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Few of our institutions are as significant or as complex as Australia’s universities. This first comprehensive history of Australia’s university sector explores how universities work and for whom, and how their relationship with each other, their academics and students and the public has evolved over a century. The book explores how Australia’s universities have sought to resolve tensions between their separate identities and common interests, and how they have engaged collectively with government and the public. It also tells the story of how they have expanded to usher in an era of much wider participation in higher education; and how they have shaped and been shaped by internationalisation, including their creation of the country’s third-largest export sector.
In 1857 all of the Arts students at the University of Sydney could fit into a single photograph. Now there are more than one million university students in Australia. After World War II, Australian universities became less elite but more important, growing from six small institutions educating less than 0.2 per cent of the population to a system enrolling over a quarter of high school graduates. And yet, universities today are plagued with ingrained problems. More than 50 per cent of the cost of universities goes to just running them. They now have an explicit commercial focus. They compete bitterly for students and funding, an issue sharply underlined by the latest federal budget. Scholars rarely feel their vice-chancellors represent them and within their own ranks, academics squabble for scraps. Knowing Australia is a perceptive, clear-eyed account of Australian universities, recounting their history from the 1850s to the present. Investigating the changing nature of higher education, it asks whether this success is likely to continue in the 21st century, as the university’s hold over knowledge grows ever more tenuous.
Throughout the industrialised world, universities have undergone remarkable changes since the mid-1980s. In Australia, interest has been intense, and publication of The Enterprise University was very timely. First published in 2001, it was the first systematic study of the Australian system since the momentous Dawkins reforms ten years earlier. The book is grounded in case studies of most of the major Australian universities: the authors interviewed a large number of senior managers. They also have taken account of global trends and have prepared the book in the light of international research on the university as an institution. The authors contend that the modern university can be understood as an 'enterprise university', characterised by corporate-style executive leadership. In a hard-hitting conclusion they propose novel policies and directions for Australia's higher education system.
Over the last few decades universities in Australia and overseas have been criticized for not meeting the needs and expectations of the societies in which they operate. At the heart of this problem is their strategy. This book reviews the organizational-level strategies of some of Australia’s prominent universities. It is based on their public documents that boldly report how they see their role in society and how they intend to navigate the future. These strategic statements are written to proclaim relevance, showcase achievements, attract students, and help to gain the support of the communities in which they operate. Using a strategy framework taught in their business schools, this book suggests that most such statements are deficient. Grand aspirations substitute for realistic operations and outcomes. The analysis also suggests that many of Australia’s universities are poorly governed and have become too complex and bureaucratic. A greater focus on their core responsibilities would help alleviate their current funding predicament.
Society, Schools, and Progress in Australia focuses on the principles, methodologies, practices, and measures employed in education in Australia. The book first offers information on historical influences and organization of public education. Discussions focus on local communities and schools, teaching in state schools, administration within states, educational policy, secondary education, geographical and social background, centralization, question of state aid, and background of the education acts. The book then ponders on schools and society, pattern of higher education, and teachers. Topics include economic change, organization of technical education, future development of technical colleges, adult education, diversification of tertiary education, teaching in universities, and reorganization of secondary education. The text examines education and national growth, including changing balance of the federation, social teaching, quality of teachers, aspects of national development, and social change and educational change. The manuscript is a dependable reference for students, teachers, and educators wanting to study the form of education in Australia.
"This study was commissioned by the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) in order to ascertain the current extent of online education in Australian universities. Over the past five to seven years there has been considerable activity within universities in the use of Internet technologies for research, teaching, learning and administrative services. This survey was designed as a first stage of enquiry into the ways in which universities are employing the Internet, in teaching and learning and services that support university education. Data were collected from 40 out of the 43 universities in Australia between August and December 2001." Executive Summary.
Australia's universities are in crisis-and this time it's real. Struck by simultaneous financial, pedagogical, and ideological challenges, Australia's entire university system stands in desperate need of reform. But good reform requires good data, and each of the major players in Australia's university debate has strong incentives to warp the data in its own favour. In this timely book, sociologist and higher education commentator Salvatore Babones delivers the insights Australians need in order to reform what are, after all, their universities. He demonstrates that (contrary to media accounts) domestic funding has held up relatively well over the last two decades, while international studen...
This book researches the study of languages other than English, and their place in the Australian tertiary sector. Languages are discussed in the context of the histories of Australian universities, and the series of reports and surveys about languages across the second half of the twentieth century. It demonstrates how changes in the ethnic mix of society are reflected in language offerings, and how policies on languages have changed as a result of societal influences. Also discussed is the extent to which influencing factors changed over time depending on social, cultural, political and economic contexts, and the extent to which governments prioritised the promotion and funding of languages because of their perceived contribution to the national interest. The book will give readers an understanding as to whether languages have mattered to Australia in a national and international sense and how Australia’s attention to languages has been reflected in its identity and its sense of place in the world.