tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/higher-education-policy-2191/articles
Higher education policy – The Conversation
2022-06-01T20:12:47Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/183977
2022-06-01T20:12:47Z
2022-06-01T20:12:47Z
Why big university surpluses underscore the need to reform how they are funded and governed
<p>The election of a new Labor federal government probably drew sighs of relief across the higher education sector. University staff and students will be hoping for a more sympathetic approach than they received from the Coalition government.</p>
<p>Tertiary education lobby groups have already put forward their wish lists and funding priorities. Yet the case for increasing funding might be a harder sell now that several universities have announced <a href="https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/buckets-of-money-at-big-sydney-unis/">staggeringly large surpluses</a> in their annual reports.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/labors-promised-universities-accord-could-be-a-turning-point-for-higher-education-in-australia-183810">Labor's promised universities accord could be a turning point for higher education in Australia</a>
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<h2>So how big were these surpluses?</h2>
<p>The University of Sydney’s <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-university-records-1-billion-surplus-as-staff-demand-a-share-20220523-p5anv2.html">A$1.04 billion operating surplus</a> stands out. But the biggest universities’ annual reports all show <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/universities-large-surpluses-complicate-their-case-for-aid/news-story/cb59b68d12651d19bb95c072b23d4d44">healthy surpluses</a>. <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/victorian-unis-bounce-back-despite-pandemic-pressures-on-income-20220503-p5ai06.html">Monash</a>, <a href="https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/buckets-of-money-at-big-sydney-unis/">UNSW</a> and <a href="https://www.couriermail.com.au/education-queensland/big-salaries-are-back-as-universities-recover-from-covid/news-story/e42c550343d4fe766a575683f97408b8">Queensland</a> have reported surpluses of more than $300 million. </p>
<p>While some universities, such as <a href="https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/vic-uni-finances-theyre-still-standing/">La Trobe</a>, reported operating losses, many <a href="https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/wa-uni-2021-financials-saved-by-the-feds/">other</a> <a href="https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/vic-uni-finances-theyre-still-standing/">universities</a> around the country also <a href="https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/uni-financial-results-some-look-better-than-they-like-to-admit/">recorded</a> surpluses, including some that aren’t far off Sydney’s result in relative terms. Examples include <a href="https://honisoit.com/2022/05/usyd-records-1-04-billion-surplus-for-2021/">Charles Sturt</a> (a 21% surplus of $143 million) and <a href="https://www.2nurfm.com.au/news/university-of-newcastle-defends-185-million-surplus-after-union-backlash/">Newcastle</a> (a 19% surplus of $185 million).</p>
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<p>The new government is already committed to fiscally expansive policies in areas such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme (<a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-vows-to-tackle-the-ndis-crisis-whats-needed-is-more-autonomy-for-people-with-disability-181470">NDIS</a>), <a href="https://theconversation.com/labors-plans-for-aged-care-are-targeted-but-fall-short-of-whats-needed-180497">aged care</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/high-childcare-fees-low-pay-for-staff-and-a-lack-of-places-pose-a-huge-policy-challenge-183617">early childhood education</a>. In an inflationary environment, it might be tempted to take a light-touch approach to university funding – scrap the Coalition’s incoherent <a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-offers-extra-university-places-but-more-radical-change-is-needed-173219">Job-Ready Graduates Package</a> and let universities look after themselves. </p>
<p>After all, despite regularly decrying the damage done by the Morrison government, Labor in opposition made few concrete policy commitments to universities beyond the welcome addition of 20,000 student places.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-offers-extra-university-places-but-more-radical-change-is-needed-173219">Labor offers extra university places, but more radical change is needed</a>
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<p>However, the latest university surpluses actually highlight, rather than diminish, the case for more public funding, and indeed for broader reform of university governance and finances. The key to understanding this lies in the market-based sources of revenue that underpinned these surpluses.</p>
<p>Take the University of Sydney. According to its <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/about-us/vision-and-values/annual-report.html">annual report</a>, the surplus was: </p>
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<p>“mainly due to increases in overseas student enrolments, strong investment performance and non-recurring items including the Commonwealth Government’s $95.1 million Research Support Program contribution and the net gains from the disposal of property assets”.</p>
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<p>International student fee income increased by about $250 million. Investment returns were up by almost $400 million. </p>
<p>It was a similar story elsewhere. Newcastle University reaped <a href="https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/uni-financial-results-some-look-better-than-they-like-to-admit/">$119 million</a> in additional investment income and UNSW <a href="https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/attachments/publications/2021-annual-report-v20b-digital-single.pdf">$117 million</a>. Many universities also profited from <a href="https://thepienews.com/news/australian-universities-sell-stake-in-idp-to-offset-losses/">selling their shares</a> in international student placement business IDP Education. </p>
<p>On the downside, the University of Wollongong <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/student-housing-deal-gone-sour-costs-uni-of-wollongong-169m/news-story/ff0ff2aeac32b1b079843ace877091a5">lost $169 million</a> after terminating its contract with a private student accommodation provider it had been underwriting.</p>
<h2>Remember, these are public institutions</h2>
<p>Bear in mind that these universities are public institutions. They are created by acts of parliament. A <a href="https://www.teqsa.gov.au/what-we-do">public agency</a> accredits and regulates their degree-conferring ability.</p>
<p>Public universities have legislated responsibilities to serve public ends. Yet they resemble profit-driven corporations in their financial governance. </p>
<p>This has been evident during the past two years. Having been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/04/australian-universities-angry-at-final-twist-of-the-knife-excluding-them-from-jobkeeper">denied JobKeeper</a> by the Coalition government, universities savagely cut staff. First casuals, then fixed-term staff, and then staff on ongoing contracts. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-2-years-of-covid-how-bad-has-it-really-been-for-university-finances-and-staff-172405">After 2 years of COVID, how bad has it really been for university finances and staff?</a>
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<p>In response to what loomed as a short-term drop in income from international students, university leaders took the corporate route. They restructured aggressively, losing incalculable expertise and institutional memory and throwing thousands of staff into unemployment. This process boosted “profits”, with employee expenses down at many universities.</p>
<p>Given the composition of university governing councils – about <a href="https://theconversation.com/2-out-of-3-members-of-university-governing-bodies-have-no-professional-expertise-in-the-sector-theres-the-making-of-a-crisis-171952">one-third of members</a> are from the corporate sector – it’s hardly surprising a for-profit orientation has come to dominate. </p>
<h2>What is the role of federal funding?</h2>
<p><a href="http://publicuniversities.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/University-Governance-Fact-Sheet.pdf">Federal funding settings</a> have played a role. Successive federal governments have refused to fund the full costs of university <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-analysis-shows-morrison-government-funding-wont-cover-any-extra-uni-student-places-for-years-167542">teaching</a> and <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp2122/Quick_Guides/UniversityResearchFunding">research</a>.</p>
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<p>Government funding accounts for <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/907-Mapping-Australian-higher-education-2018.pdf">a little over half</a> of higher education revenue, if government <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/higher-education-loan-program">HELP contributions</a> are included. This creates an incentive for university chiefs to pursue private sources of revenue to make up the shortfalls. Consistent with the corporate approach, the risks arising from market exposure have been devolved to staff by loading up on insecure employment (<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-17/university-casual-workforce-redundancies-dirty-secret/12462030">nearly 70%</a> of the higher education workforce) and rolling workplace restructures.</p>
<p>Surplus revenues are earmarked for infrastructure investment or “to shield the University against unforeseen circumstances”, as the University of Sydney annual report states. Except, as we saw over the past two years, when “unforeseen circumstances” arose, staff bore the brunt to preserve balance sheets.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-the-government-and-universities-can-do-about-the-crisis-of-insecure-academic-work-183345">Here's what the government and universities can do about the crisis of insecure academic work</a>
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<h2>What can governments do?</h2>
<p>Such perverse dynamics are out of place at a public institution. And this is the point at which federal policy can play a positive role. Increased and stable federal funding would reduce the incentive for university chiefs to pursue market-based sources of revenue and help avoid the wild budget gyrations of recent years. </p>
<p>But, given the corporate orientation of university governing boards, this would do little in and of itself to fix problems such as chronic <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-the-government-and-universities-can-do-about-the-crisis-of-insecure-academic-work-183345">job insecurity</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/hit-hard-by-the-pandemic-researchers-expect-its-impacts-to-linger-for-years-169366">increasing workloads</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/2-out-of-3-members-of-university-governing-bodies-have-no-professional-expertise-in-the-sector-theres-the-making-of-a-crisis-171952">2 out of 3 members of university governing bodies have no professional expertise in the sector. There's the making of a crisis</a>
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<p>Governance structures are a state responsibility. However, federal legislation can nonetheless influence universities’ internal resource allocation. The work of the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Job_Security/JobSecurity">Senate Select Committee on Job Security</a> provides a good starting point. </p>
<p>The committee sought to place responsibility on universities, as public institutions, to achieve positive employment outcomes. It <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/reportsen/024764/toc_pdf/Secondinterimreportinsecurityinpublicly-fundedjobs.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">recommended</a>:</p>
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<p>“as a condition of receiving public funding, universities […] set publicly available targets for increasing permanent employment and reducing casualisation”.</p>
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<p>It also argued the government should legislate to improve the ability of unions to inspect the records of universities with respect to potential wage theft.</p>
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<p>Such an approach is well within the remit of government. It could steer universities towards more positive outcomes for employees, students and the broader community. As it stands, university vice-chancellors seem to be saving for a rainy day, when a typhoon is sweeping across the sector.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183977/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Damien Cahill is Secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union NSW.</span></em></p>
Reports of big university budget surpluses appear to undermine calls for their federal funding to increase. But a closer look at how the surpluses were achieved reveals why change is needed.
Damien Cahill, Associate Professor in Political Economy, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/183810
2022-05-31T20:12:49Z
2022-05-31T20:12:49Z
Labor’s promised universities accord could be a turning point for higher education in Australia
<p><em>This essay is longer than our usual articles, so please set aside a little extra time to read and enjoy.</em></p>
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<p>Australian higher education could arrive at a turning point in the next three years. Not because the incoming Albanese government is likely to increase funding greatly. And not because it has ambitious plans to change higher education. </p>
<p>The reason is likely to be the <a href="https://www.alp.org.au/policies/your-education">universities accord</a> promised by Labor. The turning point is likely to emerge from rebuilding shared understandings of how to manage the pressures that built up over the past decade and how to negotiate a transition to a different higher education sector over the next decade. </p>
<p>These pressures have fractured a sense of a common purpose within the sector and among its interest groups. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-big-issues-in-higher-education-demand-the-new-governments-attention-183349">3 big issues in higher education demand the new government's attention</a>
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<h2>Pressures for a new settlement</h2>
<p>Pressures for a new settlement in higher education arise not just from the replacement of a government widely perceived within the sector as being <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-australian-government-letting-universities-suffer-138514">unsympathetic</a> to it, though that didn’t help. The new government’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/albanese-appoints-former-university-of-melbourne-vice-chancellor-glyn-davis-to-head-pmandc-184059">appointment</a> of former University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Glyn Davis to head the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has been <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/media-item/ua-welcomes-new-pmc-head-glyn-davis/">welcomed</a> as a positive sign.</p>
<p>We have seen relations fracture along three lines:</p>
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<li>between university staff and many of their managements that they regard as exploitative</li>
<li>between students and universities that they see as driven to maximise “profits”</li>
<li>between communities and government and universities that they consider to be self-serving.</li>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-are-not-corporations-600-australian-academics-call-for-change-to-uni-governance-structures-143254">'Universities are not corporations': 600 Australian academics call for change to uni governance structures</a>
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<p>The sources of these tensions are substantial long-term and widespread changes in the nature of higher education, its relations with work, its globalisation, the transforming role of research, broader economic and social changes, and their management by universities and governments. </p>
<h2>Accords past and imminent</h2>
<p>As Labor’s shadow education minister, Tanya Plibersek <a href="https://www.tanyaplibersek.com/media/speeches/tanya-plibersek-speech-to-the-afr-higher-education-conference-sydney-monday-16-august-2021/">foreshadowed</a> the universities accord in August 2021. She said:</p>
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<p>“The accord would be a partnership between universities and staff, unions and business, students and parents, and, ideally, Labor and Liberal, that lays out what we expect from our universities. […]”</p>
<p>“The aim of an accord would be to build consensus on key policy questions and national priorities in a sober, evidence-based way, without so much of the political cut and thrust. Building that consensus should help university reform stick. […]”</p>
<p>“The accord process would be led by the minister with advice from a small group of eminent Australians from across the political spectrum. No aspect of the higher education system will be out of bounds.”</p>
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<p>Labor leader Anthony Albanese stressed this change in approach in his <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-22/anthony-albanese-acceptance-speech-full-transcript/101088736">election victory speech</a>. He promised to “seek our common purpose and promote unity”, “find that common ground” and “work in common interests with business and unions”.</p>
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<p>Albanese has often said he wants to emulate the consensus style of governing of <a href="https://theconversation.com/vale-bob-hawke-a-giant-of-australian-political-and-industrial-history-93719">Bob Hawke</a>, the Labor prime minister from 1983 to 1991.</p>
<p>The promise of a universities accord consciously invokes the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-prices-and-incomes-accord-75622">Prices and Incomes Accord</a>, the series of agreements negotiated by the Hawke government from 1983 to 1991. Those accords traded off pay rises for increases in the “social wage” such as Medicare, pensions and unemployment benefits and, eventually, superannuation.</p>
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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>
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<p>Plibersek didn’t seem to contemplate a grand bargain in higher education, but said last August a Labor government would want the accord to address “<a href="https://www.tanyaplibersek.com/media/speeches/tanya-plibersek-speech-to-the-afr-higher-education-conference-sydney-monday-16-august-2021/">big questions</a>”.</p>
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<p>“There are big questions that need to be answered about how higher education is structured and funded – so that it can keep offering affordable, high-quality teaching and produce world-class research, and so that knowledge translates to prosperity and jobs. We must look at the whole system rather than tinkering around the edges if we want to make sure we have the educated workforce necessary to drive economic growth. Australia’s future prosperity depends on it.”</p>
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<h2>Participation is still growing</h2>
<p>These questions emerge as Australia absorbs its transition over the past half century from elite higher education (less than 16% participation) to <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED091983">mass participation</a> (16%-50%). </p>
<p>Australia and other wealthy countries are now moving towards <a href="http://escholarship.org/uc/item/96p3s213">universal access to higher education</a> (more than 50% participation). The UK government, for example, <a href="https://www.ahua.ac.uk/taking-the-long-view-on-student-number-control/">removed controls on student numbers</a> in England from 2015. Australia <a href="https://theconversation.com/demand-driven-funding-for-universities-is-frozen-what-does-this-mean-and-should-the-policy-be-restored-116060">lifted caps on funded enrolments</a> from 2012 to 2017.</p>
<p>No government in Australia is likely to reinstate demand-driven funded student places soon. However, enrolments are likely to expand to accommodate growing numbers of school leavers and increased social, occupational and economic aspirations to undertake higher education.</p>
<p>Public universities currently offer <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/higher-education-statistics/resources/2020-section-4-all-student-load">82% of higher education</a>, TAFE and other vocational colleges 10%, non-university higher education institutions 6% and private universities 2%. Whether this is the ideal balance will presumably be one of the “big questions” for the accord to consider.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wholl-teach-all-the-students-promised-extra-tafe-places-4-steps-to-end-staff-shortages-175523">Who'll teach all the students promised extra TAFE places? 4 steps to end staff shortages</a>
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<h2>Education and work</h2>
<p>The expansion of higher education has been fuelled by <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-government-spending-on-education-promote-economic-growth-60229">human capital theory</a>, the idea that education increases productivity and, in turn, incomes. Nonetheless, concerns persist that Australia has too many graduates who are not well matched to their jobs and still less to future employers’ needs.</p>
<p>This is due in part to employers’ substantial cuts in their investment in their employees’ induction and training since the 1990s in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00742-3">Australia</a>, <a href="http://www.conferenceboard.ca/e-library/abstract.aspx?did=7542">Canada</a>, the <a href="http://www.llakes.ac.uk/research-papers">UK</a> and the <a href="http://heldrichcenter.org/sites/default/files/products/uploads/Dimension_of_Labor_Market_Alignment.pdf">USA</a>.</p>
<p>The gaps in the mythical conveyor belt from education to work have been one cause of students’ disenchantment, leading to the insistence by them, employers and governments that universities produce “job-ready graduates”.</p>
<p>Further narrowing the supply of graduates to meet predicted labour force needs does not improve the match between education and work. Apart from anything else, there’s the <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374435">changing demand and structuring of jobs in the labour market</a> to consider. But it would be good to develop a more sophisticated understanding and management of the relations between higher education and work.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pandemic-widens-gap-between-government-and-australians-view-of-education-148991">Pandemic widens gap between government and Australians' view of education</a>
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<h2>Research and innovation</h2>
<p>Universities have also benefited from the idea of a linear relation between research, experimental development, innovation and economic development. And, again, it has narrowed and distorted university research’s priorities, funding and management. The relations between research and innovation are far more complex and uncertain than the linear model assumes. </p>
<p>And just as some argue that Australia relies too heavily on its comprehensive teaching and research universities for higher education participation, so it relies too heavily on these universities for applied research and development. </p>
<p>Governments and others should stop pressuring universities to fill gaps in innovation. Australia already has many of the elements of a sophisticated innovation ecosystem. They need more careful tending and stronger support.</p>
<h2>The rise of international education</h2>
<p>Australian universities were at first reluctant to expand international enrolments when they were allowed and then required to charge these students full fees, another Hawke government decision. However, these enrolments had started to increase strongly by the time Labor lost office in 1996. </p>
<p>Now, of course, international education is such a success that it is deeply enmeshed in and supports universities’ core activities, especially <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/06/04/why-did-universities-become-reliant-on-international-students-part-3-the-rise-of-research-project-grants/">research</a>. </p>
<p>Universities, their staff and their students managed shocks magnificently during the pandemic. The dependence on international students doesn’t make universities as vulnerable as some feared before COVID, but it is still a serious weakness.</p>
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<h2>How the other half thinks</h2>
<p>Australia performs relatively well in higher education equity research, policy and implementation. There is also a relatively good understanding of how economic, social and educational inequalities shape inequality in higher education, and how higher education may ameliorate it. </p>
<p>Like many other countries, Australia builds higher education policy on redressing the disadvantages of under-represented groups. But perhaps a different type of inequity remains unaddressed. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334770033_Education_and_the_geography_of_Brexit">Brexit</a> and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2016/11/18/educational-rift-in-2016-election/">Trumpism</a> have shown around 30% of adults are deeply alienated from the pursuit of rational inquiry from evidence. </p>
<p>A similarly sizeable body of Australians seems to be alienated from higher education and its values. </p>
<p>Many unionists and employers constructed competency-based training from the 1990s to “teacher proof” vocational education. It may be worth considering how higher education may serve those who are alienated or at least disengaged from further education.</p>
<h2>And what about funding?</h2>
<p>HECS income-contingent loans, an Australian policy innovation introduced by the Hawke government, have partly financed the transitions from elite to mass higher education and towards universal access. While universities are as keen for increased funding as governments are to cut it, there is no crisis in Australian higher education financing. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-had-record-job-losses-but-not-as-many-as-feared-and-the-worst-may-be-over-176883">Universities had record job losses, but not as many as feared – and the worst may be over</a>
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<p>But tensions about financing will increase as participation increases. A major advance may be more structural than financial, by having most increases in higher education enrolments in TAFE institutes. These already offer high-quality baccalaureates and have campuses across the country.</p>
<h2>Decision-making and employment structures</h2>
<p>The transition to mass higher education was governed by the managerialism and later the <a href="https://srheblog.com/2019/01/21/metrics-in-higher-education-technologies-and-subjectivities/">metricisation</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2020.1748811">datafication</a> of higher education so despised by academics.</p>
<p>Clearly, there is scope for improving government direction and oversight of higher education, and for improving universities’ own decision-making. There are legitimately different views on the balance between collegial and managerial governance of universities. However, examples of universities’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-the-government-and-universities-can-do-about-the-crisis-of-insecure-academic-work-183345">wage theft</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models-147555">exploitative employment practices</a> reflect problems with many universities’ management.</p>
<p>Australian universities have a very high reliance on casual employment, even more so than in many <a href="https://theconversation.com/self-employment-and-casual-work-arent-increasing-but-so-many-jobs-are-insecure-whats-going-on-100668">other areas of the economy</a>. Indeed, the growth of insecure alongside secure employment in universities and colleges reflects a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/political-science-research-and-methods/article/dualization-stratification-liberalization-or-what-an-attempt-to-clarify-the-conceptual-underpinnings-of-the-dualization-debate/C20383B2A41D6C45EA3D32234174256D">dualisation</a> of employment protections in many OECD countries, as part of a general liberalisation of employment regulation.</p>
<p>This suggests the need for more comprehensive protections against insecure employment throughout the economy.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-the-government-and-universities-can-do-about-the-crisis-of-insecure-academic-work-183345">Here's what the government and universities can do about the crisis of insecure academic work</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>An early test of government</h2>
<p>Many other substantial issues confront Australian higher education. It is hard to see the accord addressing all of these. </p>
<p>An early indication of the new minister and government’s governing style will be the extent to which the most important issues to be addressed are identified just within government, in private consultations with privileged “stakeholders”, or openly with students, staff and the public.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183810/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gavin Moodie has received various research grants from bodies funded by the Australian and state governments, and was employed by Australian universities for 35 years. He is currently employed by the University of Toronto and is a co investigator on a grant funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p>
Higher education didn’t feature heavily in the election campaign, yet the sector has high expectations of the new government. The key is the idea of an accord and the change in approach it implies.
Gavin Moodie, Adjunct Professor, Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education, OISE, University of Toronto
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/183345
2022-05-20T05:10:07Z
2022-05-20T05:10:07Z
Here’s what the government and universities can do about the crisis of insecure academic work
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464407/original/file-20220520-17-ghhfbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C4708%2C3139&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>Contract and casual workers in Australian universities have borne the brunt of <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-2-years-of-covid-how-bad-has-it-really-been-for-university-finances-and-staff-172405">revenue losses</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-the-major-parties-need-to-do-about-higher-education-this-election-180855">funding cuts</a> to higher education and research. When the government <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-australian-government-letting-universities-suffer-138514">refused to provide JobKeeper</a> to public universities during the COVID pandemic, <a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-had-record-job-losses-but-not-as-many-as-feared-and-the-worst-may-be-over-176883">thousands of academics</a> on contracts got the boot.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/cruel-optimism-research-careers-how-support-contract-workers">My research</a>, with Nerida Spina, Simon Bailey, Mhorag Goff and Kate Smithers, aims to understand and support the working lives of academics in insecure employment. We have solutions for both governments and universities to reduce the burden of widespread precarity.</p>
<p>This precarity doesn’t just affect individuals. Insecurity, <a href="https://theconversation.com/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models-147555">systematic underpayment</a> and a lack of support for contract and casual workers in the sector are eroding Australian intellectual capital. This impacts the education and employment opportunities of our students. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models-147555">Wage theft and casual work are built into university business models</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The lack of secure employment opportunities for academics is resulting in a “<a href="https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2021/australia-faces-science-brain-drain.html">brain drain</a>” as researchers take their skills to international markets. As science PhD candidate <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/australia-has-spent-a-million-dollars-training-me-and-now-i-m-leaving-20220419-p5aelz.html">Miro Astore</a> calculated last month, the government has invested a million dollars to educate him but he’s about to leave Australia and might never return.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1516891059590074368"}"></div></p>
<p>It is true casualisation and precarious employment conditions have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/casual-academics-arent-going-anywhere-so-what-can-universities-do-to-ensure-learning-isnt-affected-113567">commonplace in academia</a> for decades. However, we are now aware of the <a href="https://www.teqsa.gov.au/latest-news/publications/2021-compliance-report-case-study-wages-underpayment">endemic wage theft </a>from casual and contracted university staff. This week the tertiary education regulator <a href="https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/teqsa-warns-unis-on-wages/">TEQSA again warned universities</a> about underpaying staff. </p>
<p>Despite recent legislation aimed at transitioning casuals who work regular hours into ongoing roles, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/18/australias-universities-converting-as-little-as-1-of-casual-staff-to-permanent-despite-labour-law-change">fewer than 1%</a> of casual academics have been converted to ongoing, secure employment. One casual tutor at Flinders University, who had taught for almost 16 years during teaching periods, this week <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/coalition-s-only-ir-reform-defeated-in-test-case-as-uni-tutor-loses-right-to-go-permanent-20220517-p5am1s.html">lost his bid</a> in the Fair Work Commission to be converted to a permanent part-time position. The result of this test case is the final straw for many in the sector.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1526473284606656512"}"></div></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/unis-offered-as-few-as-1-in-100-casuals-permanent-status-in-2021-why-arent-conversion-rules-working-for-these-staff-172046">Unis offered as few as 1 in 100 casuals permanent status in 2021. Why aren't conversion rules working for these staff?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What can government do?</h2>
<p>With these pressures in mind, the next government must address this crisis in Australian higher education. Our research reveals necessary government reforms to stop the leaking of talent as well as the practical steps universities can take to support precarious academics and improve the quality of degree programs for all Australians.</p>
<p>The next government must:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>urgently lift higher education funding</p></li>
<li><p>hold universities to account for underpaying staff</p></li>
<li><p>amend legislation covering the transition of casuals to ongoing employment. </p></li>
</ul>
<h2>What can universities do?</h2>
<p>At a local level, universities can quickly address three key issues.</p>
<p><strong>1. Receiving grant funding and publishing your research is key for all academics.</strong> </p>
<p>Grants are the heart of research, allowing researchers to build new knowledge. Australian Research Council (ARC) grants are the biggest prize of all. Yet being on fixed-term contracts often excludes academics from applying for these grants. </p>
<p>Academics in ongoing roles need to push back against institutional practices that marginalise the contribution of contract researchers.</p>
<p><strong>2. One of the biggest influences on how researchers experience contract work is their direct manager.</strong></p>
<p>Our research reveals the importance of managers having regular open and honest conversations with academics about the duration of contracts and supporting them in their research and teaching work. This work is the central role of the university. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-casual-staff-who-do-80-of-undergrad-teaching-need-more-support-heres-a-way-unis-can-help-166650">The casual staff who do 80% of undergrad teaching need more support — here's a way unis can help</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>3. Casual and fixed-term staff often miss out on training and conferences that can help them build their skills.</strong></p>
<p>Academics are generally not paid when attending professional development. So our university educators are having to use their own time, and possibly miss out on paid work, to stay on the cutting edge for our students.</p>
<p>While university staff can – and should – push back against precarious work, higher education policies wield the ultimate influence. And higher education policy has been largely absent from this election campaign.</p>
<h2>So what have the parties offered?</h2>
<p>Labor’s headline higher education policy is A$481.7 million in funding for an <a href="https://www.alp.org.au/policies/fee-free-tafe-and-more-university-places">additional 20,000 university places</a> for students over the next two years. It also offered extra funding for universities that offer courses in “national priority areas like clean energy, advanced manufacturing, health and education, or where there are skills shortages”. </p>
<p>Labor has promised to reform the sector through an Australian universities accord. There is very little detail, however, about what this might look like.</p>
<p>The Coalition’s <a href="https://www.liberal.org.au/our-plan/youth">higher education policy</a> centres on research commercialisation and building collaboration between industry and universities. The cornerstone of this policy was a promise of $362 million over five years for six “<a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/trailblazer-universities-program">Trailblazer Universities</a>”. These are pegged as partnerships between industry partners, small-to-medium enterprises and universities to “supercharge their research translation and commercialisation capabilities”. </p>
<p>Both sides of politics promised more places at university for young Australians. Yet neither released any plans to support those who will be teaching them. Their silence on how universities can provide high-quality education to these extra students speaks volumes. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-the-major-parties-need-to-do-about-higher-education-this-election-180855">Here's what the major parties need to do about higher education this election</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If these policies are really about supporting educational and employment opportunities for young Australians, surely the government needs to consider what happens to these students in universities. An essential starting point is to ensure all academics – regardless of their employment status - are supported and paid appropriately for their work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183345/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jess Harris 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 problem of insecure employment for academics came to a head during the pandemic. The neglect of this issue is eroding our intellectual capital along with education and employment opportunities.
Jess Harris, Associate Professor in Education, University of Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/172620
2021-11-26T03:20:03Z
2021-11-26T03:20:03Z
Australia’s strategy to revive international education is right to aim for more diversity
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434070/original/file-20211126-25-1pndk0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C412%2C5860%2C3921&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>The <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/australian-strategy-international-education-2021-2030">Strategy for International Education</a> released today by the federal government highlights the importance of international education to the Australian economy and community.</p>
<p>But, with the arrival of COVID-19, commencing international student numbers fell dramatically <a href="https://internationaleducation.gov.au/research/international-student-data/Pages/default.aspx">by 22%</a> in 2020. The impacts prompted the government to further rethink its ten-year plan for international education and <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-international-education-market-share-is-shrinking-fast-recovery-depends-on-unis-offering-students-a-better-deal-162856">exposure to risks in foreign markets</a>, not to mention sector-wide budget overhauls, restructures and cost savings.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-international-education-crisis-will-linger-long-after-students-return-to-australia-170360">Why the international education crisis will linger long after students return to Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Over the past ten years, international education in Australia had grown by 151% to the highest levels on record. International student numbers reached a <a href="https://internationaleducation.gov.au/research/international-student-data/Pages/default.aspx">peak of more than 956,000</a> in 2019.</p>
<p>International education has been a major export earner. Its value to the economy had grown to <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/international-trade/international-trade-goods-and-services-australia/latest-release">A$40.3 billion a year</a> and supported 250,000 jobs. </p>
<h2>Why is a new strategy needed?</h2>
<p>Despite being a <a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-lost-6-of-their-revenue-in-2020-and-the-next-2-years-are-looking-worse-166749">major source of revenue</a>, international students have been highly concentrated in some universities. And most come from a limited number of source countries. </p>
<p>Before the pandemic, six universities accounted for <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/higher-education-statistics/student-data/selected-higher-education-statistics-2019-student-data">half of all overseas student revenue</a>: Sydney, Melbourne, Monash, UNSW, RMIT and UQ. </p>
<iframe title="Enrolments from top 5 source countries by university" aria-label="Stacked Bars" id="datawrapper-chart-fYfB7" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/fYfB7/2/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="1063"></iframe>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/which-universities-are-best-placed-financially-to-weather-covid-154079">Which universities are best placed financially to weather COVID?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Following public consultations under the Council for International Education, the government has released the new strategy. It’s based on four pillars:</p>
<ul>
<li>diversification </li>
<li>meeting Australia’s skills needs </li>
<li>students at the centre </li>
<li>growth and global competitiveness. </li>
</ul>
<p>The pandemic has been a key driver for rethinking the strategy. However, it has served as an amplifier of the need for reform rather than the sole rationale. </p>
<p>In its <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/council-international-education/resources/2019-report-pm">2019 report</a> to the prime minister, the Council for International Education had already recommended a new plan. It highlighted concerns about increased competition, the sustainability of the sector and geopolitical rebalancing.</p>
<p>The report portrayed a major success story for Australian international education. It noted double-digit growth in the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, India and Sri Lanka. However, it also noted softening demand in other key markets, particularly China.</p>
<p>The risk of over-concentration in source countries was evident, but seriously underemphasised at the time. And this concern was connected mainly to worries about foreign interference and geopolitical tensions.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Cover of Australian Strategy for International Education 2021-30." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434068/original/file-20211126-23-cgxujm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434068/original/file-20211126-23-cgxujm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434068/original/file-20211126-23-cgxujm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434068/original/file-20211126-23-cgxujm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434068/original/file-20211126-23-cgxujm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434068/original/file-20211126-23-cgxujm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434068/original/file-20211126-23-cgxujm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The newly released Australian Strategy for International Education 2021-30.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.dese.gov.au/australian-strategy-international-education-2021-2030">DESE</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A renewed focus on managing risks</h2>
<p>The new strategy aims for the sector to reposition itself to increase offshore and transnational education. Typically, one in five international students study in these ways. <a href="https://www.teqsa.gov.au/latest-news/publications/guidance-note-transnational-higher-education-australia">Transnational education</a> is often delivered through offshore campuses or in partnership with an overseas institution.</p>
<p>The strategy seeks greater diversity of courses, disciplines, source countries and delivery modes. The outcomes are to be measured through a diversification index, greatly increasing transparency for the sector.</p>
<p>Often a source of complex risk, increased transnational education and sustained offshore study may require the higher education regulator, TEQSA, to review its approach. Its <a href="https://www.teqsa.gov.au/latest-news/publications/guidance-note-transnational-higher-education-australia">guidelines</a> were last updated in October 2017. </p>
<p>In addition, the expansion of Australia-based transnational education may face increased global competition from other offshore providers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-international-education-market-share-is-shrinking-fast-recovery-depends-on-unis-offering-students-a-better-deal-162856">Australia's international education market share is shrinking fast. Recovery depends on unis offering students a better deal</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For universities to diversify into new markets they will have to manage a risk associated with limited market knowledge. Market concentration has meant Australian universities have become geo-market experts with a focus on particular countries. This approach is ingrained into university operations, strategic aspirations and global partnerships. </p>
<p>Adopting the jack-of-all-trades approach that “everyone diversity” may require additional government efforts to avoid simply transferring the risk of market concentration to other risks to quality arising from limited market knowledge and a lack of geo-market specialisation.</p>
<p>One assumes the pathway to diversification is not only growth but also better distribution of international student demand across universities. This will require smaller universities to take on a greater share of Chinese and Indian student enrolments, now concentrated in the larger universities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-lost-6-of-their-revenue-in-2020-and-the-next-2-years-are-looking-worse-166749">Universities lost 6% of their revenue in 2020 — and the next 2 years are looking worse</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Engagement and a sense of belonging matter too</h2>
<p>The move to off-campus studies had major impacts on student satisfaction in 2020, as measured by the Quality Indicators of Learning and Teaching (<a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/surveys/student-experience-survey-(ses)">QILT</a>). While universities were quick to adapt, learner engagement and sense of belonging deteriorated. These trends were key drivers of the decline in satisfaction. </p>
<p>A challenging aspect of the strategy is to reconcile its goals of increased transnational and offshore education while at the same time increasing the sense of belonging to Australian communities, and managing risks to quality. Such a result appears to be operationally counter-intuitive.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-unis-do-need-international-students-and-must-choose-between-the-high-and-low-roads-149973">Our unis do need international students and must choose between the high and low roads</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A question that requires further detail is how the government plans both to enhance its regulatory framework to allow for greater flexibility and to cultivate greater capabilities across the sector in online, offshore and transnational education.</p>
<p>As the strategy notes, international education is one of Australia’s great success stories. At the heart of that story is the realisation of ambition for millions of students who have lifted themselves from poverty, learned new skills and joined a global community. The real test of whether the strategy holds water is if it satisfies its most central asset – our students.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172620/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Omer Yezdani 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>
International education is a huge source of income for the sector and the broader economy, but students are concentrated in a limited number of institutions and most come from a few source countries.
Omer Yezdani, Director, Office of Planning and Strategic Management, Australian Catholic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/171721
2021-11-17T18:57:52Z
2021-11-17T18:57:52Z
Bridging programs transform students’ lives – they even go on to outperform others at uni
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432289/original/file-20211116-19-3j7530.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5615%2C3724&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>“I remember how hard the words hit me – ‘you’re not smart enough’.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Dylan, a proud Bundjalung man in his 30s from northern New South Wales with South Sea Island heritage, shared with us what high school staff had told him during year 12. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“My childhood dream was crushed. My grades were terrible and my future was not looking bright. I hit rock bottom with no university acceptance, no career trajectory and no plan. I entered the workforce and bounced around.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Years later, Dylan is publishing research on coral reefs while completing a PhD, thanks to completing the <a href="https://www.scu.edu.au/study-at-scu/courses/preparing-for-success-at-scu-program-2307160/">Preparing for Success (PSP) program</a> at Southern Cross University. </p>
<p>PSP is an award-winning, fee-free bridging or enabling program that provides an entry pathway into a wide range of undergraduate degrees. Our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07294360.2021.1990222">recent research</a>, which included comparing academic achievements over six years, shows students who completed the PSP are more successful in their studies than students who gained admission by other means such as an ATAR score. They are also more likely to complete their undergraduate studies. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1452946428897095680"}"></div></p>
<h2>How do these programs work?</h2>
<p>University <a href="https://enablingeducators.org/enabling-education/">enabling programs</a> such as PSP are offered across Australia. These programs are designed to equip students who don’t meet standard university entry requirements with the key academic literacy skills. By preparing students for successful transition into university study they can open the way to exciting careers and brighter futures. </p>
<p>Anyone who has completed year 10 of school can apply for Southern Cross’s PSP. Other universities offer versions of bridging programs to students without year 10. </p>
<p>These programs are typically fee-free across Australia. At Southern Cross, there are three intakes a year in March, July and November. </p>
<p>Students can complete PSP full-time in 12 weeks over two six-week terms, or part-time over a year. They can study completely online or on campus. </p>
<p>A shorter six-week version, <a href="https://www.scu.edu.au/study-at-scu/courses/transition-to-uni-2309905/2022/">Transition to Uni</a>, is now available for students who have completed year 12 with an ATAR. Both programs are delivered in the new <a href="https://www.scu.edu.au/southern-cross-model/">Southern Cross Model</a>, which delivers a deeper, more focused learning experience in six-week terms. Transition to Uni has a January intake so students can start their undergraduate degrees with their peers in March. </p>
<p>The empowering teaching style engages students in an active learning experience. <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/southern-cross-uni-will-expand-its-new-teaching-model-to-all-students/news-story/9bf5b68e2a3ac30eb23bc8df6643fa27">Active and empowering learning experiences</a> encourage and reward students who are actively contributing, questioning and stretching their thinking. It allows them to develop independent learning and critical thinking skills. These skills ensure later success in degree study.</p>
<p>The approach is very different from most of the students’ previous experiences. In school, students often felt they had to follow teachers’ directions – sit, listen and learn, instead of question information.</p>
<p>Programs like PSP achieve the government’s aim of increasing participation in higher education of people from targeted equity groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, regional and remote students. They also help produce more job-ready graduates.</p>
<h2>5 reasons to protect enabling education</h2>
<p>Despite its successes, enabling education is facing challenges in Australia. The <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready">Job-Ready Graduates</a> legislation has changed the higher education funding landscape in 2021. </p>
<p>Dedicated funding for enabling programs was removed from legislation and from universities. Despite growth in enrolments in many institutions, enabling funding has not substantially increased since 2017. </p>
<p>It is now up to the universities to decide how they will allocate their limited funding. Our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07294360.2021.1990222">research</a>, including interviews with former PSP students, identifies five good reasons to support enabling education.</p>
<p><strong>1. It provides access to higher education for students who would otherwise miss out due to disadvantage or past schooling attainment.</strong></p>
<p>Ella, a first-in-family student who dropped out of school in year 11, described her experience of the enabling program. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It just really switched that light bulb for me. I’m about to graduate my Bachelors in Midwifery and I’ll be the only person in my entire family ever to graduate from university.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>2. It prepares students to succeed and complete their undergraduate studies.</strong> </p>
<p>Aimee, now studying to be a teacher, thought she would go no further than being a cleaner.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It was amazing to be using my brain again after four years of mindlessly scrubbing toilets. I gained enough confidence and enough understanding of what being at uni is like.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>3. It contributes to the government’s goals of increasing national participation in higher education and producing more job-ready graduates.</strong> </p>
<p>Neve was offered multiple interviews for graduate midwifery positions. This is a scenario she had not previously considered possible. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“If it wasn’t for the enabling program I couldn’t see myself being in the position I am now, doing all these interviews and completing my degree.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mother and daughter sitting at a table as they study" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432288/original/file-20211116-27-1wf1a0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432288/original/file-20211116-27-1wf1a0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432288/original/file-20211116-27-1wf1a0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432288/original/file-20211116-27-1wf1a0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432288/original/file-20211116-27-1wf1a0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432288/original/file-20211116-27-1wf1a0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432288/original/file-20211116-27-1wf1a0t.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">When a parent succeeds at university it can transform their children’s attitudes to education.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>4. It promotes inter-generational changes in attitudes to education.</strong></p>
<p>Leanne’s progress in an Indigenous Studies degree helped give her daughter the courage to pursue a university education.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“My youngest daughter said she was definitely not going to uni. She just was too scared. And having seen me do it, she’s now in the middle of session 2 . So that was a direct effect of me doing it and gaining confidence.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>5. It develops students’ critical thinking skills in a world of misinformation.</strong></p>
<p>Wade saw just how much he had developed as a person. He uses the skills he learnt in the enabling program to analyse information and support his views in an informed way.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Rather than just listen to one person’s opinion on a topic, I can actually go and find different evidence.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Enabling education opens up a much-needed academic pathway. It allows students from a diverse range of backgrounds to get into and succeed in higher education. It equips them with the skills and confidence they need to fulfil their academic potential and achieve previously unimaginable careers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171721/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>
New research shows university students who gained entry via bridging programs outperform others who gain admission through ATARs and other means. They are also more likely to complete their degree.
Thomas Roche, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic Quality), Southern Cross University
Suzi Syme, Associate Dean (Education), Southern Cross University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/164319
2021-08-05T04:19:39Z
2021-08-05T04:19:39Z
Think our unis are all much the same? Look more closely and you will find diversity
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414097/original/file-20210802-19-1njmekz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=700%2C0%2C3172%2C2087&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-vector/young-people-riding-conveyor-belt-university-282144062">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 pandemic <a href="https://theconversation.com/big-spending-recovery-budget-leaves-universities-out-in-the-cold-160439">plunged Australian universities into crisis</a>. From early 2020, many voices declared <a href="https://www.ey.com/en_au/government-public-sector/specialise-to-survive--why-universities-need-to-focus-">increased specialisation and difference between institutions</a> was the way for them to survive. Yet our <a href="https://www.unsworks.unsw.edu.au/primo-explore/fulldisplay?vid=UNSWORKS&docid=unsworks_76739&context=L">soon-to-be-published study</a> has shown if we dig a little deeper each university is a complex patchwork, especially in the area of research. </p>
<p>Australian universities present an array of sometimes competing interests, activities and priorities. So why is the sector seen as lacking diversity? </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lets-talk-about-what-each-uni-does-but-dont-make-it-a-choice-between-teaching-or-research-162249">Let's talk about what each uni does, but don't make it a choice between teaching or research</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>One reason is the official narratives universities present about themselves. The expectations of many stakeholders, not least national governments, shape these narratives. The cruel irony is that this makes our universities all appear the same. </p>
<p>So universities are castigated for their lack of originality and failure to differentiate. There are <a href="https://www.alantudge.com.au/latest-news/our-priorities-for-strengthening-australias-universities/">calls for greater diversity</a> in their teaching and research. </p>
<p>We have <a href="https://theconversation.com/lets-talk-about-what-each-uni-does-but-dont-make-it-a-choice-between-teaching-or-research-162249">heard these calls before</a> – such thinking is <a href="https://theconversation.com/coalition-wants-specialised-universities-with-ranking-boost-to-group-of-eight-4633">far from new</a>. Institutional diversity has been a bipartisan principle of national policy since at least the late 1980s when the <a href="https://theconversation.com/book-review-the-dawkins-revolution-25-years-on-19291">Dawkins reforms</a> began. </p>
<p>It was claimed these reforms would promote greater diversity in higher education. Observers <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ591489.pdf">suggest</a> the opposite occurred very rapidly. Subsequent <a href="https://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A17448">government reports</a> continued to advocate greater institutional diversity. </p>
<p>By 2008 the Bradley Review had led to so-called <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/higher-education-funding/mission-based-compacts">mission-based compacts</a>. These were intended to formalise diverse university missions, through agreements negotiated with the Commonwealth. In practice, each university periodically completes a template outlining its planned activities and key performance indicators.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/research-and-teaching-what-do-we-actually-want-australian-universities-to-do-13864">Research and teaching – what do we actually want Australian universities to do?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>All singing from the same songbook</h2>
<p>As part of our research, we explored diversity questions through the lens of the research positioning and goals of the 41 <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/higher-education-funding/mission-based-compacts">universities that entered into mission-based compacts</a> from 2014. </p>
<p>So what does this government program, designed to stimulate diverse and specialised missions, show us? The university compacts provide a veritable bingo card of descriptors for research activity such as: </p>
<ul>
<li>focus and concentration on research strengths</li>
<li>collaboration and cross-disciplinary thematic approaches</li>
<li>application to complex national and global problems </li>
<li>investment in health and medical areas</li>
<li>growth and nurturing of external partnerships, engagement and impact.</li>
</ul>
<p>The sameness of institutional research positioning is so pronounced that individual university claims of distinctiveness appear contradictory. It’s easy to see from the compacts how a view has taken hold that universities are all too much alike. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-does-no-one-seem-to-like-compacts-47259">Why does no-one seem to like compacts?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Diversity is in the detail</h2>
<p>What do we see, though, when exploring beyond abstract institutional descriptions? In another part of our research we looked at Australia’s oldest university, the University of Sydney. This case shows how institutional pronouncements represent a veneer over what is really a hugely diverse internal ecosystem. </p>
<p>This university’s compacts and strategy identify around two dozen areas of research. Extracting from its website and annual reports, however, we find the number of faculties, schools, centres, networks and research groupings exceeds 240. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="University of Sydney buildings" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414096/original/file-20210802-28-kvmmeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414096/original/file-20210802-28-kvmmeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414096/original/file-20210802-28-kvmmeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414096/original/file-20210802-28-kvmmeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414096/original/file-20210802-28-kvmmeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414096/original/file-20210802-28-kvmmeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414096/original/file-20210802-28-kvmmeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The picture presented by the University of Sydney’s mission-based compact doesn’t do justice to the full diversity of its research.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sydney-australia-7-aug-2017-view-720611131">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The finer detail of such an environment is impossible to articulate in a digestible form. Nobody, least of all government departments with templates and performance indicators in hand, is likely to want to read about such a labyrinth. They are even less likely to invest in something so difficult to describe and manage that it could be labelled <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20140716075612402">organised anarchy</a>. </p>
<p>Universities aim to produce institutional descriptions acceptable to both internal and external stakeholders. This means the extent of internal diversity within even a single university requires considerable finessing. </p>
<p>While the resulting products are then vague and unoriginal, they follow a recipe of heavily institutionalised norms and expectations through which universities signal their status and legitimacy. Australian universities universally believe this is the key to the resources they need to survive and thrive. </p>
<p>It may not appear so at first glance, but differences between universities become clear when examined closely through their research. The research enterprise itself is built on the value of originality and difference. These attributes are controlled mercilessly at a project level through peer review. </p>
<p>And, unlike other enterprises, cross-institutional collaborations are the norm for research. </p>
<p>While important in terms of status and branding, and to those who manage and co-ordinate resource allocation, institutional constructs can be arbitrary distinctions. They can be quite removed from the day-to-day activities of researchers, who are akin to franchisees managing their own research businesses. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/7-6-billion-and-11-of-researchers-our-estimate-of-how-much-australian-university-research-stands-to-lose-by-2024-146672">$7.6 billion and 11% of researchers: our estimate of how much Australian university research stands to lose by 2024</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Unis respond similarly to the pressures on them</h2>
<p>Our research also supports the idea that, at the institutional level, Australian universities are highly passive in how they respond to environmental influences. In particular, universities respond diligently to signals from government, on which they feel dependent. </p>
<p>Couple this with a contradiction between policy logic that seeks diversity and associated programs that appear to stifle it, and the result is the homogeneity that we perceive. Compacts provide but one example of this dynamic. </p>
<p>The funding model for universities makes research a (mandatory) cost-bearing exercise. To subsidise research, universities have <a href="https://theconversation.com/7-6-billion-and-11-of-researchers-our-estimate-of-how-much-australian-university-research-stands-to-lose-by-2024-146672">converged upon the international student market</a>, which lacks the regulatory constraints placed upon domestic student fees and enrolments. A more comprehensive suite of offerings for international students naturally enables institutions to maximise the fees they can generate. This then helps cover the unfunded costs of research.</p>
<p>The funding and regulatory settings that limit university choices are rightly easy targets for blame. But these settings work hand in hand with the unoriginal goals of universities, which reflect a lack of diversity in thinking and approaches to dealing with systemic challenges. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/most-of-australias-uni-leaders-are-white-male-and-grey-this-lack-of-diversity-could-be-a-handicap-150952">Most of Australia's uni leaders are white, male and grey. This lack of diversity could be a handicap</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Before jumping headlong into reconfiguring the sector, it may be prudent to examine more closely how and in what ways our universities are similar. When perceiving sameness, we should be careful to ensure we are not missing the finer details that are often – for good reasons – obscured. </p>
<p>The long-observed homogeneity of our universities may be a function of how and why we are asking certain questions, as well as where we choose to focus our attention.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164319/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research on University of Sydney was undertaken before Kalervo Gulson commenced his current position. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristy Muir currently receives funding from Vincent Fairfax Foundation, The Myer Foundation, Sidney Myer Trust, Paul Ramsay Foundation and the National Australia Bank. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Zipparo 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 sameness of the way in which universities present themselves is based on a shared view of what they think stakeholders want. Behind the official facade it’s more like ‘organised anarchy’.
Julian Zipparo, Executive Manager, Research Engagement, UTS; PhD Higher Education, UNSW Sydney
Kalervo Gulson, Professor, University of Sydney
Kristy Muir, Professor of Social Policy / CEO, Centre for Social Impact, UNSW Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/162249
2021-06-16T05:07:47Z
2021-06-16T05:07:47Z
Let’s talk about what each uni does, but don’t make it a choice between teaching or research
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406305/original/file-20210615-27-1iebtkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C4920%2C3245&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/melbourne-australia-august-2-2015-humanities-302819366">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge has <a href="https://www.alantudge.com.au/latest-news/our-priorities-for-strengthening-australias-universities/">called on</a> Australian universities to “start a conversation about how we can support greater differentiation and specialisation in the university sector. We have 39 comprehensive universities, which may not be an optimal model for the quality of teaching or research in this country.” This is a worthy aspiration, depending on what we mean by differentiation and specialisation.</p>
<p>At its best, seeking to differentiate and specialise can be a way to marshal talent and focus. At worst, such calls can be euphemism and set up a false dilemma of having a simple choice between teaching and research.</p>
<h2>A recurring debate</h2>
<p>The debate about greater specialisation in Australian universities is not new. As an opposition education spokesman and then Coalition government minister, Christopher Pyne <a href="https://theconversation.com/coalition-wants-specialised-universities-with-ranking-boost-to-group-of-eight-4633">made</a> similar <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/high-wired-wednesday/news-story/174b739dcac88d80ffa646edb9cb949b">calls</a> for specialisation in the system a decade ago. More recently it was discussed in the context of the 2019 <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/quality-and-legislative-frameworks/review-higher-education-provider-category-standards">Review of Provider Category Standards</a>.</p>
<p>At different times during the past century governments and university leaders have examined whether teaching and research in some areas should be limited to only a few institutions. From forestry education to legal studies, debate has been common about what is taught where and by whom.</p>
<p>Questioning the need for specialisation and diversity is welcome. Leaving for a moment what benefits it can bring, for some degrees a critical mass of students means it is impractical (and highly costly) to offer them at all institutions.</p>
<h2>Not so similar, you and I</h2>
<p>Despite Australia public universities often being labelled as “comprehensive”, there is already a lot of specialisation and differentiation in the system.</p>
<p>Medical education is one longstanding example. Only a subset of universities offer it. This is for numerous reasons, not least that it is tightly regulated and requires significant facilities.</p>
<p>Australia has a number of universities for which specialisation is core to their identity and mission. The <a href="https://divinity.edu.au/about/">University of Divinity</a>, for example, offers scholarship in theology, philosophy and ministry.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="View of clocktower of bluestone building at sunset." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406299/original/file-20210615-131485-1ib6pc7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406299/original/file-20210615-131485-1ib6pc7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406299/original/file-20210615-131485-1ib6pc7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406299/original/file-20210615-131485-1ib6pc7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406299/original/file-20210615-131485-1ib6pc7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406299/original/file-20210615-131485-1ib6pc7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406299/original/file-20210615-131485-1ib6pc7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 11 colleges of the University of Divinity provide highly specialised offerings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikecogh/34215946455/in/photolist-U4W7ZW-U8xEPi">Michael Coghlan/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The idea of specialised institutions in Australia is not new either. The University of New South Wales began life as the <a href="http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/sessionalview/sessional/act/1949-11.pdf">New South Wales University of Technology</a> in 1949. This lasted only a few years, though, before it became UNSW, gaining a law school and other faculties.</p>
<p>Yet discussion about greater specialisation and diversification can often be contentious. It can hit a raw nerve when “specialisation” is used as a euphemism for excluding some universities, especially from research activity.</p>
<h2>What’s in a name?</h2>
<p>The legal definition of an Australian university requires it to undertake research. Australia <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/policy-submissions/teaching-learning-funding/regulation-and-accreditation/">specifies what a university is</a> and controls the use of the title “university” for good reason.</p>
<p>One case in point is the short-lived <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_University_(Norfolk_Island)">Greenwich University</a> on Norfolk Island. In 1999 the quality of the newly established university came sharply <a href="https://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/ni/comment/greenwichsmh000629.pdf">into focus</a>. The then education minister, Brendan Nelson, was forced to <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2004A01024">intervene</a> to ensure it could not continue to offer sub-standard education.</p>
<p>The Greenwich case also hints at preconceived ideas in Australia about what a university should aspire to in terms of quality and offering. For most people this now includes undertaking research.</p>
<p>This is understandable; there are synergies between teaching and research. Students can benefit from their teacher’s research experience and being exposed to the latest research. They can witness an active research culture.</p>
<h2>A false dilemma</h2>
<p>When the debate is crudely framed, it can be easy to set up a false dilemma.</p>
<p>There are good reasons to specialise. For one, it makes programs with limited demand financially viable. </p>
<p>Equally, specialisation is not always appropriate for legitimate reasons. An important consideration is to ensure core teaching and research are located where local communities can access them. </p>
<p>There is nothing wrong necessarily with having only comprehensive institutions, if that best meets the needs of students, employers and the community. </p>
<p>There is more that unites Australian universities than divides them: they are all part of an international academic community and hold themselves to standards set by peers who are leaders in their fields.</p>
<p>Which is not to argue they all do (or should do) the same thing. Yet it can be easy to erroneously limit what specialisation means or, at worst, set it up as a proxy for debate about other things, such as prestige and privilege.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162249/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gwilym Croucher 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>
At best, when universities differentiate and specialise it can marshal talent and sharpen their focus. At worst. though, this debate can present universities with a false dilemma.
Gwilym Croucher, Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/156867
2021-03-28T19:07:26Z
2021-03-28T19:07:26Z
1 in 4 unemployed Australians has a degree. How did we get to this point?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391601/original/file-20210325-15-38a2es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C49%2C5472%2C3587&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/side-body-young-asian-woman-student-1322117684">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A series of government policy reforms over recent decades aimed to increase the proportion of Australian workers with university degrees. They got that result, but what they did not expect to see was that almost one in four unemployed people would have a degree (although employees with a degree appear to have fared better during the COVID-related job losses). And more than one in four graduates can expect to be either unemployed or underemployed four months after completing their undergraduate degree. So how did that happen?</p>
<p>More than 30 years ago the Australian government initiated a plan that would give more Australians access to university education. The government wanted <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07294360.2021.1877623">equity objectives to become a priority</a> of higher education management planning and review. The reforms paved the way for no upfront student fee payments and <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/archive/hecs">income-contingent loans</a>. </p>
<p>The goal of expanding university places was that, in time, Australian universities would be diverse in a way that <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ689631">reflected the general population</a>. Specific <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07294360.2021.1877623">under-represented groups were targeted</a>. They included women, students with a disability, Indigenous students, students from poorer families, students from non-English-speaking backgrounds, and students from regional and remote areas.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-have-gone-from-being-a-place-of-privilege-to-a-competitive-market-what-will-they-be-after-coronavirus-137877">Universities have gone from being a place of privilege to a competitive market. What will they be after coronavirus?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The success stories</h2>
<p>The reforms, have, in part, achieved the desired outcomes. Universities today do better reflect the general population. Australia has also greatly increased the number of people graduating with higher education qualifications, as the chart below shows. </p>
<iframe title="Graduate numbers Australia-wide, 1989-2019" aria-label="chart" id="datawrapper-chart-bQavw" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/bQavw/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Domestic female graduates, who were <a href="https://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A9695">one of the target groups</a>, now consistently outnumber domestic male graduates. Students with a disability, Indigenous students, students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and students from regional and remote areas have all had <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Data-snapshot-2019-FINAL.pdf">significant increases in enrolments</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Chart showing increases in domestic undergraduate student equity groups from 2008 to 2017" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391565/original/file-20210324-17-1txx5vx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391565/original/file-20210324-17-1txx5vx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391565/original/file-20210324-17-1txx5vx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391565/original/file-20210324-17-1txx5vx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391565/original/file-20210324-17-1txx5vx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391565/original/file-20210324-17-1txx5vx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391565/original/file-20210324-17-1txx5vx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&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"><a class="source" href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Data-snapshot-2019-FINAL.pdf">Data: Universities Australia</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-degree-promises-a-better-life-but-social-mobility-has-a-downside-too-150535">A degree promises a better life but social mobility has a downside too</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Another success story is the large increase in working Australians who hold a university degree. From 1993 to 2013 the proportion increased <a href="https://www.readcube.com/articles/10.1111/1467-8462.12085?r3_referer=wol&tracking_action=preview_click&show_checkout=1&purchase_referrer=onlinelibrary.wiley.com&purchase_site_license=LICENSE_DENIED">from 12.4% to 27.9%</a>. It continues to increase to this day.</p>
<p>In May 2019, 12,921,100 people were employed in the Australian labour market. Of those, <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed-quarterly/latest-release">4,317,500 (33.4%)</a> held a university degree. In February 2020, 13,048,200 people were in work and 35.13% held a degree. By November 2020, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic had reduced the labour force to 12,909,000. However, 4,763,400, or 36.89%, held a degree. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391577/original/file-20210324-23-u46yu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing total labour force numbers and numbers and percentages of employees with degrees" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391577/original/file-20210324-23-u46yu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391577/original/file-20210324-23-u46yu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=192&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391577/original/file-20210324-23-u46yu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=192&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391577/original/file-20210324-23-u46yu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=192&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391577/original/file-20210324-23-u46yu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=241&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391577/original/file-20210324-23-u46yu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=241&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391577/original/file-20210324-23-u46yu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=241&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/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed-quarterly/latest-release">ABS Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, Quarterly</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So while the total number of people in work was slightly lower in November 2020 than in May 2019, degree holders fared better during the pandemic. They continued to increase both in number of employees and as a proportion of the workforce.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/university-students-arent-cogs-in-a-market-they-need-more-than-a-narrow-focus-on-skills-140058">University students aren't cogs in a market. They need more than a narrow focus on 'skills'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>But graduate jobs are harder to find</h2>
<p>However, the unintended and concerning statistics that resulted from policy reforms relate to the increases in unemployed people with a university degree. </p>
<p>For example, in May 2019 the number of unemployed was 694,900 but the number of <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed-quarterly/latest-release">unemployed with a university degree was 129,900</a>, or 18.7%. In February 2020, just before the pandemic hit Australia, there were 761,100 unemployed. Of those 22.45% held a degree. By November 2020, the percentage of unemployed with a degree had <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed-quarterly/latest-release">risen to 23.29%</a>, or almost one in four.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391572/original/file-20210324-19-cq9dem.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing proportions of unemployed people with degrees, May 2019 to Nov 2020" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391572/original/file-20210324-19-cq9dem.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391572/original/file-20210324-19-cq9dem.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=192&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391572/original/file-20210324-19-cq9dem.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=192&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391572/original/file-20210324-19-cq9dem.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=192&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391572/original/file-20210324-19-cq9dem.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=241&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391572/original/file-20210324-19-cq9dem.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=241&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391572/original/file-20210324-19-cq9dem.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=241&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/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/allprimarymainfeatures/5F60A449AE6DE5F6CA258090000ED52A?opendocument">ABS Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, Quarterly</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the pandemic is largely responsible for the rise in unemployment, we also have a larger pool of eligible workers with university degrees. So it makes sense that, particularly in such challenging times, the number of unemployed with a university degree will increase.</p>
<p>Even so, prior to COVID-19, a large percentage of university graduates found it difficult to find full-time work. The <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/docs/default-source/gos-reports/2019-gos-l/2019-gos-l-national-report.pdf?sfvrsn=63fdec3c_4">2019 Graduate Outcomes Survey-Longitudinal</a> (GOS-L) showed many take time to find full-time graduate employment.</p>
<p>The GOS-L assessed the short-term (four months) and medium-term (three years) outcomes of graduates. It was based on a cohort analysis of graduates who responded to both the 2016 Australian <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/qilt-surveys/graduate-employment">Graduate Outcomes Survey</a> and the 2019 GOS-L. Graduates included those who completed undergraduate, postgraduate coursework and postgraduate research degrees. </p>
<p>The table below shows the outcomes for these 42,466 graduates within four months of completing their degree in 2016 and again in 2019, three years after graduating.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391854/original/file-20210325-13-zgx6gw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing the percentages of 2016 graduates with full-time employment at 4 months and 3 years after completion" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391854/original/file-20210325-13-zgx6gw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391854/original/file-20210325-13-zgx6gw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=226&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391854/original/file-20210325-13-zgx6gw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=226&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391854/original/file-20210325-13-zgx6gw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=226&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391854/original/file-20210325-13-zgx6gw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391854/original/file-20210325-13-zgx6gw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391854/original/file-20210325-13-zgx6gw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=284&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.qilt.edu.au/qilt-surveys/graduate-employment">2016 Australian Graduate Survey, 2019 GOS-L</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Significantly, 27.4% of undergraduate graduates were unemployed or underemployed four months after completing their degree.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-dont-control-the-labour-market-we-shouldnt-fund-them-like-they-do-124780">Universities don't control the labour market: we shouldn't fund them like they do</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://derby.openrepository.com/handle/10545/621285">Previous</a> <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/hep.2011.26">research</a> and current statistics both prove that a university qualification does not guarantee a job. The 2008 <a href="https://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A32134">Bradley Review</a> prediction that by 2010 the supply of individuals holding undergraduate qualifications would not meet the demand has not eventuated. </p>
<p>From a national point of view, the ethos is the more people who have a degree, the more highly skilled the workforce. In time the job market will get better, but it might be different for some. </p>
<p>In these testing times graduates need to be resilient, determined and adaptable. They will have to take advantage of any opportunities and professional networks that their universities and alumni provide.</p>
<p> </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156867/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>
More and more Australians are gaining university degrees. And increasingly that means a degree does not guarantee a job, although it did appear to offer some protection against COVID job losses.
Lynlea Small, Casual Academic, School of Business and Creative Industries, University of the Sunshine Coast
Amie Shaw, Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management, Griffith University
Ruth McPhail, Head of Department of Employment Relations & Human Resources, and Professor, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/149973
2020-11-17T18:49:10Z
2020-11-17T18:49:10Z
Our unis do need international students and must choose between the high and low roads
<p>Australian universities have come to rely heavily on revenue from onshore international students. <a href="https://asiasociety.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/Asia_Taskforce_Discussion_Paper_4_Higher_Education.pdf">Numbers more than doubled</a> in the decade to 2018. But the proposition that Australia’s public universities should step back 50 years, retreat from international education and focus wholly or largely on domestic students is naively nostalgic. </p>
<p>Such a move would be a backward step economically, culturally and diplomatically, as a new <a href="https://asiasociety.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/Asia_Taskforce_Discussion_Paper_4_Higher_Education.pdf">Asia Taskforce discussion paper</a> concludes. It would diminish Australia and its global standing.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Data-snapshot-2019-FINAL.pdf">37 of our universities</a> are publicly owned and thus have a social obligation to serve domestic students. It is right that we have a robust debate about the international student presence on our campuses. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the debate has generated more heat than light. It’s at risk of being hijacked for ideological purposes, rather than generating credible and practical solutions on which the sector and government can act.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-what-australian-universities-can-do-to-recover-from-the-loss-of-international-student-fees-139759">COVID-19: what Australian universities can do to recover from the loss of international student fees</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Getting to the root of the problem</h2>
<p>Criticisms of the sector aren’t without merit. As some academics <a href="https://www.cis.org.au/app/uploads/2019/08/ap5.pdf">have suggested</a>, and as COVID-19 has writ large, universities’ high exposure to the international education market is high risk. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369485/original/file-20201116-13-6rm8jq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing breakdowns of university revenue sources from 2004 to 2018" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369485/original/file-20201116-13-6rm8jq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369485/original/file-20201116-13-6rm8jq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369485/original/file-20201116-13-6rm8jq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369485/original/file-20201116-13-6rm8jq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369485/original/file-20201116-13-6rm8jq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369485/original/file-20201116-13-6rm8jq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369485/original/file-20201116-13-6rm8jq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Changes in sources of university revenue from 2004 to 2018 (in 2018 dollars)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/200917-HE-Facts-and-Figures-2020.pdf">Universities Australia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://internationaleducation.gov.au/research/Research-Snapshots/Documents/RS_International%20students%20at%20universities.pdf">proportion of international students per institution</a> in 2018 averaged 22%, ranging from a low of 4% (New England) to a high of 48% (Bond). At some business and engineering faculties, the proportion exceeded 50%. </p>
<p>Enrolments at some of our largest universities also have an unacceptable skew towards single countries – either China or India. Some universities, particularly Group of Eight institutions, have fallen into the habit of setting international fees according to what China – the world’s largest student market – will bear. This has eroded competitiveness in more cost-sensitive countries like those in South East Asia and Latin America. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369481/original/file-20201116-15-1yr4qpk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing countries of origin of international students at Australian universities" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369481/original/file-20201116-15-1yr4qpk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369481/original/file-20201116-15-1yr4qpk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369481/original/file-20201116-15-1yr4qpk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369481/original/file-20201116-15-1yr4qpk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369481/original/file-20201116-15-1yr4qpk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369481/original/file-20201116-15-1yr4qpk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369481/original/file-20201116-15-1yr4qpk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=431&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.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Data-snapshot-2019-FINAL.pdf">Universities Australia. Data source: DET Selected Higher Education Statistics 2008 and 2017 Student Data</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Furthermore, the sector can and must lift its game on all-round educational quality. The issues include academic and English-proficiency admission standards, the quality of the learning experience, and graduate employability and job outcomes.</p>
<p>Whatever the critics might assert, though, the root cause of this reliance is not institutional greed. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-universities-came-to-rely-on-international-students-138796">underlying driver</a> has been bipartisan attachment to weaning the sector off the public purse and requiring it to stand on its own two feet financially. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-universities-came-to-rely-on-international-students-138796">How universities came to rely on international students</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the two decades to 2015, OECD data suggest Australia slipped from sixth place to <a href="https://www.aheia.edu.au/resources-391/higher-education-workforce-of-the-future-167">24th among OECD countries</a> in terms of public investment in higher education as a share of GDP. While <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-tertiary-education-funding-is-not-as-low-as-it-seems-in-oecd-metrics-102710">some</a> dispute these metrics, the flatlining of real direct funding by government has created a university sector that is neither fish nor fowl: publicly owned yet increasingly reliant on commercial income sources.</p>
<h2>Fee revenue isn’t the only benefit</h2>
<p>A striking feature of criticisms of the international student presence is a refusal to acknowledge its benefits. Education was the nation’s <a href="https://internationaleducation.gov.au/research/Research-Snapshots/Documents/Export%20Income%20FY2016%E2%80%9317.pdf">third-largest export earner</a> last year. Higher education alone contributed A$31 billion. </p>
<p>International students contribute greatly to local economies too. They spend on accommodation, food, leisure and entertainment. Over <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2020/05/21/31-200-nsw-jobs-rely-on-university-of-sydney-.html">31,000 jobs rely</a> on the University of Sydney alone. </p>
<p>Falling onshore international student numbers have magnified the pandemic’s impacts. A Mitchell Institute <a href="https://www.vu.edu.au/sites/default/files/educational-opportunity-in-australia-2020.pdf">research paper</a> last week forecast a 50% decline in onshore international students by mid-2021. The paper detailed the suburb-by-suburb economic impact on our cities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-to-halve-international-student-numbers-in-australia-by-mid-2021-its-not-just-unis-that-will-feel-their-loss-148997">COVID to halve international student numbers in Australia by mid-2021 – it's not just unis that will feel their loss</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="SOYqH" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/SOYqH/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>The <a href="https://thepienews.com/the-view-from/what-did-international-students-ever-do-for-australia/">socio-cultural benefits</a> these students bring are also habitually ignored or dismissed. </p>
<p>Neglected, too, are the many benefits and opportunities, including “soft power” projection, that flow from having <a href="https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/australia-global-alumni-engagement-strategy-2016-2020.pdf">hundreds of thousands of Australian university alumni worldwide</a>. There are well over 200,000 in China alone.</p>
<h2>Low road or high road?</h2>
<p>The sector and policymakers now face a stark choice regarding the number, size and student profile of universities. In the post-pandemic world, and in the absence of increased direct government funding per student, the sector must choose between the “low road” and the “high road” to survival and sustainability.</p>
<p>The low road would involve pulling back to a largely or even wholly domestic focus. The results would very likely be sector-wide decline, shrinking universities, deteriorating campus facilities, a lowering of horizons and a reversion to a pre-1990s focus on domestic student education. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/without-international-students-australias-universities-will-downsize-and-some-might-collapse-altogether-132869">Without international students, Australia's universities will downsize – and some might collapse altogether</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Internationalism would give way to isolationism and educational nationalism of Trumpian proportions. This path would consign the sector to a future of parochialism, mediocrity and global irrelevance.</p>
<p>Alternatively, the sector could take the “high road”. This would involve repositioning itself as a high-quality provider of new forms of learning for both international and domestic students. </p>
<p>The sector and government would have to work in partnership to rebuild universities’ global brand and reputation, recover international student numbers and reprofile this student cohort. The latter step would aim both to improve the academic merit of students from China and diversify intakes. </p>
<p>The high road is also the hard road. It requires a pro-active (not defensive) mindset and an all-round shift in perceptions of Australia, Australians and our universities. But it may well set the sector on a bright new path.</p>
<p>The hope that a surge in domestic student demand will save the sector from atrophy is delusional. The government must either greatly increase recurrent funding per student or provide strong tactical support to recover and diversify international student enrolments. The latter approach would enable the sector to continue to cross-subsidise degree studies by domestic students, fund high-quality research, and develop campus and IT infrastructure <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-youre-preparing-students-for-21st-century-jobs-youre-behind-the-times-131567">fit for the fourth industrial revolution</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369509/original/file-20201116-23-a7a4qh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing growth in university research funding sources since 2000" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369509/original/file-20201116-23-a7a4qh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369509/original/file-20201116-23-a7a4qh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369509/original/file-20201116-23-a7a4qh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369509/original/file-20201116-23-a7a4qh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369509/original/file-20201116-23-a7a4qh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369509/original/file-20201116-23-a7a4qh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369509/original/file-20201116-23-a7a4qh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Growth in sources of funding for university research since 2000 (in 2018 dollars)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/200917-HE-Facts-and-Figures-2020.pdf">Universities Australia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/7-6-billion-and-11-of-researchers-our-estimate-of-how-much-australian-university-research-stands-to-lose-by-2024-146672">$7.6 billion and 11% of researchers: our estimate of how much Australian university research stands to lose by 2024</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The sector can do this without major direct funding increases from a <a href="https://theconversation.com/these-budget-numbers-are-shocking-and-there-are-worse-ones-in-store-143250">debt-burdened government</a>. But government needs to help the sector help itself.</p>
<h2>A 10-point action plan</h2>
<p>Universities should act decisively and in concert to:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>diversify international students</p></li>
<li><p>focus on all-round quality (admission quality, learning quality, graduate outcome quality) of Chinese students</p></li>
<li><p>increase strategic partnerships with international institutions as a channel for recruiting high-quality students</p></li>
<li><p>leverage international alumni networks more effectively to promote the sector and assist student recruitment and graduate placement</p></li>
<li><p>accentuate intensive courses for international students to capitalise on booming demand for life-long learning.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Government could support progress along the high road as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>sponsor tripartite trade and education missions to target countries</p></li>
<li><p>expand support for intensive study visits</p></li>
<li><p>host sector-wide events and promote further learning for international alumni</p></li>
<li><p>actively encourage employers to provide in-program placements and onshore post-study work for new international graduates</p></li>
<li><p>sponsor initiatives to help graduates secure quality jobs in their home countries.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The sector and government should embrace the high road in partnership. This can only be achieved if we engage in a mature and nuanced discussion about root causes, practical solutions and the sort of university system we really wish to have in this country.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149973/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Shields has recently authored a discussion paper on this topic for the Business Council of Australian and Asia Society's Asia Taskforce.No payment was received for production of this paper. John has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council for projects unrelated to this contribution. His position at the University of Sydney Business School includes responsibility for academic leadership of the School's international engagement activities. He has also been involved in international student recruitment to the School since 2009.</span></em></p>
Educating international students provides far more benefits for Australia than is commonly acknowledged. But it has also created problems and an ambitious agenda is needed to overcome these.
John Shields, Professor of Human Resource Management and Organisational Studies, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/146837
2020-10-26T04:16:22Z
2020-10-26T04:16:22Z
Dobell Biennial showcases drawing today as we consider its future in the real world
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365445/original/file-20201026-13-u70dsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=100%2C38%2C2393%2C1728&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Danie Mellor's A Time of World's Making (2019) detail</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Danie Mellor/AGNSW</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: Real Worlds: Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial 2020, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney</em></p>
<p>Why do drawers draw?</p>
<p>Drawing is historically connected to creative practice, but also truth and accuracy. It helps materialise story and culture, perhaps because it’s often the fastest way to get an idea down on paper. But drawing can also be <a href="https://www.thinkingthroughdrawing.org/">slow, meditative and reflective</a>. When the artist is in the <a href="https://www.headspace.com/articles/flow-state">flow state</a>, a drawing can take hours and hours to resolve itself. </p>
<p>The 2020 <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/real-worlds/">Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial</a> is an insightful window into the active compulsion of drawers. With the theme of Real Worlds, this wonderful array of work turns our minds back to representational forms of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/apr/21/make-your-mark-enduring-appeal-of-drawing-draw-art-fair-london-saatchi-laura-cumming">drawing</a> and the way in which the medium envelops our connection to self, place, and country.</p>
<p>The works provide pause to consider the visual narrative and what the future of drawing might look like given new technologies — but less government support — at the tertiary level. </p>
<h2>Real versus abstract</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.dobellartfoundation.org.au/">Sir William Dobell</a> won the Archibald Prize for portraiture <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/artists/dobell-william/">three times</a> but his <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dobell-sir-william-10025">day job as a draughtsman</a> is often referred to. Perhaps this is an attempt to legitimise his skills. Since the controversy of his 1943 Archibald prize — an image of fellow artist Joshua Smith <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/the-william-dobell-portrait-that-broke-a-friendship-and-divided-a-nation-20141016-10r84z.html">derided by some vocal critics</a> as caricature — his work has always made us question what is drawing today?</p>
<p>The Dobell Biennial, which ran from 1993—2012 alongside the Archibald as a prize worth A$30,000 before being reinvented as a curated exhibition, continues the conversation. The Dobell Drawing Prize, now hosted by the National Art School, was won last year by <a href="https://nas.edu.au/dobell-drawing-prize-21/">Justine Varga</a> for a work entitled Photogenic Drawing (2018). </p>
<p>Real Worlds exhibits a tight selection showcasing the ideologies and technical skills of eight artists. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364758/original/file-20201021-15-p5pmhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=127%2C104%2C2252%2C973&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="pencil drawing of fern undergrowth" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364758/original/file-20201021-15-p5pmhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=127%2C104%2C2252%2C973&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364758/original/file-20201021-15-p5pmhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364758/original/file-20201021-15-p5pmhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364758/original/file-20201021-15-p5pmhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364758/original/file-20201021-15-p5pmhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364758/original/file-20201021-15-p5pmhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364758/original/file-20201021-15-p5pmhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Becc Ország Fantasy of virtue / All things and nothing 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.beccorszag.com/gallery/">© Becc Ország/AGNSW</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Curator Anne Ryan points provides a litmus test of drawing now. The eight artists featured are <a href="https://tolarnogalleries.com/artists/martin-bell/">Martin Bell</a>, <a href="https://www.mattcoyle.net/">Matt Coyle</a>, <a href="https://www.chalkhorse.com.au/artists/nathan-hawkes">Nathan Hawkes</a>, <a href="https://daniemellor.com/">Danie Mellor</a>, <a href="http://www.alcastongallery.com.au/artist/read/1321-peter-mungkuri">Peter Mungkuri</a>, <a href="https://www.beccorszag.com/">Becc Ország</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/jackstahel/?hl=en">Jack Stahel</a> and <a href="https://www.bettgallery.com.au/artists/wright/index.htm">Helen Wright</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/great-time-to-try-learning-to-draw-135298">Great time to try: learning to draw</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Traditional boundaries</h2>
<p>On the whole, they use tried and true methods. </p>
<p>The work of Ország requires us to evaluate the role of observation and composition. Her work expresses our longing for a Utopian pre-technological society. </p>
<p>Stahel’s drawings and made things to draw <a href="https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=625818363684626;res=IELAPA">show how boundaries can be crossed</a> between scientific thought and visual beauty. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3lLFx987G2c?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The drawings ‘reflect our capacity to imagine something better and different’ says Dobell Biennial curator Anne Ryan.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mellor’s work connect us to ecology, history and Dreaming narratives while Bell’s impressively sized, interwoven type, line drawing and nostalgic drawn-on-paper tapestry recalls the 80s. </p>
<p>Mungkuri’s large layerings of Country in ink captivate and pull the viewer into a mesmerising cartography. Coyle wants you to dream alongside him, while Hawkes provides a splash of colour. Finally, Wright’s drawings tap into human fears of excess consumption. </p>
<p>The sheer scale of the works is striking and the time involved is impressive. Each artist shows us the deeply cognitive nature of their practice. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365112/original/file-20201022-21-8hncbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black and white fern drawing in bold lines" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365112/original/file-20201022-21-8hncbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365112/original/file-20201022-21-8hncbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365112/original/file-20201022-21-8hncbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365112/original/file-20201022-21-8hncbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365112/original/file-20201022-21-8hncbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1096&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365112/original/file-20201022-21-8hncbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1096&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365112/original/file-20201022-21-8hncbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1096&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Peter Munkari’s Punu Ngura (Country with trees) 3 (2019).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Munkari/AGNSW</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Learning to draw and think</h2>
<p>The skill and technique of drawing has been diminished in schools and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/nov/16/artistic-skills-are-being-lost-a-critic-says-but-is-there-any-such-thing">university curricula</a>. </p>
<p>People aren’t sitting around drawing all day like they once did, (<a href="https://www.thinkingthroughdrawing.org/">slowly thinking</a>), and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/25/squeezing-out-arts-for-commercially-useful-subjects-will-make-our-culture-poorer">new funding models for the arts</a> suggest they won’t anytime soon. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-governments-funding-changes-are-meddling-with-the-purpose-of-universities-141133">The government's funding changes are meddling with the purpose of universities</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The newly formed <a href="http://dita.soci.org.au/">Drawing Education Network</a> seeks to understand the potential of drawing across all forms of education and to counter this shortsightedness. </p>
<p>As noted at a <a href="http://dita.soci.org.au/">recent event</a>, the dynamic of drawing within universities has dramatically shifted over the last 20–50 years. We might be losing a generation of learning for “<a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready">job ready</a>” visualisation skills — despite operating in a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42438-019-00099-y">visual era</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7RmcJHNGgtc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Keynote Presentation ‘un-thinking Drawing and un-drawing thinking’ with Stuart Medley and discussion with Alan Male.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet drawing continues to be widely utilised across journalism and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34297594-reportage-illustration">reportage</a>, education and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267305591_Drawing_on_Education_Using_Drawings_to_Document_Schooling_and_Support_Change">knowledge transference</a>, persuasive <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10641734.2005.10505176">advertising and marketing</a>, <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/1672917/the-8-steps-to-creating-a-great-storyboard">strategic planning</a>, and <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Art_of_Movie_Storyboards.html?id=Bp91nAEACAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y">narrative fictions and entertainments</a>. </p>
<p>The future of drawing lies in its ability to persist throughout time, notes University of Newcastle creative industries head <a href="https://www.newcastle.edu.au/profile/paul-egglestone">Paul Egglestone</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Drawing continues seemingly unfazed — even energised — responding to and feeding off copious new ways to make images — electronically and mechanically — on film, video and computers. Images are being made today we can legitimately call drawing that would not have been possible or even imaginable at one time. </p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-teaching-kids-to-draw-not-a-more-important-part-of-the-curriculum-60379">Why is teaching kids to draw not a more important part of the curriculum?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Following the Art Gallery of NSW exhibition, <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/real-worlds/">Real Worlds: Dobell Australian Drawing Biennial 2020</a> will tour regionally to Lismore Regional Gallery (27 February–25 April 2021) and Museum of Art and Culture Lake Macquarie, yapang (8 May–18 July 2021).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146837/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ari Chand 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>
Works by eight artists in the Dobell Drawing Biennial draw on dreams, history and reality. But drawing has escaped the gallery and will scribe on despite less government support for the arts.
Ari Chand, Lecturer in Visual Communication Design and Creative Industries, University of Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/144563
2020-08-20T20:16:55Z
2020-08-20T20:16:55Z
When students fail, many do nothing about it. Here’s how unis can help them get back on track
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353506/original/file-20200818-24671-trkm1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C7%2C4954%2C3310&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/teenage-student-classroom-tutor-71162902">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Students failing at university is not a problem of “extremes”, as federal Education Minister Dan Tehan <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tehan/putting-students-interests-first">would have it</a>. A large proportion of students fail units of study. And, surprisingly, <a href="https://studentsuccessjournal.org/article/view/1403">our research</a> found about a third do nothing about it. However, students who received targeted help from their university on average halved their failure rate. </p>
<p>The government is right to be concerned about high rates of failure among students who accrue HECS-HELP debt even if they don’t graduate. Its <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready/job-ready-graduates-package-draft-legislation-consultation">proposed amendments</a> to the Higher Education Support Act mean students who fail half their subjects across two semesters would lose Commonwealth support. </p>
<p>The changes would extend conditions applying to non-university providers to universities. They would also increase the powers of the regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), and the Department of Education to enforce those rules. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/uni-student-failure-rate-is-a-worry-but-the-government-response-is-too-heavy-handed-144414">Uni student failure rate is a worry, but the government response is too heavy-handed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The question is: will the treatment cure the disease? And is it reasonable in terms of its consequences for universities and their students?</p>
<h2>Failure is common</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07294360.2019.1664999">large study</a> of the prevalence and reasons for academic failure of undergraduate students at an Australian university found 40% failed at least one unit. These students were four times more likely to drop out. And 58% of those who persisted with their studies failed again.</p>
<p>All universities have procedures to identify students who fail multiple units in a semester or fail the same unit multiple times. These processes would pick up students who fail half their units, especially in their first year.</p>
<p>The question is what happens next? A university would ordinarily develop a plan to support the student to improve their performance. This may include advice to attend the language and learning skills centre, to seek support for mental well-being and/or to reduce study load if possible. Universities differ in how much practical assistance they give students to recover from failure and complete their course.</p>
<h2>Targeted help makes a difference</h2>
<p>Swinburne University of Technology has a comparatively comprehensive process to support students identified as being at risk. This includes students who have to “show cause” why they should not be excluded from their course. </p>
<p>Highly trained academic development advisers (ADAs) reach out to the students individually. Students are asked to attend a one-on-one session to work through the reasons that led to unit failure and discuss how they will respond to these challenges. They can see the ADA multiple times.</p>
<p>The ADAs also run a facilitated peer support program, called Back on Track, over the semester. It’s aimed at changing behaviour and developing new study habits as well as building a personal support network. </p>
<p>The outcomes of the Back on Track program are impressive. The 213 participants in the second semester of 2019 almost halved their fail rate from the first semester. Some students did not fail any units. </p>
<p>Dropping study load to improve pass rates was an important strategy. Almost half of the cohort did this.</p>
<p>Supporting students after academic failure is resource-intensive because of the numbers involved. The Swinburne ADA team works with about 2,000 students a year. This is in addition to the administrative staff who identify students and the academic staff involved in the “show cause” process. </p>
<p>While Swinburne leads in proactive support of students, all universities have robust processes for dealing with poor academic progress.</p>
<h2>Students must learn to help themselves</h2>
<p>Offering support is only part of the story. Students must also adapt their behaviour following academic failure. At Swinburne, many “at risk” students don’t engage with the ADA support system.</p>
<p>In our study, we asked students what they did in <a href="https://studentsuccessjournal.org/article/view/1403">response to failing</a>. One-third of respondents who had failed but persisted with their study answered: “Nothing”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Student with coffee staring in confusion at laptop screen." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353514/original/file-20200819-25043-6ftsxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353514/original/file-20200819-25043-6ftsxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353514/original/file-20200819-25043-6ftsxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353514/original/file-20200819-25043-6ftsxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353514/original/file-20200819-25043-6ftsxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353514/original/file-20200819-25043-6ftsxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353514/original/file-20200819-25043-6ftsxr.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">A third of students continuing with study after failing units said they did ‘nothing’ in response to their failure.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bored-university-student-584141923">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is obviously of concern, especially for students who have failed multiple units. Of those who had failed repeatedly but did “nothing”, 43% were international students and 26% were online students. They struggled with exam anxiety and exam situations, especially the international students, and reported problems with workload and time management. </p>
<p>These students had not yet worked out how to help themselves, or where to go for help.</p>
<p>Most students named multiple and compounding reasons for failing, including financial struggles, disability, and care or work responsibilities. These underlying issues cannot be resolved quickly, by students or universities.</p>
<h2>Everyone has a role to play</h2>
<p>Universities could do more to help students in practical ways to get back on track. Combined use of predictive learning analytics (drawing on multiple data points to identify students at risk) and learning advisers who intervene early is <a href="https://success.gsu.edu/initiatives/gps-advising/">showing promise</a> and could be rolled out across the sector. The government, through the <a href="https://www.teqsa.gov.au/contextual-overview-hes-framework-2015">Higher Education Standards Framework</a>, could encourage this.</p>
<p>Reducing study load is an effective strategy but can have negative consequences for Centrelink support and, in many cases, scholarships. The government could help improve pass rates by further relaxing the <a href="https://www.studyassist.gov.au/support-while-you-study/student-payments">Centrelink requirement</a> that students must study full-time to receive benefits.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353513/original/file-20200819-14-94ilok.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Illustration of university student dragging a debt ball and chain" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353513/original/file-20200819-14-94ilok.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353513/original/file-20200819-14-94ilok.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353513/original/file-20200819-14-94ilok.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353513/original/file-20200819-14-94ilok.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353513/original/file-20200819-14-94ilok.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353513/original/file-20200819-14-94ilok.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353513/original/file-20200819-14-94ilok.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If the debt burden on failing students is the issue, relaxing Centrelink rules so they can reduce study loads and pass would make sense.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/2016-graduate-student-loan-icons-crippling-413825836">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The proposed 50% fail rule for Commonwealth-supported places seems an overreaction to some extreme cases. The solution to these extremes could be found in the Commonwealth Higher Education Student Support Number (<a href="https://www.studyassist.gov.au/help-loans/your-chessn">CHESSN</a>) and <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/08/13/checking-that-students-are-on-track-to-pass-the-governments-proposal/">a better IT system</a>. The Education Department could then police the issue of students enrolling in multiple courses at multiple institutions behind the scenes.</p>
<p>We know students who fail 50% of their units in a semester are a significant minority. If institutions had to justify to the department why they are not excluding these students, the administrative burden would be substantial.</p>
<p>The more serious concern is what such a process would teach students about their ability to recover from failure and make changes in response to feedback and advice. The proposed policy risks adding stress for students who are already struggling with their life load and is likely to punish those who are already disadvantaged.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144563/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>
Students who fail units are highly likely to fail again without targeted assistance. But when universities intervene early to support these students, their rate of failure has been nearly halved.
Nadine Zacharias, Director, Student Engagement, Swinburne University of Technology
Rola Ajjawi, Associate Professor, Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, Deakin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/144414
2020-08-17T20:12:59Z
2020-08-17T20:12:59Z
Uni student failure rate is a worry, but the government response is too heavy-handed
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353073/original/file-20200817-16-1vvm3m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C0%2C5227%2C3372&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/single-sad-student-checking-failed-exam-644598994">Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a surprise move, the government has revealed <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/08/13/checking-that-students-are-on-track-to-pass-the-governments-proposal/">several new policies</a> to reduce rates of failure in university subjects. If the <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready/job-ready-graduates-package-draft-legislation-consultation">legislation</a> passes, it will require universities to:</p>
<ul>
<li>monitor student academic performance more closely</li>
<li>prevent students enrolling in too many subjects</li>
<li>exclude students who <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/08/14/should-students-lose-commonwealth-support-for-failing-too-many-subjects/">fail more than half their subjects</a>, except in special circumstances. </li>
</ul>
<p>The problem with the new laws, which include withdrawal of funding for students who fail too many subjects, is they will push universities towards faster, and possibly premature, termination of student enrolments. </p>
<h2>Failing is expensive</h2>
<p>In 2018, <a href="https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiYWM2NjRkYTktZGJkNC00MGVkLWJlYjItMGRjNTc3Y2FkNmVkIiwidCI6ImRkMGNmZDE1LTQ1NTgtNGIxMi04YmFkLWVhMjY5ODRmYzQxNyJ9">nearly 17% of subjects</a> taken by Commonwealth-supported students were not successfully completed. The students either failed or withdrew after the census date when they incur a HELP debt. </p>
<p>This lack of subject success is expensive. Exact costs are not published, but taken as a proportion of <a href="https://app.heims.education.gov.au/HeimsOnline/IPInfo/Determination">Commonwealth payments</a> the fail-or-withdraw rate translates into nearly A$800 million in HELP debt and almost A$1.2 billion in subsidies to universities. </p>
<h2>Some fails are avoidable</h2>
<p>Some students fail subjects because, despite their best efforts and those of their teachers, their academic work is not satisfactory. We would worry about academic standards if the pass rate was 100%. But other failed subjects are potentially avoidable. </p>
<p>Sometimes students fail due to academic factors universities can do something about, such as by improving teaching or helping students who are falling behind. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/failing-a-subject-isnt-just-the-students-fault-universities-can-and-should-help-126195">Failing a subject isn't just the student's fault. Universities can and should help</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Universities cannot control student life issues such as health, work and family matters. All of these are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07294360.2019.1664999">reasons students give</a> for failing subjects. But universities can judge whether these issues are temporary or manageable. If so, they are not fundamental obstacles to future academic success.</p>
<p>Other students fail because they are not going to class, handing in essays or sitting tests. They have effectively dropped subjects or their course, but have not officially notified their university. The system then automatically registers HELP debts and fails. </p>
<p>When <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/universities-must-exorcise-their-ghost-students">La Trobe University examined its records</a>, it estimated a quarter of all fails were by “ghost students” who did not submit the work needed to pass. If these students can be encouraged to formally withdraw earlier, subject fails and HELP debts will decrease.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-students-are-going-to-university-than-before-but-those-at-risk-of-dropping-out-need-more-help-118764">More students are going to university than before, but those at risk of dropping out need more help</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The government’s measures to reduce fails</h2>
<p>The legislation has several measures intended to limit ghost enrolments and failed subjects. </p>
<p>Students would not be allowed to enrol in more than double the subjects a full-time student normally takes in a year, unless they had a demonstrated capacity to do so. University policies already prevent major subject overloads, as taking on too much increases the risk of failure. </p>
<p>But some students – <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/no-help-uni-students-who-fail-half-their-subjects-to-lose-taxpayer-support-20200812-p55l18.html">about 2,500 on the government’s figures</a> – enrol in more than one university at once. <a href="https://heimshelp.education.gov.au/resources/TCSI">Upgrading the government’s enrolment IT</a> should help identify and regulate these students.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2015L01639/Download">By law</a>, universities must check before enrolment that each prospective student is academically suited to their course. The new law would extend this requirement to the subject level. </p>
<p>How this would work in practice is unclear. With more than eight million subject enrolments a year, checking every one would be a massive exercise. </p>
<p>Focusing on students with prior fails may be sufficient. It would be in line with <a href="https://www.deakin.edu.au/students/studying/assessment-and-results/academic-progress">existing</a> <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/current-students/managing-your-course/classes-and-assessment/academic-progression/international-student-requirements/academic-progress-and-early-intervention">university</a> <a href="https://my.uq.edu.au/information-and-services/manage-my-program/academic-progress-and-final-results/academic-warnings-and-showing-cause">policies</a> on students who fail half or more of their subjects in a semester. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/dropping-out/">2018 Grattan Institute report</a> I co-authored found that, of the 7% of commencing bachelor-degree students who failed all their first-semester subjects, a quarter continued and also failed all second-semester subjects. Future outcomes like that may signal non-compliance with the academic suitability law.</p>
<p>Finally, the legislation would give the government power to deprive universities of funding for students it deems not “genuine”. Genuineness indicators already <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2019L01699">used in private higher education institutions</a> include whether students are reasonably engaged in the course, whether they have satisfied course requirements and, if the course is online, how many times they have logged on. These provisions target ghost students.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-need-to-train-lecturers-in-online-delivery-or-they-risk-students-dropping-out-133921">Universities need to train lecturers in online delivery, or they risk students dropping out</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Consequences for students</h2>
<p>As general themes, the ideas in the legislation are not inherently bad. Many reflect standard or common practices in higher education. </p>
<p>The problem is that universities have to balance the risks of further fails and HELP debt against the benefits of giving students a second chance. </p>
<p>If the legislation passes, universities will be nervous about being fined for breaching the academic suitability rule and losing funding for non-genuine students. This creates an incentive to end enrolments, possibly prematurely, after one bad semester. </p>
<p>Students who fail more than half their subjects, after taking at least eight in a bachelor degree, <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/08/14/should-students-lose-commonwealth-support-for-failing-too-many-subjects/">already face exclusion from their course</a>. But the legislation would limit which factors universities can consider in making this decision. </p>
<p>Universities could take into account failures due to reasons <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2013C00782/Download">beyond a student’s control</a>, such as their own or a family member’s illness. But universities could not consider general difficulties adapting to university life, or other reasons a student could plausibly have controlled. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353071/original/file-20200817-14-1gb1gj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="University lecturer discusses a student's work with them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353071/original/file-20200817-14-1gb1gj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353071/original/file-20200817-14-1gb1gj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353071/original/file-20200817-14-1gb1gj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353071/original/file-20200817-14-1gb1gj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353071/original/file-20200817-14-1gb1gj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353071/original/file-20200817-14-1gb1gj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353071/original/file-20200817-14-1gb1gj0.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The provisions of the current bill could lead to students who could succeed with proper support being denied a second chance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/professor-gives-bad-grade-after-oral-150629666">Adam Gregor/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A different approach</h2>
<p>Patterns of subject failure are worth investigating, to protect students put at unacceptably high risk of further fails and debt. But this task should be handled not by the Department of Education, which would implement these laws, but the <a href="https://www.teqsa.gov.au/">Tertiary Education Quality and Standard Agency</a>. Many subject fails are linked to the course admission, teaching quality and course retention matters that TEQSA already regulates. </p>
<p>TEQSA operates under a “regulatory necessity, risk and proportionality” principle, which lets it take a nuanced approach. Universities that put failing students at high risk of continued poor performance would have to improve their practices. But universities would still be free to consider the complex trade-offs of each individual case, without inflexible rules driving them to one conclusion. </p>
<p>Students should also be made more aware of the census date’s importance. <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/08/13/disengaged-and-failing-students-are-an-issue-worth-policy-attention/">A small Grattan Institute survey</a> showed many students did not know what the census date was, or thought they did but gave an incorrect answer. A name change that highlights its significance, such as “payment date”, would encourage students to drop subjects sooner to avoid HELP debt and fails.</p>
<p>Although the government has identified a real problem, its heavy-handed regulation would create unnecessary red tape for universities and exclude students who should get a second chance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144414/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Norton works for the Australian National University, which would be affected by the policies discussed in the article. </span></em></p>
Although the government has identified a real problem, its heavy-handed regulation would create unnecessary red tape for universities and exclude students who should get a second chance.
Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/141614
2020-08-06T19:59:59Z
2020-08-06T19:59:59Z
Why degree cost increases will hit women hardest
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349303/original/file-20200724-29-14m5dr4.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/graduated-students-graduation-hats-gowns-outdoors-311391842">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The federal government’s proposed increase in the cost of <a href="https://theconversation.com/fee-cuts-for-nursing-and-teaching-but-big-hikes-for-law-and-humanities-in-package-expanding-university-places-141064">studying humanities and communications</a> degrees at Australian universities has stirred much debate. One aspect that should not be overlooked is that these changes will disproportionately affect women.</p>
<p>Under the proposed changes, student contributions for social science, communications and humanities (not including English and psychology) will increase by A$7,696 per year. That’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-20/study-arts-and-humanities-government-fees-tertiary-education/12374124">double their current cost</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-the-government-listened-to-business-leaders-they-would-encourage-humanities-education-not-pull-funds-from-it-141121">If the government listened to business leaders, they would encourage humanities education, not pull funds from it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Pushing women into STEM?</h2>
<p>The government’s proposal has already been described as <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-22/university-fee-changes-dan-tehan-capitalist-economics-analysis/12377498">social engineering</a>, given the government’s declared aim is to boost numbers of graduates in areas of expected employment growth, including teaching, nursing, agriculture, STEM and IT. The intention of lowering fees in these areas appears to be to attract more students to study these disciplines in preference to humanities. </p>
<p>If the idea is to encourage students to leave the humanities and study science instead, it’s a flawed approach. It would take a lot more than simply changing the cost of study to attract women to the field. </p>
<p>Women remain underrepresented at only <a href="http://www.professionalsaustralia.org.au/professional-women/wp-content/uploads/sites/48/2018/08/2018-Women-in-STEM-Survey-Report_web.pdf">27% of the STEM workforce</a> across all sectors, despite a range of initiatives designed to improve the balance. </p>
<p>For women, the real deterrent to studying STEM-related disciplines is related to <a href="http://www.professionalsaustralia.org.au/professional-women/wp-content/uploads/sites/48/2018/08/2018-Women-in-STEM-Survey-Report_web.pdf">employment outcomes and conditions</a>, and challenges in even <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/data-and-publications/advancing-women-in-stem-strategy/snapshot-of-disparity-in-stem">entering a STEM-based workforce</a>. STEM women are likely to earn <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-04/advancing-women-in-stem.pdf">less than their male counterparts</a> and also face <a href="https://theconversation.com/humanities-graduates-earn-more-than-those-who-study-science-and-maths-141112">poorer pay prospects than those who study humanities</a>. </p>
<p>Perhaps more importantly, women in STEM have few examples of <a href="https://theconversation.com/women-in-stem-need-your-support-and-australia-needs-women-in-stem-113054">role models who clearly own the STEM space</a> – reinforcing a notion that STEM-based work is male-dominated.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/women-in-stem-need-your-support-and-australia-needs-women-in-stem-113054">Women in STEM need your support – and Australia needs women in STEM</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Pushing women away from humanities?</h2>
<p>Increasing the costs of the humanities, then, <a href="https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/education/university-tuition-hikes-won-t-change-behaviour-simon-marginson-20200705-p5593n">might not push people into STEM</a> or into areas such as nursing or education. But it might push them away from studying the humanities, and away from the vital work they do in a range of industries.</p>
<p>According to the federal government’s 2019 <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/qilt-surveys/graduate-employment">Graduate Outcomes Survey</a>, 64.2% of humanities graduates were in a full-time position six months out from graduation. Many were employed in positions in public administration, education, <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-the-government-listened-to-business-leaders-they-would-encourage-humanities-education-not-pull-funds-from-it-141121">business</a>, <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6807125/how-the-humanities-inform-the-sciences/">health</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2015/07/29/liberal-arts-degree-tech/#1c5028c8745d">science and technology</a> – the very industries the proposed changes target. In these roles, they draw on skill sets acquired in their humanities degrees; skills that are remarkably similar to those <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-humanities-can-equip-students-for-the-fourth-industrial-revolution-103925">Industry 4.0 capabilities</a> employers are crying out for.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-humanities-can-equip-students-for-the-fourth-industrial-revolution-103925">How the humanities can equip students for the fourth industrial revolution</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"732236898668666880"}"></div></p>
<h2>Women earn less, and will pay more</h2>
<p>Raising costs of studies in the humanities means these disciplines will shore up an <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/an-education-inuniversity-funding-reform/news-story/7680d20e07389476dc37c17f32271fcb">effective reduction in government funding</a>. In the longer term, women will bear the costs of this “saving”. </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>The reality is that humanities and social science disciplines attract more students than any other subject areas – the majority of whom are women. Women have consistently represented the bulk of enrolments in humanities and social science disciplines over the past ten years. In 2018, they accounted for <a href="http://highereducationstatistics.education.gov.au/">two-thirds of enrolled students</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351436/original/file-20200806-24-4jnj85.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing numbers of men and women enrolled in humanities degree courses from 2010 to 2018" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351436/original/file-20200806-24-4jnj85.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351436/original/file-20200806-24-4jnj85.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351436/original/file-20200806-24-4jnj85.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351436/original/file-20200806-24-4jnj85.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351436/original/file-20200806-24-4jnj85.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351436/original/file-20200806-24-4jnj85.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351436/original/file-20200806-24-4jnj85.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&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>
<p>Consequently, under the government’s proposal, many women will pay more for their tuition and yet they are <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/mapping-australian-higher-education-2018/">likely to earn less</a> than men. </p>
<p>Gender roles continue to have an impact on the career trajectories and earning potential of women in Australia. Even though this gender pay gap is narrowing, primary child-caring <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4125.0%7ESep%202018%7EMain%20Features%7EEconomic%20Security%7E4">roles and responsibilities</a> — including taking time away from work, working part-time or leaving the workforce completely — are mainly assumed by, and expected of, women. </p>
<p>As a result, female university graduates earn, on average, <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/mapping-australian-higher-education-2018/">27% less</a> than men over their careers. This means <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/809-doubtful-debt1.pdf">women take longer</a> to pay off their student debt.</p>
<p>The Australian university debt scheme is often praised because <a href="https://theconversation.com/full-response-from-spokesperson-for-the-department-of-education-and-training-52764">it doesn’t incur interest rates</a> or have a timeline for repayment. However, the tangible effects of a larger debt mean women humanities graduates will be in debt for longer. They will have less disposable income for longer. And they will have <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/life/paying-back-your-help-hecs-student-debt-explainer/10982072">limited capacity to invest money, and so expand income</a>, for longer.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1273864083264155648"}"></div></p>
<p>The argument that programs that traditionally attract more women – such as nursing and education – will be made cheaper, and therefore more accessible, doesn’t stack up either. Because there are more women in humanities-based degrees than other programs, the proposed changes still mean women will bear the brunt of these increases. Or be forced out of higher education if their calling isn’t teaching or nursing. </p>
<p>Making higher education unaffordable for women just adds to a raft of conditions that already ensure inequalities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-open-letter-to-australias-education-minister-dan-tehan-signed-by-73-senior-professors-142989">An open letter to Australia's Education Minister Dan Tehan — signed by 73 senior professors</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141614/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deanne Gannaway has received funding from the organisation previously known as the Office for Teaching and Learning. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grace Dunn 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>
Doubling the cost of degrees in the humanities and social sciences has a disproportionate impact on women because they account for two-thirds of the students.
Deanne Gannaway, Senior Lecturer in Higher Education, The University of Queensland
Grace Dunn, Research Assistant in the Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/143893
2020-08-05T02:35:21Z
2020-08-05T02:35:21Z
India’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 Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/141524
2020-06-30T01:16:38Z
2020-06-30T01:16:38Z
The government claims teaching is a national priority, but cheaper degrees won’t improve the profession
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344444/original/file-20200629-155316-pxhqtd.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/group-students-laboratory-lab-science-classroom-721325539">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Education Minister Dan Tehan <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready/better-university-funding-arrangements">recently announced</a> changes to Commonwealth contributions for university courses. As part of the government’s “Job-ready graduates” package, many humanities subjects would become more expensive but students would pay less for courses where the government believes the jobs of the future will be. They include science, languages and teaching.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fee-cuts-for-nursing-and-teaching-but-big-hikes-for-law-and-humanities-in-package-expanding-university-places-141064">Fee cuts for nursing and teaching but big hikes for law and humanities in package expanding university places</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These proposed changes, still to be considered by the Senate, caused much outrage and criticism across the university sector. But the response from the school teaching community has been more muted. Maybe this is because education is flagged as a national priority – <a href="https://theconversation.com/fee-cuts-for-nursing-and-teaching-but-big-hikes-for-law-and-humanities-in-package-expanding-university-places-141064">undergraduates who study teaching</a> will have their HECS fees slashed by 45%.</p>
<p>Surely school teachers should be popping the champagne? </p>
<h2>Not so fast</h2>
<p>Teachers have never been more appreciated than during COVID-19. But neither expressions of support during a crisis, nor cheaper degrees, will overcome four deep structural challenges facing the profession:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>teaching needs to attract more high achievers to counteract a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8462.2008.00487.x">four-decade slide</a> in the <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/education/why-our-best-and-brightest-don-t-teach-20190823-p52k6z.html">academic capability of teachers</a></p></li>
<li><p>domains with acute shortages including <a href="https://amsi.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/amsi-occasional-paper-2.pdf">maths</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/fixing-the-shortage-of-specialist-science-and-maths-teachers-will-be-hard-not-impossible-99651">science</a> and <a href="https://teach.qld.gov.au/become-a-teacher/high-demand-teaching-areas">languages</a> need more specialist teachers </p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/number-crunchers-find-poorest-schools-have-the-poorest-teachers-20200205-p53y2s.html">disadvantaged schools</a>, particularly <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/independent_review_into_regional_rural_and_remote_education.pdf">in regional, rural and remote areas</a>, struggle to attract and retain great teachers</p></li>
<li><p>Australia <a href="https://theconversation.com/making-better-use-of-australias-top-teachers-will-improve-student-outcomes-heres-how-to-do-it-131297">needs an expert teacher</a> career path so top teachers don’t have to move away from teaching to keep developing, and can get paid what they are worth.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>No policy can solve all of these problems. But the minister’s new policy solves none of them.</p>
<h2>Where the reforms fall short</h2>
<p>High achievers won’t suddenly decide to go into teaching because their HECS debt drops by a few thousand dollars. As we showed in a <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/attracting-high-achievers-to-teaching/">Grattan Institute 2019 report</a>, high achievers are turned off teaching by the lack of career progression and the poor mid-career pay. </p>
<p>By their 40s and 50s, teachers earn about <a href="https://theconversation.com/better-pay-and-more-challenge-heres-how-to-get-our-top-students-to-become-teachers-122271">A$50,000 less</a> than high-achieving peers who graduated with a maths degree, and A$100,000 less than those who took an economics, commerce or engineering degree.</p>
<p>Tehan argues financial incentives will encourage people into teaching, but no rational analysis could conclude decreasing HECS debt by $9,300 will compensate for forgoing $50,000 or more <em>every year</em> during your prime earnings years.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1274139516312289281"}"></div></p>
<p>The proposed changes in financial incentives won’t overcome the shortage of science, maths or language teachers either. That’s because HECS fees are also slashed in those fields of study.</p>
<p>Some additional students might choose these subjects as a first degree, then move into teaching via a graduate degree. But if this is the plan, it’s pretty obscure, and runs headlong into the salary and career progression challenges already discussed.</p>
<p>Would-be humanities students, now facing $43,000 degrees, have the strongest incentives to choose the cheaper teaching degree instead. Many would be wonderful teachers. </p>
<p>But pushing these students towards an undergraduate education degree may exacerbate the <a href="https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/school/teachers/profdev/careers/TSD-Report-2017.pdf">historical imbalance</a> between primary teachers (where supply exceeds demand) and secondary school teachers (demand exceeds supply). </p>
<p>That’s because students who do undergraduate education degrees are <a href="https://www.aitsl.edu.au/tools-resources/resource/ite-data-report-2019">50% more likely</a> to choose primary school teaching than secondary teaching. By contrast, postgraduate teaching students are twice as likely to choose secondary teaching than primary. </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>
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<p>At worst, the minister’s financial incentives risk attracting average or below-average students who want a cheap degree, even if they don’t really care that much about teaching.</p>
<p>Zero for two so far. What about disadvantaged and regional schools, and career progression?</p>
<h2>What the government should do</h2>
<p>Rather than pitching teaching as a cheap way to go to university, the government should set a target to <a href="https://theconversation.com/better-pay-and-more-challenge-heres-how-to-get-our-top-students-to-become-teachers-122271">double the number of high achievers choosing teaching</a>.</p>
<p>Step one is to offer $10,000-a-year scholarships to high achievers. Cash-in-hand is dramatically more valuable to a young person than a drop in HECS fees which is on the never-never anyway.</p>
<p>Some of these scholarships could be used to encourage high performers to work in regional schools – complementing the extra support for regional students and universities in Tehan’s new package. </p>
<p>Scholarships would also give governments a finely targeted tool to match supply and demand to help get more specialist teachers in areas of need. The UK boosts scholarships for chemistry teachers when they need more chemistry teachers, and so on. And students respond, with 3% more applications for every <a href="http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7222/CBP-7222.pdf">£1,000 increase</a>.</p>
<p>Step two is to create an expert teacher career path to lead teacher professional learning. </p>
<p>In this system, Instructional Specialists, located in every school and with up to 50% non-teaching time to support colleagues, would set the standard for good teaching and build teaching capacity in their school. And Master Teachers, working across schools, would be dedicated full-time to improving teaching and connecting schools to research. </p>
<p>Creating this clearly-defined career progression would remove some of the top reasons <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/921-Attracting-high-achievers-to-teaching.pdf">high achievers give</a> for not choosing teaching – such lack of intellectual challenge and low earnings. </p>
<p>These proposals don’t require new federal money. Our <a href="https://theconversation.com/making-better-use-of-australias-top-teachers-will-improve-student-outcomes-heres-how-to-do-it-131297">2020 report on top teachers</a> showed existing Gonski 2.0 funding increases can fund the scholarships and the expert teacher career path. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/making-better-use-of-australias-top-teachers-will-improve-student-outcomes-heres-how-to-do-it-131297">Making better use of Australia's top teachers will improve student outcomes: here's how to do it</a>
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<p>Instead, the government has proposed an inflexible and centrally-planned change to funding university places, and dressed it up in the language of incentives.</p>
<p>They identify education as a national priority, but the cheaper fees plan won’t solve the challenges facing the profession, so what’s the point?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141524/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and Grattan uses the income to pursue its activities.</span></em></p>
Teachers have never been more appreciated than during COVID-19. But neither expressions of support, nor cheaper degrees will overcome the four big structural challenges facing the profession.
Peter Goss, School Education Program Director, Grattan Institute
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/141452
2020-06-28T20:14:21Z
2020-06-28T20:14:21Z
Coronavirus and university reforms put at risk Australia’s research gains of the last 15 years
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344224/original/file-20200626-104499-108ngtd.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/woman-wearing-brainwave-scanning-headset-sits-1036798300">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Education minister Dan Tehan will be <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/tehan-to-convene-vice-chancellor-group-to-replace-broken-research-funding-system-20200624-p555ps.html">meeting with university vice-chancellors</a> to devise a new way of funding university research. They will have plenty to talk about. </p>
<p>Australia’s universities have been remarkably successful in <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/06/14/australias-higher-education-research-boom/">building their research output</a>. But there are cracks in the funding foundations of that success, which are being exposed by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-universities-could-lose-19-billion-in-the-next-3-years-our-economy-will-suffer-with-them-136251">revenue shock of COVID-19</a> and <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready">the minister’s reforms</a> announced this month, which would pay for new student places with money currently spent on research.</p>
<p>I estimate the gap in funding that needs to be filled to maintain our current research output at around <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/05/21/how-reliant-is-australian-university-research-on-international-student-profits/">$4.7 billion</a>.</p>
<h2>The funding foundations crumble</h2>
<p>The timing of Dan Tehan’s higher education reform package could not have been worse for the university research sector.</p>
<p>The vulnerability created by universities’ reliance on international students has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-what-australian-universities-can-do-to-recover-from-the-loss-of-international-student-fees-139759">brutally revealed this year</a>. Travel bans prevent international students arriving in Australia and the COVID-19 recession undermines their capacity to pay tuition fees.</p>
<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>
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<p>Profits from domestic and international students are the only way universities can finance research on the current scale, with <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/8111.0">more than A$12 billion spent in 2018</a>.</p>
<p>Based on a Deloitte Access Economics <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/2019-transparency-higher-education-expenditure-publication-0">analysis of teaching costs</a>, universities <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/05/19/how-profitable-is-university-teaching/">make a surplus of about A$1.3 billion</a> on domestic students. Universities use much of this surplus to fund research.</p>
<p>Tehan’s reform package seeks to <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/document/job-ready-graduates-discussion-paper">align the total teaching funding rates</a> for each Commonwealth supported student – the combined tuition subsidy and student contribution – with the teaching and scholarship costs identified in the <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/2019-transparency-higher-education-expenditure-publication-0">Deloitte analysis</a>. </p>
<p>On 2018 enrolment numbers, revenue losses for universities for Commonwealth supported students would <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-is-making-job-ready-degrees-cheaper-for-students-but-cutting-funding-to-the-same-courses-141280">total around $750 million</a> with this realignment. With only teaching costs funded, universities will have little or no surplus from their teaching to spend on research. </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>
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<p>International student profits are larger than domestic – at around $4 billion. Much of this money is spent on research too, and much of this is at risk. The recession will also reduce how much industry partners and philanthropists can contribute to university research.</p>
<p>Australia’s Chief Scientist estimates <a href="https://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-05/rrif-covid19-research-workforce.pdf">7,700 research jobs are at risk </a> from COVID-19 factors alone. Unless the Commonwealth intervenes with a new research funding policy, its recent announcements will trigger further significant research job losses.</p>
<h2>Combined teaching and research academic jobs will decline</h2>
<p>Although less research employment will be available, the additional domestic students financed by redirecting research funding will generate teaching work.</p>
<p>More students is a good thing in itself, as the COVID-19 recession will generate <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-simpler-reset-could-have-met-dan-tehan-s-education-aims-20200619-p55481.html?fbclid=IwAR2_YRNgfTv20-_RlQcZ7FiCtzl0fjZoCqJtWYSDmaIl-EG5A4jUkqJ1PTg">more demand for higher education</a>. </p>
<p>But this reallocation between research and teaching will exacerbate a major structural problem in the academic labour market. Although most academics <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/06/05/why-did-universities-become-reliant-on-international-students-part-4-trying-to-maintain-a-teaching-research-academic-workforce/">want teaching and research, or research-only roles</a>, over the last 30 years Commonwealth teaching and research funding has separated. </p>
<p>After the latest Tehan reforms, funding for the two activities will be based on entirely different criteria and put on very different growth trajectories. </p>
<p>An academic employment model that assumes the same people teach and research was kept alive by funding surpluses on domestic, and especially international, students. With both these surpluses being hit hard, the funding logic is that a <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/06/05/why-did-universities-become-reliant-on-international-students-part-4-trying-to-maintain-a-teaching-research-academic-workforce/">trend towards more specialised academic staff will have to accelerate</a>. </p>
<p>We can expect academic morale to fall and industrial action to rise as university workforces resist this change. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-10-000-job-losses-billions-in-lost-revenue-coronavirus-will-hit-australias-research-capacity-harder-than-the-gfc-138210">More than 10,000 job losses, billions in lost revenue: coronavirus will hit Australia's research capacity harder than the GFC</a>
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<p>The funding squeeze will also undermine the current system of Commonwealth research funding. This funding is allocated in two main ways. In part, it comes from competitive project grant funding, largely from the <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/">National Health and Medical Research Council</a> and the <a href="https://www.arc.gov.au/">Australian Research Council</a>.</p>
<p>Academic prestige is attached to winning these grants, but the money allocated does not cover the project’s costs. Typically, universities pay the salaries of the lead researchers and general costs, such as laboratories and libraries. </p>
<p>Universities are partly compensated for those expenses through <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/research-block-grants">research block grants</a>, which are awarded based on previous academic performance, including in winning competitive grants. But because block grants <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/06/04/why-did-universities-become-reliant-on-international-students-part-3-the-rise-of-research-project-grants/">do not cover all competitive project grant costs</a>, the system has relied on discretionary revenue, much of it from students, to work. It will need a major rethink if teaching becomes much less profitable.</p>
<h2>The stakes are high</h2>
<p>University spending on research (which was over <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/8111.0">$12 billion</a> in 2018), has nearly tripled since 2000 in real terms. </p>
<p>Direct government spending on research increased this century, but not by nearly enough to finance this huge expansion in outlays. In 2018, the Commonwealth government’s <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/consolidated-time-series-data">main research funding programs</a> contributed A$3.7 billion. </p>
<p>An additional $600 million came from other Commonwealth sources such as government department contracts for specific pieces of research.</p>
<p>In addition to this Commonwealth money, universities received another $1.9 billion in earmarked research funding from <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/node/47851">state, territory and other (national) governments, donations, and industry</a>.</p>
<p>These research-specific sources still leave billions of dollars in research spending without a clear source of finance. Universities have investment earnings, profits on commercial operations and other revenue sources they can invest in research. </p>
<p>But these cannot possibly cover the <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/05/21/how-reliant-is-australian-university-research-on-international-student-profits/">estimated $4.7 billion gap</a> between research revenue and spending.</p>
<p>With lower profits on teaching, this gap cannot be filled. Research spending will have to be reduced by billions of dollars. </p>
<p>We are at a turning point in Australian higher education. The research gains of the last fifteen years are at risk of being reversed. The minister’s meeting with vice-chancellors has very high stakes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141452/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Norton works for the Australian National University, which is directly affected by the issues discussed in this article. </span></em></p>
Travel bans, a recession and the government’s university reform package will leave an estimated $4.7 billion gap in research funding that needs filling to maintain our current output.
Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/141275
2020-06-25T20:14:35Z
2020-06-25T20:14:35Z
Can government actually predict the jobs of the future?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343932/original/file-20200625-33528-10wci7g.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-vector/competition-people-robots-jobs-technological-revolution-1006220329">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The future of jobs has been used to justify the <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tehan/minister-education-dan-tehan-national-press-club-address">major changes to university education</a> announced last week. Fees for courses that, according to the government, lead to jobs with a great future will fall, while those with a poor future will rise.</p>
<p>But can the government predict the jobs of the future? And do proposed fee changes match those jobs that will grow? </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>
<h2>It’s hard to predict future jobs</h2>
<p>In the research I have done on <a href="https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/realities-and-futures-workf">the future of work</a>, several things are clear. The further you look ahead, the less useful the present is as a guide. This is especially the case in employment because, in a quickly changing world, technology is hard to predict and changing consumption patterns even harder. </p>
<p>As prices for products fall in the face of new technologies, and new products are invented, those future consumption patterns are crucial but unforeseeable. Otherwise, we would all be using beta video camcorders but not the cameras on mobile phones.</p>
<p>Still, there have been several attempts to look at the jobs of the future, including by <a href="https://www.camecon.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/CHAPTER-2-SUTA-et-al-Future-Employment-FINAL.pdf">European researchers</a>, the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/occupational-projections-and-characteristics.htm">US Bureau of Labour Statistics</a>, the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Claire_Mason/publication/299953345_Tomorrow's_digitally_enabled_workforce_Megatrends_and_scenarios_for_jobs_and_employment_in_Australia_over_the_coming_twenty_years/links/570728ee08aefb22b0934be9.pdf">CSIRO</a> and the <a href="https://lmip.gov.au/default.aspx?LMIP/GainInsights/EmploymentProjections">Australian government</a> itself. There have been studies on future automation from <a href="https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf">Oxford university</a> and the <a href="https://futuroexponencial.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/OECD.pdf">OECD</a>. </p>
<p>From these we can tell some factors that will be important. </p>
<p>These include the ageing population and the increasing demands that will be put onto care workers. In the short to medium term, it is clear care work will be a major area of growth. But it is a lot harder to judge in the long term. </p>
<p>Artificial intelligence means it is no longer just routine jobs (remember typists?) that are threatened by new technology. </p>
<p>Information and communications technology (ICT) occupations may be strategically important but they need not provide lots of jobs. Computer programming may be done by other computers, for instance. Projected employment growth for ICT managers to 2024 (1.2%) is barely <a href="https://lmip.gov.au/PortalFile.axd?FieldID=2787735&.xlsx">one sixth</a> the average for all jobs (8.3%). Some jobs in ICT might end up quite insecure. </p>
<p>The type of skills (or competencies) that <a href="https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=302064801883267;res=IELHSS">will likely be in demand</a> appear to be those relating to creativity, problem-solving, collaboration, cooperation, resilience, communication, complex reasoning, social interaction and emotional intelligence. </p>
<p>They include empathy-related competencies such as compassion, tolerance, inter-cultural understanding, pro-social behaviour and social responsibility. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-the-government-listened-to-business-leaders-they-would-encourage-humanities-education-not-pull-funds-from-it-141121">If the government listened to business leaders, they would encourage humanities education, not pull funds from it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some of these are what universities preferred to call “critical thinking” skills – the sorts developed by generalist degrees like arts and commerce.</p>
<p>Choosing exactly the right field for a degree is less important, in terms of getting a job, than simply doing one. Reflecting the constant pressure of <a href="https://insidestory.org.au/in-praise-of-credentialism/">credentialism</a>, employers will demand a more educated workforce (and continue to complain it is <a href="https://graziadaily.co.uk/life/real-life/employers-struggling-find-work-ready-graduates-graduates-really-blame/">not</a> <a href="https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/other/are-todays-graduates-work-ready-employers-dont-think-so/">“work ready”</a>), regardless of universities’ or governments’ ability to anticipate the skill needs of the future. </p>
<h2>Fee changes and future jobs</h2>
<p>The government claimed higher personal incomes (“private returns”) from studying its preferred courses explained the different fees structure in its reforms. That’s how it justified raising fees for humanities, business and commerce courses while reducing fees for ICT, engineering and science.</p>
<p>But its <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/document/job-ready-graduates-discussion-paper">own data</a> actually showed there was no correlation between the two. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343920/original/file-20200625-33533-107xyzz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343920/original/file-20200625-33533-107xyzz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343920/original/file-20200625-33533-107xyzz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343920/original/file-20200625-33533-107xyzz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343920/original/file-20200625-33533-107xyzz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343920/original/file-20200625-33533-107xyzz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343920/original/file-20200625-33533-107xyzz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343920/original/file-20200625-33533-107xyzz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.dese.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/jrg_discussion_paper_24_june_update.pdf">Job-Ready Graduates: Higher Education Reform Package 2020 (screenshot Figure 9)</a></span>
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</figure>
<hr>
<p>For example, by the logic of government policy, law and economics should have the fourth lowest student fees because their figures (see the chart above) show the expected private returns from law and economics courses are the fourth best. Yet the fees for law and economics under the proposed schema are equal worst (band 4, in the chart below). </p>
<p>The student fees for management and commerce, by their logic, should be right in the middle of the fee range as the returns are in the middle. Yet their fees are also equal highest. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343927/original/file-20200625-33511-12pfxmk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343927/original/file-20200625-33511-12pfxmk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1090&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343927/original/file-20200625-33511-12pfxmk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1090&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343927/original/file-20200625-33511-12pfxmk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1090&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343927/original/file-20200625-33511-12pfxmk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1370&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343927/original/file-20200625-33511-12pfxmk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343927/original/file-20200625-33511-12pfxmk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1370&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Job-Ready Graduates: Higher Education Reform Package 2020 (screenshot Figure 10)</span></span>
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<p>And the government did not even use future-facing data to estimate private returns. It used census data from 2016 – on-average earnings in the census year. These <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/2901.0Main%20Features802016/$FILE/2016%20Census%20Sample%20Household%20Form.pdf">did not account for</a> the year a qualification was obtained. </p>
<p>That was a major gap, as returns tend to increase as time since graduation grows. These estimates made no use of the government’s own <a href="https://lmip.gov.au/default.aspx?LMIP/GainInsights/EmploymentProjections">employment projections</a> that suggested, for example, that employment for “industrial, mechanical and production engineers” would <em>fall</em> by 1.3%.</p>
<p>So it is hard to believe, even if the government thought it could predict the jobs of the future, that this is what motivated the changes to fees.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/humanities-graduates-earn-more-than-those-who-study-science-and-maths-141112">Humanities graduates earn more than those who study science and maths</a>
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<p>After all, in many areas where student fees are cut, government contributions are also cut — by more. The resources to universities to provide the content of the future will be reduced. For instance, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/19/australian-university-fees-arts-stem-science-maths-nursing-teaching-humanities">science and engineering</a> courses will see a 17% reduction per student per year.</p>
<p>A more plausible explanation for the changes to university fees is that the marketable skills argument is just a cover for another agenda. </p>
<p>Critical thinking is a key skill for the future, but one can’t help but think it is not something the government wants encouraged.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141275/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Peetz receives funding from the Australian Research Council and, as a university employee, has undertaken research over many years with occasional financial support from governments from both sides of politics, in Australia and overseas, employers and unions. The funding per student for courses in his faculty would change as follows under the proposals discussed here: student fees increase by $3145 pa, government contribution reduce by $1137 pa, total resources increase by $2008 pa.</span></em></p>
Research shows predictions for the jobs of the future are unreliable, and the government’s funding changes don’t match what their own data shows about future earnings.
David Peetz, Professor of Employment Relations, Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/141280
2020-06-23T20:17:54Z
2020-06-23T20:17:54Z
The government is making ‘job-ready’ degrees cheaper for students – but cutting funding to the same courses
<p>One objective of the government’s recently <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tehan/minister-education-dan-tehan-national-press-club-address">announced</a> funding changes for universities is to increase the number of graduates in areas of expected employment growth – such as teaching, nursing, agriculture, STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) and IT. </p>
<p>The education minister said student fees in these degrees would drop. But what he didn’t say is universities would also receive less funding for these degrees, because the government had assessed they are currently over-funded. </p>
<p>We have modelled the shortfall in guaranteed base funding to universities for degrees in areas of employment growth, and others, using the latest <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/selected-higher-education-statistics-2018-student-data">2018 domestic student enrolment data</a>.</p>
<p>To educate 584,346 domestic full-time bachelor students, the government will save <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/perverse-incentive-for-universities-to-use-humanities-as-cash-cows-20200622-p5551t.html">A$769 million per year</a>. Students will be charged an extra A$476 million per year and universities will have reduced funding of A$293 million per year.</p>
<p>The reduced rate of funding to universities (of up to 17%), per place, for national priority courses sends perverse messages to universities. They will be receiving a lower rate of funding when they are expected to expand domestic enrolments. </p>
<h2>It’s not as it seems</h2>
<p>The basis for the government’s funding decisions is a <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/collections/transparency-higher-education-expenditure">Deloitte Access Economics report</a> on transparency in higher education spending. </p>
<p>The reform package sees substantial reductions for student fees in certain national priority degrees – 21% for science and engineering to 62% for agriculture and mathematics. </p>
<p>As the table below shows, the government contribution for four of these courses (teaching, nursing, agriculture and mathematics) has increased. </p>
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<p><iframe id="Zaiqp" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Zaiqp/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
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<p>But universities won’t be fully compensated for the student fee reduction for any of these courses.</p>
<p>The funding reductions for universities, per place, of between 6-17% will be a barrier to the minister’s objective of seeing more enrolments in these courses. </p>
<p>In sharp contrast to the STEM courses, humanities and social sciences students (except those in languages and English) will have to contribute much more of the cost, and the government significantly less.</p>
<p>As the below tables shows, universities can expect to receive increased funding, from 15%-55% for courses in languages, English, humanities and social sciences, law, economics, management and commerce.</p>
<p><iframe id="4YNLU" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/4YNLU/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>But the government’s pricing signals are designed to redirect students from humanities and social sciences to courses of national priority. If these signals succeed – meaning fewer students will be studying humanities, and therefore paying the fees – overall university levels of funding for humanities will decline. </p>
<p>Does the government now expect universities to subsidise STEM subjects from humanities and social science domestic student fees in the same way they have cross-subsidised research and research training from international student fees? </p>
<p>As part of the reform package, the table below shows university funding, per place, for ten fields of study (including engineering, nursing and teaching) will reduce, and increase for 11 (including health, creative arts, and society and culture). </p>
<p>The level of funding reductions for national priority places, and in environmental studies (with a decrease of nearly $10,000 per place), are most significant. </p>
<p>What signal does the government seek to send about the importance of the environment for Australia’s future social well-being?</p>
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<p><iframe id="FF5mf" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/FF5mf/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
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<p>The government’s package indicates much of government savings ($769 million per year) will be redirected to rural, regional and Indigenous programs. This outcome will be of marginal benefit to metropolitan universities.</p>
<h2>Issues for universities</h2>
<p>The focus on national priority courses in government’s reform package raises some important issues for universities.</p>
<p>Overall, universities will receive less funding per student place than they currently do. This is at a time when universities are <a href="https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/lh-martin-institute/insights/modelling-individual-australian-universities-resilience-in-managing-overseas-student-revenue-losses-from-the-covid-19-pandemic">experiencing a massive shortfall in the billions</a> in international student fee revenue.</p>
<p>Universities could, within their internal budget allocation models, restore funding for national priority courses by redirecting income from humanities and social science programs. But this would be counter-productive, divisive and inefficient for universities, as it involves budgetary opaqueness and removes incentives for revenue growth.</p>
<p>The reform package encourages universities to reallocate places across disciplines to reflect changes in student demand. If universities respond to desired changes in student demand by increasing places in national priority courses through reallocation from other disciplines, a fixed level of government funding will result in fewer places becoming available. For example, a student in engineering ($16,500) will attract 15 times the level of government funding than a humanities student ($1,100). </p>
<p>An issue for government will be whether the discipline-based changes in funding places will lead to gaming by universities, which may seek to redefine subjects to secure higher funding rates. </p>
<p>In humanities, the incentive will be to have subjects coded as English and languages. Environmental studies will receive increased funding if coded as agriculture. Legal studies may be presented as education. Costs will increase if this occurs.</p>
<p>Thirty two universities participated in the 2019 data collection for the Deloitte report the government’s funding decisions is based on. Of these, 13 universities were unable to supply detailed activity-based costing data. </p>
<p>The validity of the new discipline-based funding model will depend on whether the Deloitte report reflects true costs of university teaching.</p>
<p>Universities are already predicted to lose billions of dollars in international fee revenue in 2021 and beyond. A further financial impost would severely affect their capacity to maintain high quality teaching programs and undertake internationally competitive research.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141280/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Marshman is a director of the Grattan Institute and is a director of a subsidiary company for the University of Melbourne.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Larkins 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 reduced rate of funding to universities (of up to 17%), per place, for national priority courses sends perverse messages to universities.
Ian Marshman, Honorary Principal Fellow, Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of Melbourne
Frank Larkins, Professor Emeritus and Former Deputy Vice Chancellor, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/141133
2020-06-22T19:59:25Z
2020-06-22T19:59:25Z
The government’s funding changes are meddling with the purpose of universities
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343095/original/file-20200622-75512-12nspwd.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/close-statue-greek-philosopher-socrates-on-684489145">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Federal education minister Dan Tehan <a href="https://theconversation.com/drafts/141133/edit">in recent days announced</a> an overhaul of the fee structures for undergraduate degrees – and the courses based in those degrees – to direct students towards ones it believes are more likely to get them a job. </p>
<p>Student contributions for degrees in teaching, nursing, clinical psychology, English and languages will fall by 46%; agriculture and maths by 62%; and science, health, architecture, environmental science, IT and engineering by 20%.</p>
<p>But the student contributions for law and commerce will increase by 28%, while for the humanities, they will more than double (up by 113%).</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fee-cuts-for-nursing-and-teaching-but-big-hikes-for-law-and-humanities-in-package-expanding-university-places-141064">Fee cuts for nursing and teaching but big hikes for law and humanities in package expanding university places</a>
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<p>Universities exist to expand knowledge and create a civil society. They allow us to understand, challenge, collaborate, inquire, discover, create, design, confront and imagine. </p>
<p>The implications of the government’s announcement are about more than incentivising the career trajectories of students. They are a direct assault on the premise of universities. </p>
<h2>What’s a university for?</h2>
<p>The first <a href="https://www.leru.org/files/What-are-Universities-for-Full-paper.pdf">modern university</a> in the West was founded in Bologna, Italy, in 1088. It became a widely respected school of canon and civil law. </p>
<p>It also became a model for other universities such as the University of Paris and Oxford. The initial faculties were of theology, law, medicine and the liberal arts.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/about-us/our-story/australias-first-university.html">University of Sydney</a>, founded in 1850, is the oldest university in Australia. William Charles Wentworth is noted as proposing the idea of Australia’s first university, imagining “the opportunity for the child of every class to become great and useful in the destinies of this country”.</p>
<p>The university’s motto is a beacon – <em>Sidere mens eadem mutato</em> – which translated means “the stars change, the mind remains the same”. The broad evolving mind remains the raison-d'etre for universities, more than the fad of the day.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343097/original/file-20200622-75483-ci71kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343097/original/file-20200622-75483-ci71kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343097/original/file-20200622-75483-ci71kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343097/original/file-20200622-75483-ci71kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343097/original/file-20200622-75483-ci71kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343097/original/file-20200622-75483-ci71kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343097/original/file-20200622-75483-ci71kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343097/original/file-20200622-75483-ci71kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=346&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 University of Sydney’s motto – <em>Sidere mens eadem mutato</em> – means ‘the stars change, the mind remains the same’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/historic-quadrant-building-sydney-university-australia-201733868">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The evolution of the modern university, funded increasingly over time by governments, moved the focus from promulgating religious tenets to values that are civic-minded, and centred on knowledge transmission accessible to all citizens – not just the wealthy.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-have-gone-from-being-a-place-of-privilege-to-a-competitive-market-what-will-they-be-after-coronavirus-137877">Universities have gone from being a place of privilege to a competitive market. What will they be after coronavirus?</a>
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<p>Of course, work still needs to be done to improve diversity. But the overarching purpose of the university was to advance human discovery, promote diversity of thinking and enhance the common good. </p>
<p>The library – solemn with books – was the hub of a university education. As knowledge evolved, libraries grew into subject departments.</p>
<p>The physical library and its virtual equivalent still form the foundation of the student academic experience.</p>
<h2>The government is overstepping the mark</h2>
<p>Government support for public universities was intended to come with few strings. If we agree the purpose of universities is to disseminate knowledge and advance society, we cannot allow a political agenda to diminish academic freedom and equitable student choice. </p>
<p>And yet, the trend in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia is for <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-australian-government-letting-universities-suffer-138514">conservative-leaning governments</a> to see their role as shaping universities to match their agendas. </p>
<p>This is counter to long-held beliefs universities should <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-are-losing-sight-of-higher-educations-true-purpose-73637">operate independently</a> to shape knowledge. Public engagement and social impact are the overall goals for higher education. </p>
<p>In stating its plan expands job preparation and promotes economic growth, the government is <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/proposed-overhaul-of-university-fees-nothing-short-of-radical-20200619-p55482.html">overstepping its charge</a>, undermining the notion of choice and opportunity for all.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343098/original/file-20200622-75483-ytybns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343098/original/file-20200622-75483-ytybns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343098/original/file-20200622-75483-ytybns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343098/original/file-20200622-75483-ytybns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343098/original/file-20200622-75483-ytybns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343098/original/file-20200622-75483-ytybns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343098/original/file-20200622-75483-ytybns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343098/original/file-20200622-75483-ytybns.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The library is the centre of university learning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-bookshelf-library-243766495">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>These fee changes will have most effect on working class families. Wealthy families who are not price sensitive will be able to choose across the current array of offerings without financial worries. </p>
<p>This inequity may price some Australians out of their dreams of a liberal arts education because they can no longer afford it.</p>
<h2>What is the danger in that?</h2>
<p>Degrees in humanities, society and culture, and communications are <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/uni-fee-overhaul-won-t-change-demand-or-affordability-hecs-architect-20200619-p5549a.html">singled out</a> as not preparing graduates for the jobs of the future. </p>
<p>Yet the skills fostered in these degrees are in high demand. Critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, strong writing prowess and people skills are valued as future-focused “human” skills that translate across the employment sector. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-the-government-listened-to-business-leaders-they-would-encourage-humanities-education-not-pull-funds-from-it-141121">If the government listened to business leaders, they would encourage humanities education, not pull funds from it</a>
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<p>With many people getting their information from an <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2018-12-10-more-people-get-news-from-social-media-than-newspapers.html">increasingly narrow bandwidth</a> of social media influences, the role of a university education is even more important. It’s there to teach students to question, seek evidence and think independently.</p>
<p>A university education <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/media-item/a-higher-purpose-universities-civic-transformation-and-the-public-good/">promotes open mindedness</a> and the pursuit of knowledge across a diverse set of disciplines, especially those that have now been marginalised. </p>
<p>Students across all disciplines need these attributes to help advance humanity and address the global challenges we face. </p>
<p>It remains to be seen whether the plan minister Tehan has put forward to steer undergraduate students into certain degrees will be successful in promoting “jobs and growth”. </p>
<p>What is clear is this move oversteps the government’s role and function by dictating to Australians and their universities what the priorities should be for building a fair, civil and just society.</p>
<p>The government proposes we engineer our way to the future, rather than think, collaborate and imagine our way forward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141133/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Fischetti is President of the NSW Council of Deans of Education.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catharine Coleborne is the Secretary of the Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities.</span></em></p>
The implications of the government’s announcement are about more than incentivising the career trajectories of students. They are a direct assault on the premise of universities.
John Fischetti, Professor, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the College of Human and Social Futures, University of Newcastle
Catharine Coleborne, Dean of Arts/Head of School Humanities and Social Science, University of Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/140541
2020-06-17T20:04:50Z
2020-06-17T20:04:50Z
After coronavirus, universities must collaborate with communities to support social transition
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342316/original/file-20200616-23247-12vedjx.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/farmer-researcher-analysing-corn-plant-79154548">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This essay is based on an episode of the University of Technology Sydney podcast series “<a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/partners-and-community/initiatives/impact-studios/podcasts/new-social-contract">The New Social Contract</a>”. This series examines how the relationship between universities, the state and the public might be reshaped as we live through this global pandemic.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>COVID-19 comes with a set of pressing social challenges. These include environmental catastrophes such as the Australian droughts and bushfires, and the impending crisis of global warming. Social and health issues – include debilitating poverty, racial and income inequality, and chronic diseases – also loom large.</p>
<p>In this turbulent environment, universities have an important role to play as anchor institutions that support communities in transition. </p>
<p>Rather than undertaking knowledge work on behalf of society, they must do so in collaboration with society. This means building relationships with business, industry, government and not-for-profit organisations, to name but a few.</p>
<h2>Out of the ivory tower</h2>
<p>Recent decisions by the federal government to <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-australian-government-letting-universities-suffer-138514">change the JobKeeper legislation</a> three times, in a way that makes university staff ineligible, has left many in the sector feeling undervalued.</p>
<p>Criticisms of universities stem from both sides of politics. For many people, universities remain institutions embodying past imperial practices. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-australian-government-letting-universities-suffer-138514">Why is the Australian government letting universities suffer?</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<p>The rise of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/rhodesmustfall-23991">#RhodesMustFall</a> movement in South Africa and the United Kingdom, and the growing movement in Australia to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-murri-book-club-and-the-politics-of-reading-for-indigenous-australians-89233">decolonise the curriculum</a>, demonstrates black and First Nations’ students’ frustration at an institution they still see as predominantly elitist and white.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1270390889601478656"}"></div></p>
<p>On the other side of the political spectrum, universities are seen as aloof and disconnected from the real-world concerns of businesses and ordinary people.</p>
<p>In 2017, then Vice-Chancellor of The University of Melbourne, Professor Glyn Davis, warned of a <a href="https://upp-foundation.org/professor-glyn-davis-full-speech-irredeemable-time-rising-tide-hostility-toward-universities/">“rising tide of hostility”</a> towards universities. </p>
<p>And the former president of the University of Pennsylvania argued that to ensure ongoing relevance, universities must engage with the real world, and move <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14337.html">“out of the ivory tower and into the streets”</a>.</p>
<p>Universities have fared reasonably well compared to declining levels of trust in other institutions. But it’s fair to say universities are built on an <a href="https://compact.org/resource-posts/faculty-priorities-reconsidered-rewarding-multiple-forms-of-scholarship/">expert model</a> that prizes academic knowledge and often de-legitimises other forms of knowledge and learning. </p>
<p>This often gets in the way of constructive collaborations between universities and communities.</p>
<h2>Co-designed and collaborative knowledge</h2>
<p>COVID-19 has allowed for a brief re-emergence of public and government trust in expertise. University and medical institute researchers, public health officials and politicians have been working alongside each other on the same problem. </p>
<p>Each have been able to contribute their expertise (and interests) at critical points in the decision-making process. </p>
<p>No consideration (such as opening the economy) has been given primacy over another (protecting Australian’s health). Instead there has been a weighing of the evidence and difficult calls made along the way. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australians-trust-in-politicians-and-democracy-hits-an-all-time-low-new-research-108161">Australians' trust in politicians and democracy hits an all-time low: new research</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This engaged decision-making process has been a key component of creating public trust. For this trust to continue, universities need to learn from this period and create new processes.</p>
<p>This point was best made by French philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist, Bruno Latour, when <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/06/bruno-latour-coronavirus-gaia-hypothesis-climate-crisis?CMP=share_btn_tw">he argued</a> the COVID-19 pandemic has given the public an opportunity to engage with scientific complexity, and debate with each other about statistics, experimentation and how diseases are spread. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/06/bruno-latour-coronavirus-gaia-hypothesis-climate-crisis?CMP=share_btn_tw">He said</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>if you want people to have some grasp of science, you must show how it is produced.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But it goes further than just transparency. It’s about respecting all types of knowledge in the search for answers. In relation to the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40004260-down-to-earth">science of climate change, Latour argued</a> that far from being an elite endeavour, everyone can contribute to a conversation about the weather and its impact on their community.</p>
<p>Respect for, and engagement with, knowledge from outside the “academy” is critical both for driving trust in expertise and finding better solutions to the problems faced by the globe.</p>
<hr>
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<hr>
<h2>A new way forward for universities</h2>
<p>Research partnerships between Indigenous elders and university academics are an excellent example of engaged research . </p>
<p>At the University of New England, researchers are <a href="https://www.firesticks.org.au/education/phd-research/">working with the Banbai nation</a> to better understand how to use Indigenous land management practices and science to apply fire strategically.</p>
<p>Extending this approach into the world of public policy, the <a href="https://naturaldisaster.royalcommission.gov.au/publications/commonwealth-letters-patent-20-february-2020">Bushfire Royal Commission</a> is looking to understand ways</p>
<blockquote>
<p>the traditional land and fire management practices of Indigenous Australians could improve Australia’s resilience to natural disasters.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Griffith University is involved in “<a href="https://logantogether.org.au/">Logan Together</a>”. This collective impact project, to support early childhood intervention in the Logan community, is a radical way for a university to embrace its role as an anchor institution.</p>
<p>The project deliberately empowers citizens and puts community members in leadership roles across the project. The goals and outcomes of this project are co-designed with community members, industry and government. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1050552087963041792"}"></div></p>
<p>At the University of Technology Sydney, the <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/partners-and-community/initiatives/social-justice-uts/uts-shopfront-community-program">Shopfront program</a> helps deliver student community coursework projects for academic credit. Community organisations are paired with skilled student teams to deliver on a wide variety of community-led projects. </p>
<p>The students learn on the job, and not-forprofit partners benefit from the students’ expertise.</p>
<h2>But how do universities change?</h2>
<p>University groups like the <a href="https://talloiresnetwork.tufts.edu/">Talloires Network</a> and <a href="https://engagementaustralia.org.au">Engagement Australia</a> champion the unique role universities have to address today’s global challenges through teaching, learning and research partnerships.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.brown.edu/swearer/carnegie">Carnegie Community Engagement Classification</a> (now being <a href="http://www.carnegieclassificationaustralia.com.au/">piloted in Australia</a> by ten universities) has established a gold standard for engagement. This is based on the principle of reciprocity between universities and their partners in the community, government and industry. </p>
<p>It outlines a new era for universities, abandoning the expert model and embracing the concept of engaged research and teaching.</p>
<p>Outwardly focused, <a href="https://about.csu.edu.au/community/carnegie-community-engagement-classification">Carnegie promotes</a> the </p>
<blockquote>
<p>partnership of […] university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to […] address critical social issues and contribute to the public good.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Universities complete an accreditation process to receive the Carnegie classification. The classification acknowledges the old adage that an <a href="https://hbr.org/2010/06/column-you-are-what-you-measure">organisation values what it measures</a>. </p>
<p>Traditional university ranking systems mainly <a href="https://theconversation.com/limited-numbers-what-university-rankings-can-and-cant-tell-us-9949">rely on indicators around research – mainly reputation, citations and funding</a>. Although these are important metrics, they do not speak to the broader public benefit of the university and the role it plays through teaching, learning and research engagement. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-the-most-important-mission-for-universities-of-the-21st-century-139214">Climate change is the most important mission for universities of the 21st century</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The Carnegie classification rectifies this imbalance. It asks universities to provide evidence about their engagement activities, and demonstrate these are part of the university’s core mission. It encourages universities to reflect on their relationships with industry, community and government and gain insights into how the university can improve its engagement practices.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1108150090613444608"}"></div></p>
<p>Participating in the process provides universities with a roadmap to becoming a different type of university. It allows them to examine the culture of traditional academia and examine whether institutional practices stymie collaboration and relationships of trust with those outside the academy.</p>
<p>COVID-19 has shown how addressing the present crisis (and other big issues) as a multi-part player in the creation of new knowledge for a social purpose, has the capacity to renew the social license of universities.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=674256">‘Universities and Communities- who should they serve</a>?’ was made by <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/partners-and-community/initiatives/impact-studios/about-us">Impact Studios </a> at the University of Technology, Sydney - an audio production house combining academic research and audio storytelling.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140541/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>
For many people, universities remain institutions embodying past imperial practices. Universities have an important role to play in society, and they must do so with society.
Verity Firth, Executive Director Social Justice, University of Technology Sydney
Professor Jim Nyland, Associate Vice Chancellor, Australian Catholic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/137877
2020-05-05T19:50:49Z
2020-05-05T19:50:49Z
Universities have gone from being a place of privilege to a competitive market. What will they be after coronavirus?
<p><em>This essay is based on the first episode of the new UTS podcast series “<a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/partners-and-community/initiatives/impact-studios/projects/new-social-contract-podcast">The New Social Contract</a>” that examines how the relationship between universities, the state and the public might be reshaped as we live through this global pandemic.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Younger Australians will bear the economic, social and environmental costs that come from the COVID-19 pandemic. They’re making sacrifices in the name of public health and to protect the old and vulnerable. The heavy lifting of rebuilding will also fall disproportionately to them. </p>
<p>Prime Minister Scott Morrison referred to these sacrifices as “<a href="https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/australia/coronavirus-australia-risks-of-splitting-community-into-under-50-over-50/news-story/cefee875b5f7ebc6c5a73368f521e046">a social contract</a>”.</p>
<p>A social contract in this sense is not something that gets recorded in legislation, but more of an unstated agreement that comes from practice, policy and circumstance. It is a reciprocal relationship, in which obligation and benefits rest on all parties – though these aren’t always evenly distributed.</p>
<p>How Australia will fare in a post-pandemic world depends on this relationship between institutions, society and the state. And universities have a crucial role to play, by providing public goods such as understanding, training and research. </p>
<p>The social contract for universities has changed several times. Its different versions can be seen in the decisions students have had to make on entering university at different points across the 20th century.</p>
<p>These decisions tell us a lot about how the social contract for universities in Australia has changed, and what might be possible as it changes again.</p>
<h2>Early 1900s – the family</h2>
<p>In 1910 a student, let’s call him Frederick, had his family at the centre of decision-making. </p>
<p>Frederick is from Bendigo where his father is a shopkeeper. He is eager to study Medicine at the University of Melbourne. But before he even sets foot on campus, he has to sort out his finances. </p>
<p>That he can even attend university is thanks to his uncle Jim, a successful doctor. His uncle is paying for Fred’s textbooks, microscope, accommodation, living expenses and tuition fees – though the latter are only a minor component of the costs. </p>
<p>Fred and his uncle both expect the university will provide an education on par with that offered in British universities – training that will enable Fred to attain the cultural capital necessary for middle-class society and the technical knowledge to practise as a doctor. </p>
<p>On graduation, he knows he is expected to make his uncle proud by returning to Bendigo and joining the family practice.</p>
<p>Frederick’s story reflects the broad terms of a social contract under which universities, which received about <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Education_and_Employment/Higher_Education/Report/c02#c02f8">half of their funding</a> from state governments, trained a relatively small cohort of professionals. In return for social status, these professionals provided expert services to a rapidly growing society. </p>
<p>State government annual grants supported universities as institutions that would build the society and economy of the new Australian nation. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332613/original/file-20200505-83757-17s26t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332613/original/file-20200505-83757-17s26t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332613/original/file-20200505-83757-17s26t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332613/original/file-20200505-83757-17s26t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332613/original/file-20200505-83757-17s26t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332613/original/file-20200505-83757-17s26t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332613/original/file-20200505-83757-17s26t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332613/original/file-20200505-83757-17s26t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&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 1910 student has family at the forefront of his decision-making. (Students Ormond College, Melbourne University 1896/1902)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/images?keyword=university%20students&smt=1">James Fox Barnard/State Library Victoria</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Research played a minor role, <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-lessons-from-past-crises-how-wwi-and-wwii-spurred-scientific-innovation-in-australia-136859">with some funding from private companies and state governments</a>. As far as the student was concerned, the cost (or risk) of attending university was borne by the family (or other patron) and it was to the family obligations were owed.</p>
<h2>Mid-20th century – employers</h2>
<p>Forty years later, Margaret is one of a growing number of women entering university. </p>
<p>On her first day in a teaching degree at the University of Queensland, she meets chemistry student Eric. They find they have a lot in common. They have both joined UQ’s chapter of the Student Christian Movement, and have already signed contracts with their future employers who will financially support them during their studies. </p>
<p>The Queensland education department has awarded Margaret a bonded scholarship based on her high school matriculation results. Eric has taken a cadetship with the CSIRO. </p>
<p>After they graduate, both will have to work on their employers’ terms for three to five years.</p>
<p>Margaret’s and Eric’s stories reflect the terms of a social contract that emerged in the middle of the 20th century. Under this model, the costs of higher education could be borne by a student’s future employer such as government departments like the Postmaster-General or the railways, or private entities such as manufacturers and mining companies. </p>
<p>Connected to an expanding network of state secondary schools, this new pathway delivered benefits to students who would not otherwise have been able to go to university. This enabled them to join the ranks of the expanding white collar, salaried middle class, in return for a commitment to work. </p>
<p>The same logic underpinned the creation of two postwar <a href="http://guides.naa.gov.au/land-of-opportunity/chapter24/">Commonwealth programs</a>: the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme, which enabled 21,000 ex-servicemen and women to receive a free tertiary education, and Commonwealth Scholarships, which covered fees and in some cases living expenses on the basis of secondary-school results. </p>
<p>Employers benefited, but so did the state, which saw this as a more directed way of providing funding to universities to produce skilled graduates in needed areas. </p>
<p>Eager to boost post-war development and in the strategic context of the Cold War, universities expanded research, helped by new direct grants from the Commonwealth.</p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://webplayer.whooshkaa.com/episode/644732?theme=light&visual=true&enable-volume=true" height="190" width="100%" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay"></iframe>
<p><em>Subscribe to the New Social Contract podcast on your favourite podcast app: <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-new-social-contract/id1510173684">Apple Podcast</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2ltBYx6bVMrpqGAWlSpMV5">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=527571&refid=stpr">Stitcher</a></em></p>
<hr>
<h2>1970s – society</h2>
<p>It’s 1975 and Daryl, having passed his high school matriculation exam, enrols in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macquarie_University#History">recently opened Macquarie University</a> without having to worry about finances at all.</p>
<p>Since 1974, <a href="https://www.whitlam.org/whitlam-legacy-education">fees have been abolished</a> and, once Daryl fills out the right form, he can get student assistance for living expenses based on a means test rather than a competitive exam. </p>
<p>Like increasing numbers of his generation, Daryl decides to study science. But he can switch degrees if he finds he is better suited to another program. </p>
<p>He lives in a share-house with other students. With less pressure to pass every subject to keep his place, he enjoys his social life in an inner suburb. He forms a punk rock band with some university friends and, for a few years after graduation, tours pubs around Australia. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332617/original/file-20200505-83751-vau426.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332617/original/file-20200505-83751-vau426.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332617/original/file-20200505-83751-vau426.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332617/original/file-20200505-83751-vau426.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332617/original/file-20200505-83751-vau426.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332617/original/file-20200505-83751-vau426.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332617/original/file-20200505-83751-vau426.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332617/original/file-20200505-83751-vau426.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the mid-20th century, the costs of higher education were often borne by the student’s employer. (First Students at Macquarie University, Sydney. 1967)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_students_Macquarie.JPG">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Eventually Daryl settles into a job at the Australian Bureau of Statistics. He feels lucky to find employment in an expanding public sector during a period of economic stagnation.</p>
<p>The agreement Daryl made on entering university was not with his family or future employer, but with the state itself, when he applied for student assistance.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s government abolished fees and <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/saa1973217/">reduced financial barriers to study</a>. This reallocated the cost of higher education from state governments to the Commonwealth, and the benefit to society. </p>
<p>Daryl benefited because he got a secure job in the public service. And society benefited through his skilled employment and active participation in the cultural and social life of the nation. </p>
<p>The Commonwealth also funded research to support economic development, productivity and defence.</p>
<h2>1990s – the individual</h2>
<p>No one in Ashley’s family has ever been to university before. But the introduction of the new <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/about_parliament/parliamentary_departments/parliamentary_library/publications_archive/archive/hecs">Higher Education Contribution Scheme</a> (which means she doesn’t have to pay fees until she begins earning money) has opened places for people like her. </p>
<p>Conscious HECS is just a loan, Ashley wants a degree that gets her a job. That’s why she picks Communications. And because she’s interested in video production, she gets involved in the film society. </p>
<p>Ashley hopes this might give her an advantage in a very competitive industry. She doesn’t have much time for socialising, because she also has a part-time job to help pay her living expenses.</p>
<p>Ashley’s experience reflects a social contract ushered in during the late 1980s and early 1990s. With the reintroduction of student fees and creation of HECS, students knew they were paying a much larger contribution to their higher education.</p>
<p>They expected direct benefits in terms of future employment options and income. An emphasis on “human capital” came to the fore and universities were told to equip students with skills they could can take into the job market. </p>
<p>They also competed for a reduced amount of research dollars which were now distributed on the basis of competitive application through a newly created entity, <a href="https://www.arc.gov.au/about-arc/arc-profile">the Australian Research Council</a>. </p>
<p>And they competed for high paying international students whose <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20110305121304874">numbers grew by 2,000%</a> between 1986 and 2006, providing an extra non-government source of income. </p>
<p>Competition created national and global university rankings and research metrics as a way of measuring value. This social contract worked within the terms of the market economy.</p>
<h2>2020 – a new social contract?</h2>
<p>While on average, <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/907-Mapping-Australian-higher-education-2018.pdf">graduates earn more than non-graduates</a>, a degree no longer guarantees employment. Going to university is more expensive than before, and its returns are less guaranteed to convert into personal benefits.</p>
<p>COVID-19 has pulled on the threads of the already worn fabric of higher education policy. </p>
<p>The deferred nature of the HECS payment, use of market mechanisms to allocate value, and the enormous supplement that comes from international student fees, has pushed the idea of the social contract for higher education out of view.</p>
<p>After a summer of devastating fire, <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/partners-and-community/initiatives/social-justice-uts/news/climate-change-demands-crisis-response.-uts-board">universities</a>, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-05/australia-attitudes-climate-change-action-morrison-government/11878510">society</a> and <a href="https://www.climatechange.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/55254/DELWPClimateChange_Framework.pdf">even some Australian states</a> have recognised the country needs a social and economic framework dedicated to the conditions of habitability. </p>
<p>To achieve that, care for the planet, and each other, must be at the heart of all we do.</p>
<p>COVID-19 has also revealed people’s willingness to participate in collective action is just as crucial to effecting transformation as is expertise.</p>
<p>What does that mean for universities? What is their purpose in the 21st century? What new set of obligations and expectations will students face? What should we ask of them? What role should government play?</p>
<p>These are the questions our sector should be asking as we face lengthening months and years in which the world of higher education in Australia, and the lives of all those who rely on it, is likely to grow even more precarious.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Read the next essay, on how universities came to rely on international students, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-universities-came-to-rely-on-international-students-138796">here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=644732">Universities and the public in the 20th Century</a> was made by <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/partners-and-community/initiatives/impact-studios/about-us">Impact Studios</a> at the University of Technology, Sydney - an audio production house combining academic research and audio storytelling.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137877/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tamson Pietsch receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is the host of The New Social Contract podcast which is produced by UTS Impact Studios.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Waghorne receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gwilym Croucher 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>
This essay explores the way the social contract between universities, society and the state has changed over the course of the 20th century. And how generations of students paid and benefited.
Tamson Pietsch, Associate Professor, Social & Political Sciences, University of Technology Sydney
Gwilym Croucher, Senior Lecturer, Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of Melbourne
James Waghorne, Senior Research Fellow, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/136244
2020-04-15T01:33:32Z
2020-04-15T01:33:32Z
For most universities, there’s little point to the government’s COVID-19 assistance package
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327884/original/file-20200414-117573-13z4d81.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/sydney-nsw-australia-december-26-2014-245765428">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>COVID-19 has <a href="https://theconversation.com/without-international-students-australias-universities-will-downsize-and-some-might-collapse-altogether-132869">hit the higher education sector hard</a> – with an up to <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/media-item/uni-viability-crucial-to-national-recovery/">A$4.6 billion estimated</a> loss of revenue from international students.</p>
<p>The government will not compensate universities for international student losses. But on Easter Sunday <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tehan/higher-education-relief-package">Education Minister Dan Tehan announced</a> limited financial assistance for higher education, <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/covid-19/higher-education/higher-education-faq">aimed primarily</a> at domestic students. </p>
<p>Under the plan, the government will guarantee funding for universities at their current levels of enrolment for the rest of 2020 – meaning if enrolments drop, the funding won’t. It will also “slash” student fees for short, online courses in national priority areas such as nursing and IT.</p>
<p>Universities Australia says the package <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/media-item/ua-welcomes-first-steps-in-securing-universities-viability/">is a first step</a>. This is true when it comes to the funding guarantee, but the premature policy on short courses is a wrong step. </p>
<h2>Domestic student funding, in detail …</h2>
<p>The university financial crisis was triggered by fewer-than-expected international students. But in some universities, weak domestic demand has exacerbated the problem. </p>
<p><a href="https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/uni-sydney-faces-a-470m-covid-19-cost/">The University of Sydney announced</a> last week it had 5% fewer domestic students than it expected. <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/university-of-tasmania-slashes-degrees-in-face-of-coronavirus-headwind/news-story/92cec65e272cc2e5c62417f17bc20044">Other universities</a>, such as La Trobe in Victoria, have also revealed <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/la-trobe-university-cops-very-significant-hit-from-coronavirus-falling-enrolments-20200306-p547p2.html">domestic student shortfalls</a>. </p>
<p>Normally, universities lose money for enrolling fewer domestic students than they anticipated. Under the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C2004A01234">higher education funding legislation</a>, total government payments for each year cannot exceed the number of students actually enrolled multiplied by the relevant <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/funding-clusters-and-indexed-rates">discipline-based tuition subsidy</a>. Usually, the fortnightly payments universities receive from the government are adjusted down if enrolments are lower than expected. </p>
<p>But under this plan, universities will receive their previously-expected 2020 funding amounts, probably based on <a href="https://app.heims.education.gov.au/HeimsOnline/IPInfo/Determination">levels announced in December 2019</a>. This will require some legal changes the government will make during 2020.</p>
<p>Only a minority of universities are likely to be suffering from low domestic demand. But for these institutions this additional funding will be helpful. </p>
<h2>HELP payments guaranteed, but have to be paid back</h2>
<p>HELP student loan payments to universities on behalf of students - <a href="https://www.studyassist.gov.au/help-loans/hecs-help">HECS-HELP for government-supported students</a>, <a href="https://www.studyassist.gov.au/help-loans/fee-help">FEE-HELP for full-fee students</a> - will also continue <a href="https://app.heims.education.gov.au/HeimsOnline/IPInfo/Determination">according to December 2019 forecasts</a>, even if enrolments fall short of previous predictions. </p>
<p>If higher education providers - <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/04/09/covid-19-could-have-a-high-fatality-rate-in-the-private-higher-education-sector/">the private higher education sector</a> as well as public universities using FEE-HELP - take advantage of this option, they will need to <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/higher-education-relief-package-frequently-asked-questions#Deferral%20of%20HELP%20recoveries">repay any excess HELP loans between 2022 and 2029</a>. </p>
<p>As the funding legislation gives the government significant discretion in debt recovery this policy does not need any legal change. </p>
<h2>Short courses with new certificates</h2>
<p>The most newsworthy part of the Easter Sunday announcement was that the government would <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/higher-education-relief-package-frequently-asked-questions#Short%20online">fund additional short courses at discount fees</a>. These are aimed at people seeking new skills for the post-COVID-19 economy. Tehan <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tehan/higher-education-relief-package">said</a>:</p>
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<p>This plan will help Australians who have lost their job or are looking to retrain to use their time studying nursing, teaching, counselling, allied health or other areas considered national priorities.</p>
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<p>These short courses will be up to four subjects already taught as part of an existing qualification. They can start from May 1, 2020 and must be finished by December 1, 2020. </p>
<p>The existing qualification could be anything from a higher education diploma to a masters degree by coursework, but it is likely universities would focus on graduate certificates and graduate diplomas, which usually take full-time students between six months and a year. </p>
<p>Students can continue on to the full course if it is longer than four subjects, but they will not get discount fees for subsequent subjects. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-should-we-do-with-1-billion-hours-of-time-australias-covid-19-opportunity-135677">What should we do with 1 billion hours of time? Australia's COVID-19 opportunity</a>
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<p>Students who finish six months of study will receive what the education department calls a “higher education certificate” and the minister has sometimes <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/guaranteed-funding-and-new-online-courses-under-university-relief-package-20200411-p54j1i.html">called a “diploma certificate”</a>. </p>
<p>Student contributions will be $1,250 for six months study in nursing, teaching, psychology, English, maths, foreign languages or agriculture. They will be $2,500 in allied and other health, IT, architecture and building, science engineering, medical science and environmental studies. In most cases, this is about half what students would <a href="https://www.studyassist.gov.au/help-loans-commonwealth-supported-places-csps/student-contribution-amounts">normally be charged</a>. </p>
<p>The government says these courses must be online and are only available to new students. There is a strong implication these courses will be restricted to workers displaced by the COVID-19 crisis.</p>
<h2>This has legal problems</h2>
<p>This idea faces significant legal obstacles.</p>
<p>The government has no current legal power to fund a “higher education certificate” or a “diploma certificate”. So to facilitate funding, the government requires universities to <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/higher-education-relief-package-frequently-asked-questions#Short%20online">enrol students in a course leading to an existing higher education qualification</a>, even if the student has no plan to finish it.</p>
<p>Encouraging students to leave without a proper qualification goes against the legislation’s policy intent.</p>
<p>Higher education providers have another potential legal problem. The <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2015L01639/Download">rules around admitting students</a> require course applicants have no “known limitations” that would impede completion. A university marketing made-up certificates that encourage early departure from courses that would otherwise lead to legally-recognised qualifications strikes me as recruiting students with a potential “known limitation”. </p>
<p>Universities should check with the <a href="https://www.teqsa.gov.au/">quality regulator</a> before admitting students on this basis.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/without-international-students-australias-universities-will-downsize-and-some-might-collapse-altogether-132869">Without international students, Australia's universities will downsize – and some might collapse altogether</a>
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<p>The government’s other legal problem is it has no power to cut student contributions. Under the funding legislation, <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/higher-education-administrative-information-providers-march-2020/23-student-contribution-amounts">universities set student contributions up to the statutory maximum</a>. So for the cost of the short courses to be “slashed”, the government needs universities to charge less than usual. </p>
<p>Universities will receive the <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/node/3795.">normal tuition subsidy</a> for each student, so this may mean they can still make money from this program. Adding an additional student to an existing online course would usually cost them less than the total funding rate. </p>
<p>But agreeing to a lower student contribution sets a bad precedent, and undermines the program as a way of assisting financially-stricken universities. </p>
<p>Making matters worse, tuition subsidies for diploma certificate students would be <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/higher-education-relief-package-frequently-asked-questions#Funding%20Guarantee">offset against the 2020 funding guarantee amounts</a>. Universities with fewer domestic students than expected in December 2019 should not participate in this program, and take the funding guarantee money instead. </p>
<h2>There are existing short courses</h2>
<p>The short course policy should be postponed. It isn’t going to make a big financial difference to universities. We should think more carefully about whether funding short courses is necessary or desirable, and we should not lightly sanction policies that go against the intent of existing law. If the scheme is worth pursuing, it can be properly legislated later in the year. </p>
<p>If people want to sit out the COVID-19 recession at their study desk they have many options. There are no limits on student numbers in FEE-HELP funded postgraduate courses. There is also already a <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2019/10/15/the-popularity-of-online-self-education/">large market for online short courses</a>. Many of these have the added advantage of costing less than $1,250 or $2,500.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136244/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Norton works for the Australian National University, which will receive some benefit from the programs discussed in the article. </span></em></p>
The government’s new funding package for universities is a good first step. But its plan for low-cost online courses is problematic.
Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/132175
2020-02-20T03:29:57Z
2020-02-20T03:29:57Z
Australian unis may need to cut staff and research if government extends coronavirus travel ban
<p>The <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-expected-to-extend-coronavirus-travel-ban-for-another-week-20200219-p542bo.html">Australian government</a> will soon decide whether it will extend its ban on travellers from China for another week. </p>
<p>The Department of Home Affairs has already <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/news-media/current-alerts/novel-coronavirus">extended the original two week travel ban</a> (that <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-australia/australia-bars-entry-to-foreign-nationals-traveling-from-mainland-china-idUSKBN1ZV3F1">began on February 1</a>) by one week.</p>
<p>Anyone who has left or transited mainland China within the previous 14 days (with some exceptions including Australians citizens) will be <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/news-media/current-alerts/novel-coronavirus">denied entry</a> into Australia until February 22.</p>
<p>But with about <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-cases/">2,000 new cases</a> of the coronavirus being confirmed every day, the ban could well be extended even further. </p>
<p>More than 100,000 international students are <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-19/coronavirus-travel-ban-hits-universities-students-stuck-in-china/11975938">estimated to be stuck</a> in China, unable to start their academic year in Australia. </p>
<p>With the substantial loss of revenue from these students, universities will likely need to make cuts to their staff and research budgets.</p>
<h2>How the travel ban affects universities</h2>
<p>The number of international students studying at Australian universities has increased dramatically in the past two decades. International student contributions extend beyond fees. These students spend money on accommodation, food and other experiences while they are here.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-ways-the-coronavirus-outbreak-will-affect-international-students-and-how-unis-can-help-131195">3 ways the coronavirus outbreak will affect international students and how unis can help</a>
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<p>In 2018, international students contributed A$32 billion to the Australian economy.
One third of that – <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/5368.0.55.0032017-18?OpenDocument">$11 billion</a> – was from the <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/node/53021">160,000 students</a> from China who studied in Australia that year.</p>
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<p>Some Australian universities are more exposed to the Chinese student market than others. The University of Sydney took in about A$750 million from international students in 2017 (<a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/node/52466">the latest year the data were available</a>).</p>
<p>We have calculated two-thirds of that – about $500 million – came from international students from China. That same year, the University of Sydney had an operating surplus of $200 million.</p>
<p>The figure below shows the ten Australian universities with the highest revenue from Chinese international students. All these universities had an operating surplus in 2017.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/universities-have-12-billion-war-chest-to-confront-coronavirus-crisis-20200219-p542c0.html">current reserves</a> of these ten universities reportedly range from $48 million to $3.9 billion.</p>
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<p>These universities are in good financial position to weather the storm. But whether university revenues are cut by a few weeks, a semester, or longer, they will inevitably look at reducing costs. </p>
<p>With materially fewer students to teach, they will look to reduce classes and cut teaching staff. Around <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/907-Mapping-Australian-higher-education-2018.pdf">23% of their full time employees</a> are casuals without employment security.</p>
<p>Cutting the hours of these employees would be the easiest way for universities to mitigate the hit to the bottom line. </p>
<p>But cutting costs can’t fill the hole: the revenue from foreign students substantially exceeds the costs of teaching them. </p>
<p>Australian universities generated a surplus of <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/831-Cash-nexus-report.pdf">about A$1.2 billion on international onshore students in 2013</a>. International student revenues have almost doubled since then, so the surplus budgeted for 2020 before coronavirus hit would have been a lot higher.</p>
<p>This loss of revenue will also have flow on effects for research, <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/831-Cash-nexus-report.pdf%20%20%20https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/demand_driven_facts_figures_SLNSW_13Feb.pdf">20% of which is funded</a> by student fees. </p>
<h2>The government should lift the funding cap</h2>
<p>Universities are doing what they can to accommodate students still in China. Monash University has <a href="https://www.monash.edu/news/novel-corona-virus-fact-sheet">delayed its teaching semester</a> by a week to March 9, and will conduct its first week entirely online. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://sydney.edu.au/study/coronavirus-infection-university-of-sydney-advice.html">University of Sydney</a> will start on February 24 as normal, but it will delay some postgraduate business courses that have high international student numbers.</p>
<p>Universities are also offering online-only alternatives to international students for first-semester subjects.</p>
<p>But delayed start dates will work only if the travel ban is lifted in the coming weeks. Online-only study deprives international students of the campus-and-country experience they have paid for, so that option may not prove attractive. </p>
<p>And the problem will be far larger if this cohort of Chinese international students don’t come at all, instead choosing to study at home or elsewhere abroad.</p>
<p>All of this comes at a bad time for Australia’s university sector. While the Department of Home Affairs is restricting its access to international students this academic year, the Department of Education is restricting its access to domestic students next year and beyond.</p>
<p>The Commonwealth government <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/demand_driven_facts_figures_SLNSW_13Feb.pdf">effectively ended</a> the demand-driven funding system at the end of 2017. During the years the model was operational, universities could enrol unlimited numbers of bachelor-degree students into any discipline other than medicine and be paid for every one of them.</p>
<p>In 2017, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/demand-driven-funding-for-universities-is-frozen-what-does-this-mean-and-should-the-policy-be-restored-116060">government put a freeze</a> on domestic bachelor places for two years, with population-linked adjustments from 2020 for universities that met certain performance criteria.</p>
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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>
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<p>By the luck of a demographic slump, the number of people finishing year 12 in Australia <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/02/18/how-much-did-the-demand-drive-funding-freeze-save-the-government-in-2018-and-cost-the-unis/">has been flat</a>, and so the freeze has been of little consequence so far.</p>
<p>But that will change in the coming years. More domestic students will be knocking on the doors of cash-strapped universities. </p>
<p>The freeze means universities desperately needing revenue will lose many school leavers who would otherwise have studied at university under the demand driven system.</p>
<p>The Commonwealth government can’t fix an international pandemic. But it can lift the cap on domestic students.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132175/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments, $4 million from BHP Billiton, and $1 million from NAB. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and contribute to funding Grattan Institute's activities. Grattan Institute also receives funding from corporates, foundations, and individuals to support its general activities, as disclosed on its website.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Will Mackey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The University of Sydney took in about A$750 million from international students in 2017. Two-thirds of that – about $500 million – came from international students from China.
John Daley, Chief Executive Officer, Grattan Institute
Will Mackey, Associate, Grattan Institute
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/131195
2020-02-06T23:46:09Z
2020-02-06T23:46:09Z
3 ways the coronavirus outbreak will affect international students and how unis can help
<p>The 2020 academic year is off to a rocky start. Instead of the usual excitement that comes with a new semester, university students, particularly Chinese students still offshore (<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-04/coronavirus-scare-sees-chinese-students-miss-uniniversity/11929948">more than 100,000, or about 56%, of Chinese students</a>) and those who have just returned, face uncertainty. </p>
<p>On January 30, the World Health Organisation declared the new strain of coronavirus a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-31/who-coronavirus-global-emergency/11916276">public health emergency of international concern</a>. </p>
<p>The Australian government responded by imposing a <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/news/coronavirus-update-at-a-glance">travel ban</a> on any foreign national from entering or transiting in Australia until 14 days after leaving, or transiting through, anywhere in mainland China. </p>
<p>People who have travelled to mainland China recently or who have been in close contact with a confirmed case of novel coronavirus are also being asked to self quarantine for 14 days. </p>
<h2>How have universities responded?</h2>
<p>Universities have been swift to respond in an inclusive manner by <a href="https://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/impact-of-new-restrictions-on-travel-to-and-from-china">reassuring Chinese students</a> in particular they will be welcomed back with little disruption to their studies.</p>
<p>But the details have varied. Monash university is <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/unprecedented-all-monash-students-ordered-to-stay-away-until-mid-march-to-counter-coronavirus-20200131-p53wnk.html">postponing the start of its semester</a> by one week. Others, such as the University of Sydney, the University of New South Wales and Queensland University of Technology are asking Chinese students to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/03/some-australian-universities-delay-semester-start-amid-coronavirus-crisis">enrol later or defer</a> while some are <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/monash-uni-cancels-900-exams-disrupts-4000-students-to-counter-virus-20200130-p53w9u.html">rescheduling summer exams</a>. </p>
<p>Most universities haven’t shifted their semester dates. They are telling students coming from China to self-isolate and not come to campus for 14 days. Others are offering <a href="https://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/6609618/utas-reveals-1300-students-affected-by-new-coronavirus-travel-ban/">online courses </a> specifically for students stuck in China.</p>
<p>There are several ways responses to the coronavirus can impact international students – Chinese or otherwise</p>
<h2>1. Moving courses online isn’t simple</h2>
<p>All Australian universities can communicate with students, and provide access to course material, online. Many encourage instructor-student interchanges in virtual classrooms managed through learning management systems such as Canvas. </p>
<p>While these are excellent resources for students in Australia, the <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/two-thirds-australias-chinese-students-stuck-home?utm_source=THE+Website+Users&utm_campaign=38adc9426b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_02_04_03_03_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_daa7e51487-38adc9426b-62302153">157,000 international students still in China</a> may not be able to access them. The <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/08/science-suffers-china-s-internet-censors-plug-holes-great-firewall">Great Firewall of China</a> prevents Chinese access to popular global platforms such as Google and, increasingly, to virtual private networks (VPNs) which would be able to bypass the firewall. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-coronavirus-outbreak-is-the-biggest-crisis-ever-to-hit-international-education-131138">The coronavirus outbreak is the biggest crisis ever to hit international education</a>
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<p>Online education in itself is a contested space. Previous research has shown online learning and flipped classrooms (where students do some online self-learning prior to later face-to-face classes) have <a href="https://jolt.merlot.org/Vol11no2/Nguyen_0615.pdf">mixed results</a> both generally and in specific disciplines such as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/medu.13272">medicine</a>. </p>
<p>This is because designing online learning experiences is a <a href="http://www.jite.org/documents/Vol15/JITEv15ResearchP157-190Sun2138.pdf">complex exercise</a> that requires resources, thought and time. Given the short period academics have to build additional resources, it is a challenge for even the best academics to create a productive and effective online learning environment.</p>
<h2>2. Studying overseas is expensive</h2>
<p>The cost of studying in Australia is not cheap. Annually, an undergraduate international student <a href="https://www.studyinaustralia.gov.au/english/live-in-australia/living-costs">may spend anywhere</a> between A$20,000 to $45,000 for their degree. They will spend an estimated $9,150 to $18,600 for living expenses if they stay in Australia for 15 weeks. </p>
<p>While institutions have concentrated their attention on Chinese international students, other international students are also victims of the coronavirus fallout. Delayed progress could mean many international students have to extend their stay in Australia. It’s still unclear whether the government will help reimburse these expenses.</p>
<h2>3. The first few weeks are important for socialising</h2>
<p>The first few weeks are crucial in a student’s journey and need to be spent on transition and socialisation.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13676261.2014.992316">research</a> has found international students consider the friends they make in the host country to be their replacement family. Friends provide the support structures students feel they need while away from home. </p>
<p>New international students <a href="http://researchbank.rmit.edu.au/view/rmit:50187">make friends with people</a> at the beginning of their study journey in Australia. Often these friendships are with other international students who they meet at international student orientations organised by their respective institutions.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-international-students-need-to-make-aussie-friends-30820">Why international students need to make Aussie friends</a>
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<p>New Chinese international students who are under quarantine will not be able to take part in such activities. Students living in institutional residential halls have support <a href="https://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/impact-of-new-restrictions-on-travel-to-and-from-china">structures in place</a>, but what about students who have no one to check on them and to make sure they are alright? </p>
<p>International students leave their families and support structures behind. The added uncertainty and fear around the virus is not a great way to begin the transition period. An isolation period could potentially exacerbate stress for students.</p>
<h2>What universities should do to help</h2>
<p>We are in unprecedented territory. It is heartening to see universities doing their best to help students in such uncertain times. But how we help international students after this health crisis is over is equally important. </p>
<p>It’s crucial universities provide academic advice and support to students feeling left behind in their courses. They must also strengthen services for distressed students affected directly or indirectly by the coronavirus outbreak.</p>
<p>Universities and the government should provide support to the broader student cohort, including transitioning late international students to classes mid-semester. If not managed and communicated properly, this can impact on the socialisation and group-work aspects of courses.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-make-sure-the-international-student-boom-is-sustainable-86394">We need to make sure the international student boom is sustainable</a>
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<p>Universities also need to support their academic and student support staff. They are at the front line managing the fallout. They will still be dealing with the consequences of the crisis once the outbreak is well and truly over. </p>
<p>The way forward should be based on respect and empathy. The way we respond to this crisis will not only have impact on our students, but will also reflect who we are as a nation.</p>
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<p><em>This article previously implied 56% of all international students were still in China. This has now been corrected. The advice from the Australian government has also been updated.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131195/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Gomes has received funding from the Australian Research Council and Study Melbourne. She is a member of ISANA International Education Association.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shanton Chang receives funding from StudyMelbourne, the Consumer Policy Research Centre and NHMRC. He is a life member of ISANA International Education Association. He is also a co-founder to the Victorian Working Group on International Student Employability (VicWISE).</span></em></p>
Universities have put in place many measures to help international students. But online classes are not a simple solution, and the government could help with the extra money students have to spend.
Catherine Gomes, Associate Professor in Media and Communication, RMIT University
Shanton Chang, Associate Professor in Information Systems, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/131138
2020-02-06T06:46:39Z
2020-02-06T06:46:39Z
The coronavirus outbreak is the biggest crisis ever to hit international education
<p>The coronavirus outbreak may be the biggest disruption to international student flows in history.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-04/coronavirus-scare-sees-chinese-students-miss-uniniversity/11929948">more than 100,000 students</a> stuck in China who had intended to study in Australia this year. As each day passes, it becomes more unlikely they will arrive in time for the start of the academic year.</p>
<p>Of course international affairs are bound to sometimes interfere with the <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2019_f8d7880d-en#page1">more than 5.3 million students studying outside their home country</a>, all over the world.</p>
<p>After the September 11 attacks in 2001, the United States <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1028315318762524">closed its borders</a> temporarily and tightened student visa restrictions, particularly for students from the Middle East. Thousands were forced to choose different study destinations in the following years.</p>
<p>In 2018, Saudi Arabia’s government <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-after-diplomatic-stand-off-fewer-saudi-arabian-students-left-canada/">instructed all its citizens</a> studying in Canada to return home, in protest at the Canadian foreign minister’s call to release women’s rights activists held in Saudi jails. </p>
<p>A significant proportion of the 12,000 or so Saudi students in Canada left to continue their studies elsewhere, before the Saudi government quietly softened its stance. </p>
<p>So we have seen calamities before, but never on this scale. There are a few reasons for this.</p>
<h2>Why this is worse than before</h2>
<p>The current temporary migration of students from China to Australia represents one of the largest education flows the world has ever seen. Federal education department data show there were more than <a href="https://internationaleducation.gov.au/research/DataVisualisations/Pages/nationalitySummary.aspx">212,000 Chinese international students</a> in Australia by the end of 2019. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313917/original/file-20200206-43108-18ddns.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313917/original/file-20200206-43108-18ddns.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313917/original/file-20200206-43108-18ddns.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1213&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313917/original/file-20200206-43108-18ddns.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1213&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313917/original/file-20200206-43108-18ddns.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1213&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313917/original/file-20200206-43108-18ddns.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313917/original/file-20200206-43108-18ddns.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313917/original/file-20200206-43108-18ddns.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://internationaleducation.gov.au/research/International-Student-Data/Documents/MONTHLY%20SUMMARIES/2019/Nov%202019%20MonthlyInfographic.pdf">Screenshot/Department of Education</a></span>
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<p>This accounts for <a href="https://internationaleducation.gov.au/research/International-Student-Data/Documents/MONTHLY%20SUMMARIES/2019/Nov%202019%20MonthlyInfographic.pdf">28% of Australia’s total international student population</a>. Globally, there are only two study routes that involve larger numbers of students. The <a href="http://uis.unesco.org/en/uis-student-flow">world’s largest student flow</a> is from China to the United States and the second largest is from India to the US.</p>
<p>It’s also difficult to imagine a worse time for this epidemic to happen for students heading to the southern hemisphere than January to February, at the end of our long summer break. </p>
<p>Many Chinese students had returned home for the summer and others were preparing to start their studies at the end of February. </p>
<p>By comparison, <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/publication/economic-roundup-winter-2003/the-economic-impact-of-severe-acute-respiratory-syndrome-sars">the SARS epidemic in 2003</a> didn’t significantly dent international student enrolments in Australia because it peaked around April-May 2003, well after students had started the academic year. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-make-sure-the-international-student-boom-is-sustainable-86394">We need to make sure the international student boom is sustainable</a>
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<p>Ending in July that year, the <a href="https://www.who.int/ith/diseases/sars/en/">SARS outbreak infected</a> fewer than half the number of people than have already contracted coronavirus. Even during the SARS outbreak Australia <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14984341">didn’t implement bans</a> on those travelling from affected countries.</p>
<h2>What will the impact be?</h2>
<p>This crisis hits hard for many Chinese students, an integral component of our campus communities. It not only causes disruptions to their study, accommodation, part-time employment and life plans, but also their mental well-being. </p>
<p>A humane, supportive and respectful response from the university communities is vital at this stage. </p>
<p>Australia has never experienced such a sudden drop in student numbers. </p>
<p>The reduced enrolments will have profound impacts on class sizes and the teaching workforce, particularly at masters level in <a href="https://www.cis.org.au/app/uploads/2019/08/ap5.pdf?">universities</a> with the highest proportions of students from China. Around <a href="https://internationaleducation.gov.au/research/DataVisualisations/Pages/nationalitySummary.aspx">46% of Chinese students</a> are studying a postgraduate masters by coursework. If classes are too small, universities will have to cancel them.</p>
<p>And the effects don’t end there. Tourism, accommodation providers, restaurants and retailers who cater to international students will be hit hard too.</p>
<p>Chinese students contributed <a href="https://internationaleducation.gov.au/research/Research-Snapshots/Documents/Export%20Income%202018%E2%80%9319%20Country%20Infographic.pdf">A$12 billion to the Australian economy in 2019</a>, so whatever happens from this point, the financial impact will be significant. The cost of the drop in enrolments in semester one may well amount to several billion dollars.</p>
<p>The newly-formed <a href="https://internationaleducation.gov.au/International-network/Australia/InternationalStrategy/Documents/GRT%20Communique%20-%203%20February%202020.pdf">Global Reputation Taskforce</a> by Australia’s Council for International Education has commissioned some rapid response research to promote more informed discussion about the implications and impacts of the crisis.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-attracts-chinese-students-to-aussie-universities-46748">What attracts Chinese students to Aussie universities?</a>
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<p>If the epidemic is contained quickly, some of the 100,000 students stuck in China will be able to start their studies in semester one, and the rest could delay until mid-year. But there might still be longer-term effects.</p>
<p>Australia has a world-class higher education system and the world is closely watching how we manage this crisis as it unfolds.</p>
<p>Prospective students in China will be particularly focused on Australia’s response as they weigh future study options.</p>
<h2>The world is watching</h2>
<p>Such a fast-moving crisis presents a range of challenges for those in universities, colleges (such as English language schools) and schools who are trying to communicate with thousands of worried students who can’t enter the country.</p>
<p>Australian universities are scrambling to consider a wide range of responses. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li>delivering courses online</li>
<li>providing intensive courses and summer or winter courses</li>
<li>arrangements around semester commencement</li>
<li>fee refund and deferral</li>
<li>provision of clear and updated information</li>
<li>support structures for starting and continuing Chinese students, including extended academic and welfare support, counselling, special helplines, and coronavirus-specific information guidelines</li>
<li>support with visa issues, accommodation and employment arrangements.</li>
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<p>A coordinated approach involving different stakeholders who are providing different supports for Chinese students is an urgent priority. This includes education providers, government, city councils, international student associations, student groups and professional organisations.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-fears-can-trigger-anti-chinese-prejudice-heres-how-schools-can-help-130945">Coronavirus fears can trigger anti-Chinese prejudice. Here's how schools can help</a>
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<p>This outbreak further raises awareness within the international education sector of the need for risk management and crisis response strategies to ensure sustainability.</p>
<p>Most importantly, we need to ensure we remain focused on the human consequences of this tragedy first. Headlines focusing on lost revenues at a time like this are offensive to international students and everyone involved in international education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131138/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>
Australia has never had such a drop in student numbers. Even during the SARS outbreak Australia didn’t implement bans on those travelling from affected countries.
Christopher Ziguras, Professor of Global Studies, RMIT University
Ly Tran, Professor and ARC Future Fellow, Deakin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.