises society that it will produce both powerful knowledge and competent graduates adept at using such knowledge to tackle societal and environmental problems. But not all university practices are inherently powerful and much powerful knowledge remains outside its walls.</p>
<p>If some students enter the university with easier access to the practices needed for success, nobody can pretend that institutions are a meritocracy rewarding attributes inherent in <a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-cant-just-wash-their-hands-of-student-failure-40664">the individual</a>. Understanding the complex relationship between social class and educational success requires that educators reconsider almost all aspects of their teaching.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129465/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simpiwe Sobuwa is the Vice-Chariperson of the Professional Board for Emergency Care and a Council Member of the Health Professions Council of South Africa. I however write this article in my academic capacity.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sioux McKenna 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 of the privileges that middle-class students enjoy are not obvious, even to themselves.Sioux McKenna, Director of Centre for Postgraduate Studies, Rhodes UniversitySimpiwe Sobuwa, Head of Department: Emergency Medical Care & Rescue, Durban University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1264922019-11-25T19:09:31Z2019-11-25T19:09:31ZAustralia’s tertiary education spending grew while commentators cried otherwise: we explain in 6 charts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302050/original/file-20191117-66921-12mw5bp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australia's public commentary will tell you our spending on tertiary education is much lower than other OECD countries'.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each year universities check the latest OECD <a href="https://www.oecd.org/education/education-at-a-glance/">Education at a Glance</a> report to see how Australian tertiary spending compares with peer countries.</p>
<p>The good news is that every report since 2012 has shown our <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2019_0fdcbb3b-en#page12">tertiary sector revenue growth</a> outpacing the OECD average. </p>
<p>But this trend doesn’t feature in Australian commentary. Instead, the folklore goes, our public spending on tertiary institutions (university degrees and VET diplomas) <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/media-item/number-of-educated-aussies-grows-as-graduates-enjoy-strong-job-prospects/">ranks near the bottom of the OECD as a share of GDP</a>; and this makes our universities <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/the-simple-solution-to-concerns-about-foreign-interference-at-our-universities/news-story/21eb843e3adad9ad0623eefcf20ae8ee">among the lowest-funded</a> in the OECD. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/demand-driven-funding-for-universities-is-frozen-what-does-this-mean-and-should-the-policy-be-restored-116060">Demand-driven funding for universities is frozen. What does this mean and should the policy be restored?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some even say our <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/UA-pre-budget-submission-2017-18_FINAL.pdf">total (public and private) spending on tertiary institutions</a> has been flat since 2000, while rising elsewhere in the OECD. </p>
<p>So, what is the actual story? </p>
<h2>University revenue has risen (in domestic data)</h2>
<p>Let’s take that last claim first, on <em>total</em> tertiary spending. It’s from a Universities Australia <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/UA-pre-budget-submission-2017-18_FINAL.pdf">budget submission</a> for 2017-2018. As a view on university spending it’s clearly at odds with <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/mapping-australian-higher-education-2018/">domestic data</a>. </p>
<p>From 2001-2016, total revenue for our universities doubled – from A$15.5 to A$30.8 billion. By 2016, Commonwealth grants for research and teaching reached A$11 billion, up from A$6.2 in 2001. </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="3hHGV" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/3hHGV/6/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>Private spending grew even more. In 2016 international students put in A$6.5 billion or 20%. Domestic students put in A$6.7, but about A$1 billion in HELP loans won’t be repaid. So, net Commonwealth funding was about A$12 billion or 40% of A$30.8. All told, students and the government each put in about 40% in 2016.</p>
<h2>… and in OECD data, total tertiary spending also went up</h2>
<p>In 2000 Australia’s total (public and private) spending rate for tertiary institutions (degrees and diplomas) was <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2015/indicator-b2-what-proportion-of-national-wealth-is-spent-on-education_eag-2015-18-en#page9">1.4% of GDP</a> (the OECD average was 1.3). </p>
<p>From 2009-2012, Australia’s rate mirrored the OECD’s 1.6%. Then between 2013 and 2016 it <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2019_7ca1a848-en#page9">rose to 1.9%</a> as the OECD’s rate slid to 1.5%.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/total-public-expenditure-on-education-as-a-percentage-of-total-government-expenditure-2016_bc14fe61-en#page6">total public spending on tertiary education</a>, our rate was <a href="http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=23427">well below the OECD average</a> between 2005 and 2012. But by 2016 it was 1.4%, higher than the OECD average of 1.2%. </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="DBeV8" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/DBeV8/7/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<h2>Australian public spend is lower <em>after</em> transfer of HELP loans</h2>
<p>For years we’ve heard our public spending is second-lowest in the OECD. While <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-tertiary-education-funding-is-not-as-low-as-it-seems-in-oecd-metrics-102710">never actually true</a>, the claim arose in <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/australia-set-to-push-oecd-average/news-story/954072c1cd8347315a9f2c5535d1ed16">2014</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-does-being-second-lastin-the-oecd-for-public-funding-affect-our-unis-46727?sa=google&sq=oecd+university+funding&sr=2">2015</a>, <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/policy-submissions/keep-it-clever/">2016</a>, <a href="https://go8.edu.au/reforms-make-unis-vulnerable-says-go8-chairman-peter-hoj">2017</a> and <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/more-money-in-the-system-but-less-certainty/news-story/237d56a9eed4c273d335c4f145a11770">2018</a>. </p>
<p>A problem here is GDP growth. But first, let’s look at HELP loans.</p>
<p>The OECD treats HELP loans as public in initial government spending but as private in final government spending (after government transfers to individuals). In <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-tertiary-education-funding-is-not-as-low-as-it-seems-in-oecd-metrics-102710">last year’s report</a> the OECD put our initial public spending on degrees and diplomas at 1.3% of GDP, compared with an OECD average of 1.1%.</p>
<p>Chart 3 shows the annual gap in <em>final public rates</em> that underpins Australian folklore. It’s why Universities Australia still says we <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/media-item/number-of-educated-aussies-grows-as-graduates-enjoy-strong-job-prospects/">rank near the bottom of the ladder for public investment</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-does-being-second-last-in-the-oecd-for-public-funding-affect-our-unis-46727">How does being second-last in the OECD for public funding affect our unis?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Australia’s final public rate was lower than the OECD average in 2016 – <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/total-expenditure-on-educational-institutions-as-a-percentage-of-gdp-by-final-source-of-funds-2016_1a9c3d86-en#page1">0.75% of GDP compared to 0.93%</a>. But here all HELP loans become <em>private</em> – whether repaid or not.</p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="8TBV9" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/8TBV9/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>Few dare dwell on how highly we rank for total spending. Except to say it seems <a href="https://newsroom.kpmg.com.au/ok-international-students-pick-australias-funding-slack-higher-education/">unethical</a> for students to foot so much of the bill, with <a href="https://wonkhe.com/blogs/australia-puts-high-price-on-he-premium/">more than 60% of income taken from private sources</a>.</p>
<p>But recall chart 1 – students put in 40%. And as chart 3 shows, there’s no ideal <em>OECD norm</em> such as 60% public. </p>
<h2>GDP growth masks real rises (and falls) in spending</h2>
<p>GDP based comparisons can be misleading. Chart 4 shows how spending as a share of GDP rose in every sample country over 2008-09. This helped lift the OECD average rate from 1.5% to 1.6%. </p>
<p>Finland’s rate surged from 1.6% to 1.9%. Sweden’s also surged from 1.5% to 1.8%. Australia’s rose less, from 1.5% to 1.6%. The others saw modest rises also. </p>
<p>By 2013, all still had higher rates than in 2008. So chart 4 suggests that in all cases, spending rose.</p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="m3vC1" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/m3vC1/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>But chart 5 shows that in Portugal, Spain and Italy real spending <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2016/indicator-b1-how-much-is-spent-per-student_eag-2016-16-en#page17">fell between 2008 and 2013</a>. In fact Australia’s real spending grew the most, by 28%. But since its GDP also grew the most, chart 4 suggests more modest spending growth. </p>
<p>As chart 5 shows, Finland’s 2008-09 “surge” was mainly a 9% slide in GDP. Sweden’s story was similar, with a 5% GDP slide. In Spain, Portugal and Italy, falls in real spending look like rises in chart 4. But only because GDP shrank even more sharply than spending over 2008-2013. </p>
<p>GDP based factoids underpin Australian folklore. Claims such as <a href="https://newsroom.kpmg.com.au/ok-international-students-pick-australias-funding-slack-higher-education/">Portugal invests far more in public spending</a> are common. But over 2010-2016 Australia’s total tertiary spending grew by 36% (see chart 6), while in Portugal it fell by 19%.</p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="YL5ZQ" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/YL5ZQ/6/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<h2>We do need better funding, but based on reliable data</h2>
<p>The real spending trends <a href="https://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A32134">highlighted in the 2008 Bradley Review of Australian higher education</a>, back when we did lag the OECD average in spending growth, have been reversed: </p>
<ul>
<li>in the <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2013/indicator-b1-how-much-is-spent-per-student_eag-2013-13-en#page20">2013 OECD report</a> Australia’s spending rose by 26% over 2005-2010, as the OECD average rose by 20%.</li>
<li>in the <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2016/indicator-b1-how-much-is-spent-per-student_eag-2016-16-en#page17">2016 report</a> Australia’s spending rose by 28% over 2008-2013, as the OECD average rose by 17%</li>
<li>in the <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2019_0fdcbb3b-en#page12">2019 report</a> Australia’s spending rose by 36% over 2010-2016. In a dozen other countries, spending fell (such as Portugal, by 19%).</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="asSlC" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/asSlC/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>Incredibly, these trends have been ignored. Since 2008 we’ve been peering through the prism of GDP based data, to declare the result a global “ranking” – as if the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-tertiary-education-funding-is-not-as-low-as-it-seems-in-oecd-metrics-102710">financial crisis</a> never happened. From a sector that sanctifies <a href="https://theconversation.com/vice-chancellor-barney-glover-says-universities-must-stand-up-for-facts-and-the-truth-if-we-dont-who-will-73756">evidence and expertise</a>, it’s irresponsible. </p>
<p>But there’s still a case for better tertiary funding in Australia.</p>
<p>That case must be made with more <a href="http://www.mitchellinstitute.org.au/papers/rethinking-and-revitalising-tertiary-education/">current</a> and <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/home/higher-education/">relevant</a> domestic data. This should include properly tracked trends in real tertiary spending, <a href="https://theconversation.com/enrolments-flatlining-australian-unis-financial-strife-in-three-charts-126342">projected rises in the number of school leavers</a>, and labour market demand for skills and knowledge.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/enrolments-flatlining-australian-unis-financial-strife-in-three-charts-126342">Enrolments flatlining: Australian unis' financial strife in three charts</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126492/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoff Sharrock 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>For years, we’ve heard Australia’s spending on tertiary education is some of the lowest in the OECD. This is only true if you ignore GDP growth. Real spending was actually going up, until 2016.Geoff Sharrock, Honorary Senior Fellow, Centre for Vocational and Educational Policy, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1177432019-05-29T19:43:57Z2019-05-29T19:43:57ZThe government keeps talking about revamping VET – but is it actually doing it?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276936/original/file-20190529-126291-zqh0zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The VET sector is struggling to keep up with the rapid changes in industry.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The vocational education and training (VET) sector is integral to Australia’s economy and the businesses and workforce that underpin it. The sector provides skills to <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/research-and-statistics/publications/all-publications/total-vet-students-and-courses-2017">4.2 million students at 4,200 registered training providers</a>. </p>
<p>This is important because, as the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/03/the-digital-skills-gap-is-widening-fast-heres-how-to-bridge-it/">World Economic Forum highlights</a>, access to skilled workers is a key factor that distinguishes successful enterprises from unsuccessful ones. But many Australian employers <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/research-and-statistics/collections/employers-use-and-views-of-the-vet-system">are unhappy with the VET system</a> – employer satisfaction is the lowest it’s been in the decade. </p>
<p>The rise of the digital economy and the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/focus/fourth-industrial-revolution">fourth industrial revolution</a> are predicted to cause major job disruptions. In essence, industry needs are changing rapidly and the VET sector isn’t keeping up. And there are ongoing concerns about the quality of the sector itself, after the rise of some dodgy private organisations offering questionable qualifications.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-fix-higher-education-funding-we-also-need-to-fix-vocational-education-102634">To fix higher education funding, we also need to fix vocational education</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In November 2018, the federal government appointed former New Zealand skills minister Steven Joyce to lead <a href="https://pmc.gov.au/domestic-policy/vet-review">a once-in-a-generation review</a> of VET. The Coalition government based many of its pre-election announcements on some recommendations of this review (now known as the <a href="https://pmc.gov.au/resource-centre/domestic-policy/vet-review/strengthening-skills-expert-review-australias-vocational-education-and-training-system">Joyce review</a>), which were released in April 2019.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1127392671540973568"}"></div></p>
<p>So, what did Joyce recommend and is the government actually heeding the advice?</p>
<h2>What did Joyce recommend?</h2>
<p>The Joyce review details 71 recommendations. These form the basis of a six-point plan to transform VET so it can provide students with skills that reflect the needs of employers. </p>
<p>The plan centres on:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>strengthening quality assurance</p></li>
<li><p>speeding up qualification development</p></li>
<li><p>simplifying funding and skills matching</p></li>
<li><p>providing better careers information</p></li>
<li><p>providing clearer secondary school pathways into VET</p></li>
<li><p>providing greater access for disadvantaged Australians.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The Joyce review noted it might take five to six years to act on many of the recommendations. In the interim, the report advised moving early on recommendations that would address the declining confidence in the sector. These early steps are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>bringing forward reforms to strengthen the <a href="https://www.asqa.gov.au/">Australian Skills Quality Authority</a> – the national VET regulator</p></li>
<li><p>piloting a new business-led model of organising skills for qualification development, and extending work-based VET further into less traditional areas, such as assistant professional jobs in health care or high-tech industries</p></li>
<li><p>establishing a national skills commission, which would start working with the states and territories to develop a nationally consistent funding model based on shared needs</p></li>
<li><p>revamping apprenticeship incentives to increase their attractiveness to employers and trainees</p></li>
<li><p>establishing a national careers institute, which would provide better careers information to students</p></li>
<li><p>introducing new vocational pathways into senior secondary schools to create a more seamless transition from Year 11 and 12 into VET courses</p></li>
<li><p>providing new support for second-chance learners needing foundation language, literacy, numeracy and digital skills.</p></li>
</ol>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1117570986918936576"}"></div></p>
<h2>Is the government doing it?</h2>
<p>The federal government <a href="https://ministers.education.gov.au/cash/delivering-world-class-vocational-education-and-training-system">agreed to implement most of the early action recommendations</a>. It committed A$525 million to the <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/skills-and-training-budget-overview-2019-20">Delivering Skills for Today and Tomorrow</a> package. But it has a looser interpretation of how early these should be put in place. </p>
<p>Only two of the six early actions identified by the Joyce review were budgeted for in 2019-2020: the establishment of a national skills commission and a national careers institute. Some actions, such as 40% of the funding for a new apprenticeship initiative, or A$108 million, are only planned to be resourced as late as the 2023-24 budget. </p>
<p>The review’s recommendations mainly focused on the <a href="https://www.afr.com/news/policy/health/bypass-degrees-and-tick-and-flick-providers-new-review-takes-them-on-20190405-p51b92">slow process of creating and updating qualifications</a>. This is good, but it could be argued the review didn’t directly address the needs articulated by various industry groups.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/employer-incentives-may-not-be-the-most-cost-effective-or-fair-way-of-boosting-apprenticeship-numbers-114986">Employer incentives may not be the most cost-effective or fair way of boosting apprenticeship numbers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These included calls for <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/call-for-vet-unis-to-face-future-together/news-story/ad04458ea62b483a81d8809c0d82703c?login=1">more collaboration between the VET and university sectors</a>. Then there was the Business Council of Australia’s appeal for a single market platform and <a href="https://www.bca.com.au/future_proof">funding model for the two sectors</a> to enable workers to more easily retrain and reskill over their lives.</p>
<p>However, the review agrees with industry that “change will take time”. It will require the federal government to “work with the states and territories” but also, as the <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/productivity-review/report">Productivity Commission noted</a>, the changes will need to be “piloted and evaluated by willing industries”. </p>
<h2>Some creative partnerships</h2>
<p>Some states and territories have already started experimenting with a small number of players in the VET sector to overcome industry concerns. There is Rio Tinto’s collaboration with Western Australia’s South Metropolitan TAFE to develop an <a href="https://thewest.com.au/news/north-west-telegraph/rio-tinto-tafe-launch-australias-first-automation-course-ng-b88795187z">autonomous vehicle qualification</a>. And Blockchain Collective’s development of an <a href="https://www.finder.com.au/australias-first-accredited-blockchain-courses-have-arrived">Advanced Diploma of Applied Blockchain</a>). </p>
<p>Other significant experiments include the New South Wales government’s <a href="https://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/business-and-industry-in-nsw/innovation-and-research/sydney-school-of-entrepreneurship">Sydney School of Entrepreneurship</a> between TAFE NSW, universities and industry, and the <a href="https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/latest-news/2018/10/advanced-manufacturing-industry-40-hub-at-swinburne-.php">Factory of the Future</a> between the Victorian government, Swinburne University and Siemens.</p>
<p>These green shoots point to a willingness in governments, industry and broader VET stakeholders to take the initiative to work together and <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/commsen/9794d543-f5b2-4c0a-8a37-51ecb4459a75/toc_pdf/Select%20Committee%20on%20the%20Future%20of%20Work%20and%20Workers_2018_03_12_5978_Official.pdf;fileType=application/pdf#search=%22committees/commsen/9794d543-f5b2-4c0a-8a37-51ecb4459a75/0000%22">experiment</a>. We believe this will help overcome the inertia in making changes to the VET sector, and better meet the future needs of employers and students.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fewer-australians-will-have-uni-or-tafe-skills-if-governments-dont-reform-tertiary-education-117903">Fewer Australians will have uni or TAFE skills if governments don't reform tertiary education</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117743/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pi-Shen Seet receives funding from NCVER.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janice Jones receives funding from NCVER. </span></em></p>In April 2019, the government-commissioned Joyce review made 71 recommendations to reform the VET sector. Here’s what the report said, and what the government is doing about it.Pi-Shen Seet, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Edith Cowan UniversityJanice Jones, Associate Professor, College of Business, Government and Law, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1068452019-02-19T06:23:57Z2019-02-19T06:23:57ZResearch shows students are as good as professors in tutorial teaching<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259205/original/file-20190215-1751-mluwla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=106%2C83%2C4954%2C3140&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many universities use tutorials to complement lectures.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Professors and graduate students are at opposite ends of the university hierarchy in terms of experience, qualifications and pay. But at many universities, both do the same job: they teach tutorials offered in parallel with lectures. </p>
<p>Our <a href="http://ftp.iza.org/dp11975.pdf">research</a> explores whether it makes sense for professors to teach tutorials – and we found it doesn’t. They are no more effective as tutorial instructors than students. </p>
<p>This finding implies that universities can reduce costs or free up professors’ time by asking students to teach more tutorials. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-pressure-on-academics-to-learn-how-to-teach-but-they-need-more-support-76022">There's pressure on academics to learn how to teach. But they need more support</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Measuring instructors’ effectiveness</h2>
<p>We conducted a survey about tutorial instruction in OECD universities. Our <a href="http://ftp.iza.org/dp11975.pdf">results</a> show that tutorials are used in 63% of OECD universities. At 25% of these institutions, tutorials are taught by students, 29% by professors and 46% by a mixture of the two. </p>
<p>Using professors to teach small groups is expensive, and <a href="https://newsroom.iza.org/en/archive/research/steering-more-students-into-stem/">reducing costs is a central concern</a> given the <a href="https://trends.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/2018-trends-in-college-pricing.pdf">increases in tuition fees</a> and <a href="https://www.newyorkfed.org/studentloandebt/index.html">student debt</a>.</p>
<p>We have studied the costs and benefits of using tutorial instructors with different academic ranks, using data from a Dutch business school that offers four key features. First, tutorials are taught by a wide range of instructors, ranging from bachelor’s students to full professors. Second, the school’s dataset is large enough (we observe more than 12,000 students) to give us enough statistical power to detect even small differences between instructors. </p>
<p>Third, at this business school students are randomly assigned to instructors of different academic ranks, creating a perfect experiment for seeing whether academic rank matters. Finally, we were able to supplement these already excellent data with measures of students’ satisfaction with the course, and students’ earnings and job satisfaction after graduation, for some of these students. This is important since instructors might matter in many ways and we need to cast a wide net to capture a range of student outcomes.</p>
<h2>Students just as effective</h2>
<p>Overall, our results show that lower-ranked instructors teach tutorials as effectively as higher-ranked ones. The most effective instructors – postdoctoral researchers – increase students grades by less than 0.02 points on a 10-point grade scale compared with student instructors. The differences between all other instructor types, from student instructor and full professor, is smaller than that. </p>
<p>Full professors are also no better than student instructors in improving students’ grades in the next related course or job satisfaction and earnings after graduation. We do, however, find that higher-ranked instructors achieve somewhat better course evaluations, but these differences are small. </p>
<p>These findings are counter-intuitive. Yet they are consistent with the general <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272710001696">findings</a> in primary and secondary education that formal education does a poor job at predicting who teaches well.</p>
<p>What could be the reason why all the extra qualification and experience of professors does not translate into better results for their students? The content of tutorials might be adjusted in a way that students can easily teach them. Further, lower-ranked instructors may compensate for their lack of experience by being better able to relate to students and being more motivated. </p>
<h2>Key implication</h2>
<p>The implications of our findings are obvious. Universities can free up resources by not asking their most expensive staff to do a job that students can do equally well. We show that the business school we study can reduce the overall wages they pay to tutorial instructors by 50% if they only employ student instructors. </p>
<p>There are, of course, reasons why universities might not want to exclusively rely on student instructors. Students might not be able to teach some more technically advanced master’s courses. There might be some research-inactive but tenured professors whose most valuable use of time is tutorial teaching. And, as with other research that rely on data from one institution, future studies need to show whether our results hold in other universities as well. </p>
<p>But even if these studies uncover some benefits to students of being taught by a professor, we would be surprised if these are worth the extra costs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106845/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 organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As students return to campuses this week, new research shows universities could save money by not asking professors to teach tutorials because they are no more effective than student instructors.Jan Feld, Senior Lecturer, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonNicolás Salamanca, Research Fellow, The University of MelbourneUlf Zoelitz, Assistant Professor, University of ZurichLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1013882018-10-03T20:04:24Z2018-10-03T20:04:24ZWe need to change negative views of the jobs VET serves to make it a good post-school option<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234200/original/file-20180830-195325-d6dpdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If we don't respect plumbing as an occupation, how will we respect the system that trains plumbers?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of a series on the future of vocational education and training, exploring issues within the sector and how to improve the decline in enrolments and shortages of qualified people in vocational jobs. Read the other articles in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=Future+of+VET">here</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The low status of vocational education and training (VET) is a growing problem. Many young Australians and their parents don’t consider VET as a potential post-school pathway, even if it might be more suitable for them than university. </p>
<p>In an era of high aspiration, VET is <a href="https://unevoc.unesco.org/go.php?q=Virtual%20conference%20on%20improving%20the%20image%20of%20TVET:%20making%20TVET%20more%20attractive%20to%20young%20people">often seen</a> as an option only for those unable to gain university entry. This undermines VET as a viable and effective post-school pathway – the one most frequently trod by young people in countries such as <a href="https://www.britishcouncil.org/education/skills-employability/what-we-do/vocational-education-exchange-online-magazine/improving-vocational-education">Britain</a>, <a href="https://www.dcdualvet.org/wp-content/uploads/2014_GIZ_Improving-the-Image-of-Technical-and-Vocational-Education-and-Training_A-synthesis.pdf">Germany</a> and <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=r6VhDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT6&dq=vocational+education+in+switzerland&ots=6boYqv396s&sig=mEfWnkXXlMGFvXcKnVy2jk2_JEM#v=snippet&q=swiss&f=false">Switzerland</a>. </p>
<p>It’s also fuelling a growing mismatch between the skills young people are leaving tertiary education with and employment opportunities in their preferred jobs. It can also <a href="https://epi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/remaking-tertiary-education-web.compressed.pdf">lead to</a> increasingly lengthy, costly and roundabout post-school pathways to employment for young people.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-choose-the-right-training-provider-47761">How to choose the right training provider</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But much of the low status of VET compared to university is shaped by negative societal perceptions of the jobs it trains people for. This is particularly true for those seen as dead-end (such as dental assistants), those requiring manual work, involve getting dirty (such as mechanics) or seen to be servile (such as waitressing). Changing those views is necessary to address the low status of VET and present it as a good option for school-leavers and their parents to consider.</p>
<h2>The status of vocational education</h2>
<p>Young people and their parents are faced with difficult decision-making when considering post-school educational pathways. Most vocational and university programs have specific occupational focuses. So, decisions about these pathways have to focus on the jobs young people and their parents aspire to be in. </p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, jobs seen to be personally interesting, socially-desirable, clean, well-paid and offering stable employment are the most attractive. These include law, speech pathology and journalism. </p>
<p>A university education is the usual pathway to this kind of work. This is despite jobs in these industries becoming <a href="https://theconversation.com/too-many-graduates-not-enough-jobs-universities-profits-and-clinical-need-13482">increasingly scarce</a> due to an <a href="https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/sme-law/22768-frustration-grows-over-unis-cashing-in-on-law-grad-oversupply">oversupply of students</a> now being prepared for these types of jobs. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234206/original/file-20180830-195298-m8zum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234206/original/file-20180830-195298-m8zum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234206/original/file-20180830-195298-m8zum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234206/original/file-20180830-195298-m8zum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234206/original/file-20180830-195298-m8zum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234206/original/file-20180830-195298-m8zum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234206/original/file-20180830-195298-m8zum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s common for school-leavers to only consider VET as an option if they don’t get into university.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Australia is far from alone here. Long-standing societal sentiments about occupations, exacerbated currently by growing aspirations among young people and parents is a <a href="https://www.dcdualvet.org/wp-content/uploads/2014_GIZ_Improving-the-Image-of-Technical-and-Vocational-Education-and-Training_A-synthesis.pdf">common concern globally</a>. This is the case not only in countries with advanced industrial economies, but <a href="https://unevoc.unesco.org/go.php?q=Virtual%20conference%20on%20improving%20the%20image%20of%20TVET:%20making%20TVET%20more%20attractive%20to%20young%20people">also those with developing economies</a> – for instance Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan. </p>
<h2>Societal investment in funding</h2>
<p>When perceived to be low standing, societal investment (such as those from governments) in VET dwindles, as has long been the case in Australia. This perpetuates a cycle of under-funding and marketisation policies that reinforces its unattractiveness to young people, and further reduces societal investment.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/government-spending-on-education-the-winners-and-losers-70264">Government spending on education: the winners and losers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As a consequence, VET is not being optimised as a post-school pathway to meet the needs of young Australians, the national economy, the viability of Australian businesses or the community. The risk for young people is they will spend their time and money on an educational pathway that may fail to secure them the kinds of jobs they aspire to, and limit their employment options. </p>
<p>So, the recent introduction in Victoria of <a href="https://theconversation.com/free-tafe-in-victoria-who-benefits-and-why-other-states-should-consider-it-96102">subsided VET programs</a> for certain occupations is a positive example of societal investment in VET. But this initiative needs to progress alongside measures that promote these occupations as being worthwhile and worthy for young people. </p>
<h2>What needs to happen?</h2>
<p>Measures are now being put forward by governments to address this problem. <a href="http://www.voced.edu.au/content/focus-higher-level-apprenticeships-pathways">These include</a> having higher level vocational education programs, including degree-level apprenticeships, and changing the name of vocational education institutions to make them more attractive. All of these are worth considering, but these measures risk being short-term fixes. </p>
<p>Not long ago, vocational education institutions change their name from “colleges” to “institutes” to make them more attractive, particularly to overseas students. Equally, requiring high levels of certification has not necessarily enhanced the status of occupations – such as travel agents.</p>
<p>In countries such as Germany, technical and trade occupations are held in higher esteem. There, it’s common to find young people who have university entrance but prefer to engage in apprenticeships. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234204/original/file-20180830-195304-6ujlrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234204/original/file-20180830-195304-6ujlrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234204/original/file-20180830-195304-6ujlrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234204/original/file-20180830-195304-6ujlrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234204/original/file-20180830-195304-6ujlrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234204/original/file-20180830-195304-6ujlrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234204/original/file-20180830-195304-6ujlrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Public perception of the jobs VET trains people for need to change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Australia needs high quality technical, trade and service workers whose skills develop through effective occupational preparation. But these outcomes are most likely to be realised when jobs are valued by society. Education needs to acknowledge and addresses the complexities of the jobs and have educational goals that help students graduate with the necessary skills.</p>
<p>Ultimately, addressing societal views of jobs such as plumbers, electricians or concreters cannot be realised through the education system alone. Public perceptions need to change, including those of parents and teachers. </p>
<p>This can be done through informing the public about them, being open about what this work requires of the worker and what they need to know to be competent in them. Government should lead the charge in this effort, and industry should support and sponsor. </p>
<h2>Three actions are required</h2>
<p>Firstly, a public education campaign needs to be undertaken to inform the community (particularly parents) about VET as a viable post-school option. It should be supported by industry and enacted by government, through public education and social marketing via electronic media.</p>
<p>Secondly, schools should better inform young people about VET as a post-school option and include entrance into VET as an important performance indicator. Schools should take action such as organising visits to schools by young people championing the work in VET fields.</p>
<p>Thirdly, federal and state government along with industry need to ensure the VET provision is organised, ordered and resourced in ways that provides students with the appropriate educational experiences to prepare them for the job they choose.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101388/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Billett is Professor of Adult and Vocational Education at Griffith University. He receives funding from UNESCO, Australian Research Council, Queensland state government, Singapore government, Norwegian Research Council, Office of Teaching and Learning (Australian Federal Government). He is also affiliated with Gold Coast University Hospital. </span></em></p>Many young Australians and their parents don’t consider VET as a potential post-school pathway, even if it might be more suitable for them than university.Stephen Billett, Professor of Adult and Vocational Education, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1027102018-09-17T10:34:54Z2018-09-17T10:34:54ZAustralian tertiary education funding is not as low as it seems in OECD metrics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236359/original/file-20180914-177950-1x55hq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">OECD data can be a cherry-picker’s picnic in local higher education funding debates.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><hr>
<p><em>This is a longer read. Enjoy!</em></p>
<hr>
<p>In Paris each year, the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/about/">Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development</a> (OECD) publishes its <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2018_eag-2018-en">Education at a Glance</a> report. And each year, local reporting highlights our incredibly low public spending on tertiary education. </p>
<p>In this narrative, the 2016 edition ranked Australia <a href="https://go8.edu.au/article/reforms-make-unis-vulnerable-says-go8-chairman-peter-hoj">second-lowest</a> in the OECD. The 2017 edition put us in the <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/Media-and-Events/media-releases/Australia-s-public-spend-on-tertiary-education-lags-Estonia-and-Turkey-as-a-share-of-GDP#.W48znegzbIV">bottom four</a>, well below countries such as <a href="http://newsroom.kpmg.com.au/ok-international-students-pick-australias-funding-slack-higher-education/">Portugal and Mexico</a>, and <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20170913140128375">40% below</a> the OECD average. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/six-things-labors-review-of-tertiary-education-should-consider-93496">Six things Labor’s review of tertiary education should consider</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>With claims such as these <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20170913140128375">making headlines</a>, few would guess Australian tertiary education is not that under-funded, comparatively speaking. New figures in the 2018 edition, released last week, confirm this.</p>
<h2>Local trends since 2008</h2>
<p>The top line in the chart below shows OECD estimates of <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2017_eag-2017-en#page190">total spending on Australian tertiary institutions</a> as a share of GDP, over 2008-2015. This is the OECD’s “B2” metric for institutional revenue. It shows the level of income from all sources that flow to universities and other tertiary providers. </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="s2wE7" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/s2wE7/8/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>The line below is the OECD’s “B4” metric: <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2016_eag-2016-en#page232">total public spending</a> on tertiary education as a whole, from a government point of view. This includes direct public grants to institutions, and also government loans or grants to students for tuition fees, living costs, and so on.</p>
<h2>Australia compared with other tertiary systems</h2>
<p>The chart below shows Australia’s total public spending rate in cash outlay terms, between <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2013/indicator-b4-what-is-the-total-public-spending-on-education_eag-2013-16-en#page11">2010</a> and <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2017/b4-1-total-public-expenditure-on-education-2014_eag-2017-table107-en#page1">2014</a>. </p>
<p>Australia’s rate rose from 1.1% to 1.4% of GDP, as the OECD average rate slid from 1.4% to 1.3%. The slide reflects flat or falling rates elsewhere, notably in Ireland - which fell from 1.4% to 1.0% - as well as in Spain, Hungary, Portugal and others.</p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/YRkRI/6/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" width="100%" height="534"></iframe>
<hr>
<h2>Comparing total spending on institutions</h2>
<p>The chart below shows how, in most OECD countries, total rates for tertiary institutions (revenue from all sources, public or private) were flat or falling between <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2013/indicator-b2-what-proportion-of-nationa-l-wealth-is-spent-on-education_eag-2013-14-en#page14">2010</a> and <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2018/indicator-c2-what-proportion-of-national-wealth-is-spent-on-educational-institutions_eag-2018-22-en#page9">2015</a>. Again, Ireland’s rate fell sharply, in this case from 1.6% to 0.8% of GDP. Rates also fell in Finland, Portugal, Slovenia and others. As the OECD average slid to 1.5% of GDP, the Australian rate rose markedly, from 1.6% to 2.0%. </p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/1Zfqu/3/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" width="100%" height="560"></iframe>
<hr>
<p>A government spin-doctor might say tertiary funding in Australia ranks “fourth-highest” in the OECD. But not really. </p>
<p>In part, Australia’s high rate reflects high private revenue from our high volume of <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2017/indicator-c4-what-is-the-profile-of-internationally-mobile-students_eag-2017-26-en#page6">international enrolments</a>. As well, universities have had a <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/news/demand-for-cuts-deals-death-blow-to-australias-demand-driven-system/">domestic enrolment boom</a> financed by uncapped government grants and loans (until 2017). Also, public loans in the <a href="https://www.afr.com/news/policy/education/ad-hoc-ministerial-decision-making-in-education-jeopardises-private-sector-competition-20180912-h15ann">now closed VET FEE-HELP scheme</a>, which had been misused by unscrupulous providers, <a href="https://www.themandarin.com.au/74012-vet-scheme-audit/">peaked in 2015</a>. </p>
<h2>Institutional resourcing: rises and falls over time</h2>
<p>In the chart below, total spending on Australian tertiary institutions <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2018/indicator-c1-how-much-is-spent-per-student-on-educational-institutions_eag-2018-21-en#page11">rose by 44%</a> between 2010 and 2015. The OECD average rose 12%. In some countries (Portugal, Italy, Slovenia and others) total spending on institutions fell. </p>
<p>Per student, Australian institutional spending rose 20%. The OECD average rose 11%. In Ireland, Spain, Germany and others per student spending fell.</p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/zynzM/6/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" width="100%" height="712"></iframe>
<hr>
<p>To compare institutional resource levels per student across systems in any given year, the OECD uses “purchasing power parity in US dollar” estimates to compare spending rates across diverse economies on like-for-like terms. </p>
<p>As seen in the chart below, Australia’s total rate of institutional <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2018/indicator-c1-how-much-is-spent-per-student-on-educational-institutions_eag-2018-21-en#page9">spending per tertiary student</a> in 2015 was US$20,300. The OECD average rate was US$15,700. For Spain it was US$12,600, and US$11,800 in Portugal, US$11,300 in Italy, US$10,200 in Slovenia, US$8,800 in Hungary, and US$4,100 in Greece.</p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/TGl0X/9/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" width="100%" height="617"></iframe>
<hr>
<h2>How can we be “second-lowest”?</h2>
<p>From the evidence so far, many might wonder how Australia’s funding could be lower than in most European countries. This is because local reports of “second lowest”, “bottom four” and “40% below average” rely on a single slice of data from the OECD’s data set which shows public spending on tertiary institutions. </p>
<p>This version of “public spending” excludes HELP loans, historically classed as a “private” source of revenue in this dataset. Using this classification, the 2016 report put our “public” rate at <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2016/indicator-b2-what-proportion-of-national-wealth-is-spent-on-education_eag-2016-17-en#page10">just 0.7% of GDP</a> against an OECD average of 1.1%. The chart shows how, on this view, we seemed “second-lowest” in 2013, ahead of Japan.</p>
<p>But as the OECD <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2016_eag-2016-en#page228">has recognised</a>, its metrics which show total spending on tertiary institutions don’t show the real public cost of student loans in the UK or Australia. </p>
<p>Last year, Australian higher education expert Simon Marginson <a href="http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/economic-affairs-committee/the-economics-of-higher-further-and-technical-education/oral/72688.html">estimated</a> that the UK’s 2014 “public” and “private” spending rates in this dataset (0.6% public and 1.3% private) came closer to a 50:50 split once unrepaid student loans were taken into account. </p>
<p>And in Australia last year, the government reduced the estimated value of accrued student HELP debt substantially, <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/education_annual_report_2016-17_0.pdf">from A$55 billion to A$36 billion</a>. In these cases, OECD’s data understates public and overstates private spending. </p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/PauRM/3/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" width="100%" height="500"></iframe>
<hr>
<p>As the chart above shows, these “public spending” figures on their own present only a partial picture. A further problem with the “second-lowest” tag is that the OECD’s 2016 report had no data to show for Luxembourg or Greece. And until last year’s OECD report the UK was <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/student-loans-confusion-reigns-englands-he-spending">reporting student loans as public</a> while Australia’s were reported as private. </p>
<h2>Other news in the 2018 report</h2>
<p>The 2018 report reflects OECD efforts to separate apples and oranges where public loans are a major policy instrument. The UK’s revised “public” rate now sits below Australia’s, not at the OECD average. And the OECD’s updated metric for public/private spending now shows figures for <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2018/indicator-c2-what-proportion-of-national-wealth-is-spent-on-educational-institutions_eag-2018-22-en#page10">“initial” government payments</a> to institutions, including public loans for tuition. </p>
<p>This puts <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2018/indicator-c2-what-proportion-of-national-wealth-is-spent-on-educational-institutions_eag-2018-22-en#page10">“final” government funding</a> in context, by showing how different approaches to public financing play out for tertiary institutions.</p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/pBLS8/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" width="100%" height="557"></iframe>
<hr>
<h2>GDP growth effects</h2>
<p>Even then, the latest “11th-lowest” view of Australian public spending needs more context.</p>
<p>In metrics like these - local spending as a share of national income - high economic growth in Australia often skews comparisons with countries hit hard by the 2008 financial crisis, as in much of Europe. Over 2001-2015, Australian GDP grew by 50%. The OECD average was 28%, and the Euro area average was 14%.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/oecd-comparisons-dont-prove-our-unis-are-underfunded-47412">OECD comparisons don't prove our unis are underfunded</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Consider Greece: over 2008-2015 it cut public funding for public universities by 58%. According to the <a href="https://eua.eu/resources/publications/719:eua-public-funding-observatory-2017-country-sheets.html?sfvrsn=2%253futm_source=webpage&utm_medium=publication&utm_name=publication-webpage-12-12-2017">European University Association</a> public university funding in Italy, Spain and Hungary also fell, by 17%, 22% and 30% respectively. </p>
<p>So, even if their public spending rates at times look higher in OECD metrics, we can’t assume universities in these countries are better-funded. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/oecd-figures-are-not-what-they-seem-in-higher-education-60786">OECD figures are not what they seem in higher education</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In fact, while Australian rates in some OECD metrics have risen faster than most, in many cases our GDP grew faster as well. The chart below shows how some countries with flat or falling rates of public funding (such as Italy, Portugal, Spain and France) also had flat or falling GDP. </p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/hbXkl/9/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" width="100%" height="735"></iframe>
<hr>
<h2>Australia is best served by better local knowledge</h2>
<p>The Australian tertiary sector is better-financed than the OECD’s most popular <a href="https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1057/s41307-017-0058-4?author_access_token=NEdV2-M5FTzhq6OrcuvUslxOt48VBPO10Uv7D6sAgHsgOR7QajZ9hlZjb0JU9VX3F-AgO1NAbusJbXf5BWQUQhVFavnsr_aMZmMQ-rOqOUPrWq6BMiSe_hl4-fQ_J0EKBO1MRtmTd7NpfP-sSO4Y_A%3D%3D">(and most “damning”)</a> statistics suggest. In reality, places such as Portugal do not <a href="http://newsroom.kpmg.com.au/ok-international-students-pick-australias-funding-slack-higher-education/">invest more</a> and our funding is not really <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20170913140128375">40% below the OECD average</a>.</p>
<p>From government reporting and analyses by the <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/mapping-australian-higher-education-2018/">Grattan Institute</a>, the <a href="http://www.mitchellinstitute.org.au/reports/">Mitchell Institute</a> and others, we know Australian spending on tertiary education has risen rapidly over the years. Compared to many others, ours is a big system growth story. In the end, Australian policy and funding debates are better served by tracking domestic data, and more informed and transparent use of the most relevant OECD metrics.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102710/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoff Sharrock 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>Australian tertiary education policy and funding debates are better served by domestic data.Geoff Sharrock, Honorary Senior Fellow, Centre for Vocational and Educational Policy, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/975332018-06-05T20:06:21Z2018-06-05T20:06:21ZANU’s new entrance criteria won’t do much to improve equity<p>The Australian National University recently <a href="http://www.anu.edu.au/study/apply/new-admissions-for-2020/co-curricular-or-service-requirement">announced</a> that from 2020 it will require all students to meet co-curricular requirements alongside the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) requirement. </p>
<p>The diverse <a href="http://www.anu.edu.au/study/apply/new-admissions-for-2020/co-curricular-or-service-requirement">list</a> of co-curricular requirements includes part-time employment, participation in the creative arts, sports, and community and service activities. Academic internships, international exchange, and scholastic activities such as the prestigious <a href="https://www.googlesciencefair.com/#!?modal_active=none">Google Science Fair</a> are also recognised under the scheme. </p>
<p>This represents perhaps the largest admissions policy shift from a <a href="https://go8.edu.au/">Group of Eight</a> university to date. It’s a clear indication the national university is looking beyond the ATAR to ensure it attracts the most suitable young people to its courses. But it will not do much to improve equity of access.</p>
<h2>Anti-ATAR sentiment</h2>
<p>Sentiment against the Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranking (ATAR) is <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/atar-should-be-simplified-or-even-abolished-says-chief-scientist-alan-finkel-20180423-p4zb74.html">rising</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-scrap-the-atar-what-are-the-alternative-options-experts-comment-55501">Should we scrap the ATAR? What are the alternative options? Experts comment</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/nsw-universities-taking-students-with-atars-as-low-as-30-20160126-gmdvr6.html">Fairfax report</a> in 2016 showed universities were accepting students with ATARs much lower than advertised cut-off scores. The report confirmed suspicions university admissions are <a href="https://myaccount.news.com.au/sites/theaustralian/subscribe.html?sourceCode=TAWEB_WRE170_a&mode=premium&dest=https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/year-12-and-atar-need-a-rethink/news-story/08187e86c4d8f26d7b514e23eb61e4c9&memtype=anon">opaque</a> and at risk of being gamed <a href="http://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/no-the-atar-cant-be-gamed-but-it-can-be-tuned/">by schools</a>.</p>
<p>Since then, there have been calls across the sector to <a href="https://theconversation.com/atars-you-may-as-well-use-postcodes-for-university-admissions-19154">increase transparency</a> around how ATAR is used for university entrance. And a rising chorus suggests the ATAR should be <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-scrap-the-atar-what-are-the-alternative-options-experts-comment-55501">scrapped all together</a>.</p>
<p>More recently, Australia’s chief scientist Alan Finkel has emerged as a fierce opponent of the ATAR system, going as far as to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/atar-should-be-simplified-or-even-abolished-says-chief-scientist-alan-finkel-20180423-p4zb74.html">suggest</a> the system is “completely obscure” and results in students “being given poor advice” about their post-secondary options. </p>
<h2>What has changed?</h2>
<p>The majority of universities across the country already accept some students based on other-than-ATAR requirements. These include portfolios, interviews, and community service. Most also allocate a number of places to students from underrepresented communities, and specific pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. </p>
<p>What’s different about ANU Vice-Chancellor Brian Schmidt’s announcement last week is the specific commitment by a high status, research-intensive university to base admissions on more than “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/community-service-as-important-as-atar-for-year-12s-in-anu-overhaul-20180529-p4zi7n.html">just a score</a>”.</p>
<p>The addition of a co-curricular or “service” requirement follows an announcement by <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/act/australian-national-university-to-abandon-atar-as-sole-entry-requirement-20160801-gqi4ai.html?_ga=2.204029648.1351890709.1528065145-1249041768.1524834919">Professor Schmidt in 2016</a> that the national university was looking to “move away from judging students only on their year 12 ATAR results”. </p>
<p>The move will see students required to meet a threshold of out-of-class activities alongside the ANU floor ATAR of 80 for admission to most courses. ANU has two advantages which allow it to take this policy position: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>the lowest ATAR admitted to ANU in 2018 was close to 80.00, which means ANU draws almost exclusively from the top quintile of results overall</p></li>
<li><p>ANU enjoys a remarkably high completion rate, with <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/third-of-university-students-failing-to-complete-course/news-story/0c70435cf7690878811d957a51523a5b">over 80%</a> successful completions between 2009 and 2014. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>This policy may help to attract students with a “near-miss” on their admission into high-status degrees. By necessity, it will certainly encourage already high performing students to look beyond their academic studies and develop their whole selves in the final years of secondary school.</p>
<p>But it won’t dramatically alter the student cohort in terms of encouraging low-SES students to apply. These students are significantly <a href="https://theconversation.com/year-12-results-day-does-the-atar-actually-matter-that-much-48890">more likely</a> to achieve an ATAR under 80 than their more advantaged peers </p>
<p>Rather, ANU’s co-curricular or service requirement will increase competition for places at the lower-end of those students the university already accepts. It gives the university a powerful lever with which to allocate university places moving forward. This is especially important given the <a href="https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/link/9d7c304cafe37e80cf41a5e7b34f4e9c?domain=theaustralian.com.au">increased scrutiny</a> on the use of ATAR as the sole basis for university admissions. </p>
<h2>What does this mean for equity?</h2>
<p>ANU’s plan has <a href="https://psnews.com.au/2018/05/31/universitys-new-admission-plan-wins-praise/">drawn praise</a> from Federal Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham. He suggested the policy represents a “commitment to welcome, educate and accommodate the best and brightest Australians, regardless of their background”. </p>
<p>Professor Schmidt has positioned these changes as an access measure. But as higher education policy expert Andrew Norton notes, high-socioeconomic young people tend to <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2018/05/30/will-extra-curricular-admission-requirements-improve-low-ses-access-to-the-anu/">perform better</a> on these kinds of co-curricular requirements than their less advantaged peers. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/your-atar-isnt-the-only-thing-universities-are-looking-at-93353">Your ATAR isn't the only thing universities are looking at</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Non-academic requirements are very common overseas. The US is the most prominent example, where students are required to apply directly to each institution. That system is widely <a href="https://www.theodysseyonline.com/income-students-disadvantage">criticised</a> as advantaging high-socioeconomic students who often enjoy far superior resources, time, and parental support in putting together their applications. There have been significant moves in recent times to address these issues, with the continued adoption of <a href="http://www.commonapp.org/search-colleges">common application</a> processes.</p>
<p>Multiple factors influence young people’s readiness for tertiary study. This is especially true for students from diverse, underrepresented, and low-socioeconomic backgrounds.</p>
<p>First, these young people are at a <a href="https://theconversation.com/career-studies-and-advice-start-early-or-dont-start-at-all-40563">significant disadvantage</a> in terms of the quality and availability of career planning and counselling.</p>
<p>Second, even after they’re admitted, young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are significantly <a href="https://www.ncsehe.edu.au/publications/completing-university-in-a-growing-sector-is-equity-an-issue/">more likely to drop out</a>. This is often due to beyond-academic reasons, such as balancing work and study, caring responsibilities, and social exclusion.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-atar-debate-students-need-to-be-able-to-finish-uni-not-just-start-it-36478">The ATAR debate: students need to be able to finish uni, not just start it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Third, the tertiary admissions process, and the use of ATAR remain <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/call-rethink-australian-university-admissions">poorly understood</a> by the community more generally.</p>
<p>Finally, even if these students do succeed, they tend to find it <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/nice-work-if-you-can-get-it">more challenging</a> to secure work experience, and full-time employment after their studies. This is <a href="https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/%7E/media/files/research/research-evaluation/research-disadvantaged-young-australians-learning-for-life.ashx">due to</a> more limited professional networks and parental support.</p>
<p>In short, less advantaged students require significant additional supports, well beyond acknowledging their diverse pathways for entry into a degree program. These challenges remain the key litmus test for any debate around the continued usefulness of the ATAR.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97533/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shane Duggan receives funding from the Department of Education and Training. </span></em></p>From 2020, ANU will require students to meet co-curricular requirements alongside ATAR. This significant policy shift is meant to improve equity of access, but won’t change much.Shane Duggan, Vice Chancellor's Postdoctoral research fellow, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/934962018-05-24T20:05:13Z2018-05-24T20:05:13ZSix things Labor’s review of tertiary education should consider<p>In March, Shadow Minister for Education and Training Tanya Plibersek <a href="http://www.tanyaplibersek.com/speech_universities_australia_conference">outlined</a> Labor’s plan to review the architecture of the post-school education sector if elected next year. She said they would look at whether current qualification structures, the mix of institutions, and financing models are still fit for purpose.</p>
<p>The Mitchell Institute has <a href="http://www.mitchellinstitute.org.au/papers/a-new-system-for-financing-australian-tertiary-education/">highlighted</a> incoherent policy across the higher education and VET sectors - a legacy of short-term fixes and poor state/federal co-ordination. The latest fix is last year’s freeze on teaching grants in the higher education sector. Meanwhile, the VET sector has seen falling TAFE enrolments and VET FEE-HELP <a href="https://www.themandarin.com.au/74012-vet-scheme-audit/">loan rorts</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/vocational-education-and-training-sector-is-still-missing-out-on-government-funding-report-88863">Vocational education and training sector is still missing out on government funding: report</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A Labor review would seek to “<a href="https://www.postsecondaryinquiry.com/about">put TAFE and unis on an equal footing</a>” while restoring demand-driven funding. What should it consider?</p>
<h2>1. Look beyond a 2020 vision</h2>
<p>Any “2020” vision shaped by near-term budget or electoral considerations risks (at best) partial policy fixes. Earlier reform attempts have mixed subsidy cuts, fee hikes and Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) changes, many of them rejected as unfair. </p>
<p>A 2030+ vision is needed to reset post-secondary education as a platform for knowledge-era nation-building. In this future, most Australians will need to up-skill and re-skill across their working lives. And as now, the sector will serve many related aims: as a booster of innovation, an export industry and a channel for global engagement. </p>
<h2>2. Work back from the future of work</h2>
<p>Recent reports conclude that Australians aren’t facing an “end of work” future where <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-are-still-convinced-robots-will-take-our-jobs-despite-the-evidence-87188">robots take our jobs</a>. Instead, we are seeing old job destruction, new job creation and (mostly) the transformation of existing jobs to focus more on <a href="https://education.nsw.gov.au/our-priorities/innovate-for-the-future/education-for-a-changing-world/research-findings/future-frontiers-analytical-report-the-future-of-work-in-australia">non-routine tasks</a>, both manual and cognitive. </p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/PKwc8/3/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" width="100%" height="795"></iframe>
<hr>
<p>Meanwhile, post-school credentials, especially bachelor degrees, are becoming mainstream pathways into the Australian workforce. The authors of this <a href="https://education.nsw.gov.au/our-priorities/innovate-for-the-future/education-for-a-changing-world/research-findings/future-frontiers-analytical-report-the-future-of-work-in-australia">recent future of work report</a> conclude that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Education and skills remain essential, as partial insurance against technological unemployment, as a basis for innovation and competition, as a contributor to individual resilience and adaptability to change, and as a bulwark against further deepening of inequalities in opportunity.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>3. Learn from other systems</h2>
<p>But what kind of education and skills is less clear. In international comparisons, Australia looks strong in bachelor degrees. But some systems, such as Canada with its large community college sector, are <a href="http://higheredstrategy.com/what-makes-canada-unique-in-post-secondary-education/">stronger at the sub-bachelor level</a>. A review should test whether we have the right mix for our future labour market, which types of qualifications should be demand-led and how these are to be financed. </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="bcJmS" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/bcJmS/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>Some systems focus more on upper secondary vocational credentials. Offering these on a demand-led basis implies a different profile of post-compulsory provision, perhaps with a more diverse mix of institutions. </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="EsfcF" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/EsfcF/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>Some systems have strong industry and government support for a broader vocational sector with clearer pathways into work. In Australia, post-school pathways should be clearer into initial credentials and jobs, and into flexible “lifelong” learning for mid-career up-skilling. </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="7Szwb" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/7Szwb/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<h2>4. Consider new types of credentials</h2>
<p>Since 2012, <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-moocs-to-harvards-will-online-go-mainstream-18093">Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms</a> have promised mass scale yet personalised degree level learning, at very low cost. At the same time we’ve seen wide experimentation with new types of <a href="https://evolllution.com/programming/credentials/innovative-credentials-turning-a-drop-in-the-bucket-into-a-transformative-tidal-wave/">micro-credentials</a>. These represent the accomplishment of short study, training or project assignments, often focused on <a href="https://www.deakinco.com/media-centre/article/Benefits-of-micro-credentials-for-business-and-employees">enterprise skills</a>. Small and stackable units of learning may <a href="http://courses.curtin.edu.au/course_overview/curtin-online/micro-masters-entry-pathways.cfm">count for credit</a> towards a degree. Or supplement one by certifying wider sets of capabilities valued by employers.</p>
<p>As portfolio careers become mainstream, a subset of the <a href="http://hepg.org/HEPG/media/Documents/Introductions/Gallagher_The-Future-of-University-Credentials_Intro.pdf?ext=.pdf">emerging streams</a> of micro-credentials that specify what learners know and can do in more detail will gain <a href="https://evolllution.com/alternative-and-next-generation-credentialing/">wider acceptance</a>. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220232/original/file-20180524-117628-1qa3ga6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220232/original/file-20180524-117628-1qa3ga6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220232/original/file-20180524-117628-1qa3ga6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220232/original/file-20180524-117628-1qa3ga6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220232/original/file-20180524-117628-1qa3ga6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220232/original/file-20180524-117628-1qa3ga6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220232/original/file-20180524-117628-1qa3ga6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=959&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation, based on The Future of University Credentials by Sean Gallagher, 2016</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>A formalised system could offer more portable credit across education sectors and providers, and wider recognition across employers and industries. This may be a better fit for the idea proposed by the Mitchell Institute in 2015 for the government to provide younger cohorts of students a standard entitlement for upper vocational as well as <a href="https://theconversation.com/all-young-people-deserve-tertiary-education-support-not-just-at-uni-38646">degree level programs</a>. </p>
<p>Or the idea proposed by the Business Council of Australia last year to provide every Australian a capped <a href="http://www.bca.com.au/publications/future-proof-protecting-australians-through-education-and-skills">Lifelong Skills Account</a> that could be used to pay for courses at approved providers across the tertiary spectrum over the person’s lifetime.</p>
<p>In each case a key aim is to ensure that young people in particular choose post-secondary courses and skillsets with clear aims in mind, without being diverted or disadvantaged by funding anomalies.</p>
<h2>5. Learn from mistakes</h2>
<p>Along with lessons from VET FEE-HELP, Australia may learn from the UK experience with <a href="https://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/BN211.pdf">big funding cuts combined with big fee hikes</a> in 2012. This lifted university revenue per student but also landed many graduates in major debt for decades. This has raised <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/dec/08/university-students-failed-by-rip-off-fees-says-watchdog">serious questions about value for money</a> at English universities. </p>
<p>In 2014, plans to deregulate uni fees in Australia assumed competition would limit price hikes while HELP loans kept study costs fair. This “market” solution failed to see how open-ended loan entitlements in Australia can lead to <a href="https://theconversation.com/fee-deregulation-and-the-hazards-of-help-27521">major debts where much of the cost is eventually met by taxpayers</a>. </p>
<h2>6. Settle structure, then governance and who funds what</h2>
<p>RMIT’s Gavin Moodie has argued <a href="https://theconversation.com/four-ideas-for-reforming-higher-education-policy-making-88385">a joint review</a> by state and national governments is needed to integrate VET and higher education policy. Industry engagement is needed also, to help define future needs and support more <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-universities-can-make-graduates-employable-with-connections-to-industry-91838">work-integrated learning</a>. </p>
<p>A Labor review should <a href="http://www.mitchellinstitute.org.au/reports/financing-tertiary-education-in-australia-the-reform-imperative-and-rethinking-student-entitlements/">rethink the future structure</a> of post-secondary education <em>then</em> reconsider who finances what level of qualification. </p>
<p>Finally, we’ll need an <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/higher-education-funding-6102?page=2">independent body</a> to oversee tertiary education, and plan for the long term.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93496/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoff Sharrock 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>Labor has promised to review the tertiary education sector if elected next year. There are some major issues, and some examples from abroad they should consider.Geoff Sharrock, Honorary Senior Fellow, Centre for Vocational and Educational Policy, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.