AUR 58 01 by NTEU

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016 Published by NTEU

ISSN 0818–8068

AUR

Australian Universities’Review

AUR Editor Dr Ian R. Dobson, Federation University Australia

AUR Editorial Board Jeannie Rea, NTEU National President Professor Timo Aarrevaara, University of Helsinki Professor Walter Bloom, Murdoch University Professor Jamie Doughney, Victoria University Professor Leo Goedegebuure, University of Melbourne Professor Jeff Goldsworthy, Monash University Dr Tseen Khoo, La Trobe University Dr Mary Leahy, University of Melbourne Professor Dr Simon Marginson, University of London Mr Grahame McCulloch, NTEU General Secretary Dr Alex Millmow, Federation University Australia Dr Neil Mudford, UNSW@ADFA Professor Paul Rodan, Swinburne University of Technology Jim Smith, CAPA National President

Production Design & layout: Paul Clifton Editorial Assistance: Anastasia Kotaidis

Editorial Policy

Style

The Australian Universities’ Review (AUR, formerly Vestes) is published by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) to encourage debate and discussion about issues in higher education and its contribution to Australian public life, with an emphasis on those matters of concern to NTEU members.

Download full Style Guide at www.aur.org.au/submissions.

Editorial decisions are made by the Editor, assisted by the AUR Editorial Board. The views expressed in articles in this publication, unless otherwise stated, are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Editor, the Editorial Board or the publisher. Although some contributions are solicited by the Editor or the Editorial Board, AUR is anxious to receive contributions independently from staff and students in the higher education sector and other readers. AUR publishes articles and other contributions, including short commentary and satire. Articles will be assessed by independent referees before publication. Priority is given to contributions that are substantial, lively, original and have a broad appeal. Responses to previously published contributions are encouraged.

Use ‘per cent’ rather than ‘%’ in the text. Use ‘%’ in tables and figures where space is constrained. Use ‘s’ rather than ‘z’ in words such as ‘organise’ (analyse, recognise, etc.). Use a single space at the end of sentences. Use single quotation marks. Use double quotation marks for quotes within a quote. All quotes of more than 50 words should be indented and placed in a separate paragraph. Dates thus: 30 June 2010. Authors should ensure that the material cited in the text matches the material listed in the References. Neither male nor female pronouns should be used to refer to groups containing persons of both sexes. Do not use numbered sections. Do not use underlining. Do not use footnotes, endnotes or any headers or footers except for page numbers (bottom of page, centred).

AUR is listed on the DIISR (formerly DEEWR and DEST) register of refereed journals.

Avoid use of abbreviations, except for well-known organisations or processes.

Contributions

Tables and figures should be incorporated into the text close to where they are first referred. In general, ‘tables’ comprise data, and ‘figures’ comprise everything else (graphs, photographs, etc.).

Please adhere to the style notes outlined on this page. Contributors should send digital manuscripts in Word format to editor@aur.org.au. Contributions should be between 2,000 and 7,000 words, although longer articles will be considered. All articles should be accompanied by an abstract that would not usually be longer than 150 words.

Tables and figures should have separate numbered sequences, and titles should be above for tables, and below for figures. Figures should be prepared in black and white. Graphs with coloured bars are often illegible in black-and-white print.

The author’s full contact details should be provided, including email address, telephones and fax.

References

Contributions are sent to a minimum of two referees, in accordance with DIISR requirements for peer blind review.

References to be cited according to APA Publication Manual 6th edition (with minor exceptions).

Contributors should read the website before submitting a paper. It is presumed that authors have followed the standard scholarly ethical practices involved in seeking to have their work published. Authors should take their lead from the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research.

References in the text should be given in the author–date style:

Fax: +613 9254 1915

Book reviews

Two co-authors should be cited in the text as

Email: editor@aur.org.au

Books for review should be sent to the Editor. Our policy is to review books dealing either with tertiary education or with matters pertinent to issues in tertiary education. Book reviews should be between 200 and 1200 words; review essays may be longer.

Contact Details Australian Universities’ Review, c/- NTEU National Office, PO Box 1323, South Melbourne VIC 3205 Australia Phone: +613 9254 1910

Website www.aur.org.au

Replies and letters AUR welcomes letters of response to articles published in the journal. Longer responses to articles are also encouraged. Responses should be a maximum of 1,000 words, and should be received within a month after the publication of the journal so that they can be properly considered by the Editor and the Editorial Board for the following issue. AUR is also available online as an e-book and pdf. Visit www.aur.org.au for details. NTEU members may opt for ‘soft delivery’ (email notification rather than printed copy) for all NTEU magazines. To access your membership details, log in to the members’ area at www.nteu.org.au. In accordance with NTEU policy to reduce our impact on the natural environment, AUR has been printed using vegetable-based inks with alcohol-free printing initiatives on FSC certified paper by Printgraphics under ISO 14001 Environmental Certification.

Subscriptions AUR is free to NTEU members on an opt-in basis. Full details at www.aur.org.au/subscriptions. Annual subscription rates (inclusive of GST where applicable) are $71.50 AUD (Australia and NZ), $86.00 AUD (overseas airmail). Overseas payments should be made by credit card or bank draft in Australian currency.

Advertising AUR is published twice a year, in February and September. The current hard copy circulation is approximately 8,000 per issue. Rates are available on application to aur@nteu.org.au.

Archive Environment ISO 14001

This issue and previous issues of AUR can be viewed online at www.aur.org.au.

King (2004) argues ... or as various authors (King, 2004; Markwell, 2007) argue ...

(Smith & Jones, 2013). More than two authors cite as (Jones et al., 2011). Page references should be thus: (King, 2004, p. 314). Page references should be used for direct quotations. The reference list should be placed in alphabetical order at the end of the paper, utilising the author–date system. For a reference to a book: Gall, M., Gall, J. & Borg, W. (2003). Education Research: An introduction (7th ed.). New York: Allyn & Bacon. For a journal reference: King, D.A. (2004). What different countries get for their research spending. Nature 430, 311–316. For a reference to a chapter in a collection: McCollow, J. & Knight, J. (2005). Higher Education in Australia: An Historical Overview, in M. Bella, J. McCollow & J. Knight (Eds). Higher Education in Transition. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press. For a web reference: Markwell, D. (2007). The challenge of student engagement. Retrieved from http://www.catl.uwa.edu.au/__data/ page/95565/Student_engagement_-_Don_Markwell_-_30_Jan_2007.pdf. Do not include retrieval dates for web references unless the source material may change over time (e.g. wikis).

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016 Published by NTEU

ISSN 0818–8068

Australian Universities’ Review 3

Letter from the editor Ian R Dobson

54 Tide or tsunami? The impact of metrics on scholarly research Andrew G Bonnell

ARTICLES 5

Public-private partnership in higher education: Central Queensland University meets Campus Management Services

Paul Rodan

Public-private partnerships have been a relevant instrument in the expansion of fee-paying international student numbers. In arrangements between CQU and Campus Management Services, personalities were as crucial in early developments than grand strategy. 13 Talent management for universities Andrew P Bradley

This paper explores human resource management practices in the university sector with a specific focus on talent pools and talent management more generally. 20 The hidden topography of Australia’s Arts Nation: The contribution of universities to the artistic landscape Jenny Wilson

This paper seeks to expand this understanding by considering the contribution that the university sector makes to visual and performing arts outside its traditional teaching role. It draws upon data contained in university websites and through interviews. 30 Australian legal education at a cross roads Pauline Collins

This article discusses the current positioning of law degrees and draws together some of the diverse trains of thought arguing for the adoption of different directions. The article discusses adopting a collaborative rather than an adversarial emphasis. 39 Doctorate motivation: an (auto)ethnography Robert Templeton

Intrinsic motivation is considered the dominant factor in the motivation of adult students in continuing postgraduate education. This paper draws on qualitative data collected as part of a doctoral thesis to examine this phenomenon ethnographically. 45 University safety culture: a work-in-progress? Michael Lyons

OPINION 62 Ranking by medians Brian Martin

65 Who gets the research loot? The challenges of being a postdoctoral fellow in a neoliberal university Joshua Nash

69 Invasion of the body snatchers: Adjurations and inspirational posts from modern places Arthur O’Neill

REVIEWS 72 Forsyth and Murphy on the university A History of the Modern Australian University by Hannah Forsyth. Universities and Innovation Economies: The creative wasteland of post-industrial society by Peter Murphy. A review essay by Simon Marginson

81 No cake walk Bread and Roses: Voices of Australian Academics from the Working Class by Dee Michell, Jacqueline Z. Wilson and Verity Archer (editors). Reviewed by Paul Rodan

83 Scholarship vs academia Weapons of Mass Disruption: An Academic Whistleblower’s Tale by Wilfred Cude. Reviewed by Brian Martin

85 Have I the write? Academic Writing. A handbook for International Students (4th ed.) by Stephen Bailey Reviewed by Arthur O’Neill

87 A hard man to read New Tricks: Reflections on a life in medicine and education by Richard Larkins Reviewed by Jim McGrath

89 Critical pedagogy in adult education Unfit to be a Slave – A Guide to Adult Education for Liberation by David Greene. Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer

93 Northern lite? Definitely not! Northern lights – The Positive Policy of Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway by Andrew Scott. Reviewed by Timo Aarrevaara

95 Love’s Labor lost? Triumph and Demise: The Broken Promise of a Labor Generation by Paul Kelly. Reviewed by Paul Rodan

97 Think critical; be critical!

’

99 Human rights and education Human Rights Education Beyond Universalism and Relativism – A Relational Hermeneutic for Global Justice by Fuad Al-Daraweesh and Dale T. Snauwaert Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer

102 Begin the beguine? Beginning a Career in Academia: A Guide for Graduate Students of Color by Dwayne A. Mack, Elwood Watson, & Michelle Madsen Camacho (Eds.). Reviewed by Dennis Bryant

103 Meaningless messages and sugary slogans Selling students short: Why you won’t get the university education you deserve by Richard Hil Reviewed by Ian R Dobson

The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education by Martin Davies & Ronald Barnett (Eds.). Reviewed by Dennis Bryant

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

Letter from the editor Ian R Dobson Welcome to the first issue of Australian Universities’

to be academic misbehaviour, it should probably be

Review (AUR) for the year, in which we present a series

acknowledged.

of scholarly articles and opinion pieces to whet your

It would therefore seem appropriate to explain the

appetites for the new year. In this issue, our authors have

double publishing that has occurred in this instance (if

covered a range of important issues, including public-

that’s what it is).

private partnerships, talent management, artistic and legal

On 30 April, 2015, Saranne Magennis, editor of The All

education, campus safety, writing a PhD and the impact

Ireland Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher

of metrics on the contemporary university. Other authors

Education (AISHE-J) contacted me, advising of a situation

have shared with us their opinions on ranking, research

that could be double publishing, involving papers

grants, and slogans.

published in her journal and in AUR. She had accepted

AUR continues to support scholarly publishing by

and published a paper by sole-author Éidin O’Shea, in

having an extensive book review section. This issue of

AISHE-J 6(1), 1391–13916 (February, 2014), entitled

AUR contains several recently-published works from the

‘Embedding knowledge exchange within Irish universities

world of (mostly) higher education. Book reviewing is an

– International shifts towards a hybrid academic?’ If Ms

important part of scholarly life, and it is a pity that the

Magennis had not emailed me and provided a marked-up

system of research metrics imposed on those in Australian

copy of this paper, I would have remained blissfully

higher education has failed to recognise book reviews as

ignorant of its existence. She advised that this paper

an important role of university staff. In case you missed

has substantial segments that are similar to a paper later

it, see Franklin Obeng-Odoom’s paper ‘Why write book

published in Australian Universities’ Review, 56(2), 36-46

reviews? (AUR 56(1), 2014, pp. 78-82).

(September, 2014). The AUR paper was ‘Universities and the public good: A review of knowledge exchange policy

A case of double publishing?

and related university practice in Australia’, authored by Michael Cuthill, Éidin O’Shea, Bruce Wilson and Pierre

Editing is a stimulating and mostly rewarding activity for

Viljoen.

those of us lucky enough to have been able to include

In fact, Ms Magennis had been alerted to the alleged

it in their university life. However, certain aspects of an

double publishing by Michael Cuthill, co-author of the

editor’s role can be a time-wasting pain in the fundament.

paper published in AUR. My understanding is that he had

Most editors find they have enough to occupy their time,

also contacted the Office of Research at his university, the

correcting style and references errors that authors should

University of Southern Queensland (USQ), advising them

have done, chasing slow reviewers and generally helping

of the situation.

to improve the articles submitted (if and as required).

The paper published in AUR had originally been

Speaking from experience, one’s energy starts to wane

submitted in October, 2013, by Éidin O’Shea on behalf

after this.

of her co-authors. During a period of re-working spread

In the case described below, double publishing is the

over several months, two versions of the paper were

matter of concern. Double publishing refers to publishing

resubmitted, based on responses to editor and peer

the same intellectual material more than once, rather than

reviewer comments. The final version was subsequently

to unauthorised re-publication by a third party. The latter

accepted for publication in April 2014, for the issue due

situation could constitute plagiarism, copyright violation,

for publication in September 2014.

or both. Nonetheless, duplicate publication is considered to be serious academic misbehaviour (Wikipedia, n.d.).

So, what should an editor do next? It should be noted that neither editor is in possession of the full set of

Exactly what an editor is supposed to do when

facts, which makes it difficult to do more than report

confronted with something that might be double

the apparent ‘similarity’ between sections of the two

publishing isn’t really clear, but given that it is considered

papers, for the ‘academic record’. None of the authors

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Letter from the editor Ian R Dobson

’

contacted me, but I have had subsequent e-discussions

that it is an editor’s responsibility to ‘maintain the integrity

with Professor Cuthill. I have also seen the contents of

of the academic record’ (COPE, 2015, Para. 1.6). Does the

an email from the USQ Research Office to Ms Magennis,

situation described above fall into this category?

advising that

COPE (2015, Section 11.5) also states that ‘Editors

A determination was subsequently made by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and appropriate action was taken in accordance with the provisions of the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research. The University regards this matter as closed.

should make all reasonable efforts to ensure that a proper

However, the USQ Research Office email provided no

difficult to know if the case described falls within the

advice as to what the University’s ‘appropriate action’ had

investigation into alleged misconduct is conducted; if this does not happen, editors should make all reasonable attempts to persist in obtaining a resolution to the problem. This is an onerous but important duty’. It is also purview of this section.

been, nor anything to do with their ethics and integrity

Sometimes reporting double publishing, particularly if

investigation. As an editor, I don’t find this to be helpful. If

it concerns an identical paper with identical authorship,

editors are to be part of the ‘research ethics’ chain, should

could boil down to a matter of who holds copyright.

they be included in correspondence that relates to papers

Publishing in many journals means that an author must

published in their journal?

relinquish copyright to the publisher or journal proprietor.

Perhaps I am expecting too much, but editors are

However, authors published in AUR retain their copyright,

provided with little guidance from national or other

and I believe this is also the case with AISHE-J. Therefore,

bodies about their role in reporting publication

irregularities. The Australian Code for the Responsible

also ‘different’, because the authorship of the two papers

Conduct of Research for example seems not to mention

is not identical.

journal editors in this context (NHMRC et al., 2007). The

On the matter of editors’ time, even writing and thinking

Australian Code, in referring to misconduct inquiries,

about this shortish statement has taken numerous hours,

suggests that journal editors might be one of the ‘relevant

spread over many days and several months since the issue

parties’, along with affected staff, research collaborators,

was first mentioned. I hope the statement has covered

all funding organisations, and professional registration

everything that it ought to have. What does an editor do

bodies. The NHMRC (2007, section 12.3) says ‘The public

when emails go unanswered? How hard should an editor

record, including publications, may need to be corrected

chase? What are the responsibilities of institutional ethics

if research misconduct has affected the research findings

offices to journals and their editors? If anyone would like

and their dissemination’. I’m not sure if this quote matches

to write a paper to elucidate on these matters, it would be

the situation with the papers identified above. I can only

gratefully received!

presume that the Research Office at USQ doesn’t see the journal editors in this case as ‘relevant parties’. On the topic of ‘multiple submissions of research

Ian R Dobson is editor of Australian Universities’ Review and an Adjunct Professional Staff Member at Monash

findings’, the Australian Code (NHMRC et al., 2007,

University, Victoria.

Section 4.7) reports that:

Contact: editor@aur.org.au

‘It is not acceptable to include the same research findings in several publications, except in particular and clearly explained circumstances, such as review articles, anthologies, collections, or translations into another language. An author who submits substantially similar work to more than one publisher, or who submits work similar to work already published, must disclose this at the time of submission’. This is listed as one of the responsibilities of researchers with respect to publication and dissemination of research results. Again, I’m not sure if the case described above

References Committee on Publication Ethics (2015). Code of conduct and best practice guidelines for journal editors. Retrieved from http://publicationethics.org/files/ Code%20of%20Conduct_2.pdf. National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Australian Research Council & Universities Australia. (2007). Australian code for the Responsible conduct of research. Retrieved from https://www.nhmrc.gov. au/_files_nhmrc/publications/attachments/r39.pdf. Wikipedia. (n.d). Duplicate publication. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Duplicate_publication.

falls into this category. The Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) is an organisation known to all editors. COPE’s Code of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors states

Letter from the editor Ian R Dobson

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Public-private partnership in higher education Central Queensland University meets Campus Management Services Paul Rodan Swinburne University of Technology

Massive growth in the numbers of fee-paying international students and an increasing private sector role are two of the most salient features of Australian higher education in the past quarter century. Both these trends were evident in a little known partnership, involving a public regional university and a private entrepreneur, which had its origins in 1993. While hindsight allows us to locate this development in a neoliberal framework, this article explores the origins of the relationship and concludes that while the eventual operation was consistent with the theme of the overall decline of the university as an essentially public enterprise, the role of personalities was crucial in what was initially more serendipity than grand strategy. Keywords: public private partnership, CQU, Central Queensland University

Higher education in Australia is conventionally regarded

Nair, 2013).The latter is (since 2004) an Australian publicly-

as the preserve of public institutions, with private

listed company, while Kaplan is part of the US Graham

universities like Bond and Notre Dame seeping into the

Holdings Company. In addition to their arrangements

public consciousness as the only exceptions. In reality,

with established universities, both entities offer academic

universities make up only a quarter of the players in the

programs (including at degree level) in their own right.

field: of 173 higher education providers identified in 2015,

Many universities have admission agreements, of varying

43 were universities with the vast bulk of the rest being

degrees of formality, with private providers.

private providers (TEQSA, 2015).

These developments can be appropriately viewed

Within existing public universities, separate private

as part of the neoliberal transformation in Australian

operating entities have been established to pursue a range

higher education from the late 1980s. As described by

of purposes, including executive education, research

Marginson and Considine, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;higher education moved

consultancy and foundation programs (Withers, 2014).

from its broad role in public culture and its function in

Some universities have opted to pursue the foundation

raising the level of participation of its citizens to a new

studies/pathways market through formal arrangements

orthodoxy which favours business values and income

with private providers such as Kaplan and Navitas (Shah &

generationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Marginson & Considine, 2000, p. 37). Within

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Public-private partnership in higher education Paul Rodan

’

that framework, international fee-paying education played

the Queensland Institute of Technology (Capricornia) had

a key role in opening up sources of non-government

been established in Rockhampton (520 kilometres north

income, although from the outset, some institutions

of Brisbane) in 1967, becoming the Capricornia Institute

were better placed than others to enjoy the fruits of

of Advanced Education (CIAE) in 1971. It remained

this new market. As noted by Thornton, universities

unaffected by the wave of mergers in 1981/82. In any

were not privatised as such, but have been subject to

event, CIAE was already dual-campus, having opened at

‘the increasing application of business processes to

Gladstone in 1978. In 1974, it had started its first distance

them as if they were for-profit corporations.’ (Thornton,

education program, a development of considerable

2014, p. 2) As universities became more business-like, it

relevance for the opportunity it would grasp in the 1990s.

can be contended that nowhere was this more obvious

The Hawke Labor Government (elected 1983) pursued

than in international education, with its focus on

a program of radical change in a range of policy areas,

‘selling’ the educational product through state of the art

and tertiary education was no exception. While most

marketing. Indeed, many universities opted to locate the

attention focuses on the late 1980s agenda of Education

management of their international education activities

Minister John Dawkins, his predecessor Susan Ryan

outside the mainstream institutional structure, with staff

presided over a significant and far-reaching change in

terms and conditions based on business models rather

1985 with the decision to open up Australian universities

than university awards/agreements. Given that such units

to international fee-paying students, although it is clear

were, theoretically at least, generating income which paid

from her memoirs that she was not personally supportive

the salaries, this might be viewed as privatisation of a

of this development (Ryan, 1999). Prior to this, Australia’s

sort. However, it was not profit-making in the accepted

involvement in international education was synonymous

commercial sense: good recruiting might result in higher

with the Colombo Plan, a program which brought

salaries for those responsible, but ‘profits’ were essentially

thousands of Asian students to Australia, but whose

ploughed back into university coffers. But in 1993, a new

motivation appears as much connected with Cold War

model was about to emerge, a genuine public-private

politics as with genuine humanitarianism (Auletta, 2000).

partnership, in which the latter partner was explicitly

By 1991, around 54,000 international students were

seeking private profit.

enrolled in higher education in Australia, of whom 48,000

Australian higher education in 1993 was in a state of

were fee-paying (Beazley, 1992).

change, a state which had become the norm over the

In 1988, Dawkins issued his White Paper on higher

preceding twenty years. The election of the Whitlam

education which became the basis of a radical overhaul

Federal Labor Government in 1972 had seen the

of what was seen as an ailing system (Dawkins, 1988).

Commonwealth take over funding responsibilities for

The binary divide between universities and CAEs was to

tertiary education from the States, which at that time

be abolished and replaced by a unified national system,

embraced traditional universities plus a range of institutes

involving mergers and amalgamations (often euphemisms

of technology, colleges of advanced education (CAEs)

for takeovers), which would eventually reduce the number

and teachers’ colleges. Tertiary education fees were

of publicly-funded tertiary education institutions from 65

abolished, although the impact of this reform should not

to 36. In an associated development, from 1989, students

be overstated, since a majority of students in the pre-

would be required to pay a proportion of the cost of their

Whitlam era enjoyed an effective ‘free’ education through

education through a partial tuition fees system dubbed

Commonwealth-funded scholarships or State-funded

the higher education contribution scheme (HECS) with

teacher education bursaries.

the increased revenue helping fund a massive increase in

The

Fraser

Coalition

Government

(1975-1983)

the proportion of Australians enrolled in higher education.

attempted to introduce a user-pays element into the

Despite the ensuing ructions affecting most tertiary

system, but was largely frustrated due to its Senate

institutions in Australia, CIAE again avoided any pressure

minority position in the early 1980s. Where it was

to merge with another institution. With the only potential

successful was in rationalising the number of tertiary

university partners being located in Brisbane or Townsville,

institutions from eighty- one to forty-six, through a series

Queensland regional chauvinism was working in CIAE’s

of forced mergers and amalgamations of the teachers’

favour. Moreover, new campuses had been opened in

colleges in the sector, with many of the ‘new’ institutions

Mackay (1987) and Bundaberg (1988), with Emerald to

now comprising two or more campuses. In Queensland,

follow in 1989: CIAE was nothing if not multi-campus.

Australia’s second largest and most decentralised state,

However, its equivalent full time student enrolment in

Public-private partnership in higher education Paul Rodan

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

1988 of 2677 saw it meet the bare minimum enrolment

chancellors about the need for a national higher education

for membership of the new unified system (2000), while

newspaper and founded Campus Review Weekly in 1990,

falling well short of the other categories: 5000 for a broad

an initiative which seemed like niche marketing gone mad

teaching role and some specialised research, and 8000 for

to some, with Skinner recalling the comment of a later

a comprehensive involvement in teaching and research

CQU vice-chancellor Lauchlan Chipman that ‘you’d make

(Dawkins, 1988). If size mattered, CIAE was near the

more money out of Greyhound Weekly or something like

bottom of the heap.

that’ (Skinner, 2006). Nevertheless, when Skinner sold the

On the more positive side, 2,225 of CIAE’s enrolments

paper in mid-1993, it had an audited circulation of nearly

(not EFTSU) were external students, a reflection of

35,000 and claimed a readership amongst academics and

the institution’s emphasis on this category since 1974

administrators in the Asia/Pacific Rim of 180,000 (CGH,

(Dawkins, 1988). Dawkins’ White Paper sought to limit

1997).

the offering of external studies to about six institutions:

In his leadership of Campus Review Weekly, Skinner

interested parties could bid to become a designated

visited all universities and established a wide range of

Distance Education Centre (DEC) and qualify for federal

contacts, reaching the conclusion that these institutions

funding. In 1988, seven institutions and a Western

were not overly-impressive at running businesses and

Australian consortium of universities were named as

that he could do better. In 1993, the vice-chancellor of

the successful bidders, with CIAE one of them. While the separate funding for distance education was discontinued in 1994, the Rockhamptonbased institution had clearly established its bona fides as

distance

education

provider. In

1990,

advantage

CIAE

took

the

new

the University of Ballarat,

Elements of Skinner’s presentation would be standard fare in today’s university world, but to the less entrepreneurial in 1993, the pitch possibly came as a shock, especially when delivered at 8.30 on a Saturday morning, not a traditionally active time for many academics.

John

Sharpham,

had

invited Skinner to make a presentation to senior staff on university branding and international Elements

education. of

presentation standard

fare

Skinner’s would in

today’s

university world, but to the less entrepreneurial in 1993,

environment to seek university status, preceded by a

the pitch possibly came as a shock, especially when

transition phase as the University College of Central

delivered at 8.30 on a Saturday morning, not a traditionally

Queensland, sponsored by the University of Queensland,

active time for many academics. In the audience was

although this does not appear to have entailed an

Ken Hawkins, Chairman of the University’s Academic

overly-active or involved relationship. In Queensland as

Board and Head of the School of Human Movement and

elsewhere, the political pressure for all institutions to be

Sports Science, and heavily involved in the University’s

tagged ‘universities’ was irresistible. In January 1992, the

international activities (Hawkins, 2006).

old CIAE became the University of Central Queensland,

Hawkins was one who did find the presentation

with a name change to Central Queensland University in

impressive and pursued subsequent contacts with Skinner

1994.

and his long-term colleague Tony Seppelt on marketing

The new University’s involvement in large-scale

activities for the University. Through an acquaintance,

international student enrolments had its origins, ironically,

former Austrade chairman Bill Ferris, Skinner became

in an approach from the University of Ballarat, itself

interested in Careers English and Business College

a former small regional CAE in Victoria, en route to

(CEBC), based in Sydney. Skinner suggested that there

university status (via a sponsorship from The University

was no reason why an Australian university could not

of Melbourne) prompted by the Dawkins policy changes.

offer degrees to fee-paying students outside its home

This approach would come from business-man Mark

state (Skinner, 2005).While no such interstate activity had

Skinner, two of whose brothers became professors, one

taken place with on-campus students, several universities

at Yale, one at the University of Melbourne (where Mark

already offered distance education studies outside their

completed a Commerce degree). While an academic

own state boundaries: there was no legal impediment. Put

career held no attraction, he was certainly interested in

more cynically, governments and education authorities

universities. Reflecting this, Skinner (who had worked

were unlikely to have prohibited what they had never

briefly as a journalist in Adelaide) sounded out vice-

thought of.

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Public-private partnership in higher education Paul Rodan

’

Ferris was interested enough to ask Skinner to suggest

by CEBC, not CQU.The distance education materials were

an appropriate partner and he identified the University of

regarded as a vital component in delivering the courses,

Ballarat. Skinner then approached Ballarat seeking courses

and, as Wilson saw it, represented a clear advantage over

which could be offered to international students on top of

what Ballarat had been able to offer (Wilson, 2006). Fees

pre-university programs offered by CEBC. Again, Hawkins

would be collected for CQU and then split 50:50 between

was impressed with the possibilities, seeing the potential

the University and CEBC. After his enrolment activity,

to develop his university’s international profile. He

Skinner returned to his ABC project.

assembled a small team which visited Sydney to explore the details, recalling

At this point, the CQU/CEBC relationship encountered difficulties, the first involving a taxation issue with a

… we went through Imperial Arcade and saw the school and everything looked outstanding and we started to draw up contracts and we were ready to offer Business Studies courses on top and we actually started. We actually had a contract and we started to offer students from Sydney direct articulation into programs in Ballarat, so it was a done deal (Hawkins, 2006).

senior CEBC official, the details of which cannot be

Thus, ex-CEBC students started studying Ballarat

network was developing an edition of its current affairs

programs in Sydney. Interstate on-site delivery had

program Sixty Minutes whose main focus was former

commenced.

NSW premier and CEBC board member Nick Greiner.The

discussed for legal reasons. At around the same time, Skinner was advised by a former journalist colleague that the person in question had allegedly been the subject of a record number of complaints to the New South Wales consumer affairs authority across a range of business interests. To compound matters, the Channel 9 television

Skinner had bowed out after effecting the introduction

program went to air in October 1993, with CEBC’s flaws

to Ballarat, and returned to consulting work he had been

being used to illustrate Greiner’s allegedly problematic

undertaking for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

business connections. Greiner responded with a lawsuit

However, some weeks later, CEBC approached him again,

and a settlement was effected, with a promised second

seeking an introduction to a second university.This was not

Sixty Minutes program on the issue cancelled (Skinner,

of itself significant since CEBC could have been seeking

2005). However, the program which had aired had been

a wider range of programs for articulation than what

sufficiently disturbing to concern anyone contemplating

Ballarat had to offer. Skinner’s suggestion was (the now

a commercial relationship with CEBC.

renamed) Central Queensland University and he travelled

Geoff Wilson had seen the program, and while there

to Rockhampton to make the introduction to vice-

had been no mention of CQU, references to the CEBC

chancellor Geoff Wilson. In 1994, CQU had 7824 students

official’s colourful past (including a failed health club

(many of whom were part-time distance education) and a

which went into receivership) and to the relationship

staff complement of around 600 (academic and general).

with the University of Ballarat, which allegedly involved

Its academic programs were offered by six faculties:

the falsification of academic transcripts, understandably

Applied Science, Arts, Business, Education, Engineering

prompted anxiety on the vice-chancellor’s part. At the

and Health Sciences (CQU, 1994).

very least, this sort of behaviour seemed inappropriate

Wilson, a gentle ex-Science academic, might have

for an educational operation. As Skinner recalls, Wilson

seemed an unlikely partner in any education revolution,

responded to the program by contacting him inquiring

but he was interested enough to consider the idea. On a

why he (Skinner) had introduced CQU to ‘a bunch of

visit to Sydney, he and his chancellor, Stan Jones, visited

crooks’, and asked him to establish what was happening

the CEBC site in Imperial Arcade at Centrepoint and

at the Sydney site. Accompanied by colleagues Tony

were impressed. Agreement was reached and Skinner

Seppelt and Sheila O’Brien, Skinner (acting for Wilson)

undertook to effect the enrolment of twenty-four students

commenced an investigation of the paperwork at CEBC.

for CQU, processing the applications and physically

After six weeks of examination, Skinner reported to

taking them to Rockhampton. The CQU agreement with

Wilson and Ferris that the accusations were well founded

CEBC involved the offering of a Bachelor of Information

(Skinner, 2005).

Technology, Bachelor of Arts (Tourism) and Bachelor of

In the light of all this negative background, CQU now

Arts (Hospitality) from July 1994 and a Bachelor of Business

had every reason to abandon the exercise, and planned

from first semester 1995. The proposal now included

to do so, with a senior manager despatched to Sydney to

use of CQU’s distance education materials which would

effect the divorce. However, still attracted to the operation

augment teaching by local tutors, significantly employed

in principle, Wilson contacted Skinner, offering to stay

Public-private partnership in higher education Paul Rodan

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

involved if Skinner took over the CEBC role and became

in any way with the establishment of the Sydney campus

the partner with CQU.The CEBC board, doubtless looking

or with the details of the contract with Mark’ (Wilson,

for an exit strategy, was willing to move in this direction,

2006). As he saw it, the government would not have

and the end result was a new contract between CQU

known what to do had they been approached, since this

and Skinner’s family trust, Kallawar Pty Ltd. Subsequently,

was such an innovative development. Essentially, Wilson

Skinner created Campus Group Holdings (CGH), wholly

saw the risk as limited to meeting obligations to students

owned by Kallawar. Under the CGH umbrella was (inter

if the venture collapsed with the greater risk now carried

alia) Campus Management Services (CMS), the company

by Skinner. The first record of advice to the CQU Council

established to market and manage CQU degrees at the

is in July 1994 and Wilson recalls the governing body

Sydney campus.

as being relaxed and supportive. (Wilson, 2006) At the

At Ballarat, Sharpham had been succeeded as vice-

academic level, the project would now be handled by

chancellor by David James, who was unwilling to

a small number of key players in the relevant faculties,

continue with what, following the accusations on Sixty

without reference to, or approval by, faculty committees

Minutes, could now be depicted as a risky enterprise,

or Academic Board.

unless the relevant faculty (Business) was supportive.

With the relevant contracts now signed, attention

Hawkins argued that the bogus transcripts situation was

and energy focussed on delivering CQU programs at the

recoverable and that he and the Registrar would travel

Imperial Arcade site to the initial intake of about twenty

to Sydney to clean up the mess, convinced that this

five CQU students transferring from Ballarat enrolment

opportunity in international education was still worth

(the remainder, about the same number, opted to move

pursuing. This failed to convince the Business faculty

to Ballarat to complete their studies). Skinner installed

and James now accepted the inevitable: the Ballarat

himself effectively as campus director, assisted by a team

involvement was terminated (Hawkins, 2006).

of Tony Seppelt (deputy), Sheila O’Brien (Student Services

From this distance, it is hard not be to be impressed with

Manager- having had to abandon the title of Registrar

the way in which Wilson held his nerve. As difficulties

when CQU took umbrage) and a sessional teaching

emerged, it would have been utterly reasonable for him

team. Skinner claims to have learnt the CQU handbook

to turn away and focus on more conventional activities.

‘backwards’, enabling him to correct CQU staff when his

But, as he recalls it, the CEBC operation seemed to be

knowledge of the fine print proved superior (Skinner,

proceeding well with ‘a lot of happy students’ and he

2005).

did have concerns about CQU’s complicated position if he withdrew (Wilson, 2006). As vice-chancellor, he saw securing the maximum number of students, including private ones, as his highest priority. While aware of the risks, he continued to see the venture as a good business opportunity. Skinner recalls Wilson admitting that this would end up being his best or worst decision as CQU vice-chancellor (Skinner, 2005). The context of that time should also be recalled. There was a ‘cowboy’ element in the international education industry, with regular horror stories of students left broke and without their courses after ethically-challenged providers closed up their office block premises and left town (with their ill-gotten gains). The industry was

On the teaching side,Tony Seppelt’s recollections of the time are illuminating: … in a lot of cases, courses, multiple courses could be taught by the same person because the offerings were actually very narrow. What then happened was that as the small number of students actually got into their specialisations… in many cases, they’d be teaching one kid. Most personal, that’s very much why they got personal attention because the sizes of the classes were so small. But by [19]95, we had an almost working computer lab which had 40 PCs in it which was linked to the University and a number of teaching rooms. We didn’t need a great deal of facilities because it was really just white boards and chairs (Seppelt, 2006).

comparatively unregulated (compared with what would

An agreement was struck to allow CQU students access

eventually emerge) and media interest in exposing these

to the library of the University of New South Wales, but

educational ‘villains’ was intense. Give all this, Wilson’s

Seppelt’s memory is that most ‘gate-crashed’ the more

willingness to remain involved remains a fascinating, and

conveniently located facility at the nearby University of

obviously critical, element in these early developments.

Technology Sydney. In terms of on-site library facilities,

Further evidence of the relaxed regulatory environment

the decision was made to operate an ‘electronic library’,

can be seen in Wilson’s admission that ‘it would not have

using a wide range of data bases, with a minimum of hard-

occurred to us to involve [the Queensland government]

copy books being kept. Given the dynamic nature of the

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Public-private partnership in higher education Paul Rodan

’

disciplines taught at the campus, this made good sense,

At the time, direct recruiting from overseas markets

although cynics might detect a whiff of virtue being

was the more common practice anyway, often preceded

made out of necessity. Seppelt is also convinced about the

vital role played by CQU’s distance education expertise.

educational fairs, sometimes incurring the resentment of

With all the coursework, assignment details, readings and

their colleagues back home for erring on the side of lavish

resource materials already produced at Rockhampton,

travel and accommodation arrangements. While Skinner’s

students ‘actually got something physically tangible for

international campuses would eventually embrace both

their money’ (Seppelt, 2006).

approaches, the failure of CQU’s genuine rivals to target

university

entourages

descending

various

At this early stage, the Sydney campus enjoyed no

international students already in Australia was, in his

administrative autonomy, meaning that applications for

view, further evidence of their ineptitude and inability to

admission, with any documentation, had to be sent to

recognise a market which was staring them in the face

Rockhampton for approval and granting of exemptions

(Skinner, 2005).

and credit transfer. This was an additional load for staff

If money were to be made from this initiative for both

in the north, and had the obvious potential to become

Skinner and CQU, it would not come from a duplication

a contentious issue, with industrial implications, as

of existing approaches in publicly-funded institutions.

numbers grew.

Two points of difference stand out. The first was the

It is significant that this model entailed the articulation

focus on the discipline areas of Business and Information

of students who had already undertaken pre-degree studies

Technology, which happened to be both popular with

with a non-university provider, and who could then transfer

international students and (compared with the hard

across to degree studies and receive credit consistent with

Sciences and Engineering) inexpensive to teach in

CQU policies. Moreover, it happened that CQU had a

terms of facilities and equipment. The second involved

memorandum of understanding with TAFE in New South

minimising the number of academic staff appointed to

Wales to give their students advanced standing into CQU

ongoing positions and maximising those on a casual or

programs. The first specific articulation agreement was

sessional (that is, hourly) basis. This in turn had two main

with North Sydney TAFE in early 1995, one of the earliest in

advantages: a smaller payroll with no obligation to keep

the higher education sector, and one which was celebrated

paying staff over the then ‘dead’ summer period and the

with an appropriate launching ceremony.

ability to switch resources in accordance with any change

Anticipating the blurring of distinctions between

of student preferences, without incurring the redundancy

public (TAFE) and accredited private providers offering

costs for ongoing staff whose discipline areas experience

comparable studies, Skinner’s timing was perfect, laying

a drop in demand. In common with other universities,

the foundations for a healthy flow of students and the

it also allowed the recruitment (for sessional teaching)

consequent securing of a market advantage, with CQU

of professionals currently involved in their industries.

ultimately gaining kudos for the proportion of credit

Underpinning all this, staff worked for CMS, not CQU,

awarded for studies from TAFE and private equivalents.

and hence were not covered by the more expensive CQU

That said, it should be noted that many of the mainstream

industrial agreements. There were two exceptions to

universities were not especially interested in TAFE or

this. From the outset until 2000, the positions of Campus

business college-type students (international or otherwise),

Librarian and Head of Student Administration were filled

securing adequate numbers of reasonable quality from

by staff on the CQU payroll. This was viewed as a way

conventional sources. Indeed, many universities exhibited

of ensuring compliance with CQU requirements and

an elitist hostility to TAFE and private providers and

accountability, in two key areas.

recognition of their studies, to the frustration of various

Another distinctive feature was campus location.

education ministers and others supportive of appropriate

Skinner was convinced that a central business district

recognition of non-university learning. It can also be

(CBD) site was a significant marketing advantage in the

observed that for universities in a strong market position,

struggle for the international student dollar, with market

there is no obvious incentive to provide generous

intelligence suggesting that at the marginal decision-

credit transfer arrangements.

And, calculating credit

making level, would-be international students from Asian

entitlements takes time, and hence, money. However, at

cities preferred a CBD or near-CBD location, with access

the CQU end of the market, maximising credit for prior

to ethnic and cultural networks an important factor.

study could confer a competitive advantage in the battle

Campuses in the outer suburbs were less attractive and

for international enrolments.

campuses in regional, mono-cultural locations even less

Public-private partnership in higher education Paul Rodan

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

so. In this regard, Skinner has been completely vindicated,

(Connell, 2014). In reality, of course, the Sydney site

as a walk around any of Australia’s major cities’ CBDs will

commenced as a Skinner/CMS operation: there was no

attest. It is impossible to miss the formidable presence of a

contracting out of CQU jobs there,as they had never existed

large number of public and private providers, both higher

as such. Moreover, it is doubtful that Wilson saw himself as

education and vocational education and training (VET).

some neoliberal ideologue: as seen above, the partnership

In passing, it is worth mentioning the absence of any

with Skinner was opportunistic and unplanned, and few

university working experience in the initial leadership

could have foreseen the subsequent growth in numbers,

group. In part, this was due to Skinner naturally seeking

by which time the international student operation had

to appoint current or past colleagues and associates

become a vital part of the University’s strategic plans.

whose qualities were known to him. But, equally relevant

Within a few years, it was certainly the case that CQU was

was a conviction that this model of operation would

outsourcing teaching and service delivery for thousands

require people with business and entrepreneurial skills

of its international students.

first and tertiary educational experience second, if at

The CQU/CMS relationship would be both productive,

all. Indeed, university experience could be viewed as a

problematic and controversial, but a detailed account is

liability if it trapped staff in old, collegial ways and left

beyond the scope of this article. The relationship played

them unwilling or unable to adapt to a more managerial

out over the tenure of five vice-chancellors and involved

style of operation, with an emphasis on marketing and selling product strong

the

(educational)

buttressed

customer-service

focus. To some extent, this view of universities was itself trapped in a time warp, since by the mid 1990s, there

various financial partnership

The focus on business and information technology disciplines and a reliance on a large proportion of sessional teaching staff, would become commonplace in the private providers which would proliferate within Australian post-secondary education in the ensuing years.

were many Australian tertiary

models. At first, CQU and Skinner’s CMS went 50:50, but budgetary circumstances later saw CQU buy out half of

CMS, a

development

which rendered the public/ private ‘hybrid’ somewhat less hybrid as the public university now owned half

institutions running on more

the ‘private’ partner. In 2008,

managerialist and commercial lines, especially in regard

CQU bought out Skinner completely, operating CMS as

to their international student operations, with Monash

a full university-owned entity. This followed an audit by

University an outstanding example.

the Australian Universities Quality Agency which, put in

The focus on business and information technology

its simplest terms, identified the CQU/CMS relationship

disciplines and a reliance on a large proportion of

as too complex and problematical, especially in relation

sessional teaching staff, would become commonplace

in the private providers which would proliferate

consequences for aspects of academic quality (AUQA,

within Australian post-secondary education in the

2006). Some of the challenges involved in a distributed

ensuing years. The disciplinary emphases would be

teaching model brought their share of problems and

accentuated by government immigration policy linking

associated negative publicity (Rodan, 2008). Finally in

permanent residency entitlements with the attainment

2013, CMS was wound up, with its campuses and staff

of qualifications in IT or Accounting. This was to become

incorporated into the mainstream university structure.

governance, but

with

potential

unsatisfactory

a controversial and contentious feature of Australia’s

From its modest origins in Sydney in 1994, the CMS

international education program, with an emerging

operation had spread to Melbourne (1997), Brisbane

critique that much of the international education effort

(1998) and Gold Coast (2001, closed 2014) A dedicated

had become an immigration sub-industry (Birrell, 2006;

postgraduate campus was opened in Sydney in 2005,

Gribble & Blackmore, 2012).

but later closed as enrolments declined. By 2005, CMS-

It is tempting to view CQU’s Sydney presence as some

facilitated enrolments constituted half of the University’s

sort of neoliberal outsourcing. In the period under review,

total enrolments (AUQA, 2006). At the peak of growth in

universities were contracting out a range of functions

2006, 9921 international students were enrolled, with

formerly performed by ongoing university staff, in

gross tuition revenues totally in excess of 125 million

areas such as printing, campus security and aspects of

dollars; graduation numbers that year were 3643. By early

information technology, and this would continue apace

2007, the CMS operation was employing sixty-three full

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Public-private partnership in higher education Paul Rodan

or part-time academic staff, 251 general staff and 294

’

Contact: prodan@swin.edu.au

sessional academic staff. A total of 32 academic programs (undergraduate and postgraduate) were on offer, involving 113 different units (CMS, 2007). Obviously, CQU did not enter the relationship with CMS for reasons of altruism. Geoff Wilson had seen the partnership as one which could generate enrolment numbers and hence much needed funding for a challenged newly-created

regional

university,

while

offering

educational opportunities for international students, many of whom would have struggled for admission with more prestigious providers. A later vice-chancellor, John Rickard, observed that ‘without the university’s international activity, put bluntly, I don’t think you would

References Auletta, A. (1999). A Retrospective View of the Colombo Plan: government policy, departmental administration and overseas students. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 22 (1), 47-58. Australian Universities Quality Agency. (2006). Report of an Audit of Central Queensland University (February). Beazley, K.C. (1992). International Education in Australia through the 1990s. Canberra: AGPS. Birrell, R. (2006). Implications of Low English Standards among Overseas Students at Australian Universities. People and Place, 14 (4), 53-64. Retrieved from http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=332480460154352 ;res=IELHSS>ISSN: 1039-4788.

have a Central Queensland University in 2006.’ (Rickard,

Bowman, S. (2013). International student drop-off led to CQU reinvention. Canberra Times, 17 June.

2015) His successor Scott Bowman noted that ‘CMS fed

Central Queensland University. (1994), Annual Report, Rockhampton.

millions of dollars into the CQ [Central Queensland]

Campus Group Holdings. (1997), Corporate Profile, Melbourne Campus, CQU.

region between 1997 and 2013, and this money was

CMS (2007), assorted reports, Melbourne Campus, CQU.

used to develop full campuses at Bundaberg, Mackay and

Connell. R. (2014). Love, fear and learning in the market university. Australian Universities’ Review, 56 (2), 56-63.

Gladstone’ (Bowman, 2013). Ultimately, the CQU-CMS model would prove unique

Dawkins, J. (1988). Higher Education: a policy statement. Canberra: AGPS.

with its public/private partnership delivery of university

Gribble, C. & Blackmore, J. (2012). Re-positioning Australia’s international education in global knowledge economies: implications of shifts in skilled migration policies for universities. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 34 (4), 341-354.

level programs in the three eastern states. While several other Australian universities would open CBD sites, these were invariably on home soil. Curtin University has a campus presence outside its home state of

Hawkins, K. (2006). Interview, 28 August.

and preparatory programs are available, with the latter

Marginson. S & Considine. M. (2000) The Enterprise University: Power, Governance and Reinvention in Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

mediated through Navitas subsidiary Curtin College.

Rickard, J. (2015), email to the author, 30 June.

However, Curtin’s Sydney campus is to close in 2017, but

Rodan, P. (2008). Dilemmas of dissent: international students’ protest, Melbourne 2006-2007. Australian Universities’ Review, 56 (2), 33-38.

Western Australia - in Sydney, where both university

La Trobe University (another Navitas partner) maintains a campus in that city. New South Wales-based Southern Cross University offers programs across the border at a

Ryan, S. (1999). Catching the Waves: Life in and out of Politics. Sydney: Harper Collins.

Gold Coast campus. Australian Catholic University was

Seppelt, A. (2006). Interview, 25 September.

established from the start as a three-states/ACT operation.

Shah, M., & Nair, S. (2013). Private for-profit higher education in Australia: widening access, participation and opportunities for public private cooperation. Higher Education Research and Development, 32 (5), 820-832.

As much as personality-based explanations are usually best avoided, the creation of the CQU-CMS partnership seems a convincing example of the sometimes key roles of personalities: an entrepreneurial business person (Skinner) and an enterprising vice-chancellor (Wilson). The CQU-CMS model is unlikely to be replicated, but it serves as a specific example of a public/private partnership breaking new ground as Australian universities sought to cope with the emerging demands of neoliberalism. Paul Rodan is an adjunct professor in the Swinburne Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria, and is a member of the AUR editorial board. He was employed by CMS from 2002 to 2008 and by CQU from 2008

Skinner, M. (2005). Interview, 3 August. Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. (2015). National Register of higher education providers. Retrieved from http://www.teqsa.gov.au/nationalregister. Thornton, M. (2014). Introduction: The Retreat from the Critical, in M. Thornton (ed), Through a Glass Darkly: The Social Sciences Look at the Neoliberal University, Canberra: ANU Press. Wilson, G. (2006). Interview, 13 December. Withers, G. (2014). The State of the Universities, in M. Thornton (ed), Through a Glass Darkly: The Social Sciences Look at the Neoliberal University, Canberra: ANU Press. Note: The interviews with Ken Hawkins, (the late) Tony Seppelt and Geoff Wilson were conducted by CMS employee (the late) Tony Smith. The interview with Mark Skinner was conducted by the author.

to 2011.

Public-private partnership in higher education Paul Rodan

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

Talent management for universities Andrew P Bradley University of Queensland

This paper explores human resource management practices in the university sector with a specific focus on talent pools and talent management more generally. The paper defines talent management in the context of the university sector and then explores its interdependence with organisational strategy, the metrics used to measure academic performance and current day-to-day management practices. The paper critiques the current situation for lacking a clear alignment between organisational strategy and how academic talent is recruited, developed, retained and rewarded. It is argued that talent management can provide a conceptual framework to enhance performance over the long term by coalescing a university’s strategy with its performance metrics and day-to-day management systems. Keywords: higher education, human resource development, human resource management, organisational structure, universities

important objectives. Without alignment, staff will be

Introduction

motivated, managed and rewarded towards outcomes that are either not strategically important or hinder

Strategic human resource management has been

strategically important objectives.

shown to be positively associated with the improved

The paper focuses on the academic functions of

performance of a wide variety of for-profit and not-for-

the university (i.e., teaching and research) and so

profit organisations (Delaney & Huselid, 1996). More

concentrates on talent management of academic staff.

recently, talent management has emerged as popular term

However, the implementation of talent management,

to cover a wide variety of human resource management

like many of the fundamental systems and processes

practices with a focus on talent pools and talent more

within a university, relies on the skills and expertise of

generally (Lewis & Heckman, 2006).This paper discusses

professional administrators and academic managers.

a more precise definition of talent management and

Therefore, a holistic talent management program should

explores

also recognise and reward talent throughout all academic,

its

interdependence

with

organisational

strategy, competitive environment and industry segment.

administrative and management roles.

In particular, we examine three key issues relevant to talent management within the university sector:

Historical context

alignment with strategy, alignment with performance metrics and alignment with management. Here our use

Over the last four decades, the Australian higher

of the term ‘alignment’ is intended to emphasise the

education system has undergone considerable change

critical role talent management can play in coalescing

fuelled by social, economic and demographic pressures.

an organisation’s strategy with performance metrics

Governments have played a significant role in these

and the day-to-day management of staff. Without a

changes (Yielder & Codling, 2004). Educational policy

clear strategy there is a lack of clarity about how staff

now actively encourages young people to stay longer at

can contribute towards the organisation’s strategically

school and to continue their education and training at

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Talent management for universities Andrew P Bradley

’

tertiary institutions, such as universities.This has led to a

for some time (Schuler and Jackson, 1987), talent

significant increase in the number of students attending

management explicitly acknowledges the importance

universities. The

(overall)

of managing people and positions at multiple levels

government funding for universities has subsequently

within the organisation (Lewis and Heckman, 2006).

led to demands for increased accountability. As a

For example, by combining a labour market dimension

consequence, universities are moving away from

(difficult to replace) and a customer-focused dimension

traditional collegial structures and adopting more

(value-added) an organisation can concentrate on getting

managerial approaches (Deem & Brehony, 2005; Gosling

difficult to replace (i.e., talented) individuals into high

et al., 2009). These approaches come with corporate

value-added positions. In the university environment,

models of governance designed to manage the ‘business’

this is complicated by the fact that there are multiple

in the face of increased competition and accountability

customers and stakeholders. Therefore, the value-added

(Jones et al., 2012; Blackmore & Sachs, 2000). Some

dimension needs to be specific to the particular position

commentators note that such developments have

and function. For example, an undergraduate teaching

resulted in a crisis of identity in the university sector

position has to clearly add value to learning outcomes

(Drew, 2006; Winter, 2009; Yielder and Codling, 2004).

and student experience; while a research focused position

This paper argues that a potential resolution to this crisis

needs to add value to the university’s academic reputation

lies in the nexus between human resource management

and the societal impact of research outcomes.

and

associated

organisational

increase

strategy. That

is,

universities

Talent management also needs to be proactive and

need to move away from their current transactional

contribute towards the development of organisational

human resources systems and critically re-examine

strategy. In this way, an organisation’s strategy can be

organisational and managerial structures from a talent

aligned to the pool of talent already available within the

management perspective. In this way, not only must a

organisation or be directly involved in the development

university clearly identify and communicate ‘big picture’

and/or acquisition of the talented people required to

objectives, it must also devise and implement efficient

implement a strategy (Drew, 2006). This focus on talent

systems to achieve and reinforce those objectives (Drew,

management as architecture offers a holistic, systems-

2006).

level, perspective that is an important component of focused leadership (Goleman, 2013). Focused leadership

What is talent management?

expands on the concept of emotional intelligence (a focus on the emotions of self and others) with a focus

The term talent management is used in a wide variety of

on systems-level thinking; in this case, specifically the

contexts and for a wide variety of purposes and so has no

interaction between human resources management and

broadly accepted definition (Lewis and Heckman, 2006;

organisational strategy.

Collings and Mellahi, 2009). Having argued this point,

It would be naive to think that there is one best

however, Lewis and Heckman (2006) and Collings and

solution to the talent management problem. Clearly, just as

Mellahi (2009) develop frameworks for talent management

organisational strategy needs to be matched to the context

that define it with explicit connections between talent

of the industry and competitive environment (Hambrick &

and strategy and so view talent management as the

Fredrickson, 2001), so must talent management (Cappelli,

‘architecture’ required to develop and sustain competitive

2008).Therefore, here we analyse three key issues related

advantage. Specifically, they define talent management as

to talent management in the higher education (university)

an organisational system (or culture) that:

sector:

1. Identifies key positions that differentially contribute

• Alignment with strategy: How do we identify the

(add value) to the organisation’s competitive

strategically important positions that are critical to the

advantage; 2. Develops a talent pool of high potential and/or high

successful implementation of a university’s strategy? • Alignment with metrics: How do we identify, reward

performing individuals to fill these positions; and

and promote the (talented) individuals that have the

3. Develops human resource systems to facilitate the

skills, experience and motivation required to perform

alignment of talented individuals, key positions and organisational strategy. While the need to match the characteristics of top managers to the nature of the business has been known

Talent management for universities Andrew P Bradley

well in these critical positions? and • Alignment with management: How do we embed talent management into the day-to-day management of a university? vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Talent management for universities

’

of all continuing staff are paid. Therefore, both teaching and research activities are critically important to a

Universities around the world are facing increasing

university’s strategy and long-term success.

competition for both students and funding. To tackle

From a talent management perspective, the importance

these challenges, in countries like the UK and Australia,

of both teaching and research activities means that

universities are being given more autonomy to operate

universities need to identify pivotal, high value-added,

in an increasingly deregulated market environment

roles in both teaching and research. Typically, at the

(Pellert, 2007). Talent management can be viewed as

university level there are deputy vice-chancellors for

an appropriate framework to enable universities to

both academic (teaching) and research activities. This

transform their current transactional human resources

structure is then carried through to both the faculty

systems into something that is strategically enabling.

and school/departmental level with associate deans and

However, universities are fragmented and loosely coupled

directors for both teaching and research. Clearly, these

organisations focused on individualised performance

explicit leadership roles form the core of the pivotal

(Pellert, 2007;Van Raan, 2005).Academics are also typically

positions required for the successful implementation of a

more strongly associated with their discipline than their

university’s strategy.

university. Therefore, it is critical to consider talent

Given the discipline focus of academic staff and the

management at both the university level, where the senior

fact that few academics have the breadth of skills to

executives operate, and at the

organisational

unit

level, where the academic supervisors, and

heads

managers of

schools/

departments operate. Indeed, it has been argued that heads

work in several disciplines

From a talent management perspective, the importance of both teaching and research activities means that universities need to identify pivotal, high value-added, roles in both teaching and research.

of schools/departments play

(McCormack et al., 2014), it

critical

management

that

talent

should

not

neglect other pivotal roles unique to the schools and departments. In addition, it is important to note that these

a critical role in balancing the requirements of effective

roles may not be explicit leadership roles (Yielder &

administration whilst protecting academic autonomy and

Codling, 2004). For example, the teaching of the large first

independence (Winter, 2009; Yielder & Codling, 2004).

and second year classes is important from both a financial

Indeed, both academic and managerial leaders (Yielder

and reputational perspective. Clearly, the sheer size of

& Codling, 2004) are required to both elucidate and

these classes defines their financial importance, but by

implement university strategy in their discipline.

maximising learning outcomes of foundational concepts and enhancing student retention within the discipline,

Alignment with strategy

they also critically underpin a university’s reputation for teaching quality. In research, the pivotal roles are typically

Traditionally, universities have undertaken two core

held by the senior academics who have world-class

activities: teaching and research. While there is no

research reputations, are awarded large research grants

compelling evidence to support the argument that a

and so supervise, mentor and enable the research of a

university’s research activities improve the educational

large number of doctoral and post-doctoral researchers.

outcomes of its undergraduates (Bradley et al., 2008),

Having talented individuals in these pivotal research

research performance is the primary driver of global

roles not only has the potential to increase the scale of

university rankings (Van Raan, 2005). Indeed, research

the research, by increasing research income, but also the

quality is what separates top universities from their

quality of the research, through enhanced training and

competitors in terms of public, industry and philanthropic

development.

funding

(Goodall, 2009). University

also

Of course, not all university strategies are identical.

contribute to a university’s reputation which, along with

Therefore, it is important for individual universities to

cost, is in an important factor that impacts student choice

identify additional roles critical to the implementation of

of study destination (Abbot & Ali, 2009).Teaching income,

their specific strategy. For example, this may involve the

either in the form of upfront fees or public funding and

increased enrolment of under-represented ethnic or social

loans, also forms a significant proportion of a university’s

groups or the focus on the development of particular skills

operational budget, from which staff salaries and on-costs

sets such as leadership, communication or practical work-

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

rankings

Talent management for universities Andrew P Bradley

’

place skills. Recently, a number of new roles have been

a standard survey, McCormack, Propper and Smith

developed, especially at the executive level, to manage

(2014) demonstrate that universities score more highly

emerging portfolios of strategic importance, such as

than manufacturing firms and hospitals in the setting

international development and external engagement.While

and cascading of targets throughout the organisation.

these are undoubtedly important activities for a university

This reflects the high level of benchmarking within

that (should) relate to high value-added roles, care needs

the university sector and the widespread use of

to be taken to avoid any confusion and added complexity

incentives, which also highlights the importance of

due to potential overlap with the core activities of teaching

individual talent. In addition, McCormack et al. (2014)

and research. That is, both teaching and research involve

showed that incentives used for attracting, retaining

external engagement with both domestic and international

and rewarding talent were the strongest predictors of

partners, clients and stakeholders.Therefore, new roles such

university performance as measured on the combined

as these need to be clearly defined and their importance

university guide, research assessment exercise and

communicated in terms of the benefits that arise from

student satisfaction scores. However, as in other industry

creating these roles beyond the core activities of teaching

sectors, it is not clear what the term ‘talent management

and research. In addition, the propagation of these new

analytics’ means for universities or specifically which set

roles down the university hierarchy needs to be carefully

of metrics are strategically important and so should be

considered, especially considering that the talent pool may

measured and acted upon (Lewis and Heckman, 2006).

not have adequate depth at the lower levels.

Therefore, it is vital that talent management analytics be driven by an underlying rationale or conceptual model

Alignment with metrics

that directly links talented individuals, and their roles, to the organisation’s strategy (Lewis and Heckman, 2006).

In universities, there is evidence that (highly-cited) expert

While simple and easily available metrics are attractive

leaders are associated with improved performance at the

for their immediacy and availability, they should always

university level (Goodall, 2006). There is also evidence to

be used with caution and with a clear purpose in mind.

suggest that this association may be causal, as on average

For example, the use of surrogate quality metrics, such

the research quality of a university improves after it

as journal impact factors, is known to be problematic;

appoints a vice chancellor who is an accomplished scholar

but they continue to be widely used in universities for

(Goodall, 2009). However, there are two points to note

both recruitment and performance appraisal (Van Raan,

about this research: the indicator of research expertise

2005).

measured for each vice chancellor (p-score) is their lifetime

It has been known for some time that reward systems

citation count normalised by average citations in their

may reward undesirable behaviour rather than the desired

discipline area to reflect differing citation conventions

behaviour (Kerr, 1975). Therefore, all organisations

in different disciplines; and university performance is

need to carefully consider the potential undesirable

measured via the academic ranking of world universities,

consequences that specific metrics may produce. For

which is heavily biased towards research performance

example, in universities metrics are being increasingly

(Van Raan, 2005). Therefore, it seems unlikely that talent

used for judgemental forms of performance evaluation of

management for universities is as simple as measuring an

individuals. This not only creates uncertainty and anxiety,

academic’s lifetime citations and using this as the basis

but can also inhibit creativity and restrict the willingness

for recruitment, performance appraisal and promotion.

of academics to undertake blue-sky or longer-term

Rather, this indicates the benefit of having an expert

research (Ter Bogt & Scapens, 2012). Preferably, metrics

academic leader who has (amongst other things) a deep

should be estimated over a longer (3-5 year) period of

understanding of how universities operate, that informs

time and used as indicators to guide the development

their strategic thinking; enhanced prestige and credibility

of individuals or groups of researchers (Van Raan, 2005).

amongst their colleagues, that enables their leadership;

Importantly, it must be remembered that metrics do not

an understanding of bibliometrics and peer review, that

remove subjectivity, they just move it to a distance (Ter

informs their data analysis; and demonstrated management

Bogt & Scapens, 2012). Therefore, it is recommended that

skills developed throughout their career as a researcher

metrics, such as bibliometric indicators, should always

leader (Goodall, 2006).

be combined with peer review. In this way, metrics can

Metrics are both important and commonly used in universities (Van Raan, 2005). For example, using

Talent management for universities Andrew P Bradley

improve the peer review process by making it both more objective and transparent (Van Raan, 2005). vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

It is important to distinguish metrics that can

that distinguish high academic (teaching or research)

differentiate the quantity, quality and efficiency of both

performance from those that focus on developing and

teaching and research activities. For example, expert

rewarding good management and leadership practice.

researchers need to do more than just publish a large number of papers (Goodall, 2006). Rather the quality, or

Alignment with management

societal impact, of their research is of primary importance. Unfortunately, quality is much harder to measure than

The work performance (P) of an individual is a function

quantity. In fact, quality can only be estimated either in

of their ability (A), motivation (M) and opportunity (O)

hindsight or via surrogate measures, such as peer review,

(Collings and Mellahi, 2009):

citation counts, or the impact factor/prestige of the

P = ƒ(A, M, O)

publisher; all of which require careful interpretation (Van Raan, 2005). In addition, the societal impact of research

Thus, while an individual comes to a role with

can be difficult to estimate as (by definition) it occurs

previously acquired abilities and a certain level of

outside academia. Impact can also lag the actual research

intrinsic motivation, it is the role of a good manager to

by a significant number of years and be of a form, such

assist that individual to develop new skills and abilities,

as policy, culture or service that never directly translates

whilst maintaining or enhancing their motivation and

into (for example) a commercial return to the university

providing them with new opportunities. This highlights

or agency that funded the research.

that both the individual and their manager have the ability

While efficiency is easier to measure, it is rarely used

to contribute to the factors that determine an individual’s

outside of financial metrics that define profitability or

work performance (Buckingham, 2005). In particular, the

return on investment. In universities efficiency can be

day-to-day interaction between manager and individual

estimated via ratio analysis, which is the ratio of a specific

worker forms a feedback loop that can either enhance

output given the input. In the context of research, this

or diminish work performance (McCormack et al., 2014).

might be the number of publications arising from a group

This highlights the critical importance of management,

of researchers divided by their grant (or other) income.

and talent management in particular, at all levels of a

Of course, like other metrics such as citation rates (Van

university.

Raan, 2005; Goodall, 2006), this ratio will be highly

Great managers discover what is unique about each

discipline dependent. However, ratio analysis provides

person and how to capitalise on that talent to enable

important context to research outputs that can be used to

enhanced performance. This is almost the exact opposite

distinguish efficient from inefficient activities.

of what great leaders do: they discover the universal and

In teaching, ratios such as the student to staff ratio

capitalise on that by communicating a vision (Buckingham,

are perhaps even more important as they indicate

2005). While great managers and leaders are not mutually

the potential profitability of teaching activities. This

exclusive, leadership and management do require

operational surplus can then be re-invested to improve

different skill sets. Typically, leadership is concerned

core teaching and research activities. While student to

with the development of strategic objectives and then

staff ratio remains one of the only globally available and

influencing and enabling people towards accomplishing

comparable indicators and forms part of many university

these objectives. Management is more concerned with

rankings, its overall effect on tertiary education is not well

the efficient use of resources to plan and coordinate

understood (Bandiera et al., 2010). However, class size

efforts towards achieving predefined goals (Yielder &

effects appear to be significant between the smallest and

Codling, 2004). However, to say that leadership is more

largest class sizes, particularly for students at the top of

important than management (or vice versa) is nonsense,

the ability distribution (Bandiera et al., 2010).

as an important component of any good strategy is that

Finally, it is also necessary to distinguish the metrics

it can be efficiently and reliably implemented. Clearly,

required to identify the high-value individuals and pivotal

implementation of a strategy relies on the skills and abilities

roles from the metrics that measure the effectiveness and

of the staff throughout the organisation and academic

efficiency of the enabling human resource systems. For

managers play a vital role in both maximising individual

example, low retention of academic staff or an inefficient

performance, but also ensuring that this performance is

human resources system will clearly negatively affect the

aligned with a discipline specific understanding of the

quantity, quality and efficiency of a university’s teaching

organisational strategy. Therefore, talent management has

and research. Aligned with this is the need for metrics

the potential to provide the necessary framework for

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Talent management for universities Andrew P Bradley

enabling the alignment of all staff and their performance

’

Conclusions

within the organisational strategy. In universities, academics tend to concentrate on

We have argued for an explicit alignment between a

acquiring competencies in their own field of expertise

university’s strategy and how academic talent is recruited,

(Pellert, 2007). In the absence of formal management

developed, retained and rewarded.Without this alignment

training, experiential learning and mentoring are the

there will be a difference between a university’s stated

primary mechanisms by which academics develop

objectives and the outcomes that are delivered to society.

their management and leadership skills (Drew et

This has the potential to lead to confusion, inefficiency

al., 2008). However, good management skills are

and cynicism. Alignment is important especially in

important as they have a significant positive effect

relation to the university’s core activities of teaching

on university performance (McCormack et al., 2014).

and research as both are vitally important, but are rarely

In particular, McCormack et al. showed that central

regarded equally when estimating the performance of

university management practices are less important

academics or their universities. The framework provided

than departmental practices and that there is only low

by talent management can assist in the identification and

correlation in human resources practices between

development of the key people, the pivotal positions and

departments within the same institution. In addition,

human resources systems required for a university to

the biggest difference between universities is in their

deliver on its strategic objectives. It is also critical that the

managerial practices with respect to incentives for

concepts of talent management are applied at all levels

recruitment and retention of staff (McCormack et al.,

of the university hierarchy and are tailored to specific

2014). Unfortunately, academics currently believe that

disciplines.

they are constrained by overly bureaucratic managers with

and valid metrics to enable the open and transparent

analysis skills (Drew et al., 2008). Therefore, there

implementation of talent management within the

is a necessity for better management training and

university sector. In particular, it is vital for the

development in universities, perhaps based on concepts

acceptance of these metrics that they are used primarily

such as emotional intelligence and the focused leader

in a developmental manner, not just for judgemental

(Goleman, 2013).

forms of performance evaluation. Universities must also

the

interpersonal

ever-changing

financial

and

Importantly, there is still a need to develop reliable

strategic

under-developed

and

regulatory

develop and utilise metrics that highlight leadership

environment in which universities operate, it can be

and management skills in addition to the core teaching

increasingly difficult to justify the time and expense of

and research skills. Without this it is difficult to imagine

developing in-house talent and succession plans. However,

how future leaders should be identified and developed

the just-in-time development framework proposed by

other than by the default process of self-selection. Used

(Cappelli, 2008), based on principles from supply chain

in this way, talent management has the potential to align

management, offers a plausible solution. Specifically, there

a university’s strategy with its metrics and day-to-day

are four basic principles: make and buy talent to minimise

management systems in order to enhance performance

risk; adapt to uncertainty in demand (e.g., by providing

over the long term.

short, targeted development programs); improve the return on investment in developing employees (e.g.,

Professor Andrew P. Bradley is an Australian Research

by providing stretch assignments to capable volunteers

Council Future Fellow and Director of Research, of the School

or requiring a co-investment in training); and balancing

of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at the

employee-employer

University of Queensland, Australia.

interests. This

talent-on-demand

framework is driven both by market and operational

Contact: bradley@itee.uq.edu.au

considerations and so is better suited to the challenges of uncertainty (Cappelli, 2008). In particular, it appears directly applicable to universities as it explicitly balances the interests of employees and employers and so can increase the level of both technical and management skills more broadly in society.

Talent management for universities Andrew P Bradley

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

References

Goodall, AH. (2009). Highly cited leaders and the performance of research universities. Research Policy, 38(7), 1079-1092.

Abbott, M., & Ali, E. (2009). The Impact of Exchange Rate Variations and University Reputation on the Choice of Destinations of International Students in Australia and New Zealand. Journal of Economic and Social Policy, 13 (1) 7.

Gosling J, Bolden R & Petrov G. (2009). Distributed leadership in higher education: What does it accomplish? Leadership, 5, 299-310.

Bandiera, O., Larcinese, V., & Rasul, I. (2010). Heterogeneous Class Size Effects: New Evidence from a Panel of University Students. The Economic Journal, 120, 1365–1398. Blackmore, J., & Sachs J. (2000). Paradoxes of leadership and management in higher education in times of change: some Australian reflections. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 3, 1-16. Bradley, D., Noonan, P., Nugent, H, & Scales, B. (2008). Review of Australian higher education: final report. Australian Government, (DEEWR). Buckingham, M. (2005). What great managers do. Harvard Business Review, 83(3), 70-79. Cappelli, P. (2008). Talent management for the twenty-first century. Harvard Business Review, 86(3), 74-81.

Hambrick, DC & Fredrickson, J.W. (2001). Are you sure you have a strategy? The Academy of Management Executive, 15(4), 48-59. Jones, S., Lefoe, G., Harvey, M., & Ryland, K. (2012). Distributed leadership: A collaborative framework for academics, executives and professionals in higher education. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 34(1), 67-78. Kerr, S. (1975). On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B. Academy of Management Journal, 18(4), 769-783. Lewis, R.E., & Heckman, R.J. (2006). Talent management: A critical review. Human Resource Management Review, 16(2), 139-154. McCormack, J., Propper, C., & Smith, S. (2014). Herding cats? Management and university performance. The Economic Journal, 124(578), F534-F564.

Collings, DG & Mellahi, K. (2009). Strategic talent management: A review and research agenda. Human Resource Management Review, 19(4), 304-313.

Pellert, A. (2007). Human resource management at universities. In A. Pausits and A. Pellert, editors, Higher Education Management and Development in Central, Southern and Eastern Europe, 104-109. Münster, Waxmann.

Deem R & Brehony KJ. (2005). Management as ideology: the case of ‘new managerialism’ in higher education. Oxford Review of Education, 31, 217235.

Schuler, R.S. & Jackson, S.E. (1987). Linking competitive strategies with human resource management practices. The Academy of Management Executive, 1(3), 207-219.

Delaney, J.T. & Huselid, MA. (1996). The impact of human resource management practices on perceptions of organizational performance. Academy of Management Journal, 39(4), 949-969.

Ter Bogt, HJ & Scapens, RW. (2012). Performance management in universities: effects of the transition to more quantitative measurement systems. European Accounting Review, 21(3), 451-497.

Drew GM. (2006). Balancing academic advancement with business effectiveness? The dual role for senior university leaders. International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management, 6, 117-125.

Van Raan, A.F.J. (2005). Fatal attraction: Conceptual and methodological problems in the ranking of universities by bibliometric methods. Scientometrics, 62(1), 133-143.

Drew, GM, Ehrich, LC & Hansford, BC. (2008). An exploration of university leaders’ perceptions of learning about leadership. Leading and Managing, 14(2), 1-18.

Winter, R. (2009). Academic manager or managed academic? Academic identity schisms in higher education. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 31, 121-131.

Goleman, D. (2013). The focused leader. Harvard Business Review, 91(12), 50-60.

Yielder J., & Codling A. (2004). Management and leadership in the contemporary university. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 26, 315328.

Goodall, A.H. (2006). Should top universities be led by top researchers and are they? A citations analysis. (2006). Journal of Documentation, 62(3), 388-411.

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Talent management for universities Andrew P Bradley

’

The hidden topography of Australia’s arts nation The contribution of universities to the artistic landscape Jenny Wilson University of Melbourne

In Arts Nation 2015, the Australia Council documented the current landscape of artistic endeavour in Australia, acknowledging that there are still gaps that need to be filled to build a greater public understanding of the arts in Australia. The contribution of Australian universities to the arts is one such lacuna. This paper seeks to expand this understanding by considering the contribution that the university sector makes to visual and performing arts outside its traditional teaching role. It draws upon data contained in university websites and through interviews with practising artists employed as academic staff in three case study universities. It explores how and why these contributions remain largely hidden in reports on artistic endeavour and concludes by suggesting that a greater recognition of the role that universities play in Australia’s Arts Nation will deliver benefits to artists, audiences and to Australia’s artistic and cultural heritage. Keywords: arts, research management, Arts Nation

Introduction

artistic understanding and talent through their teaching programs, they represent far more to Australia’s artistic

The Australia Council’s 2015 Arts Nation report provides

landscape than just a home for the undeveloped waiting

a national picture of the economic and cohesive

to be enlightened on the appreciation or creation of art.

contribution that the visual and performing arts are

The university sector houses a sizeable component of

making to Australian society (Australia Council, 2015).

Australia’s artistic infrastructure and current practitioners.

Noting the connection between tertiary education and

It is a core ‘player’ in the Australian visual and performing

artistic engagement, the report highlights: that younger

art world, but, as the Arts Nation report exemplifies,

Australians are ‘more likely to create art’ when linked to

its contribution is largely hidden from public and

school or tertiary education (Australia Council, 2015, p.

government comprehension.

11); that ‘people with a university degree’ are more likely to attend arts events (Australia Council, 2015, p. 15); and

Information sources

that over 100,000 students are currently undertaking tertiary level creative arts programs. For anyone who

This paper draws heavily upon digital sources to ensure

works or studies in one of Australia’s universities; who

contemporaneity. Data on university arts infrastructure

has attended a performance or an exhibition in the

that is open to the public was gathered by a search of all

University art gallery; or is familiar with the current

Australian public university websites, conducted in April

categorisation of non-traditional research outputs (ARC,

2015.The search terms ‘art collection’,‘art gallery’,‘theatre’,

2012a), this portrayal of university arts will appear

‘exhibition and performance space’ were supplemented by

incomplete. Although Australian

analysis of visual and performing art schools’ web pages,

universities

shape

The hidden topography of Australia’s arts nation Jenny Wilson

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

which also provided examples of artistic activities. Finally,

public exhibition spaces for staff, student, national and

the search term ‘venues for hire’ was used to capture detail

international visitor artwork, located at sites across the

that may not have been revealed by other search terms.The

country. Performance venues are equally as prolific.

data are confined to that which was available on university

Although

websites at the time of access and are thus indicative rather

are profiled as part of city cultural infrastructure,

than comprehensive.These data are supplemented by face-

there are over 70 less promoted university theatres

to-face interviews with 27 practising artists employed as

and performance spaces for dance, drama and music

academic staff in three case study universities conducted in

performances, inside and outside our capital cities. Many

2013 as part of a larger study on artists in the university. Case

host state-of-the-art technical equipment and recording

study universities, selected for a sufficiency of academic

facilities that commercial providers would envy. With

staff and the diversity of artistic disciplines, were located

the growth of film and multimedia programs, universities

in different states and within different university groupings.

also provide cinemas and screening rooms that may

Interviewees represented a wide range of visual and

open to public access. In addition to traditional galleries

performing arts genres and career stages.All produce artistic

and performance venues, universities offer a diversity of

work that is included as research in institutional submissions.

permanent and temporary public art experiences, from

Interviewees are identified numerically according to career

sculpture and public art walks to outside performance

stage: early career researcher (ECR); mid-career researcher

auditoria and settings. Snell (2006) cited ‘the opening of

(MCR); and senior career researcher (SCR). Three senior

new or renovated gallery spaces on university campuses’

university representatives with responsibility for research

as ‘evidence of a continuing commitment to their mission

management, from institutions other than the case study

as custodians and interpreters of our visual culture’ (Snell,

universities, were also interviewed and their comments are

2006, p. 3). This commitment appears to be continuing

identified numerically using the acronym DVCR.

with two institutions expressing an intention to provide

some

schools, notably

Conservatoriums,

new gallery (CQU, 2013) or a more ‘conducive’ space

University contributions to Australia’s artistic and cultural landscape

(Swinburne University, 2015) to house their collections.

Since the university sector became responsible for the

Universities are prolific collectors of artworks. ‘Their

majority of Australia’s tertiary arts education in the early

holdings constitute a significant quota of the nation’s

1990s (Dawkins, 1988), every public university in Australia

cultural heritage’ (Snell, 2006, p. 4) and investments can

now has some form of creative arts program creating a

be substantial, as the highly publicised dispute between

campus-based interconnected schema of artistic outposts

Macquarie University and its former vice-chancellor over

across the country. Universities have become hubs that

its $12.9 million art collection revealed (Hare, 2012).

Art collections & cultural heritage preservation

connect artists with each other, and with their audiences,

Thirty-one Australian universities hold art collections

from Casuarina to Launceston, from Lismore to Perth.The

including those who do not offer visual arts teaching

number of artists who work and study in universities is

programs. Collections feature an array of media: paintings,

expanded by national and international guest speakers,

prints, digital works, ceramics, glass, textiles and sculptures.

artists-in-residence and collaborators from art and cultural

They represent some of the largest comprehensive

organisations outside academia. Staff and student work

collections of specific genres in Australia. La Trobe

fills the walls of our state and commercial galleries and

University, for example, has the largest holding of works

swells the ranks of Australian orchestras, drama and dance

by Australian Surrealist Bernard Boles (La Trobe, 2015)

companies.Australian universities host urban and regional

and Griffith University has the most significant holding of

art galleries and performance venues, hold some of the

works produced on paper by Gordon Bennett in Australia

most comprehensive collections of art literature and

(Griffith University, 2015). In performing arts, academic

musical scores in specialist libraries and ‘are custodians of

projects preserve local performance culture through, for

significant cultural collections and heritage that date back

example, recordings of previously unrecorded musical

to the mid-19th century’ (UAMA, 2009, p. 5).

works (Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University,

Art museums, galleries & performance venues

2015) and collections of Australian play scripts (University of New England, 2015). Table 1, provides an indication of

Over twenty universities have specific art museums

the extent of university arts infrastructure that is open to

or galleries, complemented by smaller galleries and

the public through performances and exhibitions.

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

The hidden topography of Australia’s arts nation Jenny Wilson

’

Table 1: University art collections, visual and performing arts spaces (as at April 2015) State & University

Visual arts/ Exhibition space

Performing arts space

Art Collection

New South Wales Sydney

Sydney College of the Arts Gallery; Callan Park The Seymour centre, Verbrugghen Hall; Gallery; Hermann Black Gallery; Tin Sheds Recital Hall East; Recital Hall West; Choral Gallery; Sculpture Terrace Assembly Hall; Rex Cramphorn Studio

7000 works

New South Wales

Ivan Dougherty Gallery; Kudos Gallery; Black Box; Art and Design Space; AWESpace II; Three Foot Square; Sculpture Walk

1000 works

Newcastle

University Gallery; Senta Taft-Hendry Museum, Harold Lobb Concert Hall Watt Space Gallery

1000 works

Macquarie

Macquarie University Art Gallery; Macquarie University Sculpture Park

The Dance Studio; Drama and Performance Studio

Yes

Western Sydney

UWS Gallery

Memorial Hall; Playhouse theatre

1000 works

Southern Cross

Studio One29

Concert performance space

Charles Sturt

HR Gallop Gallery; Access Gallery

Ponton Theatre

Yes

Wollongong

Long Gallery; TAEM Gallery; Digital Media Centre

Performance Space; Backstage Hope

3500 works

UTS

UTS Gallery

Greenhalgh Theatre

Works by 500 artists

New England

Clancy Auditorium; UNSW Science Theatre; Studio One

A1 theatre

Victoria RMIT

First site Gallery; Design Hub Exhibition Space; Public Space 50; School of Art gallery; RMIT gallery; Project space/ spare room

Keleide Theatre

Yes

Melbourne

Margaret Lawrence Gallery; Ian Potter Museum of Art

Space 28; Studio 45; Grant Street Theatre; Federation Hall; Melba Hall

19000 works

Monash

Monash Museum of Art; MADA Gallery; Ian Potter Sculpture Court

Alexander Theatre; Robert Blackwood Hall; George Jenkins Theatre

1800 works

Deakin

Deakin University Art Gallery;

La Trobe

La Trobe University Museum of Art; Gallery one: Visual Arts Centre; Gallery Two: Visual Arts Centre; Phyllis Palmer Gallery

Student Theatre

Victoria

The Centre Space; Level 17 Art Space

Kindred Studios

Federation / Ballarat

Post Office Gallery; Switchback Gallery

Founders Theatre; Helen Macpherson Smith Theatre; Black Box Theatre

yes

Swinburne

n/a

yes

Queensland

UQ Art Museum

The Nickson Room; Cement Box Theatre

3500 works

Griffith

Webb Gallery; Project Gallery; White Box Gallery

Conservatorium Theatre; Basil Jones Orchestral Hall; Ian Hangar Recital Hall

Yes

QUT

QUT Art Museum; William Robinson Gallery; The Block

The Loft; Gardens Point Theatre

2000 works

James Cook

Emerge Gallery; Lux Gallery

Padua Theatre; Cow Shed Theatre

Sthn Queensland

USQ Art Gallery

USQ Arts Theatre; USQ Concert Hall

1600 works 2000 works

Queensland

Central Queensland Sunshine Coast

CQCM Theatre; Foyer; Dance Floor USC gallery

The hidden topography of Australia’s arts nation Jenny Wilson

600 works Yes vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

State & University

’

Visual arts/ Exhibition space

Performing arts space

Art Collection

Western Australia

Lawrence Wilson Gallery; Lady Sheila Caruthers Gallery; Janet Holmes a Court Gallery

Octagon Theatre; Winthrop Hall; Dolphin Theatre; New Fortune Theatre; Sommerville Auditorium; Sunken Garden

Yes

Edith Cowan

Spectrum Project Space

Geoff Gibbs Theatre; Roundhouse Theatre; Enright Theatre; Music Auditorium

Yes

Curtin

John Curtin Gallery; Sir Lawrence Brodie-Hall Atrium; Access Gallery

Hayman Theatre

Yes

Murdoch

Art Museum Art Gallery;

Nexus Theatre

Yes

Adelaide

Union Gallery

Elder Hall; Hartley Concert Room; Madely Rehearsal Studio; Bishop Hall; The Little Theatre

Yes

South Australia

Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art; SASA Hartley Playhouse; Auditorium; Drama space Gallery; Exhibition space (Mawson Lakes) (Mawson Lakes);

Yes

Flinders

Flinders University Art Museum; City Gallery

Matthew Flinders Theatre

5500 works

The Academy Gallery; Plimsoll Gallery

Conservatorium Recital Hall; Annexe Theatre

2500 works

Charles Darwin University Art Gallery

Charles Darwin Theatre

2000 works

Australian National

School of Art Main Gallery; Photospace; Drill Hall Gallery; Foyer Gallery; Sculpture Walk

Arts Centre Main Theatre; Llewellyn Hall; Larry Sitsky Recital Room; Big Band room; Arts centre drama lab

1500 works

Canberra

n/a

600 works

ACU McGlade Gallery; Peter W Sheehan Gallery; ACU Melbourne Gallery

Recital Room Melbourne

Western Australia

South Australia

Tasmania Tasmania Northern Territory Charles Darwin ACT

Multi-state Australian Catholic

Community engagement and university outreach

which university arts connects with communities. Local performances and exhibitions by students, visiting artists and academic staff are particularly important cultural

Whether for altruistic reasons or, perhaps in more recent

contributions in regional areas. The Regional Universities

years, to encourage ‘the town to vote for the gown’

Network (RUN) confirms the ‘powerful role’ of university-

(Davis, 2007, p. 1) the arts has long provided a way for

based arts ‘in building inclusive and resilient communities,

the university to connect with its communities. As one

increasing awareness and understanding of key societal

interviewee explained:

issues’ (RUN, 2013 p. 31). One interviewee agreed:

There is not much in the university that you can make public. You can’t let the public into your laboratories [or] . . .language labs . . . they are closed spaces. Whereas the visual and performing arts, in order to do their stuff, they have got to go public and therefore we are always going out, as entirely natural, to have that external face. (SCR8) Universities share their art collections through their own

The university … interface with the community is incredibly important in Australia, particularly in regions … that is one of the things about Australia that is unusual … perhaps it is not research, perhaps it is not teaching, but it is a very particular, valuable, extensive and detailed community service. The interface between the arts and the community. If that wasn’t there, the country wouldn’t look like that at all. (SCR10)

gallery exhibitions and through loans to state and regional

Another interviewee highlighted the importance of this

galleries, however there are a myriad of others ways in

contribution by comparing Europe where culture is ‘very

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

The hidden topography of Australia’s arts nation Jenny Wilson

’

rich and very decentralised’ (MCR3) with the situation

orchestras. A senior university administrator, noted that in

in regional Australia, noting that: ‘if you live in Bordeaux,

their university ‘about a third of the staff’ are performing

some great exhibition will come to your town . . . In

with the State orchestra and that it ‘would not [be] able to

Australia it may be more critical to have these . . . at tertiary

continue without these performers’ (DVCR3). At another

level, simply because we don’t have that decentralised

university, ‘most of the performing artists that come

culture’ (MCR3).

through here are working in the town, so in a sense the

Universities provide sites for local communities to participate in visual and performing arts activities: in

university provides the fundamental cultural workers of the place’ (SCR4).

community choirs (Newcastle University, 2015); through

The quality of work being produced by the sector’s

training and inspirational settings for young artists

employed artists is also of a high standard with artistic

(Sydney Conservatorium, 2015); and space for gifted local

work included in public and private collections, and

artists (Sydney College of the Arts, 2015). They provide

showcased internationally and nationally in performances

mechanisms to connect communities with their heritage,

and exhibitions. Twenty-six universities were ranked

histories and their sub-cultures, to improve community

at world standard or above in creative arts and writing

cohesion and to address particular challenges (Central

in the 2012 Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA)

Queensland University, 2015a).

exercise (ARC 2012c). This is not student work but

Universities are active donors and participants in local

creative work submitted by academic staff, and these

and State arts organisations, with senior university staff

submissions represent a significant undercount of the

frequently represented on their boards providing expertise

actual work being produced. Australia’s top visual art

(Melbourne Theatre Company, 2015; Queensland Theatre

prize winners include staff and graduates of university art

Company, 2015) and infrastructure support to artistic

programs. Between 2007 and 2015, twelve of Australia’s

development at both professional and amateur levels

chosen representatives for the Venice Biennale or winners

(University of Adelaide, 2015).

of the Archibald Prize were graduates of university art

Current and future artists In 2013, according to Australian Government higher

programs and, six have worked as academic staff within the Australian university sector (Wilson, 2015; Karen Woodbury Gallery, 2015; Fantauzzo, 2015).

education data, there were over 3000 academic staff (full-

Arts and music schools continue to provide the impetus

time equivalent) and over 80,000 students (equivalent full-

for cohesion and development in the arts community.

time student load) within the academic organisational unit

As one visual artist explained: ‘communities are only

(AOU) for Creative Arts (DET, 2013; DET 2014). Although

generated around artist run galleries and activities. . . there

the numbers of practising artists are not quantified, and

is [the state gallery] but it is not really about real artistic

as will be further discussed, the reliability of data may

engagement. It is not a community’ (MCR1). Through

be open to question, when considered together with

projects and sessional teaching, the university provides

the extent of artistic works submitted to the national

temporary employment opportunities for ‘professional

research assessment exercise: 15,918 submissions in

artists, at a good wage that they won’t get out in the

2010; and 13,708 submissions in 2012 (ARC, 2012b, p.

industry . . . we have to have the latest practices taught and

16); it indicates that practising artists represent a sizeable

they need the money’ (SCR4). Academic staff in visual and

component of the university community. As Arts Nation

performing arts continue to shape and advocate for their

reports, the numbers of students enrolled in creative arts

genres through boards, festival and events committees

programs is substantial (Australia Council, 2015) and the

and through the mentorship of emerging artistic leaders

growth of arts practice postgraduate programs indicates

within their student cohorts. Universities provide a

that universities are producing increasing quantities of

‘cocoon’ (SCR2) for the development of young artists to

artistic work, including by some of the nation’s top artists:

help them grow ‘as independent practitioners themselves

You would wonder why a viola player . . . who gets first calls from all the major ensembles around the country . . . would decide to do a . . .doctorate? . . to philosophically understand her practice better and make a contribution to the art world. (SCR10)

after they leave the university’ (MCR1).

Academic staff and students make up the composition

(Singerman, 1999, p. 210). Interviewees noted positive

of national performing arts organisations and State

and negative aspects of how it continues to shape the

The hidden topography of Australia’s arts nation Jenny Wilson

Artwork and artistic direction Singerman (1999) noted that the university ‘has helped to model and select and enable’ a ‘certain version of art’

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

art that is produced. The university is open to more

which is exacerbated by a paucity of data and insufficient

experimental work than may be possible in a more

communication between arts, higher education and

commercially-oriented setting, providing opportunities

research policy and the practitioner worlds that are

for artists to develop ‘ephemeral, installation work that

governed by them.

in Australia, you can’t really sell’ (ECR4) and to perform ‘esoteric works without immediate market value’ (ECR7).

Opacity in the arts world

Access to a student body of performers provides artists

Artists working within the university may face challenges

with the ability to ‘explore ideas with the students that I

to participating equally as artists within the professional

could never have afforded to do if I had had to pay actors’

art worlds. Although the Australia Council has dropped its

(ECR1) and a site for external ‘composers, choreographers

funding exclusions and grant receipt limits for recipients

and directors [to] come . . . and experiment to some

practising from inside academia, other arts bodies have

extent’ (SCR5).This creates a new, fresh body of work that

retained, or indeed are introducing, exclusions that prevent

can takes the art form forward:

artists whose work is undertaken within a university

Most academic artists are trying to discover something new with their art each time. It is a can of worms, but there is a whole host of retirees out there who are churning out art and making a living from it, but they do what they do over and over. (ECR9) The university focus on newness, informed by the novelty

requirement

research, however has its negative connotations. For artistic work to be recognised as part of the research

setting from applying for grants (Arts Queensland, 2015). With few alternative research funding sources, artists seeking support for their practice are presented with the temptation to deny their university connection, placing them potentially in breach

With few alternative research funding sources, artists seeking support for their practice are presented with the temptation to deny their university connection, placing them potentially in breach of university policies and employment contracts.

workload, it must exhibit a new contribution to the discipline. For a performing artist, however excellent their performance of a classic score, script or choreographed piece, it is unlikely to be accepted as research and thus is

of university policies and employment

contracts.

In some sections of the arts

profession,

negative

perceptions of artists who practise

within

academia

remain, as:

a hangover from the time when academics were the people that sat around and were the critics of art and wrote books about people just from observing . . . That it is falling away a bit, but . . . you lose some kudos in the arts community. (ECR6)

less likely to be institutionally recognised or supported. ‘People play with the top orchestras and opera companies

Certainly many interviewees had, at times, experienced

in the country. It is front and centre to what they do, but

a tension in their dual role as artists and academics:‘there

within the institutional framework, it is still not really

is an assumption that . . . if I am a doctor then I am clearly

part of [the] assessment’ (SCR6). From the perspective

not an arts practitioner’ (ECR6).

of a high profile classical performer, university insistence

Universities are increasingly shaping the external art

to avoid ‘anything that has been done before’ (MCR6)

world, as one senior university manager surmised: ‘the

conflicts with the expansion of public access to art:

next “breed” of artists . . . will be all university trained and

if I have premiered some new music and I have claimed it as research, in the bigger scheme of things, is it any less valid when I am just playing concerts and not being ‘innovative’? . . I am still contributing to the cultural life of our nation. (ECR7)

it is very hard to imagine someone making it without that background’ (DVCR3). Despite university and professional artists being ‘embedded in each other’s worlds’ (MCR7), there are concerns, from inside and outside academia, that the university’s increasing role in artistic production may be ‘detrimental to the sustainability of the sector’

The opacity of artistic contribution

(Commonwealth Government, 2002, p. 61) and that university is shaping the future of art in a way that does not

Given the extent of the sector’s contribution, why does

accord with the direction envisaged by artists themselves:

it remain largely hidden in national reviews such as Arts

The university plays a really important role in defining our culture, and in the creative arts, the expanse of that has been really diminished within the last 20 years

Nation? The reasons may stem from insufficient interest by the university sector in progressing the artistic agenda, vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

The hidden topography of Australia’s arts nation Jenny Wilson

’

and is continuing to be diminished . . . that will affect . . .what the wider community expects or understands as being legitimate as an art form. (ECR3)

and particular categories of research funding for which

Even senior university administrators acknowledge this

agencies that support artistic practice are accepted as

risk:

artistic research is either ineligible or exhibits low success rates. (Wilson, 2011). Competitive grants secured from ‘esteem’ measures, but not in the higher weighted funding

Schools of art and . . . music are feeling more pressure . . . to perform in an ERA based economy . . . It is the changing nature of the world but . . . it is hard to determine whether it actually produces better musicians ultimately. (DVCR3)

component.The government document that lists the most weighted funding schemes, the Australian Competitive Grants Register, not only excludes Australia Council grants (DET, 2015) but the criteria used to determine accepted funders actively dissuades those that provide support for artistic work from seeking inclusion in the list (DIISRTE,

Opacity in university and government education and research policy

2013).Visual and performing arts practitioners are the only disciplinary group to be unrepresented by a government

The challenges that artistic practice faces within the

funded scholarly academy. Neither does artistic work

university setting do not stem from a sector-wide

contribute to university ranking performance. Many

devaluing of the importance of arts. Indeed, all three

of the world’s top arts institutions operate outside the

DVCR interviewees confirmed the importance of the arts

university sector and artistic disciplines are not reflected

to the university and its connection with other aspects of

in the international university ranking systems to which

society:‘As things become more and more automated, the

universities devote their effort (Trounson, 2010). As one

creative input is going to become even more important

DVCR acknowledged:

for human capital’ (DVCR1).The challenges relate more to the environment in which the contemporary university must operate. ‘We have been told that [funding] to the humanities will be redirected to medical problems like

it is partly a status thing to have medicine and law but the arts have never been seen more broadly by society or . . . within the university as something that necessarily brings high status upon a university. (DVCR3)

diabetes and dementia. Frankly, I think this is appalling

In summary, artistic disciplines are seen to make less

because for a civilised society we should have a vibrant

contribution to the university’s standing or financial

arts culture’ (DVCR2).

bottom line or as interviewees put it: ‘Nothing that we

For the university, the practising arts disciplines

do can be counted for HERDC [the Higher Education

represent just a limited number of many disciplinary

Research Data Collection]’ (MCR1); ‘it doesn’t bring in

groups. Policies

the

the Canberra money’ (SCR3). This can affect institutional

comprehensive university sector are designed to fit

funding and support for artistic activity, and the extent to

all rather than capture specificities, and are strongly

which it is profiled to the public.

and

practices

that

manage

influenced by Commonwealth Government policy.

In academic workload models, the practice time

Universities replicate government reward and recognition

required to maintain levels of professional artistic quality

criteria in their internal policies, practices, funding and

is not recognised and artistic work which is valuable

thinking. In government higher education and research

to expanding public access to art, but not captured by

policy, the visual and performing arts are largely ignored.

definitions of research, is relegated to the lesser category

The research agenda provides some of the most

of ‘service’. Artists who work within university are

obvious examples of the position of artistic practice

conscious that exhibitions and performances are a low

within government and university consideration. In the

priority for the university’s senior management. At one

research quality evaluation exercise, for example, even the

university, ‘despite invitations to all shows, [there is] no

word ‘artistic’ is invisible in the category in which artistic

attendance by the university hierarchy’ (ECR1), and at

outputs are captured, with the term non traditional

another, ‘you don’t see who you would expect to see at

research outputs being preferred. This is despite the

many of the openings’ (MCR4). This inattention may be

fact that only creative arts work was submitted to this

reflected in the university’s wider promotion:‘if they have

category in the 2010 and 2012 exercises (ARC, 2012a).

an advertising campaign there are not many examples of

Artistic work is less able than other work to contribute

creative arts people’ (SCR2).

to the university’s research funding. The criteria used

Despite the abundance of artistic activity and

to calculate university research block funding are

infrastructure, the arts are surprisingly hidden in

largely focused on text-based scholarly publications

university online promotion. With the exception of high

The hidden topography of Australia’s arts nation Jenny Wilson

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

profile conservatoriums and art schools, finding data for

and creative artists’ (USQ, 2015). Neither is information

this paper required drilling deep into the institutional

on infrastructure or community arts activities collected,

cyber structure. Depressingly, the search term that elicited

despite on-going interest in community engagement

the most returns for performance venues was ‘venues

and the impact of academic work on society (Group of

for hire’. Similarly, many of the public exhibitions and

Eight, 2012). Indeed, although artistic work is accepted as

performances that schools and faculties host are hidden

research in ERA, it is relegated to a public service in some

within academic program and school activity pages, with

quarters (AUCEA, 2008).

advertising dependent upon limited school resources

The lack of connectivity between the university,

rather than the university marketing department. Not only

research and arts sectors was highlighted in 2014 when

does this lack of profile reduce public opportunities to

the then Attorney-General, and Minister for the Arts,

attend, it also affects the development of the university’s

announced that he would ask the Australia Council

art and artists. Artists need audiences, both critics and

to develop a policy that denied funding to artists that

public, to hone their skills:

refused private sponsorship, from any company including,

the creative act aborts if there is no creative response … unviewed paintings, unheard sonatas and unread poems fail to fulfil the criteria of the creative act, for creativity has a social dimension . . . New growth requires a creative response, and the creative response requires a medium of exchange, a market place for the appropriate display of creation. (Risenhoover & Blackburn, 1976, p. 210)

potentially, tobacco companies (Cox 2014). Such a move would place university artists seeking funding for their work in direct contravention of university policies that ban acceptance of such funding. Arts, and artists, in the university appear not to fit fully into the university nor arts policy visions. This reduces the capacity to expand Australia’s artistic resources and public access.

Universities hold extensive art collections yet, the opportunity for public viewing of these works is limited.

Conclusion

Outside specific gallery showings, the most common mechanism by which universities offer public access to

Twenty years after the university sector assumed

their collections is cited as through display on university

responsibility for tertiary creative arts on a large scale,

corridor walls and offices. As the university campus

the number of artists who are practising within this

becomes increasingly security conscious, opportunities to

setting, the support they receive or the infrastructure

share these publicly funded or philanthropically donated

that is provided to hone the quality of the work and

works decrease. Indeed, there are some instances where

present their art to the public, remain unknown.

collection viewing is limited to appointment only.

Without such baseline data, how can the true extent of our artistic endeavour be quantified or any certainty

Lack of data and policy connectivity

be presumed that the structures that support it are contributing to improved artwork and artistic standing?

A lack of data hides the university’s contribution and

With such a paucity of information, it is understandable

engagement, and shades its responsibility to the arts.

that the Australia Council sought to focus its attention on

Despite recommendations in 1998 (Strand, 1998) data

more readily available data, but it is argued that the very

on artists practising within the university setting is still

exclusion of such a large component of Australia’s artistic

not routinely collected.Although the government collects

landscape significantly diminishes national claims about

annual statistics on academic staff within academic

artistic and cultural endeavour. More comprehensive

organisational units (AOUs), there are concerns about

information about where artistic activities are taking

the reliability of this university supplied data in relation

place may encourage strategies that: provide audiences

to creative arts. According to staffing data for 2013

with increased opportunities to see, hear and experience

(DET, 2014) four universities did not list any staff in the

art; improve and share use of infrastructure throughout

creative arts AOU. This contrasts with these universities’

the year; and encourage a greater proportion of art

own websites which declare: a ‘strong research focus’ on

collections to be taken out of the basements of the

creative and performing arts (CQU, 2015b); supervision

humanities building and senior executive corridors for

in ‘practice led research’ in music (UWS, 2015); honours

public viewing.

and graduate degrees in ‘drama performance’ in its

The lack of reliable and comparable data removes

‘School of Humanities and Creative Arts’ (Flinders, 2015)

our ability to ensure that Australian artists, irrespective

and a ‘community of committed scholars, researchers

of the location of their practice, are given the

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

The hidden topography of Australia’s arts nation Jenny Wilson

opportunity to contribute their best for Australian, and international, audiences. As universities increasingly apply promotion and funding criteria more suited to the science lab than the art studio, support for artists to continue their practice can be squeezed out, along with the space, time and infrastructure that is afforded to students, Australia’s future artistic leaders. Concerns that journal articles about artwork are replacing actual artworks being produced and fears of a university system that produces ‘good research’ and ‘bad art’ are being shared by academics across the country. Public annual reporting would remind universities that, as custodians of Australia’s current and emerging artists and a significant proportion of our cultural heritage, they need to do more to support their artists and audiences. As Howard Singerman (1999) observed:‘the university is a crucial structuring site where artists and art worlds are mapped and reproduced’ (1999, p. 210). It shapes how current artists and future artists produce their work, and influences, and indeed evaluates, their concepts of what constitutes excellence in the arts. Collecting accurate data on where, how and which universities are supporting artistic work would allow better tracking of this aspect of cultural endeavour and perhaps even allow anticipation of future artistic standing. The Australia Council, as the operational arm of the Commonwealth Government Arts Ministry, would seem an appropriate locus to take responsibility for the task of reminding universities that, despite any changes within research or higher education policy, they have a national responsibility to support the quality of, and access to, artistic work that emanates from their component of our Arts Nation. Jenny Wilson is an honorary research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Melbourne, Victoria. Contact: jenny.a.wilson@icloud.com

References Arts Queensland (2015). Guidelines. Projects and Programs Fund. Arts Queensland. Queensland Government. Retrieved from https://publications.qld. gov.au/dataset/projects-programs-fund/resource/5767407d-ed36-4049-b4432fb5d33eb309.

’

Australian Research Council (ARC). (2012b). ERA National Report Overview pages 10 to 24. ERA 2012 National Report. Retrieved from http://www.arc.gov. au/era/era_2012/outcomes_2012.htm Australian Research Council (ARC). (2012c). ERA 2012 National Report Tables. Section 4: ERA 2012 Institution Report, Table 4.19. Retrieved from http:// www.arc.gov.au/era/era_2012/outcomes_2012.htm Australian Universities Community Engagement Alliance (AUCEA). (2008). Position Paper 2008-2010. Universities and Community Engagement. Retrieved from http://www.engagementaustralia.org.au/uploads/universities_ CE_2008_2010.pdf Central Queensland University (2013). CQUniversity Art Collection: 10 year collecting plan 2012-2022. Retrieved from https://www.cqu.edu.au/policy.cqu. edu.au/Policy/policy_file.do?policyid=2564 Central Queensland University (2015a). Choices Applied Theatre Project. The Engagement Channel. Retrieved 27 April 2015 from https://my.cqu.edu.au/web/ engagement-channel/choices-applied-theatre-project Central Queensland University (2015b). Research Strengths. Retrieved from https://www.cqu.edu.au/research/organisations/research-excellence/strengths Commonwealth Government (2002). Report of the Contemporary Visual Arts and Crafts Inquiry. Commonwealth Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Canberra. Cox, L. (2014, 15 March 2014). George Brandis defends funding moves to curb political boycotts in the arts. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/federal- politics/political-news/georgebrandis-defendsfunding-moves-to-curb-political-boycotts-in-the-arts Davis, G. (2007). Will the Town Vote for the Gown? Universities in the 2007 Election. Presentation at a University of Melbourne Alumni Event. 19 September 2007. The University of Melbourne. Dawkins, J. S. (1988). Higher Education: A Policy Statement. Commonwealth Government. Canberra. Department of Education and Training (DET). (2015). 2015 Australian Competitive Grants Register. Retrieved from http://docs.education.gov.au/ system/files/doc/other/final_2015_acgr_listing_for_public_release.pdf Department of Education and Training (DET). (2014). Selected Higher Education Statistics - 2014 Staff data. Appendix 1.11. FTE for Full-time, Fractional Full-time and Actual Casual Staff by State, Higher Education Institution and Function in an Academic Organisational Unit, 2013. Retrieved from https://education.gov.au/selected-higher-education-statistics-2014-staffdata Department of Education and Training (DET). (2013). Selected Higher Education Statistics – 2013 Student Data Appendix 3.3: Actual Student Load (EFTSL) for All Students by State, Higher Education Institution and Academic Organisational Unit Group, 2013. Retrieved from https://education.gov.au/ selected-higher-education-statistics-2013-student-data Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (DIISRTE). (2013). 2013 Australian Competitive Grants Register. Application for listing a competitive research funding scheme. Retrieved from http://www. innovation.gov.au/RESEARCH/RESEARCHBLOCKGRANTS Fantauzzo, V. (2015). About Vincent Fantauzzo. Retrieved from http://www. vincentfantauzzo.com/about/. Flinders University (2015). Humanities Courses; School of Humanities and Creative Arts. Retrieved from http://www.flinders.edu.au/ehl/humanities/ humanities-courses.cfm.

Australia Council (2015). Arts Nation: An overview of Australian Arts. 2015 edition. Australia Council for the Arts. Sydney. Retrieved from http:// australiacouncil.gov.au/research/arts-nation-an-overview-of-australian-arts/.

Griffith University. (2015). Griffith University art collection. Retrieved from http://www.griffith.edu.au/visual-creative-arts/griffith-artworks/griffithuniversity-art-collection.

Australian Research Council (ARC). (2012a). ERA 2012 Submission Guidelines. ARC. Retrieved from http://www.arc.gov.au/era/era_2012/archive/ key_documents_2012.htm.

Group of Eight. (2012). Excellence in Innovation for Australia trial measures impact of university research. Retrieved 27 April 2015 from https://go8.edu.

The hidden topography of Australia’s arts nation Jenny Wilson

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

au/article/excellence-innovation-australia-trial-measures-impact-universityresearch. Hare, J. (2012, September 6). What will be after Steven Schwartz’s Oxford gig? The Australian. Retrieved from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/ what-will-be-after-schwartzs-oxford-gig/story-e6frgcjx-1226465778402. Karen Woodbury Gallery. (2015). Fiona Lowry Biography. Retrieved from http://www.kwgallery.com/cms/resources/Lowry%20CV2012.pdf. La Trobe University. (2015). La Trobe University art collection. Retrieved from http://www.latrobe.edu.au/luma/collections/la-trobe. Melbourne Theatre Company. (2015). Board and Staff. Retrieved from http:// www.mtc.com.au/about/the-company/board-and-staff/. Newcastle University. (2015). Echology. Retrieved 26 April 2015 from https:// www.newcastle.edu.au/community-and-alumni/arts-and-culture/echology-choir. Queensland Conservatorium. Griffith University. (2015). Queensland Music Project, Research Hub. Retrieved from http://research-hub.griffith.edu.au/ display/n73ad6e10d767426e8dc7d3a88a592581. Queensland Theatre Company. (2013). Queensland Theatre company announces new Board for 2013-2016. Retrieved from http:// www.queenslandtheatre.com.au/~/media/PDFs/Media%20Releases/ QTCannouncesnewBoardofDirectors6June2013.pdf. Regional Universities Network. (2013). Engaging with regions, building a stronger nation. Report Volume 1. Regional Universities Network. Canberra. Risenhoover, M. & Blackburn, R. (1976). Artists as Professors: Conversations with Musicians, Painters, Sculptors. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Singerman, H. (1999). Art Subjects: Making Artists in the American University. Berkley. University of California Press. Snell, T. (2006). Building bridges: University art galleries as agents of community engagement. Paper presented at the Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools Conference 2006. Victorian College of the Arts. Melbourne. Retrieved from http://acuads.com.au/conference/2006conference/#papers.

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

Swinburne University. (2015). Art Collection, Alumni and Development Annual Appeal. Retrieved from http://www.swinburne.edu.au/alumni/annualappeal/art-collection.htm. Sydney College of the Arts. ( 2015). Callan Park Gallery. Galleries and Events. Retrieved from http://sydney.edu.au/sca/galleries-events/callan-park-gallery/ index.shtml. Sydney Conservatorium. (2015). Conservatorium Open Academy. Retrieved from https://openacademy.sydney.edu.au/. Trounson, A. (2010, June 9). Science bias will affect local rankings. The Australian. Retrieved from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/ science-bias-will-affect-local-rankings/story- e6frgcjx-1225877209849 University Art Museums Australia. (UAMA) (2009). Australian University Art Museums Benchmarking Report. Retrieved from http://uama.org.au/researchpolicy. University of Adelaide (2015). About the Theatre Guild. Retrieved from https:// www.adelaide.edu.au/theatreguild/about/. University of New England (2015). Campbell Howard Collection of Australian Plays in Manuscript. Special Collections. Retrieved from http://www.une.edu. au/library/about-us/special-collections/campbell-howard-collection. University of Southern Queensland (USQ). (2015). About the school. School of Arts and Communication. Retrieved from http://www.usq.edu.au/bela/school-ofarts-and-communication/about-the-school. University of Western Sydney (UWS). (2015). School of Humanities and Communication Arts: Research Concentrations: Music. Retrieved 26 April 2015 from http://www.uws.edu.au/hca/school_of_humanities_and_ communication_arts/key_research_areas. Wilson, J. (2011). Creative Arts Research: A long path to acceptance. Australian Universities Review, 53(2), 68-76. Wilson J. (2015). Artists in the University: Repositioning artistic research within the Australian university sector. (Unpublished Doctoral Thesis). University of Melbourne. Australia.

The hidden topography of Australia’s arts nation Jenny Wilson

’

Australian legal education at a cross roads Pauline Collins University of Southern Queensland

With globalising transnational corporate law firms, high rates of depression among law students and lawyers, and a changing role for lawyers in the world of dispute resolution, academics and professional bodies have been doing some soul searching. They are pondering just what is required in a law degree to train future lawyers adequately. This article discusses the current positioning of law degrees and draws together some of the diverse trains of thought arguing for the adoption of different directions. The article discusses adopting a collaborative rather than an adversarial emphasis as a particular path that could address some of the changes and dilemmas raised. Keywords: law degrees, legal training, legal education, alternative dispute resolution, ADR

Introduction

Australia highlights the challenging employment market for new university graduates … just 71.3 per cent of

Australian law degrees in the newly proposed deregulated

bachelor degree graduates had jobs four months after

market of higher education, are forecast to incur a

leaving university in 2013, compared with 76.1 per cent

$100,000 student loan debt with a six per cent interest

in 2012. The decline was particularly acute among law,

rate (Nelson, 2015a; Lewis, 2015; Pash, 2014). Therefore,

accounting and civil engineering graduates’.

the need to ensure the law degree provides graduates

The world of law practice and the nature of law

with the training needed to become gainfully employed

firms are also rapidly changing under the influence

has never been more important.After graduating from law

to become a practitioner a further 15 weeks professional

experiencing the merger of law firms into some of the

legal training (PLT), currently costing around $8,500 (Law

biggest transnational legal conglomerates, employing

Council of Australia, 2015) is required, and to provide

thousands of lawyers (Mezrani, 2015a). Reports show

mediation services an additional qualification incurs

unhealthy cultures exist with allegations of high rates of

further costs of over $4000.

bullying in legal practice (Baghust, 2014). The pressures

corporatisation

and

globalisation. Australia

This is all in a climate of uncertainty for lawyers with

on law students are also evident in alarming studies of

employment rates at the lowest they have been for many

the unusually high levels of mental stress in this cohort

years. Nelson (2015a, para 8) notes ‘Unfortunately, law

of students. A report by Kelk, Luscombe, Medlow and

graduate employment is at a record low and one quarter

Hickie in 2009 was the first major study of depression

of law grads who wanted a full-time job in 2014 could

and psychological distress in Australian law students and

not find one within four months of finishing their degree’.

practising lawyers.The study, covering 741 law students in

Dodd and Tadros (2014, p. 7) found ‘Graduate Careers

13 universities, 924 solicitors and 756 barristers, indicated

Australian legal education at a cross roads Pauline Collins

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

levels of psychological distress and risk of depression at

the life of a lawyer can have intrinsic rewards, the picture

three times that of the general population and 17 per

is one of legal education at the cross roads in Australia

cent higher in law students compared with other tertiary

(Nelson, 2015a; Norton, 2014, p. 77).This article considers

student groups (Kelk et al., 2009, pp. 1, 37, 42, 50). These

some of these pressures and the responses for future

studies, unfortunately, confirm the US experience exposed

consideration by legal educators. It describes some of

in the early 1970s (Boyer & Cramton, 1973-74;Taylor, 1975).

the consequences of corporatisation and the changes

Benjamin et al., (1986, p. 228) disturbingly found that prior

globalisation has demanded. A picture of the law degree

to starting a law degree, law students ‘… showed a parallel

and its place in the tertiary education sector in Australia,

range of wellbeing as found in the general population.

along with the students’ experience is provided. Looking

However, within six months of becoming a law student

at some of the responses and possible directions for the

they were showing a very different result with symptoms

law degree, and a changed focus in the curriculum the

of obsessive-compulsiveness, interpersonal sensitivity,

article suggests a possible future direction for change in

paranoid ideation, hostility, depression, anxiety and loss of

approach that would accommodate a number of concerns

subjective well-being’.

and produce law graduates ready for future demands.

There has been a growing body of literature by Australian legal educators seeking understanding of the

Corporatisation and globalisation

causal factors and ways to address the issue (Field & Kift, 2010). The research by Kelk et al. (2009) did not

The neoliberal impact on legal education in Australia

attempt to uncover causes for their disturbing finding but

has been written about extensively by Thornton (2011,

the study did suggest a number of probable influences,

2014a). More recently she has turned attention to the

including the competitive, adversarial nature of legal

‘hyper masculinity’ of the global corporate law firm

education and its culture.

suggesting the corporate world of global take overs and

In this changing climate the law degree content is coming

mergers is a highly competitive world in which many

under more scrutiny, including from the professional

lawyers are embedded to the extent that global law

accreditation bodies in Australia. The Law Admissions

firms inevitably ‘…now mirror the competitive business

Consultative Committee (LACC, 2014) comprised of

ethos of their clients, evincing similar market-orientated

representatives from the Law Admitting Authority in each

values…’ (Thornton, 2014b, p. 153).

Australian jurisdiction, requested law schools conduct

A recent example is Dentons and Dacheng (Beijing-

a limited review of the core areas to be completed for

based) merging to create the world’s largest law firm with

acceptance into practice. A suggestion for including more

around 6,5000 lawyers operating in over fifty countries in

statutory interpretation and removing core subjects such

what has been described as ‘…the first phase of a whole

as company law, professional ethics, evidence and civil

reinvention of the legal landscape globally’ (Mezrani,

procedure has been mooted (LACC, 2014).

2015a). In this competitive world law firms are also

Amidst these pressures exist the professional law

merging with non-legal professional businesses such as

academic struggling in a competitive environment to

insurance (Mezrani, 2015b). Not only are there economic

keep the ever more demanding law student satisfied that

reasons to get big but a global world with transnational

the legal education they are providing will be relevant and

business clients requires servicing the clients across

useful to the student’s life. Baron (2009, p. 28) challenges

jurisdictions, even where they may be nationally based

‘[c]an we “humanise” legal education without considering

(Mezrani, 2015c).

the health and well-being of those who are responsible for

In this transforming environment a key interest for

it?’ Yet still there is little research into the state of mental

Thornton (2014b, p.168) is the excessive focus on

health of the legal academic. However, this is pertinent to

the positive bottom line of corporate profits with little

consideration of any reform in the sector. Baron’s (2009,

concern for work/life balance ‘…when corporations and

p. 49) advice that the individual should consider their

investors enjoyed robust growth, comparatively little

ability to thrive in an environment and if they can’t then

media attention is devoted to the conditions under which

consider ways to change that environment for the better

lawyers work…Corporate firms rarely display the same

is relevant to all work environments.

loyalty to staff that was once the case…’.

While it is not all doom and gloom, university graduates

A hyper competitive neoliberal climate sees work-life

earn more than non-graduates over their lifetime, having

balance disappear from the reporting around lawyering

greater employment prospects than non-graduates, and

(Hensel, 1997). This perhaps drives some of the claims

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Australian legal education at a cross roads Pauline Collins

’

that the rate of bullying is reaching almost epidemic

to incorporate understanding of communication, the

proportions with Australian workplaces ranking 6th out of

core skill in a lawyer’s toolbox, cultural awareness, and

31 European countries (Dollard & Bailey, 2014; Schroder,

collaborative approaches such as those used in alternative

2014). In this world women are leaving the law after

dispute resolution, and training in different legal families,

five years of practice in large numbers (Law Council of

such as Sharia law. However, this change has to occur in a

Australia, 2014). Part of the push back on corporatisation

professional degree constrained by the higher education

and the clamour to merge into ever larger transnational

sector demands as well as those of the professional bodies.

law firms finds some practitioners are choosing to leave ‘large law to set up their own boutique practices’ (Mezrani,

University sector - law degrees

2015b, para 8). Moving from the high end of practice there is still a

In 2011, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards

strong need for lawyers to take up the small clients with

Agency (TEQSA) replaced the Australian Universities

49 per cent of Australians seeking assistance with legal

Quality Agency (AUQA) as the superintending body

problems in 2014 and 22 per cent being involved in the

monitoring higher education delivery standards in the

legal system on three or more occasions (Nelson, 2015a,

Higher Education Quality and Regulatory Framework.

para. 5). However, government funding of legal aid has

As part of this monitoring the Australian Qualifications

been in decline since 1997 affecting lower to middle

Framework (AQF), has provided a statement of minimum

income earners, family law, Community Legal Centres

learning outcomes for each level and type of qualification

and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in

eg: bachelor’s degree (level 7), honours degree (level

particular (Nelson, 2015b).

8), master’s degree (level 9). These adjustments were

This pattern of change in law firms creates a volatile

implemented after the Bradley Review, (Bradley et al.,

landscape of uncertainty in which obtaining employment

2008, Recommendations 2 and 4) a significant motivator

for law graduates is declining and the kind of organisation

to increase student numbers aged 25-34 to 40 per cent

they will work for is different from the past. The practice

by 2020, including encouraging students to engage

of law is also changing with fewer matters being resolved

from diverse backgrounds, regional and remote areas,

in an adversarial court system (Sourdin & Burstyner, 2013,

Indigenous communities and low socio-economic groups

p. 28). Many conflicts are now dealt with through various

who had not previously considered university education.

alternative dispute resolution processes and before diverse

In 2015, the current Government has yet again had reform

bodies such as tribunals and boards using inquisitorial

on the agenda for higher education. This time concerned

style approaches, some even precluding lawyers from

with the increasing burden of the costs of providing

appearing before them (Creyke, 2006). Notwithstanding

tertiary education, the government’s desire to deregulate

this, Australian law schools are graduating growing

the industry is yet to be fulfilled (Lewis, 2015).

numbers of students versed in adversarial-style lawyering

As a professional degree qualification a law degree

(Merritt, 2014). Between 2001 and 2012, the growth in

must accommodate professional accreditation criteria. To

student numbers was 31 per cent, with around 36,000

practise the profession in Australia requires satisfactory

graduating in 2012 (Papadakis & Trados, 2015; Department

completion of an Australian tertiary law degree covering

of Education & Training, 2014).

academic requirements in 11 areas, (criminal law and

These many changes coalesce to drive a call for a

procedure, torts, contracts, property, equity, company

number of adaptations in legal education (LACC, 2010).

law, administrative law, federal and state constitutional

The Law Admissions Consultative Committee (LACC,

law, civil procedure, evidence, ethics and professional

2014, p.3) is concerned with the increasing demand for

responsibility). These are commonly referred to as the

training to keep abreast of global developments with

‘Priestley 11’, named after Justice Priestley who headed

Australian lawyers having extra study burdens when

the Law Admissions Consultative Committee that

seeking admission in overseas jurisdictions. Refocusing

proposed these areas, and which was endorsed in 1994,

the curriculum to accommodate globalisation by

by the Law Council of Australia. Over twenty years later,

internationalising the content of courses has been a train

the Priestley 11 core areas of doctrinal content remain

of thought advocated for some time and would increase

the standard. One addition to the Priestley 11 is a +1

employability for lawyers seeking admission in another

requirement that candidates for the legal profession must

jurisdiction (Mezrani, 2015a, p.3; Barker, 2011).This article

also complete practical legal training, usually conducted

advocates, at minimum, diversifying the legal curriculum

over 15 weeks, after completion of their academic

Australian legal education at a cross roads Pauline Collins

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

qualification at an Australian university. Candidates must

a move ‘…away from the dominant focus on mastering

also establish their good character.

bodies of substantive law, and towards the development

Reviews in England and Wales into legal education have

of high order professional and problem-solving skills

been considered by the Law Admissions Consultative

(such as more effective oral and written communications,

Committee in a discussions paper Review of Academic

negotiation, advocacy, client interviewing, and conflict

Requirements for Admission (2014).The influence of the

resolution)’ (Australian Law Reform Commission, 1990,

England and Wales Legal Education and Training Review

Recommendation 2). This report appreciated the totally

(LETR, 2013) has been apparent in the Law Admissions

transformed environment in which law is practised

Consultative Committee (LACC, 2014, pp. 4-7) currently

(Weisbrot, 2001, p. 24; Galloway & Jones, 2015).

seeking a limited review of the core law curriculum stating:

This recommendation includes a recognition of the increasing move to collaborative dispute resolution.

Civil Procedure is not included in the English Foundations of Legal Knowledge, despite the fact that practitioners in 2012 rated it second only to Legal and Professional Ethics in importance to legal practice. There, intending solicitors must study Civil and Criminal Litigation as part of the 12-month full-time Legal Practice Course. Intending barristers must study Civil Litigation as a separate subject in the 12-month fulltime Bar Professional Training Course. (p. 5)

Acknowledging the changing world, both the National

This suggestion does not address the very different

domestic commercial arbitration system. These reforms

15-week practical legal training requirement operating

mean lawyers consider their roles to be much more than

in Australia. The Law Admissions Consultative Committee

being litigators. Notwithstanding this the Law Admissions

(2014, p. 5) suggested review is limited to considering

Consultative Committee (2014a, p.12) suggests, without

whether civil procedure, evidence, legal professional

supporting evidence, that the professional legal training

ethics and company law should remain as core areas, and

changes introduced in 2003 requiring ‘assessing the

whether statutory interpretation and perhaps some other

merits of a case and identifying dispute resolution options’

areas, such as Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), be

is sufficient alternative dispute resolution knowledge for

included. This approach is designed to avoid reopening

entry level lawyers. This leaves law graduates that have

the agreed core subjects in the Priestley 11 +1.

completed their practical legal training still requiring

Barristers’ Conduct Rules 2010 and the Australian Solicitor Conduct Rules 2012, include mediation, by defining ‘court’ to include ‘arbitrations and mediations’.The Australian Bar Association acknowledges alternative dispute resolution as one of ten requirements for a good advocate. Further, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) model has been adopted for Australia’s

In 2014, the Productivity Commission’s report, Access

further costly training and education before they can

to Justice Arrangements Report (Recommendation 7.1)

adequately address the 95-97 per cent of matters they

suggested that the Priestley was due for an overhaul, if not

will deal with through non-adversarial methods. Litigants

entire abandonment. The Law Admissions Consultative

complain of the lack of awareness of alternative dispute

Committee (2014a, para 4.3), in its submission to the

resolution processes and the insufficient use of them by

Productivity Commission noted the previous difficulties

legal practitioners (Gutman, Fisher & Martens 2008).

in obtaining consensus as to the core areas and was

The

Law

Admissions

Consultative

Committee’s

reluctant to open what perhaps is perceived as an ‘old

position fails to recognise that the court is no longer

wound’. The Council of Australian Law Deans (CALD,

the only exemplar of ‘skills of accessing, understanding

2008) has sought input from law schools on the Law

and wielding legal knowledge’ with the justice system

Admissions Consultative Committee’s suggestions. The

now incorporating wider alternative dispute resolution

outcome is uncertain with reluctance to the possibility

processes (LACC, 2014a, pt 2.5.). Lawyers’ many roles,

of opening the Priestley up for reconsideration in line

include not only giving clients advice on the options for

with the recommendations in the Access to Justice

settlement of their disputes, and acting in negotiations but

Arrangements Report (2014).

also participating in alternative processes as mediation

What the numerous reports have in common is pressure

practitioners or partisan advisors.

on the academy to ensure students are prepared for the

The coalescing of professional concern and the

future. The overall question remains - what is it that law

government vision of a deregulated market in a globalised

graduates will require from education to fulfil the needs

world certainly bring all roads together at a crossing

of the 21st century law firm? The Australian Law Reform

point. There have been suggestions that the law degree

Commission in the Managing Justice Report argued for

is becoming the new generalist arts degree, along with

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Australian legal education at a cross roads Pauline Collins

’

calls for more work integrated learning approaches

and

(Tadros, 2014). While the Government has failed to pass

they see their marks as the most important motivator and indicator of their success — far more so than other students — and they are less likely to see good grades as helping them to learn (Tani and Vines, 2009, p. 24).

its legislation for deregulation of the university sector the discussion remains (Dawkins, 2015). Before choosing a road to travel down, mature rational consideration is required, taking stock of the nature of the law student and

This indicated that external factors drive law students

what will be expected of them in a globalised world. A

more than internal, emphasising the significance of status

holistic approach going beyond what it is a lawyer will

over internal happiness.Tani and Vines (2009, pp. 25, 30)

need to do, to incorporate consideration of mental health

note that ‘the focus on getting good grades as a motivator

and workplace balance issues for students, academics and

is perhaps the most significant factor differentiating law

the law professional is recommended.

students from other students’. A prioritisation of grades over actual learning or gaining of knowledge and skills

Australian law students’ demands

is tied to reputation and being judged by the employer, peers and family. The focus is given to individual

In a world where education is no longer free and students

aspirations over community in a competitive drive to

have to work part-time casualised jobs, or perhaps are

reach a high status standing, important in conglomerate

seeking a career change while performing in high stress

law firms when competing for distinction amongst

jobs, along with the usual family and other commitments,

thousands. Reliance on external acknowledgment,

education has been required to ‘fit in’ around the

however, fails to link with the students’ own desires and

student. This demands that students have more self-

values, creating a feeling of lack of autonomy that can

control over their learning process and flexibility in

lead to depression.

assessments and learning modes (McLoughlin & Lee,

Other stress-producing factors on students paying high

2008, pp. 10-27). It is perhaps surprising in the current

fees for their qualifications include the need to fit their

downturn in employment prospects and increasing costs

study around family and work. The reporting of the long

in obtaining a degree that record numbers of students

hours that students work to maintain part-time or even full

are still pursuing law degrees (Nelson, 2015a). Tani and

time employment while studying, carries across developed

Vines (2009) surveyed 2,528 students at the University of

common law countries (Sagan, 2013). This in turn means

New South Wales in 2005 to ascertain why students at an

an increased demand for distance education provision

on-campus city university chose the course they did and

of online courses. The teaching academy is concerned

whether it met their expectations. The findings provide

with a decline in class attendance (Mascher & Skead,

some interesting perspectives on the peculiarities of law

2011). This in turn places a demand on the curriculum

students in the study:

to fulfil appropriately the requirements of skills provision,

Law students in contrast to all other students including those in medicine have the following characteristics:

environments. In this frenzy of change and innovation, supported by

they are more likely to be doing their course for a reason external to themselves, such as because their parents wanted them to;

rapidly adapting technologies, teachers are encouraged

they are less likely to find their studies intrinsically interesting;

previously unheard of approaches to education (Collins,

they are more likely to see employers as interested in their marks and not in other social characteristics such as their personal code of ethics or their social and leadership abilities, or ability to understand diversity;

by the student demand for flexibility to trial new and Brackin & Hart, 2010). It is likely the professional regulatory bodies may not be able to keep up with this pace of innovation. How many can explain what each of the following are and how and why they are relevant in the tertiary education environment: learning

they dislike group work as a learning and grading method;

analytics, data dashboards, predictive algorithms, badges,

they are more likely to value the reputation of their university;

personalisation, personal learning journeys, competency-

they are less likely to state that they are at university to learn; they are more likely to see their friendships in terms of networks which will advance their career;

such as team work and oral communication in online

Australian legal education at a cross roads Pauline Collins

certificates, specialisations, new forms of credentialing, based models, direct assessment, creative commons, open learning, cloud data storage, peer learning, work-place integrated learning, flipped class rooms, accelerated pathways, internships and the list can go on (Brill & Park, vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

2008; Mintz, 2014). While no doubt many have heard of at

emotional, and relational dimensions of a problem...’

least some of these and can even explain or perhaps use

(Parker, 2004, p. 70). Such an approach has recently, been

these approaches, the real consideration is the plethora

sought by the President of the Australian Human Rights

of choice facing not only students, but academics and

Commission, Professor Gillian Triggs (Nelson, 2015c, para.

the university sector. Universities operate in a global

5 & 6) suggesting in-house counsel need to ‘…play a strong

market with each institution seeking to distinguish itself

and necessary independent role like a moral compass

from others in an environment competing for students

guiding the institution towards ethical behaviour along

that demand the quickest, but most highly respected,

with … a responsibility not only to determine whether an

qualification that will make them work-ready.

action is strictly legal, but whether it will lead to an ethical

This is a world described by some as the narcissistic

outcome in the wider community.’

neoliberal scramble in which consideration of work-life

Instead of focusing on numbers and declining

balance and the ethics of care and justice have to fight to

employment opportunities some argue recognition of

create a space (Mann, 2014; Sommerlad, 2014). However,

the changing environment means better considering the

struggle for survival in the neoliberal world means the

changed world in which law graduates will be operating

calls for something different are becoming louder.

into

the

future

(Merritt, 2014). Menkel–Meadow,

(2013, p. 134) for instance, has argued for a change in

Lawyers for the future – different directions

legal education to teach for humanity rather than for sovereignty: ‘It is not that there are too many lawyers,

As arrival at the crossroad looms many proposals are being

or too many law school seats, or even that there are not

suggested. Underpinning the discussion and mounting

enough jobs, it is that those who are trained by studying

reports is the overriding concern that graduate lawyers

law could study different things and practise or work with

will be educated to face future demands on them. Some

more appropriate knowledge bases and skills sets’.

thought is going towards an elitist direction, reducing

The Access to Justice Arrangements Report (2014)

student intake and numbers, or placing restrictions on

reinforces the fact that not all law graduates intend to

government supported student placements in an attempt

practise law, and the evidence shows the growing number

to produce the ‘best of the best’ (Papadakis & Tadros,

of female graduates that fail to remain in the profession

2015).This approach feeds into the neoliberal demand for

(National Attrition and Re-engagement Study, 2014, p

excellence; it may not however, consider the wellbeing

54; LACC, 2014a, p.11). Menkel-Meadow (2014, p. 135).

of a student placed in such a high stakes competitive

suggests ‘…modern legal education may need to address

environment. While regulatory bodies are looking at

different types of problems in different ways…The classic

changing core subjects, by removing subjects in ethics,

case and doctrinal method of study may not be appropriate

civil procedure, company law, and evidence in a limited

for all forms of legal problem solving. It is certainly not the

change to the curriculum (LACC, 2014), more radical

only “sufficient” means of a modern legal education’. Kelk

proposals are to move towards a generalist law degree

et al., (2009, p. 49) urge legal academics to consider that:

and abandon core areas altogether. The Access to Justice

‘Law students and legal professionals need to be made

Arrangements Report (2014, p. 230) suggests ‘given the

aware of the importance of developing different skills

increasingly generalist nature of the undergraduate law

for managing workplace issues and personal issues…

degree, a focus on elements that are specific to practising

styles of vigorous competition … are not likely to have

in the legal profession could be misplaced’.

satisfactory outcomes in everyday life, or in a situation in

Other proposals call for greater embedding of areas such as ethics, and statutory interpretation. Legal ethics,

which a person is struggling with psychological distress or mental illness.’

however, has four different schools of approach that

These proposals indicate only some of the suggested

lawyers can apply to ethical dilemmas and therefore is

directions, out of the many possibilities that are surfacing,

also internally divided in how lawyers should be prepared

as legal education seeks to find a new identity.

for their profession (Parker, 2004). These schools include the adversarial advocate, responsible lawyering, the

Possible future direction

moral activist and the relational lawyering or ethics of care (Parker, 2004, p. 56). In the latter, the lawyer’s focus

The critical importance of social connectedness and

is ‘…on trying to serve the best interests of both clients

group cohesion in helping overcome competiveness

and others in a holistic way that incorporates the moral,

and thinking styles predominately associated with

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Australian legal education at a cross roads Pauline Collins

’

individualism and the adversarial style of lawyering was

All of this is enabled in online environments through

emphasised by Kelk et al., (2009, p. 47):‘The development

advanced technologies (Collins, 2010a).

and implementation of solutions to these problems will

Role playing, as an essential component of alternative

be facilitated by approaching these issues on a group

dispute

or institutional basis, encouraging connectedness rather

practise the skills that develop learning non-verbal and

resolution

teaching, enables

students

than isolation, autonomy rather than individualism and

interpersonal communication techniques.This encourages

reducing social disintegration.’

a meta-awareness of our primitive brain, including our

This statement is important as it introduces many of

emotional brain, and its responsiveness to non-verbal cues

the factors that teaching alternative dispute resolution

well before cognitive processes activate (Collins, 2010b).

addresses. For this reason, it is suggested alternative

Communication, the most essential skill for lawyers,

dispute resolution is a key to providing a way forward

demands attention be paid to training students in all forms

at the crossroads as it provides answers that serve many

of communication: legal drafting, statutory interpretation,

of the dilemmas currently presented (Collins, 2012).

oral skills and the levels of subtlety practised by mediators

Alternative dispute resolution for instance, looks closely at

(Weisbrot, 2001;Taylor, 1975).

communication – including non-verbal, conflict theories, and psychological, emotional, and cultural factors.

An adversarial lawyer is not focused on the emotional costs, or the underlying human issues, the focus is on

Governments have embraced alternative dispute

the endpoint and usually success is gauged in terms of

resolution through legislation such as the Civil Dispute

financial outcomes. Not allowing a place for expression

Resolution Act 2011(Cth) and there is a growing call

of empathy or emotion as occurs in positive case based

for alternative dispute resolution to be a core part

legal training denies the intrinsic values of the individual.

of the curriculum (Douglas, 2011). Legislation not

A learned behaviour by law students of emotional

only encourages early resolution of disputes through

detachment should not include emotional dismissal

alternatives other than court, but aims to reduce barriers

or denial (Riskin & Westbrook, 1989). After all, the raw

to accessing justice. Parties are encouraged to ensure

stuff of emotion and distinctly different personalities

they have taken ‘genuine steps’ to resolve their dispute

of humans will be the daily diet for law students in the

before a matter proceeds in the Federal Courts. The use

workplace: ‘...the majority of people who need to go to a

of alternatives to adversarial justice finds that around

lawyer are in some form of crisis of some sort, and often in

97 per cent of matters are diverted from the courts to a

some sort of emotional state’ (ABC Radio National, 2008).

growing system of tribunals and other conflict resolution mechanisms (Sourdin & Burstyner, 2013, p. 4).

Training in emotional awareness and empathy, as occurs in alternative dispute resolution teaching, can

Mediation and other forms of dispute management

only assist in improving self-awareness around work/

involve relational processes that seek dialogue and

life balance and ethical behaviours. This is also likely to

collaboration between parties looking to resolve their

reduce activity such as bullying. The specific attributes

conflicts in good faith in order to satisfy the interests of

attached to alternative dispute resolution teaching lend

all parties (Cloke, 2001, p. 164). The adversarial training

themselves to addressing many of the concerns presenting

of lawyers to act in a positional manner, winning for the

to professional accreditation bodies and legal educators

client, does not always achieve the best result for clients.

when approaching this cross road in legal education.

alternative dispute resolution incorporates the ethics of care and ethics of justice schools of relational lawyering

Conclusion

(Wald & Pearce, 2014). In the changing environment it would seem law schools can no longer provide teaching

This article suggest that the age of relational, mediational

based only on a common law tradition taking the positive

and collaborative lawyering has arrived and provides a

legal approach considering appellate case law.

distinct choice at the intersection of diverse proposals for

In alternative dispute resolution subjects’ students are

legal education that provides a way forward and satisfies

encouraged to develop a more collaborative, facilitative

many needs. Such a direction is possibly inevitable with

thinking approach that can soften the blunt edge of

the prohibitive financial and personal costs incurred in an

competitiveness. Social cohesion is encouraged through

adversarial justice model.

the types of assessment and learning which often entail

Neoliberal privatisation has transformed the way

role plays and developing interpersonal skills. Students

business is done in a globalised world and the provision

develop friendships through these techniques of teaching.

of justice has become part of that transformation with

Australian legal education at a cross roads Pauline Collins

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

governments struggling to fund access to public justice. It is suggested that lawyers of the future, whether working in transnational legal conglomerates or the local community, will need skills in: communication, including interpreting legislation, oral and interpersonal skills, cultural awareness (languages would be useful), knowledge of conflict theory, awareness of different legal families, some international relations and geopolitical awareness, and research and technology capabilities, all embraced by a professional ethics education. This new form of law degree and training may be seen as a new arts degree or generalist degree by some but its value lies in that fact that all these skills would be focused around delivering lawyering and providing justice in a globalised environment. This approach brings in suggestions such as the ethics of care, relational and humanistic

lawyering. Encouraging

collaborative

approach is likely to also aid academics in their teaching environment. Students trained in these areas will be adaptable, they will have self-awareness, an ability to ensure work-life balance and hopefully a wellness that arises from a more holistic training that incorporates emotional sensitivity and respect for the individual. They

’

Higher Education: Final Report. (Australian Government). Retrieved from http://gellen.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Higher_Educatio_Review.pdf. Brill, J.M., & Park, Y. (2008). Facilitating engaged learning in the interaction age: taking a pedagogically-disciplined approach to innovation with emergent technologies. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 20(1), 70. Cloke, K. (2001). Mediating Dangerously. The Frontiers of Conflict Resolution (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass). Collins, P. (2010a). Inclusive Team Assessment of Off-Campus and On-Campus First Year Law Students. The Law Teacher, 44, 306. Collins, P. (2010b). Mediators’ Authentic Presence: Ways of knowing our Primitive Selves. Australasian Dispute Resolution Journal, 21(2), 85. Collins, P. (2012). Student reflections on the benefits of studying ADR to provide experience of non-adversarial practice. Australasian Dispute Resolution Journal, 23, 204. Collins, P., Brackin, T., & Hart C. (2010). The Rocky Rhetoric and Hard Reality: The Academic’s Dilemma Surrounding Assessment. Legal Education Review, 20, 157. Council of Australian Law Deans (CALD). (2008). Review of Australian Higher Education: Questions for Discussion. Retrieved from http://www.cald.asn.au/ assets/lists/Resources/Formal%20Submission%20Bradley%20Review[1].pdf Creyke, R. (2006). Inquisitorial Practice in Australian Tribunals. Administrative Review Council, 57, 17. Dawkins, P. (2015). How to break the higher education impasse. The Conversation. Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/how-to-break-thehigher-education-impasse-37280.

will be legal graduates ready for the future.

Department of Education & Training (2014). First half year student summary. Retrieved from http://docs.education.gov.au/node/36701.

Dr Pauline Collins is an Associate Professor, at the School

Dodd, T., & Tadros, E. (2014). Graduates face worst job market in 20 years. The Australian Financial Review, 7.

of Law and Justice, University of Southern Queensland, Australia. Contact: collins@usq.edu.au

References ABC Radio National. (2008). ‘Lawyers and Depression’ The Law Report. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lawreport/stories/2008/2195243.htm. Australian Law Reform Commission. (1990). Managing Justice: A Review of the Federal Civil Justice System (ALRC 89, 1990). Retrieved from http://www.alrc. gov.au/report-89. Australian Qualifications Frame Work. (2015). AQF Levels. Retrieved from http://www.aqf.edu.au/aqf/in-detail/aqf-levels/. Baghust, J. (2014). The Culture of Bullying in Australian Corporate Law Firms. Legal Ethics, 17(2), 177. Barker, M. (2011). GIHE Good Practice Guide to Internationalising the Curriculum. Griffith Institute for Higher Education. Retrieved from https:// www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/345291/Internationalising-theCurriculum.pdf. Baron, P. (2009). Thriving in the Legal Academy. Legal Education Review, 27. Benjamin, A., Kaszniak, A., Sales, B., & Shanfield, S.B. (1986). The Role of Legal Education in Producing Psychological Distress among Law Students and Lawyers. American Bar Foundation Research Journal, 225.

Dollard, M. F., & Bailey, T. S. (Ed.) (2014). The Australian Workplace Barometer: Psychosocial safety climate and working conditions in Australia (Australian Academic Press). Douglas, K. (2011). The teaching of ADR in Australian law schools: Promoting non-adversarial practice in law, Australasian Dispute Resolution Journal, 22, 49. Field, R., & Kift, S. (2010). Addressing the high levels of Psychological distress in law students through intentional assessment and feedback design in first year law curriculum. The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 1(1), 65. Galloway, K. & Jones, P. (2015). Academic and discipline identities as obstacles to engaging with education for sustainability: lessons from law and social work. International Journal of Sustainability Education, 11 (2), 1. Gutman, J., Fisher, T., & Martens, E. (2008). Teaching ADR to Australian law students: Implications for legal practice in Australia. Australasian Dispute Resolution Journal, 19, 42. Hensel, N. (1997). The Contemporary Challenge Family and Work Issues for Women in Higher Education. In L. A. Castenell & J. M.Tarule, The Minority Voice in Educational Reform: An Analysis by Minority and Women College of Education Deans. (JAI Press Ltd). Kelk, N., Luscombe, G.M., Medlow, S., & Hickie, I. B. (2009). Courting the Blues: Attitudes towards Depression in Australian Law Students and Legal Practitioners. (Brain & Mind Research Institute).

Boyer, B. B., & Cramton, RC. (1973-74). American Legal Education: An Agenda for Research and Reform. Cornell Law Review, 59, 221.

Law Admissions Consultative Committee (LACC). (2010). Rethinking Academic Requirements for Admission. Retrieved from http://www1.lawcouncil.asn.au/ LACC/images/pdfs/Re-thinkingAcademicRequirementsforAdmission.pdf.

Bradley, D., Noonan, P., Nugent, H., & Scales, B. (2008). Review of Australian

Law Admissions Consultative Committee (LACC). (2014). Review of academic

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Australian legal education at a cross roads Pauline Collins

’

requirements for admission to the legal profession. Retrieved from http:// www1.lawcouncil.asn.au/LACC/images/pdfs/01.12.14_-_Review_of_Academic_ Requirements_for_Admission.pdf.

Nelson, F. (2015b). Bad business for govt to keep cutting legal aid funding. Lawyers Weekly. Retrieved from http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/news/16225bad-business-for-govt-to-keep-cutting-legal-aid-funding.

Law Admissions Consultative Committee (LACC). (2014a). Submission to Access to Justice Arrangements Draft Report. Retrieved from http://www1.lawcouncil. asn.au/LACC/images/pdfs/2014_04_29_-_LACC_Submission_to_Productivity_ Commission.pdf.

Nelson, F. (2015c). Triggs: In-house counsel should be corporate world’s ‘moral compass’. Lawyers Weekly. Retrieved from http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/ news/16236-triggs-in-house-counsel-should-be-the-moral-compass-of-thecorporate-world.

Law Council of Australia (2009). Approaches to Interpretation. Retrieved from http://www1.lawcouncil.asn.au/LACC/images/pdfs/ ApproachestoInterpretationLawSchools.pdf.

Norton, A. (2014). Mapping Higher Education 2014-15. Grattan Institute Report. Retrieved from http://grattan.edu.au/report/mapping-australian-highereducation-2014-15/.

Law Council of Australia (2014). National Attrition and Re-engagement Study. Retrieved from http://www.lawcouncil.asn.au/lawcouncil/images/LCAPDF/NARS%20Report_WEB.pdf.

Papadakis, M., & Trados, E. (2015). Law graduates undeterred by dire job hopes. The Australian Financial Review 32.

Law Council of Australia (2015). PLT requirements. Retrieved from http:// www1.lawcouncil.asn.au/LACC/images/pdfs/LACCCompetencyStandardsforEntry LevelLawyers-Jan2015.pdf. Legal Education & Training Review (LETR). (2013). Setting Standards: The Future of Legal Services Education and Training Regulation in England and Wales. Retrieved from http://www.letr.org.uk/the_report. Lewis, R. (2015). Labor questions judgment of vice chancellors for backing university reforms. The Australian. Retrieved from http://www.theaustralian. com.au/higher-education/labor-questions-judgment-of-vice-chancellors-forbacking-university-reforms/story-e6frgcjx-1227265988860. Mann, A. (2014). The Story of I. The New Culture of Narcissism. (Melbourne University Press). Mascher, S., & Skead, N. (2011). On the Record: The trials and Tribulations of Lecture Recording in Law. University of Western Australia Law Review, 35(2), 407. McLoughlin, C., & Lee, M. J. W. (2008). The Three P’s of Pedagogy for the Networked Society: Personalisation, Participation, and Productivity. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 20(1), 10. Menkel-Meadow, C. (2013). ‘Doing Good Instead of Doing Well? What Lawyers Could be doing in a World of “Too Many” Lawyers. Oñati Socio-legal Series, 3(3), 378.

Parker, C. (2004). A Critical Morality for Lawyers: Four Approaches to Lawyers’ Ethics. Monash University Law Review, 30(1), 49. Pash, C. (2014). The Cost of getting a University Degree in Australia is about to Change. Here’s what you need to know. Business Insider Australia. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-cost-of-getting-a-university-degreein-australia-is-about-to-change-heres-what-you-need-to-know-2014-6. Productivity Commission. (2014). Access to Justice Arrangements. Retrieved from http://www.pc.gov.au/projects/inquiry/access-justice/report. Riskin, L., & Westbrook, J. (1989). Integrating Dispute Resolution into Standard First Year Courses: The Missouri Plan. Journal of Legal Education, 39, 509. Sagan, A. (2013). Unpaid intern hell: overtime, tuition fees. Little legal recourse for students asked to work overtime during unpaid internships. CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/unpaid-intern-hell-overtimetuition-fees-1.1699105. Schroder, S. (2014). Lawyers some of Australia’s worst bullies? Australasian Lawyer. Retrieved from http://www.australasianlawyer.com.au/news/lawyerssome-of-australias-worst-bullies-192671.aspx. Sommerlad, H. (2014). The Ethics of Relational Jurisprudence. Legal Ethics, 17(2), 281. Sourdin, T., & Burstyner, N. (2013). National Centre for State Courts - Australia’s Civil Justice System: Developing a Multi-Option Response, Trends in State Courts – 2013. 18th AIJA Oration Brisbane.

Menkel-Meadow, C. (2014).Crisis in Legal Education or the Other Things Law Students Should be Learning and Doing. McGeorge Law Review, 45, 133.

Tadros, E. (2014). Law degree the new arts degree, students warned. Financial Review. Retrieved from http://www.afr.com/p/national/law_degree_the_new_ arts_degree_students_1K7jPfP5dRkaZGVazcMAEP.

Merritt, C. (2014). Unis continue to churn out graduates. The Australian, 31 October. Retrieved from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/legal-affairs/ universities-continue-to-churn-out-law-graduates-despite-job-losses/news-story/ 698e69d233da1d92dec4b01acf87909a.

Tani, M., & Vines, P. (2009). ‘Law Students’ Attitudes to Education: Pointers to Depression in the Legal Academy and the Profession. Legal Education Review, 19.

Mezrani, L. (2015a). Dacheng, Dentons merger a wake-up call for Aus firms. Lawyers Weekly. Retrieved from http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/news/16097dacheng-dentons-merger-a-wake-up-call-for-oz-firms. Mezrani, L. (2015b). National firm acquires insurance boutique. Lawyers Weekly. Retrieved from http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/news/16114-nationalfirm-acquires-insurance-boutique.

Taylor, J. B. (1975). Law School Stress and the “Deformation Professionelle”. Journal of Legal Education, 27(3), 251. Thornton, M. (2011). Privatising the Public University. The Case of Law (Routledge). Thornton, M. (2014a). Legal Education in the Corporate University. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 10, 19.

Mezrani, L. (2015c). Firm founders lured by large law. Lawyers Weekly. Retrieved from http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/news/16112-firm-founderslured-by-large-law.

Thornton, M. (2014b). Hyper competitiveness or a balanced life? Gender Discourses in the Globalisation of Australian Law Firms.’ Legal Ethics, 17(2), 153.

Mintz, S. (2014). The Future of Higher Education. Inside Higher Ed Blog. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-beta/futurehigher-education?sthash.wu9ycC9f.r077BEy3.mjjo.

Wald, E., & Pearce, R. G. (2014). What’s Love Got to do with Lawyers? Thoughts on Relationality, Love, and Lawyers’ Work. Legal Ethics, 17(2), 338.

Nelson, F. (2015a). How much will your law degree cost? Lawyers Weekly. Retrieved from http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/folklaw/16220-how-much-willyour-law-degree.

Australian legal education at a cross roads Pauline Collins

Weisbrot, D. (2001). What Lawyers Need to Know What Lawyers Need to be Able to Do: An Australian Experience. Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors, 21.

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

Doctorate motivation: an (auto)ethnography Robert Templeton University of Southern Queensland

Intrinsic motivation is considered the dominant factor in the motivation of adult students in continuing postgraduate education. However, the strength of an intrinsic motivation to learn does not explain the phenomenon of dropout where the student withdraws and does not return or where the student withdraws and then recommences their postgraduate research studies. This paper draws on qualitative data collected as part of a doctoral thesis to examine this phenomenon ethnographically. The study explores motivations which have declined or disappeared under the influence of external factors and the effect that these external factors have on the motivation to learn with respect to their influence on student withdrawal. Keywords: motivation, intrinsic, extrinsic, postgraduate research, continuing education, dropout, doctoral students, empirical

Motivations are considered to be the dominant factor

respect to the research literature on the motivation of

in the decision to participate in postgraduate doctoral

postgraduate students, Hegarty (2011, p. 146) suggests

degree studies (such as the Doctor of Philosophy, PhD).

that:

The phenomenon of dropping out may be due to the student not abandoning but deferring their intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is suggested as the naturalistic motivation to commence and complete a doctoral degree and may be supported by an extrinsic motivation. However, according to McCormack (2005),

There is, however, limited research on adult learners’ motivation in completing a graduate program. Furthermore, there is an absence of measurement of motivation in graduate students in general. We know that by enrolling in a graduate program an individual is motivated. We do not know, however, what type of motivation, nor do we know its strength.

students who withdraw from doctoral education often re-enrol and subsequently complete their doctorate.

The

strength

the

motivation

undertake

This research explores the relationship between

postgraduate research may vary between people. This

intrinsic motivations to learn, extrinsic motivations, the

suggests that what is of inherent interest to one person

provocation to undertake doctoral study, dropout and the

may be of no interest to another. Motivations to learn

act of re-enrolling to complete a research doctorate. The

are not restricted to formal education but include any

research will seek to explain the motivational reasoning by

learning activity or skill development.

exploring the participants’ recollections of their motives

People are motivated to undertake doctoral study

to dropout and then return to their doctoral degree study.

by their curiosity, interest, or to procure the approval of another. According to Ryan and Deci (2000, p. 55)

Literature

students ‘could be motivated to learn a new set of skills because he or she understands their potential utility or

According to Ryan and Deci (2000, p. 54), motivation

value or because learning the skills will yield a good grade

may be defined as being ‘moved to do something’. With

and the privileges a good grade affords’.

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Doctorate motivation: an (auto)ethnography Robert Templeton

’

Motivations may be orientated as either extrinsic which

Reasons for dropping out of higher education include a

involves undertaking a task because there is a beneficial

changing interest where students do not actually ‘dropout’

outcome or intrinsic which infers undertaking inherently

but rather change their academic program, loss of interest,

interesting or enjoyable tasks (Ingledew & Markland, 2009;

loss of motivation or self-discipline or where the student

Ryan & Deci, 2000). Intrinsic motivation is considered by

was not fully committed to higher education and enrolled

Ryan and Deci (2000) to contribute to a higher level of

for ‘something to do’ or to ‘try it out’ (Thunborg et al.,

student commitment. This suggests that a higher level of

2013). Other students drop out of their higher education

problem solving is possible, which will lead to improved

studies due to

outcomes. A motivational orientation is postulated to develop from a student’s spontaneous behaviours, viz. those without apparent reason, which resulted in personally beneficial outcomes such that an interest can develop into a motivation with increased involvement by the person (Hidi & Ainley, 2012). That is, motivation is a naturalistic

struggles with the context of HE [higher education], of coming across harsh lecturers and demands, or not knowing how to act or where to get support and from whom, competing with peers, and finally they tell us about being afraid of failing in exams. When they start to identify themselves as losers who have failed, they generally drop out (Thunborg et al., 2013, pp. 186187).

tendency which is critical to a student’s cognitive, social

This is consistent with the findings of Jarvela, Jarvenoja,

and physical development as there is a benefit to the

and Naykki (2013, p. 170) who suggest that ‘many

student academically and occupationally to develop

students are unable to apply effective learning strategies

knowledge and skills.

when they are needed, and give up…’. This has relevance

The motivation to enter higher education is, according

to doctoral students within the social sciences and

to Thunborg et al. (2013) ‘dynamic and changeable over

humanities disciplines where learning is predominantly

time’ (p. 180) and ‘part of the process of forming student

student self-directed. However, according to McCormack

identities’ (p. 181). They suggest that motivation is a

(2005), students who reconstruct their identities after

disposition that ‘energises an individual’s actions involving

dropout can regain their confidence and motivations and

both cognition and emotion’ (p. 180) in that it may be an

do return to complete their degrees.

unconscious and possibly reflexive tendency to act. That is, a learning motivation is an indication that a student will

Methodology

enter higher education due to an enjoyment for learning or inherent interest in the particular academic field.

This paper is based on data collected for a doctoral

An intrinsic motivation is considered as being

thesis from participants at four Australian universities.

an important phenomenon in education due to its

This involved the author’s personal experiences and

association with learning and achievement resulting in a

motivations and those of three others to undertake higher

high quality of learning and creativity according to Ryan

research degree doctoral studies and the motivations

and Deci (2000). Other factors include a life changing

to return after dropping out. These experiences are

experience, an expectation of a better life and social

recorded as autoethnographic (with the researcher as a

status, or a need for intellectual stimulation (Thunborg et

participant) and ethnographic recollections of the other

al., 2013). However, in the findings of Lee and Pang (2014)

participants. Autoethnography according to Ellingson

intrinsic motivation can be a lower order motivator that

(2011, p. 599), ‘is research, writing, story, and method that

influences adult continuing students’ achievement with

connect the autobiographical to the cultural, social, and

extrinsic motivations being stronger motivational factors,

political through the study of a culture or phenomenon of

in contrast with Thunborg et al. (2013).

which one is part, integrated with relational and personal

Lee and Pang (2014, p. 13) suggest in their conclusions

experiences’; that is, ethnography of the Self. Narratives

that ‘career advancement is the most influential

are presented to provide phenomenographic information

motivational orientation’ when predicting academic

of the participant’s recollections of their experiences.

achievement. However, seemingly in contrast to their

Consent to undertake the research was received from

findings, they conclude that ‘working adults with

the researcher’s university ethics committee. Participants

higher intrinsic motivation of personal development to

were recruited by placing advertisements in the

participate in continuing education obtain higher learning

newsletters of two professional associations. Interested

achievement’ will complete, a conclusion supported by

participants’ enquiries and subsequent contact to arrange

Thunborg et al. (2013).

interviews were undertaken by email including receipt

Doctorate motivation: an (auto)ethnography Robert Templeton

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

of a signed Form of Consent from each participant. From

studies was possibly an increasing interest as postulated

an initial response of seven people, four interviews were

by Hidi and Ainley (2012).

conducted over a two-month period using internet-

For Beth, the motivation to commence a doctorate was

sourced communication software. Of the initial participant

intrinsic but not due to family background. Beth narrates

interest, three people were non-responsive to further

her family education background with:

communication. The interviews were recorded and the

I was actually thinking about that and I thought, well, I am the youngest of four children, both my sisters have Bachelor Degrees. On my Mother’s and Father’s sides of the family, my oldest cousins both have PhDs. I didn’t think about that until, well, this morning when I was thinking about family influences. I can’t say though, that that was a great influence. I really think it was my own interest in studying and learning… But I think the motivation was intrinsic in that I enjoy studying, I enjoy learning, I enjoy research - gathering information together and making sense of it. That is what I do in my working life.

audio tracks transcribed. Each participant was emailed a copy of their transcript for comment and corrections to the intended meaning in their narratives. At this stage one participant withdrew from the research program. The three participants other than the author are referred to here using pseudonyms John, Beth and Clare to maintain their anonymity. NVivo, a qualitative data analysis software package, was utilised to analyse the transcripts of the interview narratives to develop meaning by sorting and aggregation of the qualitative data. The data used in this paper were extracted from these transcribed narratives

What Beth is describing is the enjoyment of learning

and NVivo analyses.

which she suggests was not inherited from her familial situation. That is, although there are family members

Findings

with university degrees and some with higher research degrees, her motivation to learn is embodied; it is intrinsic.

The motivation to learn

Later in the interview, she indicates the belief that part of

Intrinsic motivation to learning is considered to

her motive for attempting a doctoral degree was extrinsic,

be developed from early childhood due to familial

such that the expected outcome was separable and

influences that support the natural tendencies or genetic

occupational.This she articulates as

predispositions of the child (Grusec, 2011; Ryan & Deci, 2000). Therefore, children growing up in a household where the parents are university educated are more likely to undertake university study themselves according to Ishitani (2008) and Reay, David, and Ball (2005).According to John his intrinsic motivation to learning was influenced

a few years earlier I had missed out on a job in Melbourne purely because I didn’t have a PhD, and it came down to two final candidates. I was told later by one of the supervisory panel that I had, that I was by far the better candidate but the Director of the institute wanted someone with a PhD. So I thought if a PhD is going to get me the jobs that I want, I’d better get one.

by his family’s lifelong involvement in academia. He articulates his academic lifestyle involvement and influence within the interview with,

The desire to attain a specific occupational role is an extrinsic motivation due to its having a separable

look it runs in my family. Basically they were a bunch of academics. My sister is an associate professor, and she’s been researching for most of her life, and my grandmother was a researcher and medical researcher; it ran in my family. My father always read, so we’ve always done this and it seems I’ve been around people who have written a lot and it’s also led to relationships and friends and of course family and that sort of thing . . . in the sense it was natural, a natural progression from these to develop work and develop my interest in visual arts and philosophy. So I’m in there totally; they are areas which won’t get me employment so I’ve got to love it.

outcome to the completion of the doctoral degree. As

For John, the influences on the development of his

a higher research degree was influenced as:

motivation to learn and achieve appear to be strong. He is accepting of the effect of his family’s academic lives as a natural progression to his own motivation to complete a doctorate. For him, the transition into doctoral research vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Ryan and Deci (2000, p. 60) explain: ‘extrinsic motivation thus contrasts with intrinsic motivation, which refers to doing an activity simply for the enjoyment of the activity itself, rather than its instrumental value’. Thus, for Beth, the motivation to complete a doctoral degree has the added dimension of having an instrumental value that she desires; that is, her occupational motivation. Clare had made the conscious decision to undertake doctoral study while completing her undergraduate degree. She suggests that her motivation for commencing Oh, look it was definitely in my undergraduate degree. [I] looked around at the people that were teaching in there and I thought no this is where I want to be. I actually thought that all of the academics that were Doctorate motivation: an (auto)ethnography Robert Templeton

’

teaching me had much better jobs than I could find anywhere else you know the hours are pretty flexible; they do interesting stuff; you engage with students; there’s a lot of, you know, colourful people in universities and it’s always great to work with young people.

which I perceived would provide a greater level of income

Within this narrative Clare is articulating an extrinsic

domestically and internationally. The intensity of this

motivation to learn such that she may gain a university

wanderlust had been increased with the opportunity to

academic position.When questioned further on her choice

work within countries of the southwest Pacific which

of possible occupational motivation, she responded with;

provided the basis for my limited level of understanding

to satisfy my travel ambitions or wanderlust. I have an innate curiosity about other cultures and how people interact with and within their cultural environments

Students are really great to work with; I mean this was something good that I can do with my time; this is something that I really liked [in] my undergraduate degree. I really liked doing my honours project. This is something that I can do that by the time I finish should position me at about the right place for someone that’s 40. So I thought, well although I won’t have extensive work experience I’ll have a PhD and a bit of work experience and I’ll be ready to step off into the second part into a fairly well paid job.

of these cultures and the everyday lives of the people.

The motivation to drop out then continue The four participants in this research study have dropped out of their respective doctoral degree programs. Thunborg et al. (2013, p. 186) suggest that there are a number of reasons for student withdrawal. Three of these possible motivations for withdrawing from study include ‘changing interest – wanting something else to do’,‘lacking

With this narrative Clare is suggesting that there is

in interest, motivation and self-discipline’ and ‘struggling

an intrinsic motivation in her attempting a Doctor of

with studies and/or failing’. Within the researched group,

Philosophy (PhD) degree which is expressed in her

these motivations encompass the reasons given by the

enjoyment of undertaking an honours project in her

participants to dropout from their studies.

undergraduate degree.The influence of the undergraduate

For John, the possibility of failing his degree or

degree appears to be a defining influence on her

not completing within the allotted timeframe was a

motivations to learn which she attributes to her lecturers,

determining motivation. Being unable to proceed with his

a non-familial influence. There is an implied inference

research due to hospitalisation for some months resulted

within Clare’s interview that her intrinsic motivation

in his perception of possible failure or non-completion of

to transition into a higher degree research program

his research.

was the result of her involvement within the university environment as suggested by Hidi and Ainley (2012). My own motivation to commence higher education was self-developed and intrinsic in that I enjoyed learning, which was reinforced by the achievement of good grades during my primary and secondary schooling and previous higher education. Later in life this motivation was intensified by observing and working with geoscientists

Basically I had an accident [and] I required surgery from that; so it was pretty major surgery and you may not be able to see [points to large surgical scar on left hand side of face from temple to throat] but I have a big slit down the throat from the accident. It was pretty major you know. I was on a farm in New Zealand when it happened and basically I lost a fair bit of time. The reason for withdrawing, it was only a temporary withdrawal of seven months.

whose qualifications ranged from undergraduate to

That John would not complete his doctorate was never

doctoral. I wanted to achieve what they had accomplished

an issue. His withdrawal was planned to conserve his

academically. This motivation was accompanied by a

allocated time for completion.

desire for intellectual stimulation which I perceived

My own motivation for dropping out from my doctoral

would assist in changing my life course. My perception

research study was similar to that of John; struggling with

was that this could be achieved with the development

studies and allotted time for completion. My self-belief in

of applied research skills that would be learned with a

my abilities and knowledge to develop a research proposal

professional doctorate. However, I was not interested in

were severely challenged which resulted in the belief that

enhancing my social status. These personal reasons for

I could actually fail by non-completion of my research.

attempting a doctoral degree are among the motives for

Using semesters in what was seemingly a futile attempt to

studying in higher education as suggested by Thunborg et

develop a proposal and after interventions by the faculty

al. (2013) and self-fulfilling as stated by Hidi and Ainley

and the realisation that I had not progressed with my

(2012).

research proposal, I withdrew rather than lose more time

My extrinsic motivations were to complete a doctoral

in the proposal development. My loss of pride and self-

degree to enhance and improve my research abilities

beliefs were possibly the main effects of this withdrawal

Doctorate motivation: an (auto)ethnography Robert Templeton

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

in conjunction with anger and denial concerning my own

dominant learning motivation may be intrinsic or extrinsic

abilities or lack of abilities.

according to Lee and Pang (2014) depending on our

However, my belief in education and my intrinsic

motivational orientation of personal development, career

motivation to learn and the reduction of self-imposed

advancement or social and communication improvement.

stress to complete the proposal was the catalyst to

The interaction between intrinsic and extrinsic

regroup my thoughts. I was able to reinstate my enrolment

motivations is observed within the qualitative research

and, with the assistance of a new supervisor, the proposal

data and demonstrated in the participants’ narratives.

was completed and candidature achieved. This personal

While Beth, Clare and I all hold an intrinsic motivation

experience has demonstrated to me the strength of

to learn, our extrinsic motives are an intermingling of

intrinsic motivations to overcome adversity and complete

occupational drivers. While our individual motives to

projects. The extrinsic motivations pertaining to lifestyle

commence a doctorate were a combination of intrinsic

had been deferred but had not been forgotten; they still

and extrinsic motivations, John’s motivation was intrinsic

existed within me.

and a natural progression in his education influenced by

Clare and Beth withdrew from their respective doctoral

his family’s educational achievements. He does not aspire

programs due to the academic neglect by their supervisors.

to a particular occupational outcome resulting from

For them their interest and motivation had been severely

his doctorate as would be expected if his predominant

reduced by their experiences

motive was extrinsic.

of benign neglect. While

This personal experience has demonstrated to me the strength of intrinsic motivations to overcome adversity and complete projects. The extrinsic motivations pertaining to lifestyle had been deferred but had not been forgotten; they still existed within me.

Beth had instigated her own withdrawal after one year, Clare’s university withdrew her candidature due to noncompletion after ten years. Both had lost interest in their research study and while Beth has not recommenced

There is a dualism within intrinsic

motivations

relative to their mode of formation. Clare, John and I have intrinsic motivations towards doctoral education that

were

formed

from

genetic predispositions and an immersion within socio-

her doctoral degree, Clare is

cultural environments that

part of a peer-supported group and intends to complete

encouraged our predispositions to learn as theorised by

her doctorate.

Grusec (2011) and Ryan and Deci (2000). Our motivations

Both

have

however,

retained

their

intrinsic

to learn are autonomous which can emanate as an

motivation to learning but Beth has not regained her

achievement focus to complete our doctorates despite

extrinsic motivation, an occupational aspiration. Clare’s

withdrawing from our studies and recommencing at

occupational aspiration has been retained and is closely

a later time. That is, the completion of a doctorate had

aligned with her educational aspiration of employment

greater personal value as we commenced our studies

within an academic environment at university.

without reference to a definite occupational role.

Summary and conclusion

to learn, her provocation to commence a doctorate was

However, while Beth has an autonomous motivation an interest in attaining a particular occupational role. Motivations are a part of our everyday lives affecting

Thus her interest was socio-economic rather than socio-

almost every decision we make regarding current and

cultural. With an increasing interest in the aspiration

future personal and professional trajectories. One such

to attain a vocational role, her motivation to achieve

trajectory is postgraduate research education which

a doctorate became personal and developed into an

can change our life course by providing an improved

intrinsic motivation as discussed by Hidi and Ainley

life and social status because of our ongoing intellectual

(2012) and Jarvela et al. (2013). Beth was the only research

stimulation within a field of interest as suggested by

participant not to recommence her doctoral studies

Thunborg et al. (2013). However, Hidi and Ainley (2012)

although she does harbour an aspiration to complete a

conclude that while it is our intrinsic motivations which

PhD in the future.

can motivate the enjoyment of learning, it is our extrinsic

Thus, while an intrinsic motivation may contribute to a

motivations developed from our interests that can have

higher level of student commitment, this does need to be

the determining effect on what we learn. Thus, our

moderated dependent on the formation of the motivation.

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Doctorate motivation: an (auto)ethnography Robert Templeton

Intrinsic motivations formed from predispositions and a supportive socio-cultural environment may be more resilient than intrinsic motivations formed from an aspiration and an increasing interest to attain a socioeconomic role that requires the completion of a doctoral qualification. This may also provide a partial explanation of why some withdrawing students recommence their doctorates. However, as the research data was collected from a numerically small sample, this would not be generalisable to all withdrawing students. Robert Templeton is a Doctor of Education candidate at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. Contact: r_templeton@iprimus.com.au

â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Hidi, S., & Ainley, M. (2012). Interest and Self-Regulation: Relationships between two variables that influence learning. In Dale H. Schunk and Barry J. Zimmerman (Ed.), Motivation and Self-Regulated Learning: Theory, Research, and Applications. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Ingledew, D. K., & Markland, D. (2009). Three levels of exercise motivation. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 1(3), 336-355. doi: 10.1111/j.17580854.2009.01015.x. Ishitani, T. T. (2008). How to explore timing of intervention for students at risk of departure. New Directions for Institutional Research, 137(Spring), 105-122. doi: 10.1002/ir.241. Jarvela, S., Jarvenoja, H., & Naykki, P. (2013). Analysing regulation of motivation as an individual and social process. In Simone Volet and Marja Vauras (Ed.), Interpersonal Regulation of Learning and Motivation: Methodological Advances. London: Routledge. Lee, P., & Pang, V. (2014). The influence of motivational orientations on academic achievements among working adults in continuing education. International Journal of Training Research, 12(1), 5-15.

References

McCormack, C. (2005). Is non-completion a failure or a new beginning? Research non-completion from a studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perspective. Higher Education Research & Development, 24(3), 233-247.

Ellingson, L. L. (2011). Analysis and representation across the continuum. In Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln (Ed.), The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research 4th edition. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.

Reay, D., David, M. E., & Ball, S. (2005). Degrees of choice: Social class, race and gender in higher education. Stoke on Trent, UK: Trentham Books.

Grusec, J. E. (2011). Socialisation processes on the family: social and emotional development. Annual Review of Psychology, 62, 243-269. doi: 10.1147/ annurev.psych.121208.131650. Hegarty, N. (2011). Adult learners as graduate students: Underlying motivation in completing graduate programs. The Journal of Continuing Higher Education, 59, 146-151.

Doctorate motivation: an (auto)ethnography Robert Templeton

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 54-67. doi: 10.1006/ceps.1999.1020. Thunborg, C., Bron, A., & Edstrom, E. (2013). Motives, commitment and student identity in higher education - experiences of non-traditional students in Sweden. Studies in the Education of Adults, 45(2), 177-193.

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

University safety culture: a work-in-progress? Michael Lyons Western Sydney University

Safety management systems in Australian higher education organisations are under-researched. Limited workplace safety information can be found in the various reports on university human resources benchmarking programs, and typically they show only descriptive statistics. With the commencement of new consultation-focused regulations applying to many universities in Australia, the need to have a better understanding of the operation of organisational safety management systems has more prominence. This paper presents results from a ‘safety culture’ survey completed by staff in a business-related faculty (53 respondents, 15 per cent response rate) from three Australian universities. Based on analysis of the survey data, the safety culture in these three universities can aptly be described as a work-in-progress Keywords: safety culture, safety climate, consultation, employee participation, universities

Introduction and overview

of the consultations in a timely manner. Arguably, these goals seek to attain or advance a ‘safety culture’ in the

This paper discusses the results of a ‘safety culture’ survey

workplaces regulated by jurisdictions that have adopted

conducted with staff at three Australian universities.

the model law.

In 2012, new work health and safety (WHS) laws came into effect in several jurisdictions in Australia, leading

Safety Culture

to significant changes in how workplace safety is

Glendon and Stanton (2000, p. 201) attribute use of

managed. This legislation provides the structure for the

the expression ‘safety culture’ to official inquiries into

harmonisation of the various state and territory WHS

the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the 1987 Kings

legislation around Australia. Under this new legislation,

Cross (London) underground station fire and the Piper

‘officers’ of higher education institutions have a duty to be

Alpha North Sea oilrig platform explosion in July

proactive about health and safety issues.The objectives of

1988, and consequently it became part of the safety

the ‘model’ WHS legislation include providing a framework

management lexicon. The expression is now used to

for continuous improvement and progressively achieving

include the workplace attitudes, behaviours, norms

higher standards of health and safety, and providing

and values, personal responsibilities, as well as human

for effective workplace representation, consultation,

resources features, such as training and development,

cooperation and issue resolution in relation to health

which influence the identification of hazards and

and safety matters. Overall, consultation requires sharing

control measures to minimise risk. The idea of a safety

relevant information with workers, giving workers a

culture emanated from the more inclusive concept

reasonable opportunity to express their views, raise

of organisational culture (Glendon & Stanton, 2000).

health and safety issues, contribute to the decision-

However, ‘safety culture’ – similar to the concept of

making process, and being advised of the outcomes

organisational culture – does not have a universal

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

University safety culture: a work-in-progress? Michael Lyons

’

definition (Glendon & Stanton, 2000). For instance, Lee

safety-related communication, roles and responsibilities,

and Harrison (2000) define safety culture as the values,

information, and trustworthiness (Mylett, 2010).

attitudes, beliefs, risk perceptions, and behaviours as they

The United Kingdom’s Health and Safety Executive

relate to employee safety. Whereas Singer and others

suggests safety culture is influenced by: (i) management

(2003) claim safety culture is mostly a synonym for

commitment to safety; (ii) employee involvement in safety

encouraging data collection and reporting about hazards,

management systems; (iii) training and competence in

risks and safety incidents, reducing blame for unsafe

safety-related behaviour; (iv) communication between

outcomes, management involvement in safety, or focusing

management and the workforce on safety matters; (v)

on overall safety management systems. This confusion is

compliance with procedures and regulations, and (vi)

not aided by the concept of ‘safety climate’. For example,

organisational learning regarding safety issues (Blewett,

Findley and others (2007) suggest that a safety climate

2011, p. 17). Choudhry, Fang and Mohamed (2007) explain

involves safety-related attitudes and perceptions of

why these factors can contribute to a positive safety

employees at a particular point in time in an attempt to

culture: management has a vital role in shaping a safety

identify systemic weaknesses and/or opportunities to

culture with their allocation of financial and personnel

improve workplace safety. Understandings of these two

resources, time and effort and by participating in risk

related concepts can be differentiated by time periods:

assessments of workplace hazards; employee involvement

safety culture is something an organisation ‘is’ or ‘has’

helps develop workforce ‘ownership’ of, and commitment

(Choudhry et al., 2007); while safety climate is a ‘snapshot’

to, safe work practices; safety-related consultative

of employee perceptions on the priority given to safety

processes – such as joint management-employee health

compared with other organisational outcomes, such as

and safety committees – aid worker empowerment

productivity (i.e. if productivity is perceived to have a

thus promoting feelings of organisational belonging

higher priority, safety may be subordinate to the speed at

and shared values; training enhances safety awareness

which work tasks are completed) (Zohar & Luria, 2005).

amongst employees and develops their responsibilities

While definitions of both safety culture and safety

towards hazard identification and compliance with

climate

stress

shared

beliefs

and

values

among

policies and regulations; and communication regarding

management and workers regarding safety, Correll

incident reporting and investigation, and risk assessments

and Andrewartha (2001) suggest safety culture is a

enhances the ability to actively learn, adapt and modify

multifaceted concept and an enduring characteristic,

(both individual and organisational) behaviour based on

whereas safety climate is somewhat temporal and

lessons learned from safety-related incidents.

subjective. If safety climate is the outward manifestation

While a safety climate can be considered as a temporal

of safety culture, elements of a safety climate can be

measure of a safety culture (Blewett, 2011), there is

altered by changes in policy and procedure. Altering a

confusion in safety climate research in distinguishing

safety culture is accomplished via deliberate changes in

between attitudes and perceptions (O’Connor et al.,

an organisation’s safety climate and the safety conditions,

2011).This confusion regarding what exactly is measured

which produces enduring workplace safety performances

by research studies can be important, as Guldenmund

(Correll & Andrewartha, 2001). Nevertheless, Hopkins

(2007, p. 734) states:‘... people will almost always express

(2006, pp. 875-76) argues there is no agreement as regards

an attitude when asked about it’. Perceptions tend to have

when a safety culture can be identified:‘For some writers,

a greater likelihood of adjustment when circumstances

every organisation has a safety culture of some sort, which

change

can be described as strong or weak, positive or negative.

practices). Therefore, organisational culture is directly

For other writers, only an organisation which has an over-

reflected by organisational practices (Mylett, 2010)

(e.g. workplace

policies, procedures

and

riding commitment to safety can be said to have a safety

For these reasons, measuring safety culture/climate

culture’. These understandings are complicated by two

is complex notwithstanding its strong endorsement in

seemingly contradictory approaches to assessing safety

the academic literature, and measuring a safety culture/

culture; one which explores how an organisation’s culture

climate accurately may not be possible (Biggs et al., 2009).

affects safety, and another that seeks to identify elements

For example, the use of survey questionnaires to measure

that produce a culture of safety. With the former, safety

both safety culture and safety climate is prevalent in the

management systems need to appreciate that culture(s)

academic literature (Glendon & Stanton, 2000), using over

within an organisation help shape perceptions and beliefs

100 different safety culture measures (Edwards, Davey

around safety or hazards. With the latter, the focus is on

& Armstrong, 2013) and over 40 different safety climate

University safety culture: a work-in-progress? Michael Lyons

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

measures (O’Connor et al., 2011). In many of these

be resolved in the absence of trust. For instance, if there

studies safety culture tends to be correlated with worker

is a strong ‘production comes first’ culture in a workplace,

engagement rather than worker compliance with rules

safety-based employee involvement and participation

and procedures (Christian et al., 2009). Measurements by

arrangements are little more than tokenism (Quinlan et

safety culture survey questionnaires are mostly variations

al., 2010; Gunningham & Sinclair, 2011).

of the followings six dimensions: management attitudes

The conjectural underpinnings of the effectiveness or

or commitment to safety; safety-related training; safe work

otherwise of employee involvement via health and safety

procedures; risk perceptions; workplace hazards; and

committees, or other mechanisms of worker participation,

worker involvement (Glendon & Stanton,2000). According

can be classified as either cognitive (worker knowledge)

to Guldenmund (2007) many of these questionnaires are

or political (worker power) (Popma, 2009). However, the

not only quick, but also ‘dirty’ instruments that can fail

degree to which these outcomes are achieved varies, the

to generate relevant and valid information (particularly so

presence of a communication or ‘consultation’ process

for nominating corrective measures or actions). In other

notwithstanding (Quinlan et al. 2010). The role health

words, many questionnaires may fail to appreciate that

and safety committees play as an employee involvement

safety culture should be understood within a specific

and participation mechanism is not limited to cognitive

context (Choudhry et al., 2007, p. 1006).

outcomes (education and dissemination of information);

Part of the context is organisational practices. Surveys

they can also help achieve political outcomes if the

can reveal these practices, albeit at a superficial level,

workplace values (indicated by priorities) and beliefs

yet many practices are too complex to be meaningfully

(indicated by procedural arrangements) are compatible,

described with the words of a survey question (Hopkins,

and common to both workers and management. That

2006). While the survey method can be appropriate

is, the workplace ‘safety culture’ needs to facilitate

to identify ‘the way we do things around here’, the

effective employee involvement (Quinlan et al., 2010).

questionnaire items should avoid gauging people’s

The establishment of a health and safety committee, and/

perceptions rather than what actually happens or

or health and safety representatives, does not of itself

respondents’ experiences, when organisational practices

guarantee employee involvement, as there should be

and perceptions may not necessarily be related (Hopkins,

procedures to ensure that the health and safety committee

2006, pp. 876-77). Some of the elements of safety culture

itself, and/or the health and safety representative,

are perception-based rather than practice-based (e.g.

communicates and consults with the members of the

management commitment to safety); so understanding

workgroup that is represented. The main interest in

workers’ perceptions for such elements of the concept

safety-related

is justifiable.

with organisational or structural issues and not directly

Employee involvement and participation According to Geller (2001) and Dollard and Bakker

employee

involvement

concerned

psychological-based issues.

Safety culture in Australian universities

(2010), a positive safety culture is founded on a purposeful relationship between management and employees to

Very little is known about the safety culture or safety

improve the safety within a workplace. Past studies

climate in Australian higher education organisations.

point to associations between the presence of workforce

Glendon’s review of over 150 journal articles examining

representative structures as an indicator of a systematic

the issues connected with safety culture shows that most

approach to workplace health and safety management

research is restricted to industries or industry sectors

(Quinlan et al., 2010, Ch. 9). Lopaticka and Lyons’s

with high levels of workplace safety hazards and risks:

(2011) examination of submissions to the harmonisation

manufacturing, health care, transport, petrochemicals,

review of work safety laws in Australia revealed some

construction, and energy (Glendon, 2008). By comparison,

encouraging signs that worker participation in safety

the ‘education’ industry is under-researched (see, for

management can be a purposeful relationship between

example, Dollard & Bakker, 2010; Gairín & Castro, 2011).

management and employees, yet this was found to be

For example, limited information about workplace safety

largely a minority employer view. Achieving a cooperative

outcomes can be found in the various Queensland

and constructive approach to safety management,

University of Technology’s (QUT) ‘Universities HR

and procuring worker participation to improve safety

Benchmarking Program’ reports, though this information

outcomes, presents a notable challenge that is unlikely to

is confidential data provided to QUT for intra-sector

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

University safety culture: a work-in-progress? Michael Lyons

’

comparative purposes and has restrictions placed on

way the survey data can be analysed (e.g. it is not possible

the use of the reports. The reports show only descriptive

to use factor analytical techniques).The wording of the 37

statistics related to the average number of working

substantive questions was altered so that the descriptor

days lost due to safety-related incidents, the number of

options better reflect employment in Australian higher

workplace health and safety related occurrences per

education institutions. For example, the word ‘company’

100 employees, and workers’ compensation costs as

was replaced with the word ‘management’ or ‘managers’,

a proportion of total labour costs. Consequently, this

and the word ‘workplace’ was replaced with the word

information does not give insights into the safety culture

‘workgroup’. The only other adaptation was to include

within universities.

the expression ‘or safety representative’ with the WHS

Survey Method

committee descriptors. A number of demographic questions were included to gain information about each

In order to have a better understanding of safety-related

respondent’s place of employment (university), job tenure

practices in higher education organisations a ‘safety

at their respective higher education organisation, category

culture’ survey was conducted in three higher education

of employment (academic or general/professional),

workplaces – two metropolitan universities and one

status of employment (full-time, part-time or casual),

regional university located in New South Wales (NSW).The

gender, and if they have staff supervision responsibilities.

State of New South Wales adopted the model national law

Another advantage of the WorkCover NSW instrument

on workplace health and safety (see Lopaticka & Lyons,

was simplicity of interpretation of responses, though

2011) with the passage of the Work Health and Safety Act

this is also a limitation. The WorkCover document ‘Safety

2011 (NSW), which commenced in early 2012. As a result,

Culture Survey: How to use the survey’ (WorkCover NSW,

the three universities were navigating the transition to

2010b) suggests the survey data should be analysed with

the ‘harmonised’ national legislative framework when the

a ‘traffic light’ system of coding (green, amber and red).

survey was conducted.

The ways to interpret the traffic light codes suggested by

Following the guidance of Hudson (2007) an instrument that is ‘short and simple’ both in terms of ease of use for respondents and ease of interpretation was selected. The survey instrument used was an adapted version of the ‘Safety Culture Survey: Questionnaire’, the one used by the NSW workplace safety regulator (WorkCover NSW, 2010a). This instrument was designed for use in manufacturing workplaces, and contains 37 questions in six topic (element) sections: training and supervision; safe work procedures; consultation; reporting safety; management commitment; and injury management and return to work. This instrument was selected due to its relative brevity, as other safety culture questionnaires

WorkCover are: Green: Workers think you have a good safety culture in this area. You still need to monitor and review your systems to maintain this level and to continually improve. Amber: Workers think that you have started improving safety culture and are on the right track, but there is more you can do in this area. Red: Workers are expressing a lack of belief in your commitment to safety culture, and your systems may not be in place or not working well. Something has broken down or has not been started. You need to take immediate action in this area.

have many more items (see Blewett et al., 2012), which

The answers to the substantive survey questions were

would help avoid respondent fatigue which may result

given a particular traffic light code if half or more of the

from the use of a lengthier questionnaire. This survey

responses were either a ‘green’, ‘amber’ or ‘red’ response

was also selected because the questions seek to gain

descriptor.

information on respondent experiences or knowledge,

In order to have respondents with similar experiences,

and not perceptions or attitudes. The questions in the

staff employed at each of the university’s ‘business

management commitment section are by necessity

faculty’ were identified as likely participants, 386 staff

more perception-based than experience-based. Each

were targeted. Restricting the likely participants to

substantive (i.e. non-demographic) question contained

‘business faculty’ staff was deliberate, as it was presumed

three possible response options, and respondents were

these work groups are a low-risk safety population and

asked to select the option that best described their

a homogeneous cultural environment. The survey used

workplace experience. The disadvantage with this

an online method of data collection, the web-based

approach is the responses are recorded as categorical/

SurveyMonkey software. Potential respondents were

nominal data and not as ordinal/interval data, limiting the

invited to participate in the survey via their workplace

University safety culture: a work-in-progress? Michael Lyons

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

email address, publicly available from each institution’s website, and directed to the survey questionnaire website. The email invitation to participate was sent in March 2013, and a reminder email message was

’

Table 1: Safety Culture Survey ‘Traffic Light’ Responses Indicator Summary Section Topic

sent about two weeks later. The email invitations to

No. of Questions

No. of No. of No. of No. of Green* Amber* Amber/ Red Red**

Training and supervision

nil

ethics research committee.

Safe work procedures

nil

Results and discussion

Consultation

nil

Reporting safety

nil

The 386 invitations generated 34 automatic email replies

Management commitment

nil

(2011) indicates a response rate of between 12-20 per

Injury management & return to work

cent is not unusual for online surveys when the targeted

Total

nil

participate in the research included an information sheet approved by the authors’ own university human

indicating that, at that time, the staff member was on leave (recreational or study leave) and unable to participate in the study. This means invitations were sent to 352 active email addresses. This recruitment method produced 53 survey respondents, a response rate of 15 per cent. Perkins

participants are located at a higher education institution. The respondents’‘on the job’ time was lengthy, with almost

* 50% or more responses for the survey item. ** combined survey items responses 50% or more.

half having been employed for more than 11 years (47 per cent) and an additional 21 per cent having been employed

showing 18 questions (49 per cent of all questions – see

for between six and ten years. The vast majority of

Table 1) in the amber-red zone, where the combined

respondents were teaching and research academics (74 per

‘amber’ and ‘red’ response options received more than

cent), about a fifth were general/professional staff (19 per

fifty per cent of the responses for that survey item. This

cent), with the other respondents being either teaching-

last result is indicative of an underdeveloped safety

focused or research-only academics. The overwhelming

culture, as ‘more can be done’ (amber) or ‘immediate

majority had full-time employment status (85 per cent), the

action’ is required (red).

majority were women (62 per cent), and a slight majority

Turning to the issue of workplace health and safety

indicated they had staff supervision responsibilities (55 per

employee involvement, the responses to the six

cent).The relatively small number of respondents does not

‘consultation’ questions were not encouraging. Section

allow for meaningful analysis of the results differentiated

48 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 clarifies

by each of the three NSW universities.

what consultation entails: relevant work health and

The traffic light method of interpretation indicates

safety information is shared with workers; workers are

there were some welcome results from the survey, and also

given a reasonable opportunity to express their views

some issues of concern.Table 1 show a summary of the 37

and to raise health or safety issues; workers are given a

questions using the traffic light indicators. No question

reasonable opportunity to contribute to the decision-

generated a red traffic light, whereas eight questions

making process relating to the health and safety matter;

(about 21 per cent) generated a green traffic light. This

the views of workers are taken into account; and workers

implies there are some features of a positive safety

are advised of the outcome of any consultation in a

culture in place in NSW higher education workplaces.

timely manner. The relevant Code of Practice (which can

The questions with the green indictor are shown in

have legislative effect, see section 275 of the WHS Act)

Table 2, with half of these responses related to safety

outlines how consultation can take place: Consultation

incident reporting. Eleven questions generated an amber

does not mean telling your workers about a health and

traffic light (30 per cent), suggesting the workplaces are

safety decision or action after it has been taken. Workers

developing practices that aid a positive safety culture.The

should be encouraged to: ask questions about health and

questions with the amber indictor are shown in Table 3,

safety; raise concerns and report problems; make safety

suggesting elements of a safety culture outside incident

recommendations; and be part of the problem solving

reporting could improve. Of some concern are the results

process (WorkCover NSW, 2011).

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

University safety culture: a work-in-progress? Michael Lyons

Table 2: Safety Culture Survey ‘Green Traffic Light’ Item Responses

’

Table 3: Safety Culture Survey ‘Amber Traffic Light’ Item Responses

Section Topic

Survey Item selected by 50% or more of respondents

Section Topic

Survey Item selected by 50% or more of respondents

Training and supervision

We all get induction training when we start.

Training and supervision

Mostly someone makes us aware of safety issues.

Consultation

Managers communicate with us and listen to us about health and safety.

Consultation

Management sometimes takes notice of what we say about safety.

Reporting safety

We have safety reporting procedures (for incidents and issues) and we use them. We are always encouraged by management to report safety incidents. Safe work procedures are reviewed and updated if there is an incident report; we try to find out why an incident happened and how to fix it.

Safe work procedures

Our management has worked out most of the jobs/tasks in my area that have safety risks. Our workplace has safe work procedures for most task-based activities in my area that have safety risks. We have safe work procedures but don’t/ can’t always follow them.

Management commitment

If I didn’t follow a safety instruction or policy, I’d feel like I was letting the team down.

Reporting safety

Injury management and return to work

We all have to report all injuries straight away. Our return to work program helps get injured workers back to work whenever possible.

We mostly report safety incidents. Our safety training is sometimes reviewed or updated after an incident. If we report a serious problem where someone could get hurt, management takes action as soon as they can.

Management commitment

Management sometimes gets involved in safety issues. Managers/Supervisors sometimes mean what they say and do what they say, in safety matters.

Injury management and return to work

I’m not sure who to talk to about injuries at work, but I think someone here could tell me.

As Table 1 shows, only one of the consultation section questions generated a green ‘traffic light’, one generated an amber ‘traffic light’, with the other four being in the amber-red zone.Table 4 shows the actual responses to the six question options.While the responses to Questions 18 and 20 suggest the views of workers influence aspects of safety in the workplace, the responses to the other four questions imply this process is either not fully understood

informed workforce participation in their respective

by the respondents or lacks formality. Choudhry, Fang

safety management systems.

and Mohamed (2007, p. 1000) claim everyone within

The results from the survey are, perhaps, not

an organisation has the choice to participate or not

unexpected when each of the three institution’s annual

to participate in the safety management system. One

reports are examined (not cited due to de-identification

interpretation of Table 4 could be that many of the

commitments). In the 2011 reports, one university

respondents choose – for a variety of reasons – not to

claimed its workplace safety entity delivers direction

participate in their workplace safety processes. However,

and leadership on safety issues, while another noted

Choudhry et al. further contend a positive safety culture

problems with safety awareness of staff and supervisors.

necessitates safety is regarded by everyone as being an

Training for relevant personnel was mentioned in all

issue that concerns everyone (Choudhry et al., 2007,

three reports, with two noting the changed obligations

p. 1003). As Guldenmund (2007, p. 737) notes: ‘[Safety]

– commencing in 2012 – under the new WHS Act. The

culture cannot be isolated from its structure or processes.

changed obligations were observable in the 2012 reports:

In carrying out the processes and coping with difficulties

the first-mentioned the university’s workplace safety

groups of people develop a culture, either despite of or

entity role was redefined to be planning, coordinating and

because of some particular structure’. The respondents’

administering the safety system; and all three universities

lack of knowledge of the means by which safety-related

had reviewed their safety policies.The changed obligations

employee involvement operates in their workplace

were also observable in two of the 2013 reports: the

can alternatively be interpreted as indicating that the

first-mentioned university had increased the number of

consultation mechanisms are insufficient to allow for

personnel in its workplace safety entity, and stressed the

University safety culture: a work-in-progress? Michael Lyons

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

Table 4: Responses to the ‘Consultation’ section survey items Survey Item

Respondent Answers (%)*

Q18 Answer Options: Managers communicate with us and listen to us about health and safety

We have a way of communicating with managers about health and safety but it doesn’t work very well

We haven’t got a way of communicating with managers about health and safety

Q19 Answer Options: We (or our representatives) are always involved in safety matters

We (or our representatives) are sometimes involved in safety matters

We (or our representatives) are not involved in safety matters

Q20 Answer Options: Management takes notice of what we say about safety

Management sometimes takes notice of what we say about safety

Management doesn’t take notice of what we say about safety

Q21 Answer Options: We (or our representatives) are involved in putting together procedures

We (or our representatives) are sometimes involved in putting together procedures

We (or our representatives) are not involved in putting together procedures

Q22 Answer Options: We always get feedback (e.g. minutes, informal meetings, email reports etc.) on what’s happening with our safety issues within seven days of a formal work group safety meeting

We usually get feedback on what’s happening with our safety issues within seven days of a formal work group safety meeting

We don’t get feedback about what’s happening with our safety issues within seven days of a formal work group safety meeting

Q23 Answer Options: We know who our work group safety committee member (or safety representative) is

We have a work group safety committee member (or safety representative) but I am not sure who it is

We don’t have a work group safety committee (or safety representative) or I don’t know who it is

* Totals may not equal 100% due to rounding.

need to improve consultation arrangements between

Conclusion

staff and management; and another had conducted safety culture training for health and safety representatives and

The concept of safety culture has no universal definition.

managers. However, the third university only reported

Likewise, the elements that might constitute a safety

the number of ‘incidents’ recorded. During the 2011-2013

culture lack common acceptance.These uncertainties are

period, one university sought to ascertain its degree of

not aided by the concept of safety climate, its relationship

safety culture by applying a recognised measure used in

with the notion of safety culture, and the overlap of the

other industries.This method found that the safety system

features of a safety climate with the elements of a safety

focused on data collection and was primarily driven by

culture. The relationship between the two concepts used

management and imposed rather than looked for by the

for this article is that climate is a temporal measurement

workforce (see Parker, Lawrie & Hudson, 2006). Such a

of a culture, and a change in the climate will produce a

description is not surprising in light of the Universities

change in the culture; though we appreciate the somewhat

HR Benchmarking Program emphasis on data collection

circular nature of this understanding of the relationship.

(see QUT, 2014). Such a description could also summarise

Adopting the approach of Correll and Andrewartha

the results from our survey (see Table 2).

(2001), it is too narrow a view to conceive the difference

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

University safety culture: a work-in-progress? Michael Lyons

’

between the two concepts as culture emphasising

In summary, therefore, meeting the objectives of the

attitudes and beliefs while climate focuses on perceptions

model WHS law in Australia (such as the NSW WHS

and descriptions. Rather, the focus has been on behaviour

Act 2011) and/or to attain a positive safety culture in

and experiences with the ‘safety culture survey’ of higher

the institutions we surveyed is something of a work-

education organisations to help align with Reason’s

in-progress. It would be interesting to scrutinise each

premise, that a safety culture is shaped by ‘constellations

institution’s annual reports in future years to assess if

of practices’ (Reason, 1997, cited in Hopkins, 2006) and to

any further progress is being made with the transition to

avoid Guldenmund’s (2007) criticism of attitudinal-based

the model law generally, and its employee involvement

safety culture/climate research. Despite this, gauging

arrangements in particular. For if universities – low

worker assessments of the priority placed on safety by

WHS risk workplaces – struggle, this could imply that

management – influenced by individual and collective

either the goals of the WHS Act are unrealistic or those

experiences – are largely perceptions.

responsible for university management are reluctant

Owing to the limitations of the survey instrument and

to engage with their workforce through employee

the low response rate, the implications of the findings

involvement

should not be overstated. This caveat notwithstanding,

prefer to adopt a ‘compliance mentality’ rather than a

and

participation

mechanisms

and

the findings are noteworthy as they provide evidence of

‘consultation mentality’.

an under-explored context of workplace safety research

Finally, we acknowledge the limitations of the

and Australian university safety management systems.

survey instrument and method of analysis discussed

In future studies it will be important for the survey

in the article. The questionnaire used was designed for

instrument to contain a more flexible method of response

manufacturing workplaces. The data collected by the

options, such as that developed for the Nordic Safety

survey was categorical/nominal and not ordinal/interval,

Climate Questionnaire (Kines et al., 2011), to allow for

and the method of interpreting the data (WorkCover’s

comprehensive analysis of the survey data, calculation

‘traffic light’ system) is somewhat simplistic.The relatively

of mathematical means for each respondent and for

small number of respondents precluded analysis at the

each safety culture dimension or element. To increase

organisational level. Consequently, the conclusions drawn

the response rate in future studies it would be desirable

from the sector-level analysis are potentially skewed by

to extend the duration of a survey’s availability for

the respondents from one of the three organisations

participants and to send more frequent email reminders,

surveyed. Lastly, no attempt was made to explore issues

though a barrage of reminders can lead to irritation for

connected with psychosocial risk factors related to

some (Nulty, 2008). Despite all this, a tentative conclusion

workloads, such as work stress and bullying, or other

of this survey is that workplace safety is not a priority

work-related determinants of employee mental health

in NSW universities. None of the six elements of a safety

(see Brough et al., 2014; Kenny et al., 2012) to obtain

culture measured by the WorkCover NSW questionnaire

insights into the precise nature of safety culture in these

are performed at ‘best practice’ standards, though discrete

NSW universities.

components of these elements – according to the survey respondents – are indicative of a positive safety

Michael Lyons is a senior lecturer in human resources and

culture. Overall, the survey results could be classified

management at Western Sydney University, NSW.

as ‘encouraging’, with just over half the 37 questions

Contact: M.Lyons@westernsydney.edu.au

generating either ‘good’ or ‘improving’ response options from the participants. Nevertheless, 18 of the 37 questions

Acknowledgement

failed to elicit a majority response for even the improving descriptors. Of specific concern are the results suggesting

Varun Mudgil contributed to the development of the

employee involvement in safety management is either

online survey questionnaire.

underdeveloped or ineffective. While there is no strong evidence that university management lacks a commitment to a safe workplace, this commitment appears to be somewhat weak. Indeed, for eight questions a quarter or more of the respondents selected the ‘not be in place or not working well ... [or] has broken down or has not been started’ (i.e. red) answer option.

University safety culture: a work-in-progress? Michael Lyons

References Biggs, H.C., Dingsdag, D. P., Kirk, P J. & Cipolla, D. (2009). Safety culture research, lead indicators, and the development of safety effectiveness indicators in the construction sector. In 5th International Conference on Knowledge Technology and Society, 30 January - 1 February 2009, Huntsville AL, USA. Blewett, V. (2011). Clarifying culture. Canberra: Safe Work Australia. vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Blewett, V., Rainbird, S., Dorrian, J., Paterson, J. & Marcus Cattani, M. (2012). Keeping rail on track: preliminary findings on safety culture in Australian rail. Work 41, 4230-4236. Brough, P., Timms, C., O’Driscoll, M. P., Kalliath, T., Siu, O. L., Sit, C. & Lo, D. (2014). Work–life balance: A longitudinal evaluation of a new measure across Australia and New Zealand workers. International Journal of Human Resource Management (online), 1-21. DOI: 10.1080/09585192.2014.899262. Choudhry, R., Fang, D. P. & Mohamed, S. (2007). The nature of safety culture: A survey of the state-of-the-art. Safety Science 45: 993–1012. Christian, M. S., Bradley, J. C., Wallace, J. C., & Burke, M. J. (2009). Workplace safety: A meta-analysis of the roles of person and situation factors. Journal of Applied Psychology 94, 1103-1127. Correll, M. & Andrewartha, G. (2001). Final Report Meat Industry Survey of OHS Culture. Adelaide: SafeWork South Australia. Dollard, M. F. & Bakker, A. B. (2010). Psychological safety climate as a precursor to conducive work environments, psychological health problems, and employee engagement. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology 83, 579-599. Edwards, J. R. D., Davey, J. & Armstrong, K. (2013). Returning to the roots of culture: A review and re-conceptualisation of safety culture. Safety Science 55, 70-80. Findley, M., Smith, S., Gorski, J. & O’Neil, M. (2007). Safety climate differences among job positions in a nuclear decommissioning and demolition industry: Employees’ self-reported safety attitudes and perceptions. Safety Science 45, 875-889. Gairín, J. & Castro, D. (2011). Safety in schools: an integral approach. International Journal of Leadership in Education: Theory and Practice 14, 457-474. Geller, E. S. (2001). Actively caring for occupational safety: Extending the performance management paradigm. In C. M. Johnson, W. K. Redmon, & T. C. Mawhinney (eds). Handbook of Organizational Performance: Behavior Analysis and Management. Binghamton, NY: Hawthorn Press.

’

Lee, T. & Harrison, K. (2000). Assessing safety culture in nuclear power stations. Safety Science 30, 61-97. Lopaticka V. & Lyons, M. (2011). Employee voice in Australian OHS: evidence from stakeholder submissions. Journal of Health, Safety and Environment 27, 1-12. Mylett, T. (2010). Safety culture: conceptual considerations and research method. International Journal of Employment Studies 18, 1-33. Nulty, D. D. (2008). The adequacy of response rates to online and paper surveys: what can be done? Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 33, 301314. O’Connor, P., Buttrey, S, O’Dea, A. & Kennedy, Q. (2011). Identifying and addressing the limitations of safety climate surveys. Journal of Safety Research 42, 259-265. Parker, D., Lawrie, M. & Hudson, P. (2006). A framework for understanding the development of organisational safety culture. Safety Science 44, 551–562. Perkins, R. A. (2011). Using research-based practices to increase response rate of web-based surveys. Educause Review (May/June). Retrieved from http://www. educause.edu/ero/article/using-research-based-practices-increaseresponse-ratesweb-based-surveys. Popma, .J. R. (2009). Does worker participation improve health and safety? Findings from the Netherlands. Policy and Practice in Health and Safety 7, 33–51. Queensland University of Technology (2014). About HR Benchmarking. Retrieved from http://www.hrd.qut.edu.au/hrbenchmarking/about.jsp. Quinlan M., Bohle P. & Lamm F. (2010). Managing Occupational Health and Safety: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Melbourne: Palgrave Macmillan. Reason, J. (1997). Managing the Risks of Organisational Accidents. Farnham, UK: Ashgate. Singer, S .J., Gaba, D. M., Geppert, J. J, Sinaiko, A. D., Howard, S. K. & Park, K. C. (2003). The culture of safety: results of an organization-wide survey in 15 California hospitals. Quality Safety Health Care 12, 112–118.

Glendon, A.I. & Stanton, N.A. (2000). Perspectives on safety culture. Safety Science 34, 193–214.

WorkCover New South Wales (2011). Work health and safety consultation, cooperation and coordination: Code of Practice. Catalogue number WC03568.

Glendon, I. (2008). Safety culture: snapshot of a developing concept. Journal of Occupational Health and Safety – Australia and New Zealand 24, 179–189.

WorkCover New South Wales (2010a). Safety Culture Survey: Questionnaire. Catalogue number WC02291. Retrieved from http://www.workcover.nsw.gov. au/formspublications/publications/Documents/safety_culture_survey_ questionnaire_2291.pdf.

Guldenmund, F. W. (2007). The use of questionnaires in safety culture research – an evaluation. Safety Science 45, 723–743. Gunningham N. & Sinclair D. (2011). A cluster of mistrust: safety in the mining industry. Journal of Industrial Relations 5, 450–466. Hopkins, A. (2006). Studying organisational cultures and their effects on safety. Safety Science 44, 875–889. Hudson, P. (2007). Implementing a safety culture in a major multi-national. Safety Science 45, 697-722.

WorkCover New South Wales (2010b). Safety Culture Survey: How to use the survey. Catalogue number WC02290. Retrieved from http://www.workcover.nsw. gov.au/formspublications/publications/Documents/safety_culture_survey_ how_to_use_2290.pdf. Zohar, D. & Luria, G. (2005). A multilevel model of safety climate: cross-level relationships between organization and group-level climates. Journal of Applied Psychology 90, 616-628.

Kenny, J., Fluck, A. & Jetson, T. (2012). Placing a value on academic work: The development and implementation of a time-based academic workload model. Australian Universities’ Review 54, 50-60. Kines, P., Lappalainen, J., Mikkelsen, K. L., Olsen, E., Pousette, A., Tharaldsen, J., Tómasson, K. & Törner, M. (2011). Nordic safety climate questionnaire (NOSACQ-50): a new tool for measuring occupational safety climate. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics 41, 634–646.

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

University safety culture: a work-in-progress? Michael Lyons

’

Tide or tsunami? The impact of metrics on scholarly research Andrew G Bonnell University of Queensland

Australian universities are increasingly resorting to the use of journal metrics such as impact factors and ranking lists in appraisal and promotion processes, and are starting to set quantitative ‘performance expectations’ which make use of such journal-based metrics. The widespread use and misuse of research metrics is leading to increased concern in scientific and broader academic communities worldwide. This paper reviews some of the most important recent responses to the so-called ‘metric tide’, with particular reference to the report of that name recently issued by the UK’s Higher Education Funding Council for England, and other important statements such as the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment and the Leiden Manifesto. While there is a spectrum of views on research metrics in general, there is widespread agreement from authoritative sources that it is not appropriate to rely on journal-level metrics, such as journal ranking lists, for assessing the merit of individual scholars. Keywords: metrics, research, publications, performance management, managerialism

A couple of items of evidence on the current impact of

subsequently issued a statement that the Associate Dean’s

metrics on researchers in Australian universities:

message ‘does not reflect university-level processes or communications’. Official communications to staff

Exhibit A

had made clear that all research publications should be submitted to the research bank. ‘The university

A message from the Associate Dean for Research in the

takes seriously its reporting obligations and further

Faculty of Business and Law, Swinburne University, on 10

communications to staff will reinforce that all publications

March 2015 reminded staff as usual to submit their recent

should be submitted to our repository so all eligible

publications to the university’s electronic databank for

publications can be included in HERDC,’ the DVC stated.

the annual Higher Education Research Data Collection

The Australian Research Council (ARC) expressed its

(HERDC), but this time with the stipulation: ‘Publications

concern over the reporting of this message, and reaffirmed

in unranked (ABDC, IS or Law rankings) outlets, either

that universities needed to make complete submissions to

journals or conference papers, should not be submitted.

the ERA (Trounson, 2015).

Reporting these publications to HERDC has a negative impact on our ERA [Excellence in Research for Australia]

Exhibit B

rankings’ (Trounson, 2015). In fairness, it should be added that Swinburne’s acting

The University of Queensland maintains an online

Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Development

database that tracks grants, research higher degree

Tide or tsunami? The impact of metrics on scholarly research Andrew G Bonnell

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

supervisions and completions, and publications, over a

higher scores in the 2012 round do not automatically mean

six-year period, ascribing a numerical value to each, to

an increase in quality over a couple of years (inherently

two decimal places, which is compared in bar graphs

improbable given the time-frame) though they do reflect

to the average for the School, Faculty or Institute, the

a degree of strategic ‘gaming’ (Larkins, 2013. Larkins is too

University, and the academic level (A-E). It is updated

discreet to use the word ‘gaming’ himself.)

daily.The points values for publications are derived from

Even if ERA scores bring relatively little funding, the

a journal ranking list that was adapted from the 2010

indirect rewards from the reputational and marketing

ERA journal list promulgated by the Australian Research

benefits of good ERA results lead to an increase in

Council after a round of internal consultation during

competitive behaviours and increased pressure on

which staff were able to add unlisted journals or lobby

academics to perform in high-quality ‘outlets’. While

for changes in the rankings. While such tabulations

academic managers are not usually as crass as the

always come with a caveat that they should not be

Swinburne example, the message passed down the

used in isolation, in practice individuals whose output

line, and reiterated in academics’ annual performance

falls below the average, however high the overall level

appraisals and on other occasions, like applications for

of performance of a School, may feel under pressure, or

study leave, is that academics need to be increasingly

may be put under pressure in performance appraisals.

‘strategic’ about where they place their work. The status

It should be noted that the University’s Q-T index for teaching is even more problematical than the Q-R index for research, being derived directly from an unweighted

average

student evaluation scores.

hierarchy

...the message passed down the line, and reiterated in academics’ annual performance appraisals and on other occasions ... is that academics need to be increasingly ‘strategic’ about where they place their work.

This is despite the fact that the ARC prepared an

journal and

embodied

rankings,

flawed

controversial

though

they might be, is reflected in the weightings used in points systems such as the Q-Index or in universities’ increasingly

quantified

and

articulated

explicitly

‘research

performance

amended ERA journal ranking list for the 2012 round after

expectations’ for staff at specified academic levels of

widespread criticism of the 2010 list. Some of the more

appointment, which refer to journal rankings.The Q-Index

egregious flaws of the 2010 list were corrected in the

is calculated to two decimal places, providing an illusion

2012 list, but the latter also reflected the lobbying efforts

of objectivity and precision. A number of universities

of various groups including professional associations. In

have been promulgating such ‘expectations’ since the

any event, the 2012 list was withdrawn in 2011, prior

second ERA round.

to the 2012 ERA round, after a fresh round of criticism

Globally, indications are mounting that all is not well

and complaints that the lists were being misused (e.g. for

in scholarly publishing, and the misuse of metrics and

individual performance management purposes). Since

attempts to exploit the shortcomings of systems of

then, the ARC has persistently advised that, in the words

measurement are a frequent theme.

of ARC CEO Aidan Byrne, ‘ERA hasn’t made use of journal

The Economist (2013) reported industrial-scale fraud,

rankings since 2010, and while some universities have

such as ghost-writing rackets, in China. The reasons given

continued to use them internally, it is the ARC’s firm view

for this phenomenon are by no means isolated to China.

that this should stop’ (Trounson, 2015).

The Economist wrote:

But, like a virus released into the environment, once the journal rankings lists are out there, they can’t be recalled by email. Data empower managers, and managers do not voluntarily relinquish the ability to assemble, deploy, and manipulate large datasets. Journal rankings are also used as a lever to seek to improve universities’ ERA scores. As

In the 1980s, when China was only beginning to reinvest in science, amassing publishing credits seemed a good way to use non-political criteria for evaluating researchers. But today the statistics-driven standards for promotion (even when they are not handed out merely on the basis of personal connections) are as problematic as in the rest of the bureaucracy.

Frank Larkins’ analysis of the different outcomes of the 2010 and 2012 ERA indicates, universities respond highly

A ‘warped incentive system has created some big

strategically to such ranking schemes, being very selective

embarrassments’, including mass retractions of dozens of

about what areas to submit for assessment. Consequently,

articles by researchers who have been caught cheating.

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Tide or tsunami? The impact of metrics on scholarly research Andrew G Bonnell

The ‘warped incentive scheme’ derives from the fact that, as some Chinese scientists argue: Some administrators are unqualified to evaluate research, … either because they are bureaucrats or because they were promoted using the same criteria themselves. In addition, the administrators’ institutions are evaluated on their publication rankings, so university presidents and department heads place a priority on publishing, especially for SCI [Science Citation Index] credits (Economist, 2013).

’

science’ in which researchers feel pressured to rush out papers to publish as much as possible (Nature (News), 2014). Rising concern at the misuse of research metrics, and the negative effects of such metrics, prompted the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to undertake a major independent review of ‘The Metric Tide’, which appeared in July 2015 (Wilsdon, et al. 2015). The steering group supporting Professor James Wilsdon

More recently, in April 2015, The Lancet issued a

of the Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex

dramatic warning that ‘reductive metrics’ were leading to

was highly distinguished, including Dr Liz Allen, Head of

a crisis in scientific publishing. The Lancet’s editor, Richard

Evaluation of the Wellcome Trust, Sir Phillip Campbell,

Horton (2015), wrote that the ‘apparent endemicity of

editor-in-chief of Nature, Dr Ian Viney, MRC Director of

bad research behaviour is alarming’:

Strategic Evaluation and Impact of the Medical Research

much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness.

Council, London, and scholars from several UK universities as well as Leiden University. In some respects, the report is relatively conservative. It seeks to refine metrics and the UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF), not to abolish them. Nonetheless, it enunciates some grave criticisms of the current misuse of metrics. Headline findings of The Metric Tide report include:

Contributing factors causing this crisis include the fact

• Across the research community, the description, production and consumption of ‘metrics’ remains

that: Universities are in a perpetual struggle for money and talent, endpoints that foster reductive metrics, such as high-impact publication. National assessment procedures, such as the Research Excellence Framework, incentivise bad practices. The Academy of Medical Sciences, Medical Research Council, and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council are reported to be backing an investigation into the problem (Horton, 2015).

contested and open to misunderstandings. […] • Peer review, despite its flaws and limitations, continues to command widespread support across disciplines. Metrics should support, not supplant, expert judgement. Peer review is not perfect, but it is the least worst form of academic governance we have […]. • Inappropriate indicators create perverse incentives. There is legitimate concern that some quantitative

In February 2014, Nature (News) reported that the

indicators can be gamed, or can lead to unintended

publishers Springer and the Institute of Electrical and

consequences; journal impact factors and citation

Electronics Engineers (IEEE) had had to remove over 120

counts are two prominent examples (Wilsdon et al.,

papers from their subscription platforms after French

2015, p. viii. Bold type in original).

computer scientist Cyril Labbé had ‘discovered that the

Existing metrics systems were found to be in need

works were computer-generated nonsense’.The gibberish

of further development, and could not at present be

papers came from ‘more than 30 published conference

relied on to replace more qualitative processes, such as

proceedings between 2008 and 2013’. As Nature (News)

narratives of case studies (Wilsdon et al., 2015, pp.ix-x).

reported, Labbé is no stranger to fake studies. In April 2010, he used SCIgen to generate 102 fake papers by a fictional author called Ike Antkare. Labbé showed how easy it was to add these fake papers to the Google Scholar database, boosting Ike Antkare’s h-index, a measure of published output, to 94 — at the time, making Antkare the world’s 21st most highly cited scientist. […] Labbé says that the latest discovery is merely one symptom of a ‘spamming war started at the heart of

The first, overarching recommendation of the twenty recommendations in the Wilsdon report is: ‘The research community should develop a more sophisticated and nuanced approach to the contribution and limitations of quantitative indicators.’ (Wilsdon et al., 2015, p. viii.) The fourth recommendation is of particular interest here in the light of the quantitative performance management practices that are rapidly being adopted in Australia:

Tide or tsunami? The impact of metrics on scholarly research Andrew G Bonnell

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

HR managers and recruitment or promotion panels in [higher education institutions] should be explicit about the criteria used for academic appointment and promotion decisions. These criteria should be founded in expert judgement and may reflect both the academic quality of outputs and wider contributions to policy, industry or society. Judgements may sometimes usefully be guided by metrics, if they are relevant to the criteria in question and used responsibly; article-level citation metrics, for instance, might be useful indicators of academic impact, as long as they are interpreted in the light of disciplinary norms and with due regard to their limitations. Journal-level metrics, such as the JIF [Journal Impact Factors], should not be used. (HR managers, recruitment and promotion panels, UUK [Universities UK] [to note]). (Wilsdon et al., 2015, Recommendation 4, first sentence bold in original, last sentence: emphasis added.) After the introductory chapter, a second chapter of The Metric Tide charts the rise of the field of ‘scientometrics’ and compares different national practices of institutionalised evaluation of research (including Australia’s ERA). One of the chapter epigraphs, like some

’

that ‘Metrics should not become the “tail that wags the dog” of research practice in all disciplines’ ((Wilsdon et al., 2015, p. 50). Elsewhere, in noting the limitations of citation indices, the report notes that ‘bibliometrics often do not distinguish between negative or positive citation, highly cited literature might attract attention due to controversy or even error.’ (Wilsdon et al., 2015, p.5) There is also the question of publications in languages other than English, which are often under-represented in citation indices (Wilsdon et al., 2015, p.52), and, for that matter, in journal ranking lists compiled in English-speaking countries. In its consideration of current trends in bibliometrics, the Wilsdon report (2015, p. 35) finds that: The use of journal-level indicators for assessing individual publications is rejected by many bibliometricians. It is argued that the distribution of citations over the publications in a journal is highly skewed, which means that the JIF and other journal-level indicators are not representative of the citation impact of a typical publication in a journal.

others in the report, reveals a subversive current that emerges from time to time:

At the same time, the report noted that ‘some

‘A timid, bureaucratic spirit has come to suffuse every aspect of intellectual life. More often than not, it comes cloaked in the language of creativity, initiative and entrepreneurialism.’ David Graeber (Wilsdon et al., 2015, p. 12)

bibliometricians agree with the use of journal-level

Another chapter epigraph, perhaps inevitably, cites

2015, p. 35). The Wilsdon report notes that there have

Douglas Adams from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the

been significant concerns raised in recent statements

Galaxy on the meaning of life being the number 42.

representing the voices of many in the scientific

(Wilsdon et al., 2015, p. 30).

community over the fact that

One notable comment stresses the imperfect state of the common sources of bibliometric data: As PLOS [Public Library of Science] noted in its response to our call for evidence, ‘there are no adequate sources of bibliometric data that are publicly accessible, useable, auditable and transparent’ (Wilsdon et al., 2015, p. 17).

indicators in the assessment of very recent publications’, but mainly, it seems, as a default option where there has not been sufficient time for citation statistics for individual articles to accumulate (Wilsdon et al.,

the application of indicators at inappropriate scales features prominently in recent statements, such as DORA [San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment] and the Leiden Manifesto. Too often, managers and evaluators continue to rely on metrics that are recognised as unsuitable as measures of individual performance, such as journal-level indicators (Wilsdon et al., 2015, p. 48).

Arguably, this situation is even worse in the humanities,

One of the Wilsdon report’s conclusions reflects a

where many citations are in books or book chapters. The

strong condemnation of the misuse of inappropriate

Wilsdon report acknowledges that:‘Research evaluation in

indicators, such as journal rankings and JIFs:

book-oriented fields is more challenging than for articlebased subject areas’, for such reasons, and also finds that ‘some academic books are primarily written for teaching (e.g. textbooks) or cultural purposes (e.g. novels and poetry) and citation counts of any kind may be wholly inappropriate for these’ (Wilsdon et al. 2015, p. 40). The Wilsdon report considers disciplinary variations in a separate chapter, noting the differences in research and publishing culture between disciplines and cautioning vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Inappropriate indicators create perverse incentives. Across the community, there is legitimate concern that some of the quantitative indicators already being used to support decisions around research excellence and quality can be gamed and can lead to unintended consequences. The worst example of this is the widespread use of JIFs, where group (journal-level) metrics are ascribed to its non-homogenous constituents (articles) as a proxy for quality. There is also a very real possibility of existing or emergent indicators being

Tide or tsunami? The impact of metrics on scholarly research Andrew G Bonnell

’

gamed (for example through ‘citation clubs’, salamislicing of papers to increase citation counts, and battles over author positioning). These consequences need to be identified, acknowledged and addressed (Wilsdon et al., 2015, p. 138. Bold type in original).

The Metric Tide go on to state:‘It is beyond the scope of this

The chapters in the Wilsdon report on ‘Management

Researchers are not passive recipients of research evaluation but play an active role in assessment contexts. Therefore, any system used to assess research, whether peer review or indicator-based, that affects money or reputation will tend to influence researchers’ behaviour in two ways (Wilsdon et al., 2015, p.81).

by metrics’ and ‘Cultures of counting’ contain some sharp analysis. The ‘import of more corporate styles of management’, ‘greater competition for scarce resources’ and the extent to which higher education has become an

report to resolve all of these issues’ (Wilsdon et al., 2015, p. 80). It does canvass a range of these issues, however. There is the obvious factor of the observation effect:

‘export industry’ are all identified as factors that are driving more metric-driven management practices (Wilsdon et al.,

The first of these two kinds of effects is goal

2015, p. 68). Some publication metrics feed directly into

displacement: chasing the metrics becomes the goal of

some ranking systems, such as the Academic Ranking of

researchers rather than the metrics measuring whether

World Universities (ARWU, formerly Shanghai Jiao Tong)

the research itself has been successful. The second

and university managers perceive a direct link between

effect relates to ‘a change in the research process itself

success in such internationally publicised ranking lists,

in response to assessment criteria’ (Wilsdon et al., 2015,

despite their often glaring methodological flaws, and

p. 82). Here, the question of ‘gaming’ arises. The report

the capacity to charge international students higher

is sceptical of claims that the UK’s Research Assessment

fees than less highly-ranked institutions. The Wilsdon

Exercise (RAE) and REF resulted in widespread ‘gaming’,

report also notes that while ‘pressures to incorporate

but concedes that ‘it isn’t always entirely evident what

metrics into research assessment within universities

distinguishes gaming from strategizing’ (Wilsdon et al.

may have originated in response to external forces’, such

2015, p. 83).

information-gathering processes can quickly take on a life and dynamic of their own (Wilsdon et al., 2015, p. 69).

Other concerns that are noted in this section of the report include possible biases against interdisciplinarity,

Under the heading ‘Cultures of counting’, the report

the extent to which the production of journal ratings is a

states that management systems with a strongly

‘highly political task’ (Wilsdon et al. 2015, p. 83, here citing

quantitative dimension have made decision-making

Pontille and Torny, 2010), the pressure on researchers to

‘more transparent’ and have ‘allowed institutions to

stop doing certain kinds of work (such as book reviews,

tackle genuine cases of underperformance’. These claims

encyclopaedia entries), or ‘task reduction’ (Wilsdon et

might be contested – procedures to tackle genuine lack

al. 2015, p. 85), ‘increased levels of stress anxiety among

of performance pre-exist metric-driven management

academics’ under increasingly metrics-based regimes of

systems, and decisions solely based on metrics would risk

management, and the effects on knowledge production

being unsafe in the light of all the qualifications that the

of factors such as the ‘conservatism of metrics users’

report itself raises on the use of metrics. At the same time,

(Wilsdon et al. 2015, p. 85, here citing Butler, 2003; 2005).

the report notes:

There are also possible negative effects in terms of equity

many within academia resist moves towards greater quantification of performance management on the grounds that these will erode academic freedoms and the traditional values of universities. There is of course a proper place for competition in academic life, but there are also growing concerns about an expansion in the number and reach of managers, and the distortions that can be created by systems of institutionalized audit (Wilsdon et al., 2015, p. 79).

and equal opportunity in reliance on research metrics,

The report cites concerns that ‘metrics are widely seen

the performance metrics on which they rely ‘continue

as absolving research managers of the responsibility for

to reflect and valorise the ideal academic as male and

making assessments based on more accurate and complete

masculine principles of knowledge production, which

information, and as contributing to mistrust of research

dominate structures of governance’.

including gender bias, which is the result of a number of factors from the social distribution of carers’ work to the fact that men are apparently more likely to cite their own work (or each other’s) (Wilsdon et al. 2015, pp. 90-95). The gendered effect of metrics fostered by the ERA in Australia has been recently analysed by Lipton (2015, p. 69), who finds that such ‘quality assurance measures’ and

management more generally’ (Wilsdon et al., 2015, p.

The problem of ‘task reduction’ identified by The

80). Regrettably, after noting widespread concern at the

Metric Tide report has been evident in Australia for some

negative effects of the ‘cultures of counting’, the authors of

time now, especially since the inception of the ERA. As

Tide or tsunami? The impact of metrics on scholarly research Andrew G Bonnell

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

university managers assign points values corresponding to

that were not necessarily positive. Examples ranged from

‘outputs’ and to proxies for quality such as journal rankings,

the use of “citation clubs” to boost citations, to major

and as these points values seep into workload allocation

distortions in the research endeavour, downplaying whole

processes, performance appraisal regimes, and publication

disciplinary areas’ (Wilsdon et al., 2015, p. 119).The report

‘incentive’ schemes (extra research funding for publishing

concludes that ‘it is not currently feasible to assess the

in the ‘right’ places), academics come under increasing

quality of research outputs using quantitative indicators

pressure to rationalise their activities, and early career staff

alone’ (Wilsdon et al., 2015, p. 131).

especially are warned off activities that do not get rewarded

The Wilsdon report cites, and partly follows, some

in metrics. In September 2014, a group of over 40 editors

recent statements by bodies representing significant

of journals published by Wiley in Australia signed an open

numbers of scientists, which have articulated concerns at

letter, coordinated by Martha McIntyre, drawing attention

the misuse of metrics.The 2013 San Francisco Declaration

to the system of ‘perverse incentives’ under which ‘the

on Research Assessment (DORA) followed on from the

voluntary inputs of reviewing and editorial services to

December 2012 conference of the American Society

academic journals’ were unrewarded and under-recognised

for Cell Biology, at which strong concerns were aired

at the same time as institutions put ever-increasing value on

at the way in which current citation practices were

publication in peer-reviewed journals:

having perverse effects on the scientific enterprise. The

The ERA procedures effectively mean that certain research activities are rewarded while other academic activities are not; and that universities suffer financial consequences if their academic staff do not privilege the winning of large grants and publication of articles in prestigious, high quality journals over all other work. These journals have of course become prestigious precisely because of the hard work of successive editors, associate editors and reviewers, which, for the most part, is unpaid (McIntyre et al., 2014). Editors report that they are receiving increasing requests for special issues, which pose their own demands on reviewing; they also report increasing difficulty finding qualified people to undertake peer-reviewing of articles, and some journals are experiencing difficulties in finding editors (McIntyre et al., 2014). (Disclosure: the author was a signatory of the McIntyre open letter in his capacity as a journal editor.) A recent article in the Australian Universities’ Review by Franklin Obeng-Odoom came to the defence of book reviewers despite the lack of recognition and reward that attaches to reviewers, despite the fact that academics in book-based disciplines always crave good reviews for themselves. As Obong-Odoom puts it (2014, p. 78), ‘One contradiction in the status quo is that academics expect to be served but they are discouraged from serving and hence are led down a line of being selfish’. This sums up in a nutshell the behavioural effects of the current incentive schemes which are largely driven by evaluation regimes and the metrics that underpin them. While the Wilsdon report seems to have taken its brief to be the fine-tuning of research exercises such as the UK’s REF, rather than advocating their abolition, it

Declaration’s primary general recommendation was: 1. Do not use journal-based metrics, such as Journal Impact Factors, as a surrogate measure of the quality of individual research articles, to assess an individual scientist’s contributions, or in hiring, promotion, or funding decisions (Declaration on Research Assessment, 2013). More specifically, it was recommended that institutions: 4. Be explicit about the criteria used to reach hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions, clearly highlighting, especially for early-stage investigators, that the scientific content of a paper is much more important than publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which it was published. 5. For the purposes of research assessment, consider the value and impact of all research outputs (including datasets and software) in addition to research publications, and consider a broad range of impact measures including qualitative indicators of research impact, such as influence on policy and practice. In its recommendations to individual researchers, the Declaration reiterates the injunction: 15. When involved in committees making decisions about funding, hiring, tenure, or promotion, make assessments based on scientific content rather than publication metrics. [and:] 18. Challenge research assessment practices that rely inappropriately on Journal Impact Factors and promote and teach best practice that focuses on the value and influence of specific research outputs (Declaration on Research Assessment, 2013).

does note some significant concerns in its reflection on

As of 22 August 2015, the Declaration had over 12,500

the REF. These include: ‘the potential that some types of

individual signatories and 588 institutional signatories.

quantitative data could encourage particular behaviours

The institutional signatories include the British Academy

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Tide or tsunami? The impact of metrics on scholarly research Andrew G Bonnell

and a number of national learned academies, such as the Austrian and Czech Academies of Sciences, as well as the Australian Academy of Science, the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes, Neuroscience Research Australia, and the Association of Australian Cotton Scientists. Australia’s National Health and Medical

’

allocate ‘performance resources’ or by giving researchers a bonus for a publication in a journal with an impact factor higher than 15. In many cases, researchers and evaluators still exert balanced judgement. Yet the abuse of research metrics has become too widespread to ignore.

Research Council (NHMRC) has also signed the San

The recommendations of the Leiden Manifesto

Francisco Declaration (NHMRC, 2015) and even earlier, in

include: ‘7) Base assessment of individual researchers on

April 2010, had issued a statement discouraging the use of

a qualitative judgement of their portfolio’ (Hicks et al.,

Journal Impact Factors in applications or peer review of

2015).

applications, stating:‘Journal Impact Factor is not a sound

There is thus a large and growing body of scientific

basis upon which to judge the impact of individual papers’

opinion, and academic opinion more broadly, expressing

(NHMRC, 2010). The NHMRC in 2015 has broadened this

concern about the growing tendency for metrics to be

statement to read:

used inappropriately. In particular, there is condemnation

It is not appropriate to use publication and citation metrics such as Journal Impact Factors, the previous Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) Ranked Journal List or h-index when assessing applications as these can potentially be misleading when applied to the peer review of publication outputs of individuals, and may also not be relevant to the project under consideration (NHMRC, 2015).

from authoritative bodies such as the ARC, the NHMRC and the UK’s HEFCE of the practice of using journallevel metrics and rankings for individual performance appraisal. Despite this, Australian universities continue down this path. While writing this paper, I was, therefore, somewhat dispirited to read the latest upbeat aspirational statement

Of the many universities and university schools and

from a leading Australian university: The University of

institutes to have signed the San Francisco Declaration,

New South Wales’ (UNSW) August 2015 White Paper (p.8)

the only Australian university signatories to appear on

stated its ‘Objective No.1’ in research as:

the DORA website’s list are Murdoch University and the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience, although this fact does not seem to be publicised on their own websites. The Leiden Manifesto proposed ten principles for

To establish UNSW as one of the top 50 researchintensive universities worldwide. UNSW will have leading researchers across all faculties and many of our staff will be amongst the world’s most highly cited researchers. The number of publications appearing in leading journals will have doubled [by 2025].

the responsible measurement of research performance. It was composed by Diana Hicks (Professor in Public

The point of citing this is not to single out UNSW. The

Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology), Paul Wouters

managers of all ‘Group of Eight’ major research universities

(Leiden University), and three of their colleagues and was

would profess similar (probably identical) aspirations.

published in Nature (News) as a comment (2015).

Driven by competition for international student numbers,

The Leiden Manifesto states:

not to mention the quantified KPIs of individual managers,

As scientometricians, social scientists and research administrators, we have watched with increasing alarm the pervasive misapplication of indicators to the evaluation of scientific performance.

and seeking to justify charging higher fees than their

[…]

competitors, academic managers chase rankings, and use crude quantitative levers to try to extract more and higher-profile publications from their staff. It is not sustainable. Already, leading journals such

Some recruiters request h-index values for candidates. Several universities base promotion decisions on threshold h-index values and on the number of articles in ‘high-impact’ journals. Researchers’ CVs have become opportunities to boast about these scores, notably in biomedicine. Everywhere, supervisors ask PhD students to publish in high-impact journals and acquire external funding before they are ready.

as The Lancet and Nature are complaining of being

In Scandinavia and China, some universities allocate research funding or bonuses on the basis of a number: for example, by calculating individual impact scores to

implicitly penalised. The fetishisation of journal rankings

spammed. Quantitative performance indices lock in overwork and undermine both collegiality and equity objectives as academics are pitted against each other in pursuit of rolling average output norms. Incentives for gaming and fraud mount, and the altruistic collegial behaviours on which the research eco-system depends are also undermines institutions’ claims to support greater open access to research, puts a premium on conservative

Tide or tsunami? The impact of metrics on scholarly research Andrew G Bonnell

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

publication practices, with the risk that innovation and interdisciplinary work will be marginalised, and potentially undermines academic freedom. With systemic public underfunding of higher education over a couple of decades at the root of the malaise of Australian universities, and little fiscal relief in sight, it is impossible to say when our research eco-system will either improve or implode.

Acknowledgement I would like to acknowledge the valuable feedback provided by participants in the following symposia to which an earlier version of this paper was presented: Reclaiming the Knowledge Commons, held by the Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, University of Sydney, at State Library of NSW, Sydney, 26 August 2015, and the National Scholarly Communications Forum (sponsored by Australian Academy of the Humanities), Australian National University, Canberra, 7 September

’

Horton, R. (2015). Offline: What is medicine’s 5 sigma? The Lancet 385, April 11, p.1380. Larkins, F.P. (2013). ERA 2012 (Part 1): University Responses and Performances Compared with ERA 2010, paper for L.H. Martin Institute for Tertiary Education Leadership and Management, 2013. Retrieved from http://www.lhmartininstitute. edu.au/userfiles/files/Blog/FLarkins_HE%20Research%20Policy%20Analysis_ ERA2012_pt1_Feb2013.pdf. Lipton, B. (2015). A new ‘ERA’ of women and leadership. Australian Universities’ Review, 57(2), 60-70. McIntyre, M., S. Jones, M. Bartold, L. Frost, M. Shanahan, M. Weder, P. Jensen, et al. (2014). Journal reviewing and editing: Institutional support is essential. Submission to institutions relevant to the higher education sector in Australia on behalf of Australian editors of academic journals. September. Retrieved from http://www.air.asn.au/cms_files/00_Homepage/00_LatestNews/ journal_reviewing_institutional_support_sept14.pdf. Nature (News) (2014). Publishers withdraw more than 120 gibberish papers. 25 February. Retrieved from http://www.Nature.com/news/publishers-withdrawmore-than-120-gibberish-papers-1.14763 . NHMRC (National Health and Medical Research Council) (2010). NHMRC removes Journal Impact Factors from Peer Review of Individual Research Grant and Fellowship Applications. Retrieved from https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_ nhmrc/file/grants/peer/impact%20factors%20in%20peer%20review.pdf.

2015.

NHMRC (National Health and Medical Research Council). (2015). Guide to Peer Review. Retrieved from https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/book/guide-nhmrc-peerreview-2015.

Andrew G. Bonnell is an associate professor in the School

Obeng-Odoom, F. (2014). Why Write Book Reviews? Australian Universities Review, 56, 1, pp.78-82.

of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, University of Contact: a.bonnell@uq.edu.au

Pontille, D., & Torny, D. (2010). The controversial policies of journal ratings: Evaluating social sciences and humanities. Research Evaluation, 19, 5, pp.347-360.

References

Trounson, A. (2015) Swinburne accused of research ratings ploy. The Australian, 1 April.

Butler, L. (2003). Explaining Australia’s increased share of ISI publications – the effects of a funding formula based on publication counts. Research Policy. 32(1), 143-155.

UNSW (University of New South Wales). (2015). UNSW 2025. Statement of Strategic Intent. White Paper, UNSW, August, p.8. Retrieved from https:// www.2025.unsw.edu.au/whitepaper/UNSW-2025-White-Paper-13-3.pdf.

Butler, L. (2005). What happens when funding is linked to publication counts? In: H. Moed, , W. Glänzel, & U Schmoch (Eds.), Handbook of quantitative science and technology research. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 389-405.

Wilsdon, J., Allen, L., Belfiore, E., Campbell, P., Curry, S., Hill, S., Jones, R., Kain, R., Kerridge, S., Thelwall, M., Tinkler, J., Viney, I., Wouters, P., Hill, J. & Johnson, B. (2015). The Metric Tide: Report of the Independent Review of the Role of Metrics in Research Assessment and Management. DOI: 10.13140/ RG.2.1.4929.1363.

Queensland, Australia.

Declaration on Research Assessment (2013). Retrieved from http://www.ascb. org/dora/. Economist, The. (2013). Looks good on paper. Retrieved from http://www. economist.com/news/china/21586845-flawed-system-judging-research-leadingacademic-fraud-looks-good-paper. Hicks, D., Wouters, P., Waltman, L, de Rijcke, S., & I. Rafols (2015) Bibliometrics: The Leiden Manifesto for Research Metrics, Nature News, Vol.520, Issue 7548. Retrieved from http://www.Nature.com/news/bibliometrics-the-leiden-manifestofor-research-metrics-1.17351; also http://leidenmanifesto.org.

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Tide or tsunami? The impact of metrics on scholarly research Andrew G Bonnell

’

OPINION

Ranking by medians Brian Martin University of Wollongong

When a committee needs to rank applications, it is worthwhile having committee members independently rank the applications and then starting the committee’s discussion with the medians of the ranks.

It was time to rank PhD scholarship applications in

applications. If there are 20 applications, each committee

the faculty. I joined the large committee, with one

members ranks them 1 to 20. Alternatively, ranks can be

representative from each department. The meeting was

readily derived from the scores.

rancorous and lasted so long it had to be reconvened at a later time to finish the ranking.

The scores and ranks are given to an assistant who prepares a table listing each applicant’s rank as assessed by

The meeting was difficult for several reasons. Each

each committee member. Then the median rank for each

committee member came to the meeting with a preferred

application is calculated.The median is just the middle of a

order in mind, but no one knew where everyone else

group of numbers. For example, if the five ranks are 1, 1, 2, 5

stood. Some members were playing favourites, presenting

and 11, the median is 2. (The average in this case is 4.) With

arguments for their desired applicants: they would

a small committee, it’s easy to calculate the median by eye;

emphasise some positive attribute of an applicant and

with a large committee, a spreadsheet function can be used.

ignore negatives that may have influenced others, with

Committee members then attend a meeting, and the

the positives and negatives being raised or downplayed

table of ranks is given to each member and/or projected

in a selective fashion. Finally, some members were more

on a screen, with applicants ordered in terms of the

forceful than others. The meeting eventually ended, but

median ranks for their applications. Then the committee

left a bitter taste for many who participated.

members can discuss whether to use the median ranks as

A few years later, I became chair of the committee and tried a new system that overcame many of the previous

the basis for awarding scholarships (or whatever), or to change the order.

problems. The meetings for ranking scholarships and

In my experience, this method makes decision-making

grant applications were shorter and less contentious. I call

much easier. There is seldom disagreement about the

the method used ‘ranking by medians’. It is currently used

upper or lower ranked applications, so most discussion is

at the University of Wollongong for ranking scholarships

about those at the boundary.

at the university level.

Why it works How it works Independent ranking is a crucial part of this method. Before

member

Independent rankings reduce the influence of dominant

independently rates each application according to

personalities. Each member’s assessment is included,

selection criteria, for example with a score between 0 and

regardless of how forceful or retiring they are. Indeed,

100. The key, though, is not the score but the ranking of

a member can be absent from the meeting yet still have

the

meeting,

each

committee

Ranking by medians Brian Martin

vol. 56, no. 2, 2014

’

nearly as much influence on the outcome as others.

The median in each case is the average of the second

Independent assessments are vital in taking advantage of

and third highest ranking. The four rankings for A are 1,

what has been called the ‘wisdom of crowds’ (Surowiecki,

1, 2, 5. The second highest is 1 and the third highest is 2,

2004). Individuals may vary greatly in their assessments

so the median is 1.5. (With an odd number of committee

but when combined the result can be surprisingly

members, the median is the middle ranking.) Note that I

accurate. Indeed, a large diverse committee with less

set up the table so that the applications are in order of the

expertise is likely to perform better than a small one with

medians. Usually they won’t be so neatly ordered, so then

more expertise (Page, 2007).

it’s a simple matter of sorting by median. In this example

Why use the median rank, rather than the average score?

M4 has a very different perspective than the other

The trouble with averages is that they can be easily skewed

committee members, but this has only a minor effect on

by outliers. A committee member can manipulate the

the medians and almost none on the final order.

outcome, consciously or unconsciously, by awarding an

In some committees I’ve attended using this system,

extremely high score to a favoured applicant or a low one

we are given a table just like that one above, with all

to a detested one.The median, in contrast, mutes the effect

the rankings by each committee member, but no names

of outliers. Suppose four committee members give scores

of committee members attached, though it’s sometimes

of 95, 95, 94 and 90, but the fifth member gives a score of

possible to infer them. In this way everyone can see how

40, dramatically bringing down the average. The medians

each committee member ranked the applications, without

might be 1, 1, 2, 4 and 11 (as before). Even if there had been

getting too personal. It’s a useful basis for the subsequent

99 applications and the fifth committee member had given

discussion. For example, if there are dramatic differences

this application a score of 0 and a rank of 99, it would make

in rankings of one or more applications, this can lead to

no difference to the median rank, which would still be 2.

a discussion of the assessment criteria. The medians are

Mathematically, the median is more robust than the average.

not determinative, but a good argument is needed to go

There is one other powerful effect in this process:

strongly against them.

every committee member can see every other member’s rankings. It becomes harder to play favourites. Explicit

Final comment

independent rankings make special pleading and attempts to game the system more obvious and easier to resist.

In many cases, decisions about applications for jobs, scholarships and grants may be best made by combining

An example

measures such as test scores and publication records (Dawes, 1979). However, academics are reluctant to

Suppose there are five applications, A, B, C, D and E, and

relinquish their role in making academic judgements

four committee members, M1, M2, M3 and M4.

despite evidence that other measures are more effective.

Each committee member ranks the applications, which

When academic judgements are required or desired,

means putting them in priority order. Suppose they give

ranking by medians by a large and diverse group making

these rankings:

independent assessments is a worthwhile option.

M1: A, B, C, D, E

Acknowledgements

M2: A, D, B, C, E M3: B, A, C, E, D M4: E, B, D, C, A

I thank Lyn Carson, Leonie Clement, Tim Marchant, Anne

It looks confusing! So let’s prepare a table with the

Melano, Linda Steele and Graham Williams for useful

rankings. The top-ranked application for M1 is A, so A gets

feedback.

a 1, B gets a 2 and so forth.

median

1.5

3.5

4.5

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Brian Martin is Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Wollongong, NSW. Contact: bmartin@uow.edu.au

References Dawes, R. M. (1979). The robust beauty of improper linear models in decision making. American Psychologist, 34 (7), 571–582.

Ranking by medians Brian Martin

Page, S. E. (2007). The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Create Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Surowiecki, J. (2004). The Wisdom of Crowds. New York: Doubleday.

’

that the median of ranked applications remains the same no matter how many are ranked. This renormalisation can also be used when a committee member does not evaluate one or more applications due to an oversight or

Appendix: Technicalities

administrative error.

If someone ranks two applications as equal, their ranks

to the nearest 0.1. When 10 of the 11 are ranked, n=10,

should be the average of the two. For example, if two

and so forth.

The following table gives the result for N=11, rounded

applications are ranked equal first, they should each be given a rank of 1.5 (the average of 1 and 2); the next application will be rank 3.

11 ranked

10 ranked

9 ranked

8 ranked

7 ranked

6 ranked

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.5

1.7

applications to be uncompetitive and do not bother to

2.2

2.4

2.7

3.0

3.4

rank them.These applications should be given the average

3.3

3.6

4.0

4.5

5.1

of the bottom ranks. If out of 20 applications, a committee

4.4

4.8

5.3

6.0

6.8

member ranks only the top 10, then each of the remaining

5.5

6.0

6.7

7.5

8.6

6.5

7.2

8.0

9.0

10.3

It is a different matter when a committee member does

7.6

8.4

9.3

10.5

not want to rank an application because of a conflict of

8.7

9.6

10.7

interest. Giving this application a low rank would be unfair:

9.8

10.8

it might actually be the committee member’s favourite.

10.9

There are two options. One is to say, go ahead and rank

Sometimes

committee

members

judge

some

applications should be ranked 15.5 (the average of 11, 12 … 20).

them all regardless of conflicts of interest, because with medians the impact of bias will be limited. The other option is to renormalise all the ranks for this committee

For example, suppose, due to conflicts of interest, a

member: the ‘increment’ for each ranked application

committee member ranks only 8 of the 11 applications.

should be (N+1)/(n+1), where N is the number of

The highest ranked application is given a rank of 1.3, the

applications and n is the number ranked. This ensures

next highest 2.7, etc.

Ranking by medians Brian Martin

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

Who gets the research loot? The challenges of being a postdoctoral fellow in a neoliberal university Joshua Nash University of New England

Looting

win-win, I have my reservations. I believe these concerns are relevant to many academics in both research and

My thoughts are anthropological, environmental, and

teaching positions in Australia and elsewhere. I present

geographical in that my family and I find ourselves in

several issues relevant to the contemporary business of

new cultural, geographical, and academic surrounds. I

knowledge generation and knowledge movement and

have recently moved with partner and 26-month-old

its relation to the possibility of a radical environmental

daughter to rural New South Wales to take up a three-year

humanities and its crossovers with anthropology and in

postdoctoral research fellowship at a regional university.

part geography.

The fellowship scheme is part of a new initiative to attract

It was outside a café a few days after arriving in my

fresh talent to this institution, Australia’s oldest regional

new hometown where I met another postdoctoral fellow

university, an establishment with an already impressive

from my new university (employed on a different scheme

research record. The new fellowship program allows

to me) that I realised how relaxed this town is and how

fellows the opportunity to procure more research funds

the university environment is obviously less frantic than

and attract more research status to the university. Such an

in Australian urban centres. I have come from a university

arrangement should not surprise any of us operating in

where being stressed, wired, and overworked is the status

what can be considered a neoliberal research sector.

quo; it is almost expected. Our discussion, which was

It is expected that during my incumbency I will publish

softly interrupted by a beautiful yet cold late winter rain,

as much as possible and apply for research grants which,

moved from the politics of research, the role of language

if successful, will be encouraged to be attached to this

and words in our respective research fields, and backyard

university, and through which my future salary will be

vegetable gardening in the local environment. Neither of

paid. I am a part of an intellectual yet ultimately business-

us is from the place where we now live. I consider the

driven investment: ‘We give you a certain amount of

mobility and geography of research and researchers, and

financial resources for three years and provide you with

the(ir) apparently incessant need to go where the cash

the institutional support for you to undertake research.

is just in order to have an apparently insecure, time-

You should then make more for us over the next however

restricted, and untenured or non-continuing job. I swore

many years. The condition: you stick with us. After our

I would never move for work. Here I am. Moving to New

initial investment, you search out your own money and

South Wales at least got me away from my family of origin

we will administer it for you’. While this appears as a

in South Australia.

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Who gets the research loot? Joshua Nash

Modern academix

’

I have experienced the amount of administration associated with small research grants; some are simply

My new colleague is a self-described multidisciplinary

not worth the effort. And the large ones are out of the

economist. He bore the scars of the modern academic:

reach of a new postdoctoral applicant. So what to do

he had moved several times for work, he told me of

in such a situation? More specifically, how does such a

his research having suffered as a result of his teaching

situation come about? It appears the process of gate

enterprises, and was now three years into a five-year

keeping research maintained by public and private

research position. While I assumed he was right–oriented

funding bodies is driven largely by those who are already

politically, he claimed his opinions had changed over time.

enjoying positions of status within their given field. Such

The corporatisation of universities troubled him, and he

researchers tend to be the consistent recipients of grant

was obviously fearful of his future in research. He says he

funding from prestigious bodies. It is a case of have and so

did not like how universities had outsourced activities in

shall you receive. While it is apparent that such scholars

the way they had.The culture and economics of Australian

often demonstrate they can produce respectable research

universities is moving toward an American mode: user pays.

outcomes and to a large extent pursue their own research,

No time or space to think, no time get a group of friends

the systems which develop around such individuals are

together, contemplate, and look at the stars. Heck, maybe

not necessarily innovative. Innovation requires movement

one does not even have the time to get a girlfriend at uni

– movement of people, movement of resources, and

anymore. It is all about semesters, tri-semesters, summer

movement which is meant to remove stagnation. It

schools, and getting out quickly into the workforce. We

also requires time and space to think, the two precious

have all heard it – courses cut, pay cuts, casual contracts

commodities of which most (established) academics have

(at best), and the dawn of online teaching. But what

little. For a young postdoc in the minefield of Australian

does it all mean for universities as research institutions

academia, I believe innovation is most often the last thing

when the external funding acquired by their academics,

on one’s mind. Getting a gig, just getting something, is

already stretched intellectually and time poor, is going to

usually at the forefront. Having now achieved that, and

those who simply do not have the time to carry out the

having avoided aspects of the greasy pole, with the old

proposed research, i.e. to the academics themselves? That

hats greasing it while simultaneously pushing you down

is, how can a full time teaching and research academic

and making sure you do not get up anywhere, means I

carry out more research if they are successful in accruing

can now sit in relative postdoctoral luxury, guaranteed

more grant money? My contention: they cannot; at least

for at least three years until December 2017, and write

they cannot do so successfully.

up not only my scholarly findings but also pieces like

What such a situation creates is one not only of

this one. To this anyone could say: ‘Hey man, shut up and

inequity of financial resources but an odd inequity of

stop whinging. You actually got a postdoc. What are you

temporal resources. Succinctly put: those who get the

complaining about? I have applied for 50 postdocs with

research loot generally have little time to use the loot,

no joy. I’m jaded.’

and those who do not get the loot do have the time to

My new colleague reminded me of the success rate of

use it. And one would assume in around 50 per cent of

a particular section of research funding in Australia: 20

cases, would use it well. But the time-poor still manage to

per cent. Not bad odds really. So maybe I should just be

become the cash-rich in the academic world. In addition,

quiet. While I am now a beneficiary of a system, I am also

those who are established in their field get to push their

under no illusion that because I am now in, the system

research in the direction they desire while those who

is fine. It is not. Like the Australian property market, it is

often have more innovative and creative ideas, even if

skewed towards those who have.The eight postdocs were

those ideas are less developed, are hindered in their

selected from a batch of about 75 applicants - around 11

attempts to make a contribution and are restricted from

per cent.These are not good odds, and with the increasing

being allowed in the door. Applying for research funding

number of PhD completions flooding the academic

is in itself a radical (cyber) aspect of the environmental

markets of Australia and the world, the odds aren’t getting

humanities and geography involving copious hours of

any better (The SIGJ2 Writing Collective, 2012). Is it a play

searching (read: often scrounging) not to mention the

or be played situation? I believe it all depends on what

actual process of grant writing, involving the spending

you want.

of an inordinate amount of time which can often render the cash amount sought insignificant.

Who gets the research loot? Joshua Nash

When I recently met yet another academic in the discipline in which I am now located, he stated the three vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

important aspects which currently comprise any academic

actually anything worthwhile in studying and writing

career (such an abstract expression): research, teaching,

about linguistics? Within this academic and intellectual

and administration. I have been involved in research now

comfort, why is it that the fear and likelihood of teaching

for decades. Having done a PhD and been employed

and admin looms large? Where has that artist in me gone,

as a research associate post-PhD, I should know about

the one who used to talk about ‘research for research’s

research. I have a postdoctoral position with no teaching

sake’ or ‘art for art’s sake’? ’I didn’t go to uni to get a job’,

component, I repeat, no teaching. That is, at least as it stands

I used to tell people, ‘I went to uni to learn how to think.’

on my contract. If then, I have no teaching, what would

Isn’t it enough to have a research project funded by my

my administration work be, other than that associated

university reason enough to continue in a research-only

with my own research? I shudder to think I might become

position? Why, like so many others, am I forced to move

the discipline’s occupational health and safety officer.

from research writing to becoming a professional grant

So then, how will teaching and administration possibly

writer?

become a part of my newly found existence as a postdoc?

Having been out in the academic wilderness for some

Only if I want such a career, right? If and only if I choose a

time prior to signing my current contract, I realised

career in academia and indeed a career at this institution,

there is much to be said for carrying out one’s own

no? And what if I don’t want either? Should I even be

research based on one’s own financial and intellectual

questioning or complaining considering I am guaranteed a salary of $75,000 plus per year for the next three years, possibly with some potential to continue? I’m in a good position, right?

strengths. Institutions

Having been out in the academic wilderness for some time prior to signing my current contract, I realised there is much to be said for carrying out one’s own research based on one’s own financial and intellectual strengths.

The project

most

obviously

are

required;

they provide varying levels of

support

which

one

cannot find elsewhere – they contribute credence, status, and reliability to one’s work, at the same time as reaping the

benefits

research

conducted with their name I am in a good position. I have time and space to think,

on it. However, with what I believe are the admin paupers

an opportunity to travel to Pitcairn Island, a South Pacific

having taken over the research palace, it is often the case

island where no professional linguist has ever travelled,

that a university email address, a visiting research fellow

to conduct linguistic and ethnographic research on the

position, and a strong desire to do research is enough to

language of the descendants of the Bounty mutineers and

do what research is required. If anything, one avoids the

their Polynesian counterparts. The research completes

admin headache of research, and one is not answerable

a loop: I have worked on Norfolk Island, an external

to as many people. I know that in the case of Pitcairn

territory of Australia, where the Pitcairn Islanders were

Island, several linguists could have already gone. Why

relocated in 1856. Pitcairn is a last frontier of sorts. While

didn’t they? They didn’t get any funding, despite applying

a few families re-migrated to Pitcairn in 1861 taking back

several times. This baffles me. If you really wanted to go,

with them what has become known as the Pitcairn-

you would have paid your own way. For whatever reason,

Norfolk language, the looming threat of Pitcairn’s closure

researchers, and generally established researchers, rarely

makes my research and eventual publications not only

pay their own way in research.

of relevance to linguistics but also to geography, people

Maybe a reasonable analogy is that of purchasing a

movement, and the state of islands in a late modernity

house (having a full time tenured position) or renting

under the pressure of global economic, social, and

(having casual or short term contracts): house buying

environmental forces. ‘It’s worth it,’ I remind myself. ‘This

is meant to be a low risk option and should lead to

will be a challenge but it’s going to be fun.’ It seems being

financial security and wealth accumulation and provide

the first linguist ever to travel to Pitcairn will be a feather

the possibility for innovation, but it can in some instances

I can wear in my hat forever.

in parallel reduce mobility and movement. (This reminds

Behind these facts is the idea of a future; are my skills

me of what my former PhD supervisor once intimated

saleable or transferrable? I have just arrived in this town

to me: you can’t do revolutionary science when you’ve

but where to next? Why am I already projecting so far

got a revolutionary home life.) Renting is portrayed as

into what lies ahead? Isn’t three years forever? Is there

unstable and risky but is most definitely a great option if

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Who gets the research loot? Joshua Nash

’

one is looking for flexibility in their life, hopefully some

Which brings me back to my earlier point. If those, who

innovation, and possibly some excitement. (For the record,

because of time poverty, cannot conduct the research

I am not a believer in the chimera of job security, nor is it

they propose while being successful at accruing funds,

necessarily the case that money is as safe as houses and

then what is the future of research? I believe the answer

that real estate will always go up in value. The current

to this question lies in individual self-reflection on one’s

property market in Australia is definitely evidence of this.)

role in the neoliberal world of research, whether we are applying for research funding which could be better

The outcome

left to others, and whether or not we as researchers are making the greasy pole greasier or not. Regardless of how

So it is here I suggest that maybe it is not such a bad thing

greasy the pole is, in the new geography where my family

to have three years of well-paid research funding without

and I find ourselves, I promise to enjoy and make the most

it necessarily leading to a tenured position. The mirage of

of my time at this rural university in this small non-urban

tenure may be there but it does not have to be a dangling

city. Our garden is slowly coming along. Please come visit.

carrot. I believe it is under such conditions that real radical research in the environmental humanities, linguistics, and

Joshua Nash is a recently-appointed postdoctoral fellow in

anthropology can be done. Such research often does

linguistics at the University of New England, Armidale, NSW.

get rejected, but it is work, which when coupled with

Contact: jnash7@une.edu.au

tenacity, perseverance, and resolution, will eventually get published. Despite how naïve the following statement appears in our current neoliberal yardsticks of research quality, it is our creativity in research which counts not

Reference SIGJ2 Writing Collective. (2012). What Can We Do? The Challenge of Being New Academics in Neoliberal Universities, Antipode, 44(4), 1055–1058.

the number of articles, citations, and publications in highly ranked journals. In the end, the only question one must ask oneself as a researcher is: How do I want to live my life? Or as applied to research: How do I want to conduct my research?

Who gets the research loot? Joshua Nash

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

Invasion of the body snatchers Adjurations and inspirational posts from modern places Arthur O’Neill

WHERE

UNLIMITED POTENTIAL

IDEAS

you’ll

COLLIDE

seek LIGHT

WITH

ENTERPRISE

Rise, and shine

you’ll

and

Never stand still

reachyourpotential (dot com dot au)

MAKE

GREAT

WHERE

HAPPEN

FUTURES

and

COLLIDE

think.change.do

WITH

NOW

you’ll

Bringing knowledge to life

Never stand still

you’ll

Be the difference

and

Building on a foundation of integrity and respect, and through courage, we will achieve excellence and have an impact on the communities we serve

It’s all about U

and

so Know more. Do more

We’ll see you through

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Invasion of the body snatchers Arthur O’Neill

’

Big on why. Huge on how

a university for the real world

you’ll

Create change

dreamlarge

Cultivate inspirational excellence

Make tomorrow better

and

BE WHAT YOU WANT TO BE (with ‘YOU’ in dark blue)

break

through 6 inspiring achievement

you’ll

RESEARCH FOR THE REAL WORLD

LEARN TO ACHIEVE

you’ll

Learn to succeed

Join the Global Conversation

and

PURSUE YOUR RESEARCH PASSION

Keep learning (with ‘learning’ in sky blue)

and Be part of brilliant, whew!

Key Collected between November 2014 and November 2015. Some have a limited shelf-life. Except where indicated, taken from newspaper advertisements. Adjuration

Source

WHERE IDEAS COLLIDE WITH ENTERPRISE

University of Melbourne

Never stand still

University of New South Wales

MAKE GREAT HAPPEN

TAFE Queensland (announcing availability of undergraduate and postgraduate degree programs leading to awards by the University of Canberra)

think.change.do

University of Technology, Sydney

Bringing knowledge to life

University of Western Sydney (now Western Sydney University)

Be the difference

La Trobe University

Know more. Do more

Griffith University

It’s all about U

Southern Cross University

UNLIMITED POTENTIAL

University of Western Sydney

seek LIGHT

University of Adelaide

Rise, and shine

University of the Sunshine Coast

reachyourpotential

Edith Cowan University (www.reachyourpotential.com.au)

WHERE FUTURES COLLIDE WITH NOW

Banner on side of building, University of Melbourne

Invasion of the body snatchers Arthur O’Neill

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

Invasion of the body snatchers Arthur O’Neill

Building on a foundation Of integrity and respect and through courage we will achieve excellence and have an impact on the communities we serve

Curtin University

We’ll see you through

Swinburne University of Technology (www.swinburneonline.edu.au)

Big on why. Huge on how

University of Tasmania

Create change

University of Queensland

Cultivate inspirational excellence

Charles Darwin University

BE WHAT YOU WANT TO BE

Central Queensland University

inspiring achievement

Flinders University

LEARN TO ACHIEVE

Painted on front wall of Evocca College, Frankston

Join the Global Conversation

University of South Australia

Keep learning

Australian College of Applied Psychology (a college of Navitas Pty Ltd)

a university for the real world

Queensland University of Technology

dreamlarge

University of Melbourne

Make tomorrow better

Curtin University

break through

University of Canberra

RESEARCH FOR THE REAL WORLD

Deakin University

Learn to succeed

Federation University

PURSUE YOUR RESEARCH PASSION

Central Queensland University

Be a part of brilliant

Monash University

Arthur O’Neill is a poet (if you didn’t know it), both a man of his time and a master of rhyme (sometimes) Contact: arthurjhj65@live.com.au

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

REVIEWS

Forsyth and Murphy on the university A History of the Modern Australian University by Hannah Forsyth. ISBN 9781742234120 PB. NewSouth Publishing, Sydney, viii + 279 pp., 2014.

Universities and Innovation Economies: The creative wasteland of post-industrial society by Peter Murphy. ISBN 9781472425355 HB. Ashgate, Farnham, ix + 257 pp., 2015. A review essay by Simon Marginson It is remarkable there are so few Australian books about

by significant research, scholarship and reflection, each

higher education in a country of 23 million people with

has something new to say, and each is eminently readable,

twenty research universities in the world top 500, (ARWU,

with irony and the directness that was said by Samuel

2015) compared with massive literature on higher

P. Huntington, in The Clash of Civilizations and the

education in the United States. The current mainstream

Remaking of World Order (1996, p. 153), to be culturally

Australian books directly addressing higher education

characteristic of Australians! The two books are also

can be counted on a small number of fingers, including

different from each other. The difference says something

Raising the Stakes by Peter Coaldrake and Lawrence

about not just the range of Australian academic vision,

Stedman (2013), the study of the Dawkins reforms led

but its ambiguous openness and malleability, the ease of

by Gwilym Croucher (2013) in Melbourne and prior to

alternation within the same universities between isolates

that, the ABC Boyer Lectures by Glyn Davis (2010). Vice-

in the Great Southern Land and global citizens readily able

Chancellors scarcely have time to write but some of them

to run the World Bank (as did James Wolfensohn) or take

do. Where are the scholars?

over the OECD education division and develop a Program

Perhaps Australian social science and humanities scholars are too busy working on papers for refereed

for International Student Assessment (PISA) that reshapes school systems across the world (as did Barry McGaw).

journals. In the three years from 2012–2014 the journal

Hannah Forsyth’s A History of the Modern Australian

in higher education studies co-edited by the present

University is Australian-bound (in fact a little Sydney-

reviewer received 179 submissions from Australian

centric), while sharply focused on the local institution

authors (8.2 per cent of all manuscripts submitted), and

and its foibles. It is stimulating and lively, an extended

published 44 of those submissions, enough for five or six

OpEd that is underpinned by evidence from a PhD. Peter

books. Many more Australian papers were published in

Murphy’s Universities and Innovation Economies is a

other journals. Journal articles build numbers in Google

more generic discussion about Western universities as

Scholar and look good when applying for promotion, but

organisations – the core argument that underlines his

they are read only by specialists and doctoral students.The

thoughts about universities is about modernity, creativity

signal virtue of the book format is that, like websites and

and their trajectories. At the same time Murphy’s book is

blogs, it allows us to take the discussion of universities to

also engaging and vivid in its examples and data, and it

the intelligent public. At the same time books allow us to

often draws on Australian cases to make the point.

do this in depth, with erudition, and in a less self-centred

Neither author has attempted a comprehensive study

and more lasting manner than blogs. Books can shape

of universities in the manner of Clark Kerr’s The Uses

opinion. Good books still matter.

of the University (1963/2001), which remarkably is

So it is pleasing to have these two further books on

still the best book on the modern institution; or made a

universities by Australian authors. Each is underpinned

definitive normative statement akin to J.H. Newman’s in

Forsyth and Murphy on the university A review essay by Simon Marginson

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

his The Idea of a University (1852/1982), still the book

Note to newly appointed DVCs: step lightly when

on universities that is the most persuasive and beautifully

passing the corridor outside Forsyth’s office! Both authors

written. Murphy and Forsyth are each more abrasive than

remark on the rise of corporate operations and the

Newman and more particular than Kerr. However, they

ballooning costs of coordinating institutions of large size.

cover a good slice of the territory, especially Murphy.

Murphy makes the argument that the central functions of

They are both humanists for whom history is a medium

universities are both inherently aggregative and as they

for understanding the present. As a consequence, they

grow, increasingly ineffective. Unlike cities, universities

say more about the future than a shelf-load of normative

do not become more efficient with size. Instead, the

texts on ‘how to manage a university’. They are not

multiplication of functions and agendas crowds out

bogged down in current processes, arcane acronyms and

teaching. ‘Modern universities early on acquired an

transitory fashions and policy agendas: neither is primarily

omnivorous appetite.They had a chameleon-like desire to

interested in QA, MOOCs or ERA.They head towards more

be anything-to-anyone’ (p. 114). This tendency plays into

interesting and fundamental issues.

both the institutionalisation of external functions, and internal differentiation.

Points of agreement Given the books have different premises, as will become apparent, it is interesting to note where Forsyth’s observations coincide with those of Murphy. This might be doubly suggestive of the university system that they share.

Growth of professional services

The post-industrial university bulges with offices for careers counselling, chaplaincy, disability, well-being, corporate relations, ethics, estates, external relations, finances, governance, health and safety, human resources, information technology, legal and compliance, planning and statistics, research management, residential services, security, teaching and learning development, and training along with hospital administrators, quality assurance staff and auditors (p. 117). Citing trends in staffing data from the United States

Forsyth and Murphy are both strongly critical of two

and Australia, Murphy identifies a ‘striking’ growth in

developments in the university as an institution. The first

the professional staff and a relative shrinkage of both

is the growth of non-academic functions at the expense

the academic staff and non-professional service staff (p.

of the resourcing of academic functions. Murphy trains

115), some of whose functions have been automated.

his main fire on the proliferation of institution-boosting

Income from student tuition has increased much faster

services, Forsyth on academic managers and quality

than expenditure on academic salaries. ‘What universities

assurance. The second development is research counting

prefer to spend money on are codes, policies, committees,

and management. Each slams the effects of managed

audits, strategies, special projects, and student services

research on free scholars and academic time. Murphy

that are ever expanding. Teaching is the least important

counter-poses management to creativity, Forsyth primarily

student amenity’. United States’ spending on ‘instruction

to collegiality.

and departmental research’, the traditional core of the

‘Things get worse before they get better’, says Forsyth (p. 227), pointing to

university, was 60 per cent of the higher education budget in 1931, 50 per cent in 1970, 37 per cent in 2000 and 31

… more rules, more paperwork to complete, more administration to stumble over, and a DVC epidemic that extends into every area of university life, poisoning and corrupting the authentic, passionate pursuit of knowledge and learning. The university system is left with wasteful research funding schemes, overpaid senior executives and ‘star’ researchers; with DVCs employed to improve ‘quality’ by doing nothing but play the system; with quality assurance systems that take academics away from teaching and research to compel them to sit in endless meetings and fill in form after form while their casual colleagues scrape by under enormous financial stress; all this creates a world that teaches everyone from top to bottom to play the system rather than focus on the actual quality of teaching and research (p. 227).

per cent in 2011. Meanwhile spending on central research services – grant raising and allocation, output counting and reporting, intellectual property management – is at record levels (pp. 115-117).

Managed research Forsyth understands the problem of managed research primarily as a shift in university governance. The old community of scholars was conservative but ‘honest’ because of ‘the need to retain a reputation for reliability’. It sustained ‘a kind of internal gift economy,’ characterised by competition for esteem, politicking and a distinction between insiders and outsiders that could be ‘arbitrary, unfair and cruel’ (pp. 133-134). The collegial system ‘was

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Forsyth and Murphy on the university A review essay by Simon Marginson

unravelled’ by the combined effects of the John Dawkins reforms to higher education in 1987-1992 – Forsyth’s lucid description of the Dawkins reforms is the strongest part of her historical narrative – by the displacement of club-like professorial associations by unionism, and by the growth and professionalisation of corporate university management. ‘The university seems to have been taken over by administrators’. Academics have become ‘plugand play content specialists seemingly ancillary to the real purpose of the university, which is to run itself’ (p. 138). Forsyth contrasts the piece-work existence of exploited casual teachers with ‘the relative security of administrative staff’ for whom ‘scholars are arrogant divas’ (p. 139).

’

science, they are all works of the imagination in that they inspire in the human imagination of readers, listeners and viewers a sense of a work that is more intense, more profound and more illuminated than the everyday world of the immediate and the familiar. Such works, and there is only ever a relatively small number of them, are capable of shaping both individual souls and social structures. They communicate in an instant that they are capable of giving form, which is to say that they suggest that their forms can be lived in. We can imagine living in a Vermeer or Mondrianlike world just as we can imagine living in an Aristotelian or Cartesian world… they intimate worlds that you cannot anticipate before you encounter them, and then, once you have encountered them, you cannot forget them (p. 30).

Here Forsyth is on thin ice, as professional staffing is like

However, in many fields, rates of breakthrough

academic staffing: it includes both secure and insecure,

discovery and major works appear to have slowed. Not

exploited positions. She is on stronger ground in arguing

just universities but all social organisations seem to have

that government and university distrust has imposed an

become better at dissemination than creation, meaning

intrusive and wasteful ‘audit culture’ on unpredictable

the analogical capacity to see relationships between

empirical research and the critical scholarship where

hitherto unconnected ideas, methods or phenomena

advances are also made. ‘It reduces the messy and unique

and fuse them into a new synthesis (pp. 60-62). Arguably,

complexity of scholarly discovery to boxes that can be

the serious and popular arts are also in decline; works of

ticked’ (p. 141).

lasting value are displaced by ephemera (p. 32); Rolling

Forsyth points out that this is essentially incoherent.

Stone’s tally of best albums is concentrated in the 1960s

Academic work can scarcely be separated from the self.

and early 1970s; and in the social sciences and humanities

It consists in patterns of thinking, lines of investigation,

the energies infused by economics and philosophically

accumulated experience and knowledge, ‘not in each

generated theory have dissipated since the 1970s. ‘The

specific article of knowledge’ produced. Hence the

depleting of the university reflects the depleting of the

crowding out of academic time by output reports and

larger culture’ (p. 24). Murphy supports this thesis about

grant form-filling directly cuts into the core scholarly

declining modernity, which he has developed also in

work itself. The point about time emphasises the poor fit

other books (see Murphy, 2010 and 2012), with extensive

between generic research management systems and the

and fascinating data of historical patterns of creativity in

humanities. However, as Forsyth adds, some academics

the science and arts (pp. 15-58).There is a methodological

were seduced by box-ticking. It ‘became an indicator

question mark about these trend lines, though. It is tricky

of relative esteem’ (pp. 142-143); and it increasingly

to identify the relative importance of newer works. There

bolstered research revenues which were another source

might be delay before breakthroughs actually break

of esteem (p. 149). It all helps to sustain the blanket

through. Old paradigms block the new from view.

effects of global rankings and the Excellence in Research

Second, research systems equate creation with big-scale

for Australia (ERA), that nationally-defined measure of

organisation. They try unsuccessfully to institutionalise

Australia’s global excellence.

and professionalise discovery, creating a fictional ecology

Murphy also sees a science system ‘consumed by the

of creativity that bears little constitutive relationship to

art of grant getting’ (p. 2), but has more in mind than

the real thing, but does succeed in getting in the way.

the problems of beleaguered academics. First, the great

Research organisation focuses on proxies for original

expansion of research funding and the research workforce

discovery – peer review, citations, impact factors, research

has not been matched by a proportional increase in

income (pp. 15-20), ‘the sensations of the moment. This

fundamental discovery. Fundamental works matter most:

reduces research to a tabloid phenomenon’ (p. 34). Hyper-

Intellectual and artistic works play many roles. They charm, they inform, they clarify, they divert, they entertain… Exceptional works, and their authors, do something in addition. These works evoke worlds. It does not matter if they are artworks or works of social

emphasis on the economic value of research applications distracts universities from what they do best, producing original ideas that others apply (p. 157). Though only a ‘tiny proportion’ of research and researchers really matter, immense resources and energy are sunk into the simulation

Forsyth and Murphy on the university A review essay by Simon Marginson

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

of the university as a mega-powerhouse of ideas. The

to them the financial value of their investment before

university sets out to ‘administer, control, fund, run and

embarking on university study. I have never met anyone

direct research rather than undertake it. Consequently,

who did such a calculation’ (p. 203). Murphy finds that

universities

moralise,

historically, the growth of investment in higher education

prioritise, and strategise research’ (p. 82). Yet research

is associated with declining rather than increasing

flourishes better in small environments than large ones.

productivity (p. 73). The key to economic growth is

Even in medical science, where institutionalised research

neither educated human capital at scale nor the role of

is deeply entrenched, breakthroughs like the Nobel Prize

expensive research with a short shelf life in innovation.

winning research of Barry Marshall and Robin Warren

Rather the key is ‘surprising, distinctive, mostly modestly-

at Fremantle Hospital, into peptic ulcers, happened

funded ideas’ that are durable (p. 70). Murphy argues that

outside the frame of externally funded projects. The shift

for many skilled workers, higher education as such is not

from collegiality to management was the triumph of

essential.‘We are paying a lot for a status signalling system

procedural rationality, in which ‘quality’ and improvement

called higher education’.

classify,

regulate,

categorise,

are equated with ‘procedural change’ (p. 94). Research is

Murphy cites a large-scale American study by Arum

stimulated by many forms of association, coordination

and Roksa (2014) which found that in the case of a third

and border-crossing, ‘excepting that of patrimonial and

of university graduates with good grade point averages,

procedural-rational bureaucracy’ (p. 87). We need ‘flexible

there was no measurable improvement in their reading,

general principles’ not ‘cumbersome policies, rules and

writing and thinking over the four years of their degrees.

steps’ (p. 89).

Cognitive formation at American universities appears

Discovery is simply not calculable or foreseeable … Discovery emerges tangentially and spontaneously or serendipitously when serious researchers go about their work. Yes, they prepare for it, but even then the outcomes are not predictable, and so they cannot be documented in advance, which is what the typical external grant application process of necessity requires. The key instead is to invest in good people, with demonstrable capacities, not in nebulous project descriptions subject to improbable evaluations of the ‘quality’ or what are promissory notes (pp. 135-136).

to be declining, along with the hours spent each week on study, reading and writing (p. 121; p. 201). Murphy notes that universities allow students to walk away from the primary disciplines (p. 215) yet, increasingly, the best and brightest students are bored. Students need ‘a stimulating environment’, including brilliant faculty, and programs such as the Oxford PPE (politics, philosophy and economics) nested in a family of related disciplines (p. 232), that encourage them to form themselves: it is the ‘self-learning’ that is crucial (p. 100, p. 121). He repeatedly

Here Forsyth and Murphy coincide. Invest in good

returns to the role of reading in cognitive formation.

people and free them to work. Scientists used to be paid

Students do not need more and more services. ‘Learning

money to just think: why not try it again? (Murphy, p. 33).

bureaucracies’ have made student satisfaction the

It is an argument for the fellowship form of support rather

objective, not learning. Surveys of learning experiences

than project funding. No doubt that would narrow the

and student engagement ‘do not measure whether or

category of recognised scholar, while deflecting some of

what students have learned’ (p. 131). Student feedback

the creative work to the zone outside the formal systems

on teaching is ‘a way of disarming academic teachers and

of research funding and organisation. Murphy would be

displacing responsibility for learning from the learner to

comfortable with this. Forsyth might be uneasy.

the teacher’ (p. 121).

Human capital and cognitive formation

swung too far towards student-centred learning of the

Both authors have little patience for the standard

kind that reduces the intellectual challenges rather than

descriptors of the benefits of higher education for

increasing them (p. 188). The student-as-consumer form

students. Each breaks from the human capital theory idea

of empowerment is limited, more likely to generate better

that education determines marginal productivity, and this

services than intellectual outcomes (p. 195).

Forsyth agrees with Murphy that the pendulum has

determines individual earnings, industrial innovation and growth. Forsyth states that while most people hope that

Points of divergence

higher education will help them get a job, the notion of higher education as self-investment in human capital

Murphy and Forsyth differ in their norms. This shapes

bears little relation to reality. ‘Some economists believe

their perception and leads to divergence on the problems

that people want and need a calculation that demonstrates

of universities, and the desired solutions. One such

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Forsyth and Murphy on the university A review essay by Simon Marginson

’

difference concerns the character, drivers and desirability

ever-growing number of occupations, channelling the

of mass education.

aspirations of families into the campuses. The university

Mass higher education

came to control the knowledge people needed for work. ‘This, more than anything, was the cause of university

Both authors are centrally interested in the great

growth in the middle of the twentieth century and the

expansion of participation in higher education in the last

reason they have kept growing ever since’ (p. 41). Thus

half century. The authors attach opposite normative signs

research and credentialism, both of which rested on

to it – Forsyth likes it and Murphy does not.They also have

university control of knowledge, enabled the ‘clever

quite different explanations.

people’ inside the universities to ‘bolster their institutions’

For Forsyth, the ever-growing social, economic and political impacts of higher education and research are a

by pushing them into the centre of Australian life. Forsyth calls this the universities’‘grab for power’ (p. 35; p. 45).

function of their roles in the creation, transmission and

Yet the outcomes of this conspiratorial manoeuvre are

dissemination of knowledge. ‘The story of universities is

not all bad. It has led to a more inclusive student body and

the story of knowledge in Australia and who controlled

a larger more diverse faculty. ‘Universities are no longer

it – and for whose benefit’ (p. 2). Her story of knowledge

the small, narrow, elitist, male and unerringly white British

generates numerous interesting observations, including

spaces they once were.There are more scholars than ever

her review of the conflict between Australian universities

and the work they are doing is good’ (p. 228).

and their faculty in relation to ownership of intellectual

Murphy is briefer on the determinants of mass higher

property – a conflict that the Federal and High Courts

education. He agrees that the universities wanted growth

resolved in favour of academic freedom (pp. 160-175).

but he also brings external drivers into the picture.

However, the notion of knowledge that she uses is not

The great expansion has resulted from the omnivorous

strong enough to carry a general theory of the university.

appetite of universities for self-aggrandisement, and policy

Forsyth on knowledge has a number of strands.There is

ideologies that link higher education to social mobility and

a theoretical strand. She argues that knowledge is joined to

economic prosperity joined to popular demand; though

power, with a brief and rather careless nod in the direction

Murphy gives the last little attention except to note that

of Michel Foucault’s writing on power/knowledge (p. 4).

it has deceived: student expectations of a better life via

She also finds that ‘knowledge operates a bit like money’,

university are often disappointed. Like Forsyth, Murphy

recalling Pierre Bourdieu and his inter-meshed forms

prefers supply-side to demand-side explanations. Unlike

of capital. For example, universities control the flow of

Forsyth he revisits Jean Baptiste-Say who is the ancestor

knowledge like banks control the flow of money (pp.

of such explanations (pp. 77-81). In one of the many

4-5). Thus knowledge is a quasi-private good, although it

lengthy and interesting footnotes in Universities and

does not have to be. There is another strand related to

Innovation Economies, Murphy remarks: ‘This appetite

global competition and national strategy. After Hiroshima

for higher education was as much created by committees

at the end of World War II the potency of science and

of government as it was felt by growing numbers of the

technology was obvious; and in the post-war consumer

population. The demand was generated in large measure

economy, innovation, which rested on research, became

by repeated official assertions that linked education and

the driver of economic growth. For Forsyth knowledge

economic success’ (p. 131).

also explains the 1960s/1970s student activism, which

The author is sure this has been a bad thing. Many

as she sees it, saw activists grapple with universities over

young people in universities have no interest in and no

the contents and applications of knowledge (perhaps

aptitude for university education. Only 8 per cent of the

true of the Free University movement at the University of

population has ‘a clear and evident gift for intellectual

Sydney, which she cites, but at the time the activism was

discovery’, with the ‘high-performing core’ just two per

more about the Vietnam War, and democracy in university

cent. Another eight per cent or so are also ‘college-ready’ at

governance). The New Left rubric about socially useful

19 years old and heading for the professions, though not all

knowledge became hijacked by policy norms concerning

professional-type jobs have to require a university degree

the economic utility of higher education (p. 87).

(pp. 8-9. Murphy nods at the credentialism argument but

There is also a strand about knowledge, credentials and

for him it is a lesser theme). At most the future workforce

labour markets. This is Forsyth’s key to the mushrooming

will require 20 per cent of the population to have a degree

of mass education. After World War II universities

(p. 170). Over-education is rife, as indicated by often low

positioned themselves as the essential gateway to an

earnings returns to credentials. Student debt is also rife

Forsyth and Murphy on the university A review essay by Simon Marginson

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

and leading to postponed marriages, home purchase

certain level it became very difficult for families to absent

and family formation (p. 10). ‘The post-industrial era

themselves from higher education because of the costs

achieved little more than the proliferation and inflation of

of doing so. Higher education is now essential not only

qualifications and the moral disenfranchisement of those

to ongoing full-time work but social esteem. Aspirations

without them’ (p. 7).

for higher education have now spread down the income scale to most families in countries such as Australia. And

Drivers of growth

governments respond.

Neither explanation comprehends the power and

Popular aspirations have a cumulative political weight.

ubiquity of the demand-side factor. Growth is happening

Governments kick-started mass higher education but they

across the world, not just in Australia. UNESCO Institute

are now more followers than leaders. Whether the polity

of Statistics data show that between 1970 and 2013 the

is multi-party, single-party elected or dynastic as in China,

world gross tertiary enrolment ratio rose from 10 to 32

all governments continually expand the number of places.

per cent. All countries with per capita incomes above

This is as true in Australia, where the Labor Party habitually

$10,000 USD or so are moving towards high participation

attaches itself politically to successive generations of

higher education systems, as are many countries below

marginal aspirants by expanding the universities; as in

that income level (UNESCO, 2015; World Bank, 2015).

China where higher education is the gift of the regime

Across the whole of North America and Western

to the fast-growing urban middle class, cementing the

Europe four fifths of all young people will enter tertiary

party-state as the gateway to prosperity. The party-state

education. In 52 education systems, including Australia’s,

explicitly fosters the idea that graduation equals entry

more than half of the school leaver age cohort will enrol

to the middle class (Goodman, 2012). It is easier to give

in universities or tertiary colleges at some point. In most

families education than to create jobs. Many governments

world regions, growth has accelerated in the last 15 years.

have found that they can withdraw part of their financial

The world participation rate is rising by 1 per cent a year,

support without lowering participation. Cost has not

which means 20 per cent in twenty years.

been a barrier to expansion.

Universities and university executives – no matter how crafty or power hungry they may be – are simply

Social mobility

not strong enough as social agents to secure a movement

Despite their different valuations of mass higher education,

on this scale, everywhere. The supply-side power of

each author argues that the original 1960s/1970s promise

universities to define, control and promote occupational

of mass higher education as democratisation, the promise

credentials is one part of the rise of the institution since

it would transform social mobility, has failed. One

World War II, but it is a subordinate aspect. We need to

senses that for Murphy the failure of social mobility was

look outside the university as well as in; and to that extent

inevitable, while for Forsyth it might be different.

Murphy is closer to it than Forsyth. However, participation

There is not much doubt about the facts.The arithmetical

is expanding regardless of the tenor of government

growth in the number of poor bright students has been

reports, or economic ideologies.

swamped in proportionate terms by expanding numbers

The most commonly given external explanation for

of middle class students, regardless of the extent to

the growth of universities is that growth is driven by

which they shine. Research in national systems across the

economic demand for skilled labour. This is no more the

world repeatedly finds that social background remains as

principal driver of growth than is credentialism. Across

powerful an influence in stratifying opportunity as before

the world participation in tertiary education is increasing

– though stratification is now expressed as much in the

regardless of national rates of economic growth rate

distinction between high and low value opportunities

and the industry configuration of specific economies.

inside higher education, as in the distinction between

What drives the expansion of universities everywhere,

inclusion and non-inclusion. (For more discussion,

as Martin Trow (1973) argued in a prescient essay on the

see Shavit et al., 2007; Marginson, forthcoming B).

transition from elite to mass to universal higher education,

Cultural capital, social networks, the right preparation

is the aspirations of families for their children (see also

and confident anticipation remain closely associated

Marginson, forthcoming A). After World War II, mass

with success. Everywhere, it seems, higher education is

aspirations for higher education became general to the

becoming near universal in the middle and upper layers

middle class. They grew as the middle class expanded.

of society, but it is as hard as ever (and probably harder)

Then, as Trow predicted, once participation reached a

for students from un-resourced families to enter the

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Forsyth and Murphy on the university A review essay by Simon Marginson

’

highly selective universities that provide clear advantages

universities have become modelled as ‘vehicles of social

in future careers. A small number of academically elite

and spatial mobility’ (p. 3), as engines of social position

universities provide social mobility on a larger scale, such

and positioning, a truly grand role that suits the differing

as the University of California, which serves to emphasise

agendas of governments and educationists. Yet in shaping

the socially closed character of the others.

the patterns of income inequality and social hierarchy,

In 2012-13, the University of California (UC) campuses

government taxation and transfers, income determination,

at Berkeley and Los Angeles between them enrolled over

social infrastructure, early learning and above all, political

20,000 Pell grant students from families with incomes

culture, are probably more important than university.

of less than $50,000 per year – more Pell grant students

Nordic societies have egalitarian outcomes because

than the top sixteen private universities combined

there is a broad consensus on the importance of balance,

(Dirks, 2015). In more than a quarter of the families of

equality, mutual respect and inclusion that is an invisible

students at UC Berkeley neither parent had attended

restraint on acquisitive Anglo-American individualism

higher education (Rothblatt, 2012). The UC campuses

(Gärtner and Prado, 2012).

are as elite in academic terms as the private Ivy League.

Murphy attacks the assumption that higher education is

The UC system is an engine of upward social mobility,

above all a vehicle for individual mobility.When universities

suggesting that a larger practical commitment to equality

took this role ‘their ability to satisfy the most inquiring

of opportunity is possible even in the highly unequal

minds or produce path-breaking work diminished as did

American higher education system.

their vocational relevance’ (p. 3). Meanwhile ‘all that equity

In societies characterised by social openness and high

policy did was to generate equity bureaucracies in which

intergenerational mobility, that also provide universal

university graduates were employed’ (p. 7). For Murphy

high quality higher education at relatively low cost to the

limits to social mobility via education are a function of

user – the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, and to some

both the limited number of people with the potential for

extent the German-speaking world – egalitarian higher

advanced intellectual work, and the limited distribution

education is a necessary but not sufficient condition

of the crucial family resources (especially childhood

of that social openness and mobility. Thomas Piketty

reading in the home) that underlie early development

remarks in Capital in the Twenty-first Century (2014)

and have greater weight in forming minds than does

that there is widespread disappointment that the growth

formal schooling. For Forsyth, Australia could be closer to

of higher education has not countered increasing income

achieving equality of opportunity, but the university creates

inequality. Further, the spectacular growth in American

and maintains privilege. The connections between school

income inequality since 1980 preceded the steeper

success and class ‘are there for all to see’ (p. 219) and school

stratification of American universities and ballooning

success is the path to the leading universities. But neither

private tuition costs in the public sector. (For American

Forsyth nor Murphy say much about the crucial issue of

income inequality see the data in Saez (2013) and Piketty

who gets in to the leading universities, and how.

(2014); for American educational inequality see among others Davies and Zarifa (2013), Mettler (2014) and The

The prestige factor

Pell Institute (2015)).

The role of elite universities points to the larger importance

On the other hand, if hardworking students from poor

of status and prestige factors in explaining the university.

backgrounds cannot rise through education they are

Though status factors are noted by both Forsyth (e.g. p.

less likely to do so in the market. Further, when access

144ff.) and Murphy, arguably their autonomous effects are

to higher education becomes more unequal, that does

under-recognised. Both authors have other arguments to

seem to worsen economic and social inequality, as is now

make, though Murphy does state:

happening in the United States (Stiglitz, 2013). Social, economic and educational inequalities are interactive and mutually constituted. The point, however, is that higher education is part of a chain of effects, not the principal driver of equality/inequality. Inequality in education matters, but is more determined by class than vice versa. We tend to exaggerate the importance of higher education as a maker of societies – partly because, as Murphy remarks,

In the nineteenth century, the university was torn between being a status institution and a scholarly institution. The tension between the two has never been resolved. If anything it has been compounded. Universities and their faculty members delight in high status. In democratic societies this status is no longer modelled on patrician or aristocratic forms, as it once was, but on the prestige of the knowledge and research that a small portion of the academic staff of universities create (p. 153)

Forsyth and Murphy on the university A review essay by Simon Marginson

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

More could have been made of this. Not only does

’

Points beyond

the universal drive for position help to explain both the expanding social pressure for entry into universities, and

Early in her book Forsyth remarks that ‘the university’ is an

the competitive behaviours of universities towards each

ambiguous term (p. 19). On one hand it can be understood

other; arguably status is the glue that holds the institution

as ‘a collective description of its members’, which for

together. Across all disciplines, the prestige economy on

Forsyth mostly means the academic staff and students. On

campus, with its distinctive hierarchy and values, plus the

the other hand it can be understood as ‘a singular legal

common interest in the social standing of the institution

and institutional entity’, the university as corporation and

shared by all participants, join corporate executives at the

brand, with its rankings and bottom lines and its interest

hip to the scholar-researchers who complain of them. In

distinct from those of its members. Forsyth loves and

turn status also joins both executives and their faculty

sometimes hates the university. It nurtures poisonous

critics to the students who use the university.

executives alongside exciting cross-disciplinary networks.

Those with greater reason to complain are those in

The fact that they spring from the same organisational

society who are shut out of this world of social distinctions,

conditions remains a puzzle. The concluding chapter

cultural capital and credentialing. Murphy is right about

of A History of the Modern Australian University is

that. He is also right to argue that stellar creativity in fields

ambivalent. She never resolves for herself the dualism that

is typically confined to few people, and only a minority of

she creates. Forsyth’s book is insightful and accessible but

university students engage in-depth. However, it is harder

also a work in progress.We can trust that she will develop

to justify the naturalisation of the non-university educated

her ideas in future books.

to 80 per cent, and the notion that 80 per cent of jobs are

Murphy’s ideas are equally determined in expression,

non-graduate jobs. The social dynamics of status provide

brimming with the joy of fearless unorthodoxy, and have

a more convincing explanation of differentiation and

a larger global compass. Universities and Innovation

hierarchy than biologically-based theories of the natural

Economies is more grounded intellectually – it is

distribution of intelligence or volition.

remarkable in the range of its curiosity and its scholarship

First, the educated abilities of the worker can change

– and more normatively grounded as well. Murphy knows

the job, as Trow and others have pointed out – supply-

exactly what he wants: a much smaller university focused

side influences do have some weight! Second, Murphy

on discovery and stimulating learning, alongside colleges

has presented sufficient argument of a structural and

devoted to scholarship, and institutes of vocational

institutional kind to explain the limits of cognitive

training (p. 152). However, Forsyth’s more social

formation, without naturalising those limits in the student

democratic norms are closer to the temper of the times

body. Third, there is no necessary analogy between

than is Murphy’s recipe.Though the over-education thesis

the capacity for creative imagining and the cognitive

recurs as a secondary theme in policy debates, there is no

reception of higher education. They are of a different

appetite for unwinding aggregate participation in higher

order. Fourth, elite behaviours in relational settings

education, and little for reducing access to the designation

embody a zero-sum element. That is, when some persons

‘university’ by creating the new binary or ternary system

take a leading role it blocks the potential for others to

that Murphy would prefer. His higher education system

do so. The number of possible leading roles is limited.

will not be implemented, but many will agree with part

However, if the leaders vacate the field, others step up.

of his critique and his determination to advance cognitive

This should caution us against notions of natural limits

formation. Particular institutions could adopt his ideas

to ability that are derived from observations of relative

about teaching and research.

rather than absolute performance.

Both books are well worth reading and take discussion

In terms of the absolute learning achievements of

of the university forward. Both also leave elements

populations, it is no more impossible for 80 per cent of

undiscussed. One is the term ‘Australian’ in Forsyth’s title.

people to benefit cognitively from a university degree

There is no systematic comparison between Australian

than for well over 80 per cent to write and compute at

universities and those found elsewhere, in either book,

a high level at school. This already happens in East Asian

which might have helped to explain the local institution.

school systems (OECD, 2014); and it constitutes a stronger

Why are Australia’s research achievements concentrated

platform for majority university education than currently

in applied life science, especially medicine? Why is it

exists in English-speaking countries.

that in a country with a genius for applying knowledge and solving problems of social organisation in difficult

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Forsyth and Murphy on the university A review essay by Simon Marginson

conditions and under pressure (think the 1870s/1880s, World War II, Post-war Reconstruction, the 1980s reforms), conceptual originality has proven more difficult to achieve? Why is it that in a settler state with so much

’

Davis, G. (2010). The Republic of Learning: Higher education transforms Australia. Sydney: HarperCollins. Dirks, N. (2015). The future of world-class universities. University World News, 384, 2 October.

have been much more mundane than their American

Gärtner, S. & Prado, S. (2012). Inequality, Trust and the Welfare State: The Scandinavian model in the Swedish mirror. Högre seminariet, 7 November. Ekonomisk-historiska institutionen, Göteborgs universitet.

cousins? Is it the shaping influence of government going

Goodman, D. (2014). Class in Contemporary China. Cambridge: Polity.

back to 1788, the policy and political culture, resistance

Huntington, S. (1996). The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York: Simon and Schuster.

space to act and freedom of ideas, Australian universities

to social distinctions based on intellectual claims? Or something in the soil and water? Why, in social organisations such as universities in which prestige is always at least as important as revenue; and the content of the business is learning, scholarship and research; do financial bottom lines take root so readily? Why is it that in smaller countries with similar national wealth (think Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, and Hong Kong SAR and even now in Singapore) the intellectual climate is often more exciting; and ideas, not the pragmatics of survival, are the currency of universities? This touches the ideals and sensibilities of both authors.Why is it that in Australia, where universities could be brilliant, they are not better than they are? Simon Marginson is Professor of International Higher Education at University College London, and the Director of the UK government-funded ESRC/HEFCE Centre for Global Higher Education. He is Joint Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Higher Education. Contact: s.marginson@ioe.ac.uk

Kerr, C. (1963/2001). The Uses of the University. 5th edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Marginson, S. (forthcoming A). High participation systems of higher education. Accepted for publication by Journal of Higher Education. Marginson, S. (forthcoming B). The worldwide trend to high participation higher education: Dynamics of social stratification in inclusive systems. Submitted on invitation to Special Issue of Higher Education. Mettler, S. (2014). Degrees of Inequality: How the politics of higher education sabotaged the American dream. New York, NY: Basic Books. Murphy, P. (2010). Discovery. In P. Murphy, M. Peters and S. Marginson, Imagination: Three models of imagination in the age of the knowledge economy (pp. 87-138). New York, NY: Peter Lang. Murphy, P. (2012). The Collective Imagination: The collective spirit of free societies. Farnham: Ashgate. Newman, J.H. (1852/1982). The Idea of a University. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). (2014). PISA 2012 Results in Focus. What 15 year olds know and what they can do with what they know. Paris: OECD Pell Institute (2015). Indicators of Higher Education Equity in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.pellinstitute.org/downloads/publicationsIndicators_of_Higher_Education_Equity_in_the_US_45_Year_Trend_Report. pdf Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the Twenty-first Century. Trans. A. Goldhammer. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Harvard University Press.

Declaration of interest

Rothblatt, S. (ed.) (2012). Clark Kerr’s World of Higher Education Reaches the 21st Century: Chapters in a special history. Dordrecht: Springer.

The author of this review is a long-time colleague and

Saez, E. (2013). Striking it Richer. The evolution of top incomes in the United States. Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley, Department of Economics. Retrieved from http://eml.berkeley.edu//~saez/saez-UStopincomes-2012.pdf

friend of Peter Murphy, and recently shared an Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant with him.

References

Shavit, Y., Arum, R. & Gamoran, A. (eds.) (2007). Stratification in Higher Education: A comparative study. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Stiglitz, J. (2013). The Price of Inequality. London: Penguin.

Academic Ranking of World Universities, ARWU (2015). Retrieved from http:// www.shanghairanking.com/World-University-Rankings-2014/USA.html

Trow, M. (1973). Problems in the Transition from Elite to Mass Higher Education. Berkeley, CA: Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.

Arum, R. & Roksa, J. (2014). Aspiring Adults Adrift: Tentative transitions of college graduates. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (2015). UNESCO Institute for Statistics data on education. http://data.uis.unesco. org.

Coaldrake, P. & Stedman, L. (2013). Raising the Stakes: Gambling with the future of universities. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press. Croucher, G., Marginson, S., Norton, A. & Wells, J. (eds.) (2013). The Dawkins Revolution 25 Years On. Melbourne: Melbourne University Publishing.

World Bank. (2015). Data and Statistics. Retrieved from http://data.worldbank. org.

Davies, S. & Zarifa, D. (2012). The stratification of universities: Structural inequality in Canada and the United States. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 30, pp. 143–158.

Forsyth and Murphy on the university A review essay by Simon Marginson

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

No cake walk Bread and Roses: Voices of Australian Academics from the Working Class by Dee Michell, Jacqueline Z. Wilson and Verity Archer (Eds). ISBN: 978-94-6300-125-0 (paperback), Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, 186 pp., 2015. Reviewed by Paul Rodan This book should strike a special chord with readers who

the

share some of the background and experience of the

studentship era, the Whitlam free education period and

contributors, while also appealing to a wider readership.

the Higher Education Contribution Scheme. Obviously,

The editors make a telling point in their introduction, contending that class is an ‘invisible topic’ in Australia

Commonwealth

Scholarship/teacher

education

support of this nature was critical in working class academics even making it to the university gates.

(p. vii). Denying the existence of class (or rebranding it

Space does not permit detailed commentary on the

as ‘socio-economic status’) has rendered it acceptable

recollections and reflections of twenty-five different

to engage in ‘classist’ behaviour which would be utterly

contributors. Various home and family backgrounds are

intolerable if directed at differences of race, ethnicity,

identified, but our protagonists drew encouragement

sexuality or gender. In that context, this reviewer remains

and strength – from within and without. Generational

puzzled at the inability (or is it unwillingness) of many on

contrasts are apparent. The University of Sydney which

the left to acknowledge the component of conservative

Terry Irving entered in the mid-1950s would almost

hostility to Julia Gillard which was attributable not to her

certainly have been more intimidating than would a post-

being a woman per se, but a Labor woman.

Dawkins institution in the 1990s. And, his summary of

In their section on Education Minister John Dawkins’

his social situation is a gem:‘too young to drink; too poor

policy changes, the editors overlook the number of

to have a girlfriend; too different in social background

Colleges of Advanced Education which were forced into

and political beliefs to mix easily with fellow students…’

mergers with traditional universities, as a consequence of

(p. 34).

which much of an internal egalitarian staff culture (e.g.

While admissions of (at least initial) shyness and

no God professors) was lost. It is worth noting the extent

insecurity on campus necessarily feature in the journeys

to which top-down CAE management structures helped

outlined, it is to their credit that the writers avoid

foster a vibrant, authentic unionism, which was to serve

overdoing it. Plenty of middle class students could

the (merged) NTEU well in Dawkins’ Unified National

experience similar emotions: university life was, and is, a

System, by which time even the old white male academic

rich tapestry.

elite was forced to concede that the golden days of

The contributors do not see themselves as exceptional or

solving problems over a sherry with the Vice-Chancellor

special. Martin Forsey represents this well with his practice

were gone.

of ‘cautioning students about the liberal fantasy of the self-

The collection is divided into four sections: Identity,

made individual’, and acknowledges the role of ‘policies

Alternative Pathways, Rural Settings and the Academic

created by people committed to opening up possibilities

Workplace. Several writers cover the intersection of

for kids born into working class families’ (p. 15).

class with race/migrant status and gender, and it is also

Not surprisingly, the contributors write from a

refreshing that rural location is identified and treated

perspective of valuing and appreciating their working

as the significant level of disadvantage which it can

class origins, and they have attempted to keep faith with

constitute. A migrant woman in the bush would score an

their backgrounds in two broad ways. First, they have

unenviable trifecta!

pursued teaching styles which are sympathetic to those

The experience of the contributors is sufficiently

from non-privileged backgrounds, remembering their own

broad to cover at least three generations of the

student insecurities when coping with ‘an elite discourse’

academic workforce, which roughly coincide with

seemingly intended to keep students ‘perpetually

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

No cake walk Reviewed by Paul Rodan

’

“clueless”’ (p. 27). Secondly, several have taken an actively

contributions from within their own academic networks,

critical attitude to the excesses of university management,

but it does tend to restrict the reflections to those who

although it must be conceded that the freedom to pursue

ended up in what might seem comfortable disciplinary

that path comes with more risks today than in previous

‘fits’ for their enduring working class identification. While

generations.

a wider call for contributors is unlikely to elicit responses

The contributors are aware of the potential contradiction

from those who share former NSW premier Neville Wran’s

between pride in a working class heritage while (mostly)

view (‘being in the working class was all about how to get

enjoying a comfortable, middle-class life style. Some

out of it’), there would surely be considerable interest in

make the valid observation that no such dilemma applies

learning how academics from the working class coped

to today’s growing number of precariously-employed

with the much more traditional and elitist disciplines of

academics. Indeed, it is not a stretch to suggest that Terry

Law, Medicine and Engineering. Given the editors’ interest

Irving’s skilled tradesman father was able to provide a

in further work in this field, it is to be hoped that such

more secure quality of life for his family than can many

a project might appeal to them, and build on the solid

of Terry’s casually employed academic colleagues today.

foundation established by this first collection.

If not exactly a flaw, a distinctive feature of the collection is the homogeneity of the contributors’ academic

Paul Rodan is an adjunct professor in the Swinburne Institute

locations. All are employed in social sciences/humanities

for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology,

disciplines and within that, a plurality is probably from

Victoria, and a member of the AUR Editorial Board.

education or social work (allowing for the imprecision

Contact: prodan@swin.edu.au

of some school/departmental nomenclature). This was probably a natural consequence of the editors seeking

No cake walk Reviewed by Paul Rodan

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

Scholarship vs academia Weapons of Mass Disruption: An Academic Whistleblower’s Tale by Wilfred Cude. ISBN 9781500785048, The Author, 334 pp., 2014. Reviewed by Brian Martin

Wilfred Cude’s life provides a model for maintaining

Much to his astonishment, each of the others in turn

scholarly integrity after being treated badly in the

confessed to virtually the same experience: each had his

academic system.

doctoral program gravely compromised through some

In the 1970s, Cude had a promising career ahead. He

entanglement with the supervisory committee, and each

was completing his PhD in English literature, with a

had survived the ordeal only through an extraordinary

focus on Canadian literature, at the University of Alberta.

struggle and a significant measure of good luck. (p. 197)

He had earlier completed all the required coursework

For Cude, this was one more piece of evidence that his

and exams with excellent marks. While working on his

difficulties were part of a wider dysfunctional pattern in

thesis, he published a series of articles, based on chapters

North American doctoral studies.

in the thesis, in leading Canadian literary journals, a

Cude pursued his doctorate with vigour. He finished

signal achievement for a student; many established

his thesis and, to put pressure on his committee,

academics could not claim an equivalent record any

submitted it for publication. When it was published by

time in their career. With years of experience and peer

a university press (Cude, 1980), it received praise from

acknowledgement as a dedicated and effective teacher,

most reviewers, including from leaders in the field.

Cude anticipated finding a permanent academic post

However, this was not enough to sway his opponents in

before long.

the English Department at the University of Alberta. Not

But there was an obstacle: his thesis supervisor, who was tardy in commenting on Cude’s work and who then

coincidentally, the one vicious review of his book was by one of those opponents.

unexpectedly demanded major changes. Over time, it

Cude went on to a life as a lowly paid sessional

became apparent that Cude’s supervisor would not

academic, taking on whatever work he could obtain at

accept his work unless it was rewritten into a completely

nearby universities. Meanwhile, he continued his studies

different framework, excluding his best published work.

and publications in Canadian literature, and took up

Cude had challenged local intellectual orthodoxies, and

another strand of investigation: toxic effects of the North

this could not be allowed. Another factor was probably

American doctoral system, especially in the humanities.

what Ken Westhues, Canadian analyst of academic

Collecting evidence of long completion times and a high

mobbing, calls ‘the envy of excellence’ (Westhues, 2005).

percentage of dropouts, Cude wrote a book titled The

Cude was ABD, all but dissertation, and this meant his job prospects were limited. However, even as he struggled

Ph.D. Trap, which garnered praise and publicity (Cude, 1987).

with his supervisor and mounted appeals within the

His writings about problems in higher education led

University of Alberta, he was able to obtain a two-year

others to contact him and tell about their own struggles.

contract position at Concordia University, being appointed

Cude became a magnet for information from dissatisfied

over candidates holding doctorates. In his application,

scholars, many with stories similar to his own. His

Cude had laid out his apparently terminal difficulties in

experience shows the value of writing about one’s own

obtaining his PhD. Arriving at the university to begin work,

travails in a way that can help others to make sense of

he sought out the chair of the appointment committee

their own experiences.

and asked why he had got the job. The chair said that in

So great was the response to The Ph.D. Trap that

the meeting of the three members of the committee, he

Cude was encouraged to prepare a revised and greatly

had said that he himself was nearly in Cude’s position, and

expanded version, The Ph.D. Trap Revisited (Cude, 2001),

had only received his PhD with difficulty after resistance

which I reviewed earlier (Martin, 2001). He and I have

from his doctoral committee.

been in correspondence for many years, so I am hardly

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Scholarship vs academia Reviewed by Brian Martin

a neutral evaluator of his work. His ideas also receive visibility through YouTube.

’

At first I thought this house-building episode was a diversion from the main narrative about Canadian

More recently, Cude has written another book, Weapons

academia, until I reflected on a contrast implicit in the

of Mass Disruption: An Academic Whistleblower’s

story. On the one hand, in a rural setting, neighbours

Story, self-published in 2014. It is a type of scholarly

generously helped a novice out of a sense of sympathy and

autobiography, giving Cude’s background, including

solidarity – and they became Cude’s friends. On the other

a stimulating time in the military and then the Royal

hand was academic life, characterised by competition

Military College, then the sorry story of his treatment at

and lack of mutual support. The contrast was stark. In the

the University of Alberta as well as a later appointment

Cape Breton woods, mutual help and friendship arose

saga at St. Francis Xavier University (CAUT, 1997). Some

spontaneously. In Canadian academia, mutual help and

of the passages can be gut-wrenching for anyone who has

friendship could develop, but required careful cultivation

encountered malevolent academic gatekeepers:

in the face of ruthless one-upmanship and intolerance of

Then it hit, nearly with the impact of a physical blow. A package in the mail, innocuous enough in appearance, the first two chapters of my thesis returned to me with comments from my supervisor. I opened the package and started to read, initially in a casual fashion, then gradually more intently, my mind numbing in anguish and disbelief. Page after page was scrawled with pencilled comments, all negative, most combative, and some downright nasty. The total impression was one of thoroughgoing rejection, with the material manhandled in the manner of an abrasive senior professor dismissing an inferior freshman submission with well-deserved contempt (pp. 11-12).

dissent. Despite his marginal position academically, Cude had a satisfying, indeed stimulating, career, being a more productive scholar than many of those who blocked his PhD. His story provides a reminder that it is important to savour the journey, and those who accompany you on it, and to seek causes with meaning. Unfortunately, many of the problems in academia highlighted by Cude remain.The system has a momentum that is hard to counter. If there is a takeaway message, it is not to put all your identity into becoming or being an

Most scholarly autobiographies, and biographies too, are

academic. There are principles of fairness and solidarity

written by or about the winners, those who rose among

that are ultimately more important than success in

their colleagues to positions of status and influence,

climbing the ladder.There is indeed a scholarly community,

applauded by their peers, promoted by their employers

but it is not identical to the body of academics.

and welcomed into prestigious academies.These accounts give a one-sided view of academic life, because for every

Brian Martin is Professor of Social Sciences at the University

such star there are many hard-working academics with

of Wollongong, NSW.

satisfying careers, as well as many more who are even less

Contact: bmartin@uow.edu.au

visible: those ejected from the academy. Few of the rejects want to tell their stories, understandably so. Who wants to tell about failure? Cude is hardly a typical dropout, but even so he speaks on behalf of an experience of academia that is seldom articulated. In one part of Weapons of Mass Disruption, Cude tells about building a small house in the Cape Breton woods for his growing family. He had little money and undeveloped building skills, but needed the house for survival. He tells

References CAUT [Canadian Association of University Teachers, Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee] (1997). Inquiry into the complaint of Prof. Wilfred Cude. CAUT Bulletin, 44(5), http://www.cautbulletin.ca/en_article. asp?articleid=2534. Cude, W. (1980). A Due Sense of Differences: An Evaluative Approach to Canadian Literature. Washington, DC: University Press of America. Cude, W. (1997). The Ph.D. Trap. West Bay, Nova Scotia: Medicine Label Press.

of his struggles and mistakes and of the unsolicited help

Cude, W. (2001). The Ph.D. Trap Revisited. Toronto: Dundurn Press.

he received from nearby residents, some of whom were

Martin, B. (2001). Are doctorates worthwhile? Australian Universities’ Review, 44, 37–38.

highly knowledgeable and knew just what to do to help him in practical terms and in improving his skills.

Scholarship vs academia Reviewed by Brian Martin

Westhues, K. (2005). The Envy of Excellence: Administrative Mobbing of Highachieving Professors. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen.

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

Have I the write? Academic Writing. A handbook for International Students (4th ed.) by Stephen Bailey. ISBN 978-1-138-77850-4 pbk Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge, 284 pp., 2015. Reviewed by Arthur O’Neill

Teachers of English as another language can use this

benefit

drawback

advantage

disadvantage

self-study and reference guide for students needing to

a positive aspect

a negative feature

work independently’ (p. xiv). While intended ‘to help

pro (informal)

con (informal)

international students with their written assignments

one major advantage is…

a serious drawback is …

instruction and exercise book to run their classes; and Bailey says: ‘A feature of Academic Writing is its clear and logical organisation, which makes it ideal as a

in English at both undergraduate and postgraduate level’ (p. xiv), the work is directed at international

Then the exercise for students is to ‘Fill in the gaps in

students who are not native speakers of the language.

the following paragraph using language from the table

They will have to be pretty good at reading English to

above’ (Unit 2.1, pp 86-87).

get into this tome. Never having been engaged in the special task of helping non-native speakers of English to use the

Lesson: If you want mice to run on a treadmill, then provide them with even treads.

language in their academic work, I cannot rate the book

Vocabulary for Writing

as a learning device. But I know that many students –

Part 3, ‘Vocabulary for Writing’, has a sub-section on

including those whose first language is English – are

‘Nouns and Adjectives’ which starts with boxed and

afflicted with deficiencies in their capacity to express

highlighted advice: ‘To read and write academic papers

themselves. The first task is to help them to get up to

effectively, students need to be familiar with the rather

speed in reading and writing in English. The second is

formal vocabulary widely used in this area. This unit

to enable them to learn tricks of the academic writing

focuses on nouns and adjectives, […] .’ A list of 32

trade. If you are an international (or any) student who

preferred nouns is given, then students are asked to

needs assistance with English, then this is not the book

‘Complete each sentence with a suitable noun’ drawn

to provide it. Indeed, starting with academic writing

from the list.

can turn you into one of the paper-writing zombies whose pro forma contributions afflict readers of learned journals. You do not get to use English fluently and well by starting with academic writing. Instead, you are liable to be wracked by literary constipation. Here are examples of what can happen to you. Attached to each of them is a lesson I take from Bailey’s advice.

Elements of Writing Part 2 of the book, ‘Elements of Writing,’ starts with a subsection on ‘Discussion vocabulary’: This requires an evaluation of both the benefits and disadvantages of the topic, with a section of the essay, sometimes headed ‘Discussion’, in which a summary of these is made. The following vocabulary can be used: vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

In a later sub-section on ‘Using nouns and adjectives’, students are invited to compare these sentences: The efficiency of the machine depends on the precision of its construction. Precise construction results in an efficient machine. Bailey’s comment is: The first sentence uses the nouns ‘efficiency’ and ‘precision’. The second uses adjectives: ‘precise’ and ‘efficient’. Although the meaning is similar, the first sentence is more formal. Effective academic writing requires accurate use of both nouns and adjectives (Unit 3.3, pp 165-169). Lesson: More formality cloaks more holes in all sorts of writing.

Have I the write? Reviewed by Arthur O’Neill

’

Writing Models

underline examples of poor style in it. One then singled

Part 4, ‘Writing Models’, includes a sub-section on writing

out by Bailey is ‘I think’ – the reason given for not using it

literature reviews and gives two examples (the first of

being ‘Too personal’ (Unit 2.13, pp. 138-139).

which is quoted here):

Though hard to gulp down, the necessary corrective is

A literature review is not simply a list of sources that you have studied. It can be used to show that there is a gap in the research that your work attempts to fill:

a large dose of Fowler on ‘it’ and ‘pronouns’ (2003 [1926],

This article has a different standpoint from other studies, because it believes that the influence of the state on the market has structurally increased since the neoliberal era (Unit 4.2, p. 211).

a back-reference to ‘academic writing’; or does ‘it’ stand

Lesson: When an article has a standpoint and ‘it’ (‘this

because the reference is to a subject that is not present

article’, any article) believes in something or other then

and cannot be anticipated in the sentence. I conclude:

authors should pack up and go home.

avoiding use of ‘I’ very often leads to misuse of ‘it’.

Conclusion

many other places in the book, students are equipped with

pp. 301-303 & 464-466). Doing so will reveal a mystery surrounding use of ‘it’ in the above extract: ‘it’ looks to be in for ‘you’? In the former case (as in the earlier example (iii)), only a person can attempt anything, including the attempt to be impersonal. In the latter case ‘it’ is no good

Also, I conclude that in this and earlier quotes, and in a portmanteau of terms, terminology and instructions There are conventions – amongst them, for quoting sources

that, more the sorrow, gives a bad name to ways in which

and listing references, for composing an essay or paper,

English is used in academe. That generalisation should be

for avoiding plagiarism – and they are well covered. In

qualified: the deadening effect is notable in science and

his ‘Introduction for Teachers’ Bailey says: ‘The material in

social science fields; and less so in the humanities, though

this course has been extensively tested in the classroom,

it is easy to draw up a list of infelicities and obscurities

[…]’ (p. xiv); and in the ‘Introduction for Students’ that

found there, especially in the acting identities donated

‘Thousands of students have already found that Academic

to polysyllabic abstractions dumped on English in

Writing helps them to write more clearly and effectively.

translations of French savants.

This new edition has been developed using their feedback and ideas, […]’ (p. xvi). That shows but I must leave it to

Final lesson

others to say whether the book is better or worse than other instructional manuals devoted to academic writing. I say that a systematic approach – rightly advocated by Bailey and exemplified in the organisation of his book – drifts into formulaic recipes. The aim for all students entering higher education is, with lecturers as exemplars and with the assistance of those capable of offering improvement, to develop a talent for clear, plain, grammatical prose. One has to absorb conventions in order to learn how to ignore or skirt them in pursuit of higher interests (of good writing, or good living). To lay out the conventions of academic writing in such a way as to expect submission to them is to fetter expression. I have had students who were so scared off use of the first person pronoun that

Consider Gower’s works, thou sluggard, consider his Words and be wise: But economists do not sin as badly on the whole as sociologists and environmental scientists. And the business schools and personnel management experts are the worst of all. …Some of them strain after “expert” language because they are afraid that if their manner is lucid their matter will be despised as elementary. But no sensible reader supposes that what is easy to understand must have been easy to think of; and where the matter really is elementary (as sometimes it is bound to be) obscurity of manner reduces, not increases, the reader’s respect for the writer’s intellectual power (Gower, 1976, p. 279).

their essays were littered to deadening effect with uses

Arthur O’Neill is….? Good question!

and, more often, misuses of the impersonal ‘it’.

Contact: arthurjhj65@live.com.au

So it is in this book. Students are advised: There is no one correct style of academic writing, but in general it should attempt to be accurate, impersonal and objective. For example, personal pronouns like ‘I’ […] are used less often than in other kinds of writing. A specimen paragraph is given, with the invitation to

Have I the write? Reviewed by Arthur O’Neill

References Fowler, H. W. (2003 [1926]). A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1st ed.). Oxford: University Press. Gower, E. (1976). The Complete Plain Words (rev. by Fraser, B.). Harmondsworth: Penguin. vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

A hard man to read New Tricks: Reflections on a life in medicine and education by Richard Larkins. ISBN 978 1 922235 43 5 (paperback) 978 1 922235 44 2 (hardback) Monash University Publishing, 2015. Reviewed by Jim McGrath

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

policy decisions – especially during his deanship at the

(ACCC), which punishes Australians for false advertising,

University of Melbourne and his vice-chancellorship at

has yet to punish a book publisher.This book’s blurb could

Monash. His justifications generally fit his descriptions of

tempt them. For the back-cover blurb writer declares that

the facts, but he offers no explanation for the overturning

in this book the author ‘provides a rare, candid account

of so many of his policies by his successors.

of a life lived in the public eye’. But the author doesn’t.

Historians of Monash University will find a few things

Larkins claims (p. 148) a ‘... natural inclination to say what

of substantive interest, but only a few, and only if they read

I think when the opportunity arises’, but the book is full

between the lines: i.e. only if they suspect the truth of his

of evidence to the contrary. Mind you, he may have meant

statements, and consider why he made them, what they

the exact opposite: the full sentence is:

reveal about him, and what he might have meant by them.

I soon discovered that this was a luxury I could not afford and in any case it was somewhat foreign to my natural inclination to say what I think when the opportunity arises.

He seems to believe that Alison Crook and the finance

He admits to having been frequently misunderstood,

innovation’s author was actually Crook’s predecessor, as

but blames his audience:

committee of the Monash Council invented the practice of borrowing ‘much more extensively than was usual in the Australian context to fund new capital initiatives’. (The Larkins might have known had he looked at the report

My tendency for [sic] informal and off-the-cuff comments, which were meant to be taken as humorous asides, were [sic] often reported back to me as strong statements of my opinion. I should have learnt to be more careful, but that [sic] was not my nature.

column showing the age of the University’s debts).

And he writes this in a passage about the importance of

column in the Monash ‘newsletter’ he ‘attempted to

good communication. Later, writing about his address to a

strike a balance between pomposity and triviality’. (No

meeting of Gippsland community leaders and Gippsland

balance was required). There is a remarkable passage in

Campus staff, he gives an example of his humour.

which he defends his decision to keep Stephen Parker as

He says that the various ‘controlled entities’ had once been useful, but had ceased to be by the time he became VC. (The inefficiencies and conflicts of interest were inevitable and predicted). He says that in his monthly

... I felt it safe to start with the obviously nonsensical statement that we planned to close the campus. This was received with a stunned silence. I quickly explained that I was joking....

one of his Monash deputies: remarkable because hardly

What a wag! And how could the audience have failed

tensions arose and what forms they took. (But then he

to notice that the statement was obviously nonsensical? Much of the book consists of ‘polite meaningless words’:

anyone else would think a defence necessary. He refers to ‘tensions which emerged from time to time’ between himself and Parker but leaves us to guess at how those never tells us anything about disagreements with other subordinates either).

wives’ names, lieutenants acknowledged, courses eaten,

The book is well printed, well bound, well organised

places visited, bases touched, respects paid, people met,

(with short and clearly-titled chapters), well indexed,

.... I suspect that someone has delivered a copy to each

unhelpfully illustrated, and unevenly edited. Indeed,

of the dozens of people mentioned – usually only once

the unevenness of the editing leads one to suspect that

each – in the course of the book. (The small-font, double

different parts of the book may have been produced by

column index consumes eight of the 264 pages.) Much

different processes. In several places the editor(s) have

of the rest comprises justifications (sometimes long) of

allowed Larkins to use ‘collocate’ (a linguistical term)

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

A hard man to read Reviewed by Jim McGrath

’

when he means ‘co-locate’ – as in ‘The largest collocation

Jim McGrath was President of Monash University Club for five

of CSIRO was collocated with our Clayton campus...’.

years of last century.

(‘Co-locate isn’t much of a word either). And then you

Contact: jfmcg@bigpond.net.au

have sentences like those quoted above. But while better editing might have made the book’s meaning clearer, it could never have made it interesting. Larkins is, in every sense, a hard man to read.

A hard man to read Reviewed by Jim McGrath

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

Critical pedagogy in adult education Unfit to be a Slave – A Guide to Adult Education for Liberation by David Greene. ISBN: 978-946209-933-3 (pb), Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, xvi+156pp. 2015. Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer

Written firmly in the tradition of critical pedagogy

university settings and higher education in general. Darder

as originally outlined in Freire’s seminal Pedagogy of

continues with ‘it is only in light of a humanising political

the Oppressed (1970), Greene applies the framework

commitment of life that adult education … can genuinely

of critical pedagogy to adult education. This highly

advance with students their fundamental language rights

illuminating and quite often autobiographical book is

and liberatory potentials as subjects’ (p. xii). Crucial to

substantially enriched through the author’s forty years of

all that and given the book’s title is the story of young

teaching in adult education in the USA providing a wealth

slaves signifying the emancipatory potential of education

of insights, factual case studies (auto workers union and

(Douglass, 1948; 1855). Significantly, Greene’s book starts

mining unions, etc.) as well as a historical overview of

with

adult education. This is considerably improved through international comparisons (Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe, etc.). Greene’s exquisite book is divided into eight well structured, methodical and didactically superbly crafted chapters starting with ‘learning for life’ that presents the basics of critical pedagogy. Chapter two describes ‘the field of adult or worker education’ that is often deformed by the managerialism of ‘gatekeepers and social control’ managing today’s

the book takes its title from The Narratives of the Life of Frederick Douglass, in which Douglass recounts his story as an enslaved ten-year old African American boy being prohibited from learning to read by the master of the plantation. Mr Auld, the slave-master, insisted ‘if you teach him to read … it would forever unfit him to be a slave’. Today education is not outlawed. However, we are told that it is not useful or necessary to have education beyond ‘job training’. Today, we are still enslaved because we are ignorant of our circumstance (p. 1).

institutions of adult and higher education. Set against managerial-educational ideologies such as ‘job readiness’

This is exactly the point where ideologies such as

and ‘basic skills’ that seek to reduce education to simple

neoliberalism and managerialism and more education,

training and vocationalism (reading, writing and maths)

schooling and university specific ideologies such as

is adult education’s project of ‘political literacy’ as

testing, training, vocationalism, basic skills, key learning

Chapter four explains. Quite necessarily, this relates to

objectives, rankings, ratings, impact factors (Fleck, 2013),

‘the political economy of adult education’ as Chapter

assessments, functionality, e-learning, etc. come in. All of

five shows. Chapter six brings in ‘tools for social change

these are invented to make sure that we, as Greene says,

consciousness and social transformation’ while Chapter

‘do not [get] the right kind of education’ (p. 1). Much of

seven discusses ‘space and schools for education for

this is linked to a certain anti-intellectualism even found

liberation’. The educational book concludes with ‘stand

in universities where theory is all too often reduced to

up for your rights’ in Chapter eight.

the post-modern hallucination of narratives (Sokal, 2008)

Public intellectual Antonia Darder’s foreword notes that

perhaps running under the anti-intellectual heading ‘we

Greene’s book ‘encompasses unapologetically a critical

don’t need theory, it’s too complicated’ (p. 6). Perhaps

view of literacy grounded upon Paulo Freire’s axiom of

non-thinking has also become essential to consumer

literacy as a political process of reading the world’ (p.

capitalism because ‘consumer and individualistic society

xi). Even though Greene’s book discusses the teaching of

[depends on] less thinking and more buying’ (p. 6). This

adult literacy at length, it contains a wealth of fundamental

might be because marketing knows that the longer and

insights into adult education in general. These are highly

the more a consumer thinks about a product, the less

applicable to teaching young and mature adults in

likely they will buy it. As a consequence we are enticed

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Critical pedagogy in adult education Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer

’

your own personal finance as well as knowing how

to buy without thinking, on the spot, in the spirit of the

the economic system works.

moment.‘Whatever you do – don’t think’ and ‘just do it’ as the sweatshop corporation Nike tells us (Hobbes, 2015).

It goes without saying that many of the ‘1.35 million

This seems to be the core to marketing and consumer

children who are likely to experience homelessness in

capitalism (Lindstrom, 2008).

a given year’ (p. 26) in the USA are largely deprived of

With this, perhaps it is no longer the case that

these five literacy elements.Virtually the same goes for the

‘knowledge is often tucked away in universities’ (p. 6).

‘over 2.3 million people who are in US prisons today, the

Today’s universities are defined by neoliberalism and

highest number and rate of imprisonment in the world’ (p.

managerialism often teaching pure ideology rather than

27). Perhaps while Australia still has remnants of a welfare

knowledge. It is no longer knowledge but rankings and

state that aren’t fully deregulated, the USA has prisons

marketing that count, not only for business schools that

for its poor. Significantly, ‘69 per cent of jail inmates did

have become more business than schools. Competing for

not complete high school as compared to 18 per cent of

state and corporate funding as well as full-fee students

the general population’ (p. 27). Hence there is a ‘School

has been made into the overarching name of the game.

to Prison Pipeline’ (Heitzeg, 2016). But most instructively,

All this might signify ‘The Triumph of the Airheads and

Greene also notes that

the Retreat from Commonsense’ and ‘The Triumph of Emptiness’ as Gare (2006) and Alvesson (2013) have shown most recently. But it remains also important for consumer capitalism thriving on non-thinking individuals that are isolated from each other. This might, at least partly, explain why ‘there is a massive push to convert classrooms and community [as well as university, TK] education into distant learning or individualised computer instruction. For many, technology is a fetish [used to] isolate students from one another [creating] reduced opportunities for interaction [designed] to

under the racist apartheid government of South Africa, 851 Blacks out of 100,000 people in the population were incarcerated. Under President George Bush in the United States, 4,789 Blacks out of 100,000 people in the population were incarcerated. The prison industrial complex generates an estimated $40 billion each year [with] Chevron, Victoria Secret and Walmart, etc. [and the fact that] nearly a million prisoners are now making furniture, working in call centres, fabricating body armour, taking hotel reservations, working in slaughter houses or manufacturing textiles, shoes and clothing while getting paid somewhere between $0.93 and $4.73 per day (p. 97).

divide and separate workers’ (p. 10) and students.

It converts ‘if you work hard, you will get ahead’ (p.

Without the collective and the reality of campus

97) into a cynical ‘work sets you free’ ideology because

based student life universities have become depressive

people in US jails can never ‘get ahead’. The system gives

appendages of neoliberal job training centres as Hill

them no chance. Nor have they much of a chance of

(2015) has demonstrated recently.

getting out of privatised prisons as the for-profit prison

Apart from interesting insights into the miserable

industry benefits from prisoners – one little mistake and

state of adult education in the USA – ‘I have worked in

your chance of probation is gone, you stay and carry on

makeshift classrooms where mice, roaches and rats share

working for the prison industrial complex (Reiman &

the learning space’ (p. 20) in the much celebrated USA!

Leighton, 2013). Individualistic ‘work hard’ ideologies are

– Chapter two’s most interesting point is that literacy

broadcasted daily by corporate mass media and tabloid-TV.

should not and can never be reduced simply to the ability

Greene notes, ‘in the game book of capitalist relations,

to read and write. Against the neoliberal ‘read-and-write’

corporations do what they deem necessary to bamboozle,

ideology, Greene argues, literacy always extends to five

tranquilise, and confuse us, through spin-doctors who

core elements (p. 22):

deliberately provide false, limited or distorting pictures’

1. functional literacy that means to be able to operate, act and live in a society; 2. civic and political literacy to understand socioeconomical and political issues; 3. health literacy to be aware of the health system and alternative medical care; 4. environmental literacy to understand problems we face with our air, water, soil, energy, climate and food production; and finally 5. financial literary that includes the ability to manage

(p. 30). Simultaneous to mass poverty, rat infested adult education classrooms, child homelessness and slavelike prison wages, billions are spent on war when ‘the combined cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already surpassed $160 billion’ (p. 39). All this is paralleled by corporate wealth when, for example, Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York and one of the wealthiest men, increased his fortune from $5.6 billion when he took office in 2002 to $19.5 billion in 2012. And despite the Wall Street crisis, the

Critical pedagogy in adult education Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

wealthy and powerful continue to profit, while disenfranchised students in adult education suffer serious losses and face an even more uncertain future (p. 39). All this is not made any better by the ‘gatekeepers’ of managerialism as Chapter three shows (Klikauer, 2013). These ‘gatekeepers make up a large part of the adult education system … they can be teachers, administrators or other staff that stand directly in the way’ (p. 43). The same can be said about many Australian

’

Step 2: gathering information including research, interviews, listing the experience of others, reading, online investigations, and studying historical evidence (e.g. The Zinn Project at www.teachingforchange.org, p.117); Step 3: making a hypothesis that is basically making a proposal, an explanation and an educated guess; Step 4: testing the hypothesis that means taking steps or actions to see if the educated guess is accurate or more needs to be done;

universities (Aspromourgos, 2012) and global education in general. These gatekeepers often rely on the ideology of professionalism, for example, ‘to keep teachers from unionising and thus seeing themselves no longer as workers, as part of a community and as peers of their adult students’ (p. 51). As professionals they teach professional business in business schools, for example, while these professionals rely on ‘Questions Business Schools Don’t Ask’ (Mabey & Mayrhofer, 2015). Such business schools, universities and higher education organisations no longer teach ‘political literacy’. Instead they operate on ‘curricula designed to prepare adult education students for basic skills, standardised tests, fragmented knowledge, deficit perspectives, loyal obedience and the instrumental language needed for the job market’ (p. 59; cf. Troyna, 1988). All of this is done to camouflage facts such as, for example, ‘that the marginal tax rate for the wealthy has dropped from 91 per cent in the 1950s to 71 per cent in the 1970s to its current rate of nearly 15 per cent – much

Step 5: results of such a test need to be analysed to see whether the hypothesis holds water. All of this needs ‘space and schools for education for liberation’ as Chapter seven outlines. It needs institutions worthy of the appellation “school”, educating students to become active agents for social transformation and critical citizenship. This is an urgent task because the important challenge ahead is to educate a citizenry capable of overcoming the systemic exploitation of so many of the world’s population [and for that] schools should provide students with a language of criticism and hope (p. 127). How this is achieved is illustrated through the examples of Venezuela, Cuba, Zimbabwe and Nicaragua where in 1980, one year after defeating the government of Anastasio Samoza in Nicaragua, the Sandinistas led by Daniel Ortega instituted the Nicaraguan Literacy Campaign. Volunteers from all over the country, 60 per cent of whom were women, taught reading and writing … it reduced the illiteracy rate from 50.3 per cent to 12 per cent and was honoured by UNESCO (p. 135).

lower than the average working family rates’ (p. 87). But behind Greene’s ‘has dropped’ is neither automatism nor

Greene concludes ‘this political and economic system

passivity. Instead, it is a deliberate program taken from the

preaches individualism with every tool at its disposal. It

Hungarian aristocrat pair of Ludwig Heinrich Edler (‘Edler’

is clear to me, and verified by history, that change is the

means nobility) von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek and

result of collective action. It is not caused by heroes or

his political catechism of neoliberalism. The neoliberal

great ideas alone’ (p. 146). And

program of reducing taxes for the rich and corporations also assures that, for example,‘big pharma’ pays only 1 per cent tax in Australia (West, 2015). To create awareness of all this, critical pedagogy always includes ‘tools for social change consciousness and social transformation’ (p. 103) advocating, as Albert Turner who carried Martin Luther King’s coffin in 1968, noted, ‘I am the Root Doctor, I want to go to the causes of problems of poverty and injustice’ (p. 103) and as Berthold Brecht once said, ‘if you are hungry, reach for a book: it is a weapon’ (p. 104). For going to the roots while

capitalism, which pits workers against each other in order to earn a living, leaves us isolated and alone. It is no surprise that workers and their families feel as if they are insane. TV, the internet and the mass media bombard us with commercials, murders and hopelessness. Scared and misinformed, people withdraw and try to defend themselves. The superstructure of this system works overtime to classify people who are low-income or less successful as mentally ill. Tony Benn … says ‘keeping people hopeless and pessimistic – see I think there are two ways in which people are controlled. First of all, frighten people and secondly demoralise them (p. 147).

teaching literacy in adult education, Greene suggests five basic steps (p. 107f): Step 1: identification of an existing problem;

Hence, we have a possible explanation for governments converting terrorism into an official state and all-guiding master ideology while preaching neoliberal capitalism as

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Critical pedagogy in adult education Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer

inevitable and a system to which we have to submit. It reduces humanity to mere appendages to the global megamachine of consumer capitalism. Greene’s outstanding book shows how this can be challenged by teaching the

’

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed (transl. by Myra Bergman Ramos), New York: Continuum. Gare, S. (2006). The Triumph of the Airheads and the Retreat from Commonsense, Double Bay (Sydney): Media21 Publishing.

right kind of education in adult and in higher education.

Heitzeg, N. A. (2016). The School to Prison Pipeline: Education, Discipline, and Double Standards, New York: Preager.

Thomas Klikauer is a senior lecturer teaching MBAs at the

Hill, R. (2015). Selling Students Short – Why You Won’t Get the University Education You Deserve, Sydney: London: Allen & Unwin.

SGSM, University of Western Sydney, NSW. He is currently working on a book entitled ‘Management education – from managerialism to emancipation’. Contact: T.Klikauer@westernsydney.edu.au

References Alvesson, M. (2013). The Triumph of Emptiness – Consumption, Higher Education & Work Organisation, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Aspromourgos, T. (2012). The Managerialist University: An Economic Interpretation, Australian University Review 54, no. 2, p. 44-49. Douglass, F. (1845). The Narratives of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Boston: Anit-Slavery Office (www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23). Douglass, F. (1855). My Bondage and My Freedom. Part I. Life as a Slave. Part II. Life as a Freeman, New York: Miller, Orton & Mulligan (wikipedia.org/ wiki). Fleck, C. (2013). The impact factor fetishism, European Journal of Sociology 54, no. 2, pp. 327-56.

Hobbes, M. (2015). The Myth of the Ethical Shopper, Huffington Post, 16th July 2015 (huffingtonpost.com). Klikauer, T. (2013). Managerialism – Critique of an Ideology, Basingstoke: Palgrave. Lindstrom, M. (2008). Buyology: Truth and Lies about why we Buy, New York: Doubleday. Mabey, C. & Mayrhofer, W. (2015). Developing Leadership: Questions Business Schools Don’t Ask, Los Angles: Sage. Reiman, J. & Leighton, P. (2013). The rich get richer and the poor get prison: ideology, class, and criminal justice (10th ed.), Boston: Pearson. Sokal, A. (2008). Beyond the hoax: science, philosophy and culture, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Troyna, B. (1988). Paradigm Regained: a critique of ‘cultural deficit’ perspectives in contemporary educational research, Comparative Education 24, no. 3, pp. 273-283. West, M. (2015). Big pharma bosses front up to Senate inquiry into corporate tax avoidance, Sydney Morning Herald, 2 July 2015.

Critical pedagogy in adult education Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

Northern lite? Definitely not! Northern Lights – The Positive Policy of Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway by Andrew Scott. ISBN-13: 978-1921867927, Monash University Publishing 205 pp. 2014. Reviewed by Timo Aarrevaara

For many scholars, the Nordic countries represent

make choices about welfare services. Scott sees publicly

examples of well-being states regulated by public policy,

provided and taxation-financed services largely as policies

with public policy reactions to social challenges. In fact,

of the long-empowered Social Democratic party. Have

the Nordic countries do not form a homogenous bloc, and

these the values evolved during the Social Democrats’

the goals of the individual countries are quite different

long regime, or have the Social Democrats implemented

from each other. Of the countries concerned, Norway is

their goals effectively in society? In Swedish society there

the only one which is not part of the European Union.

seems to be broad consensus on welfare state values, but

Sweden and Denmark are in the European Union, but

Scott does not suggest these could be moved to Australia

are not members of the common currency (euro) zone.

or other English-speaking countries without adjustment.

Finland is in both the European Union and the euro

The benefits of the Nordic welfare society can largely

currency zone. Norway and Denmark are NATO countries,

be characterised by reference to the achievements in

and Finland and Sweden have remained outside military

education. In this area in particular, the Nordic Countries

alliances.With such disparities, can such diverse countries

do not present a uniform Nordic policy. Achievements

provide a uniform presentation? Yes, probably. Within the

of the education sector are best exemplified in Finland,

national diversity are similarities.

where successes in the PISA studies have raised the

Andrew Scott, an Australian academic, has succeeded by

reputation of its comprehensive school system. The

not drawing comparisons between the Nordic countries,

welfare state supports vocational and higher education as

but has dealt with them one by one, and has discussed each

a corner stone, which in the Finnish case sees education

country in relation to the Australian context. This option

being provided free of charge up to and including

does have its problems, because differences between

university doctoral degrees. The horizontal differences

the Nordic countries, such as those mentioned above,

between institutions in learning outcomes at same level

receive little attention in this book. On the other hand,

are small. Scott interprets the Finnish welfare policy as

Scott brings a new Australian perspective to the Nordic

being a combination of neoliberal and social democratic

countries by drawing out the variety of their public policy

aspirations.

choices. This book does not contain new knowledge per

Education in the Nordic countries is partly in crisis

se, rather it provides a fresh and new perspective based

due to education cutbacks and structural reforms. Free

on public policy backgrounds.

academic education has been partly eroded, even though

Sweden has been a pioneer in the development of Nordic welfare, and has been developing its policies

it is considered to be one of the tools available to promote welfare state values.

since the late 19th Century. It has continued its welfare

In the 2010s, the Nordic countries face the same

state policy relatively uninterrupted up to the 2000s. For

problems as those being faced by other European

Scott, Sweden has been able to raise the well-being of its

countries. The growth of immigration and its costs and

children via one of the long-term goals of society, which

weaker economic development in the euro zone are

has been the support of the role of women in Sweden

among the factors for recent policy-shaping. The Nordic

as a ‘dual-earner’ nation. Regulated hours, more women

countries cannot choose the content of their welfare

working in full-time jobs, higher quality of part-time jobs

policies in the same way as they did in the past.

and paternity leave are examples of tools used in recent

Among the Nordic countries, Denmark seems to have

decades to promote this policy. Sweden appears to be

become the most positive in terms of the structural

a country in which it is possible for the individual to

reforms it has undertaken. This has been reflected in

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Northern lite? Definitely not! Reviewed by Timo Aarrevaara

’

the education system for structural reforms that have

these four countries resolve potentially major problems

led to the ability to create a significant number of

without abandoning the principles of the welfare state?

new work places without losing the core values of the

The current threats for welfare societies have come up

welfare state. The Danes built their labour policy on the

somewhat out of the blue. The book was written before

principle of ‘flexicurity’ for labour market performance

the current asylum seeker problem arose. It will perhaps

as a combination of flexibility and employment. Scott’s

be an acid test for these four societies.

analysis shows that education has remained at a high level under ‘flexicurity’.

Northern Lights has many strengths and the kind of framework adopted by the Nordic countries has not been

Norway took a different route from that taken by

built elsewhere.Scott appreciates that the Nordic countries

Denmark, and this is reflected in its welfare policy

are different societies, and sees many opportunities to take

solutions. It can be said that Norway has been able to

the model to build with greater prosperity, equality and

afford high taxation and regulation. The Norwegian

sustainability. The book discusses many of the Northern

welfare policy solutions have been supported by the

dimension questions, and there is also some valuable data

Statens pensjonsfond utland (government pension fund),

on minorities. For Scott, Northern Lights is a symbol of

and in particular by its accumulation of resources income

policies that can combine economic prosperity, social

(mainly from oil), to provide for future welfare funding.

equality and environmental responsibility. The book will

This fund has allowed Norway many opportunities to be a

be useful for those higher education scholars who wish to

pioneer in the Nordic ‘strong state’ welfare policies.

know more about Nordic values, and provides a valuable

For higher education scholars The Northern Lights

contribution for that reason alone.

presents the perspective of education as a part of the core of the welfare state. This is the starting point for

Timo Aarrevaara is Professor of Public Management at the

the Nordic countries to recognise education as public

University of Lapland, Finland, and is a member of the AUR

consumption. If there are to be additional financial

editorial board.

demands on taxpayers because of immigration, not to

Contact: Timo.Aarrevaara@ulapland.fi

mention the ageing and longer-living population, can

Northern lite? Definitely not! Reviewed by Timo Aarrevaara

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

Love’s Labor lost? Triumph and Demise: The Broken Promise of a Labor Generation by Paul Kelly. ISBN: 9780522867817 (paperback), Carlton: Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 560 pp., 2014. Reviewed by Paul Rodan

Paul Kelly is an experienced and accomplished writer

making), his associated micro-management, his failure

on Australian politics and government over four decades.

to extend even minimal courtesy and respect to a wide

While his pompous television commentator persona

range of colleagues and ultimately, his retreat on climate

can be a turn-off, his nine books have made a significant

change policy, a retreat in which he was encouraged by

contribution to the recording and understanding of

Julia Gillard herself: no devotees of Gough Whitlam’s

Australian political history. Kelly’s November 1975

‘crash through or crash’ approach here. By early 2010, the

(published 1995) is the outstanding account of the

Government should have been blowing its own trumpet

dismissal of the Whitlam Government, with the author

over its sound management of the global financial crisis.

(no Labor partisan) indicting Governor-General Sir John

Instead, this became secondary to a crisis within.

Kerr for his lack of honesty and frankness in dealing with

Kelly paints a compelling picture of a prime minister

his Prime Minister. Kerr’s attempted defence (in his own

wracked by indecision that summer, dithering about

memoirs) is forensically dissected and found wanting by

whether to call a double dissolution election over climate

Kelly, who also excels in his analysis of Gough Whitlam’s

change. Party officials waited – in vain – for the nod.

complete failure to understand the character of the man

Whatever the tensions within the Government, these had

he appointed. He builds on these themes in his most

not filtered through to the electorate and it is virtually

recent book The Dismissal: In the Queen’s Name (2015,

inconceivable that such a poll would have done other

with Troy Bramston).

than return the ALP, especially with the new opposition

If 1975 was tragedy, the events of the Rudd-GillardRudd governments probably qualify as farce. Kelly’s

leader, the perpetually unpopular Tony Abbott, still on trainer wheels. Opportunity lost.

resource base included over 60 interviews with the main

Kelly is appropriately scathing about one of Gillard’s

participants, an impressive achievement with political

later rationalisations for the move against Rudd: that she

bloodstains still on the floor.

was effectively doing him a favour since he was so clearly

The book advances three key propositions: ‘that the

struggling in the job (pp. xvii). Not even a pass conceded

destruction of the Rudd-Gillard partnership was the fatal

in Psych 101 for that one: indeed, the apparent failure of

event; that Labor in office was burdened by an institutional

the plotters to ask the ‘what will Rudd do’ question has

malaise…’ and that the Australian political system is in a

long puzzled this reviewer. If the man was as flawed (even

crisis which threatens to ‘damage our society and living

‘psychotic’) as his detractors never cease to assert, then

standards’ (p. vii). The first proposition seems unarguable;

the ‘good loser’ role was the least likely one that a defeated

the second is more contentious and the third is built

Rudd would embrace. Did the possibility that he would

mostly around Kelly’s now predictable advocacy of an

react as he did never occur to these political geniuses? As

even more passionate embrace of the neoliberal agenda, a

Kelly makes clear, the decision was not thought through:

goal invariably described by that most misused of words

the key actors allowed animosity to overrule judgement.

– ‘reform’.

In the last Newspoll before he was deposed, Rudd

Kelly chronicles the origins of the Rudd-Gillard alliance,

was leading 52:48 on a two-party preferred basis, a clear

its location in mutual self-interest and its potential to

indication of likely election success, despite the self-

herald a new period of sustained success for the ALP. As

serving use of ‘confidential’ party polling by forces seeking

is now well-known and documented, these early hopes

his removal. If there was a case to dispose of Rudd, this

fell victim to Kevin Rudd’s chaotic and dysfunctional style

was an act better undertaken early in a second term than

of prime ministerial decision-making (or non-decision-

late in a first. Kelly is right: this was the beginning of the

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Love’s Labor lost? Reviewed by Paul Rodan

end, even if it was drawn out over an election campaign and three years of minority government. In addressing the ALP’s ‘institutional malaise’ theme,

’

est, struggles with a fragmented media less equipped to facilitate sensible debate and confronts a conflict between long-term policy and the short-term tyranny of the policy and media cycle (p. 498).

Kelly laments the lack of bipartisan ‘reform’ between Labor and the Coalition (and is critical of each), but is

Some will agree with this general theme, while others

apparently uneasy with the fading of party ideology,

may find it too alarmist, and there will certainly be

meaning ‘Labor now exists to govern’ (p. 81). But surely,

disagreement over the detail of what constitutes desirable

without this loss of ideology, Hawke and Keating could

change. Kelly’s own ideological predisposition is betrayed

never have implemented Kelly’s beloved ‘reform’. As

in his description of the first Hockey budget as a ‘reform’

political commentator Waleed Aly has noted ‘… the new

budget (p. 508). However, his view that the 1980s policy

consensus on liberal economics buried the Labor Party’s

consensus was an aberration (p. 502) seems convincing,

reason for existence – a reason it has not yet rediscovered’

and it is difficult to envisage anything but limited common

(The Age, 18 September 2015).

ground between conservatives and progressives in the

Kelly is critical of Labor because its poll-driven mania

foreseeable future.

extended (beyond the ranks of opposition) to the office

Of several MUP books read in recent years, this is easily

of prime minister. But events since the book’s publication

the best for its lack of factual errors, mis-spellings, etc.

have demonstrated that this is not a Labor disease, but

Whether this is down to Kelly or MUP (or both) is unclear,

an Australian one: just ask Tony Abbott. That aside, Kelly’s

but in support of the former, I would observe that the

treatment of poll-driven leadership instability is sound:

journalists’ books I read are less error-prone than those

leaders effectively need to establish a polling lead or

written by academics and politicians.

face challenge, an undesirable situation for any stability

If readers of this journal are expecting that a 560-page

or decent policy formulation and implementation. What

volume would include some references to a policy area

would have been useful would be any insights into

as critical as higher education, I am obliged to advise that

why this is a uniquely Australian state of affairs. Other

they will be disappointed.

comparable democratic polities do not feature revolving door leadership based on polls. Kelly’s third key proposition is that the Australian

Paul Rodan is an adjunct professor in the Swinburne Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology,

political system is in crisis, ‘failing to deliver the results

Victoria, and a member of the AUR Editorial Board.

needed for the nation, its growth in living standards and

Contact: prodan@swin.edu.au

its self-esteem’ (p. 497). He elaborates: Australian politics is dominated by a poll-driven culture. It empowers negative campaigns, privileges sectional and special interests over the national inter-

Love’s Labor lost? Reviewed by Paul Rodan

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

Think critical; be critical The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Thinking in Higher Education by Martin Davies & Ronald Barnett (Eds). ISBN: 978-1-137-37803-3 (hbk), Palgrave MacMillan, New York, x + 636 pp., 2015. Reviewed by Dennis Bryant

I must congratulate Palgrave MacMillan on a Handbook

usually abbreviated to simply CT. So, I was searching for

that presents well and is a delight to read. I make these

a paper that would inform me. I am pleased to report

laudatory remarks for a number of reasons which I will

that I was not disappointed in any regard.The Vardi paper

share with you now.

was extremely informative as well as being written and

The division of the Handbook into seven sections was,

structured to an academic standard up with which I was

I think, judicious and projects a feeling of balance. The

very happy to put (to paraphrase an old line from Winston

sections are entitled ‘What is Critical Thinking in Higher

Churchill).

Education’; followed by ‘Teaching Critical Thinking’;

Apart from the Iris Vardi paper and the Editors’

then, in Section III, ‘Incorporating Critical Thinking in the

Introduction, I carefully read just two further papers.

Curriculum’; followed by ‘Critical Thinking and Culture’;

In selecting these papers, I was guided by a principle

then ‘Critical Thinking and the Cognitive Sciences’ in

of trying to stick with papers that seemed immediately

Section V. The final two sections are ‘Critical Thinking and

relevant to student life. For example, I did not choose any

the Professions’; and, lastly,‘Social Perspectives on Critical

papers from the ‘Social Perspectives’ section, or from the

Thinking’.

‘Professions’ section. Perhaps, I erred?

Sections average five papers, and about half the papers

I did review Using Argument Mapping to Improve

are written by multiple authors. In total, there are about

Critical Thinking Skills by Tim van Gelder, from the

70 authors, which suggests to me that the papers might

‘Teaching’ section and was introduced to mapping. I

be well-prepared, and representative. However, I did not

then looked up ‘mapping’ in the Index, and scanned

at any time presume that this would be the outcome, and

through papers where it was mentioned – after all, it is

therefore I must relate my approach in reviewing this

a Handbook!

book.

Being convinced of the Handbook’s quality, but having

As a first step, I went to the section that most interested

not reviewed a multi-author paper, my final review was

me, this was Section III, and I began with the first paper,

Applying Cognitive Science to Critical Thinking among

which was The Relationship between Self-Regulation,

Higher Education Students by Jason Lodge, Erin O’Connor,

Personal Epistemology, and Becoming a ‘Critical Thinker’:

Rhonda Shaw and Lorelle Burton, from the ‘Cognitive

Implications for Pedagogy, by Iris Vardi.

Sciences’ section.

In reading this almost-randomly chosen paper, I had an

The Lodge et al. paper was interesting in that it

agenda, in two parts. You might be surprised that I did

addressed a number of themes. As one example, the

not begin with the Editors’ Introduction. However, in

authors noted that debates have centred on whether CT

recent times, I have encountered a surfeit of hyperbole

should be taught in a general or specific manner; however,

from editors, and did not want to revisit the scene.

they concluded that this debate is passé and not the most

However, I was later to discover that the Handbook’s

important debate to entertain. Instead, they proceeded to

Editors were masters, not of spin, but of superbly written

point out the appeal, and the application to universities,

understatement, and fluent argument; but at that time, I

of more current research into Cognitive Science, which

was not taking chances. I wanted to dive into the ‘real’

they claimed will help remove student-derived faulty

papers, so to speak.

thinking such as fallacies, compromising mental shortcuts

The second part of my agenda for selecting the Vardi

in thinking, biases, as well as heuristics and, in this way,

paper concerned my own background. I have never been

will succeed in enhancing students’ critical thinking

fully up to date with ‘Critical Thinking’, which I note is

capacities. The examples given to support their claims are

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Think critical; be critical Reviewed by Dennis Bryant

relevant not to students alone, but to anyone who thinks. As a final point, I must ask a question:What was the drive

’

Dennis Bryant is concerned with literature that can inform the Academy, especially literature based on empirical

that convinced the Editors to produce this impressive

observation, believing such knowledge has the potential to

Handbook?

expand teaching effectiveness which, in turn, has the potential

The authors explain their many reasons, lucidly and unemotionally, but the one that caught my eye concerned

to expand student Learning success. Contact: jabanungga@hotmail.com

the university as an historical image of Western education and thought. When the authors evoked this image, it was against a backdrop of universities being overly associated with the Business world’s goals and less with traditional university goals. The inference is that it is time to restore the Western education image by protecting the university’s role in developing Critical Thinkers. Admirable and not without logic, I’d say.

Think critical; be critical Reviewed by Dennis Bryant

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

Human rights and education Human Rights Education Beyond Universalism and Relativism – A Relational Hermeneutic for Global Justice by Fuad Al-Daraweesh & Dale T. Snauwaert. ISBN: 9781137471086 (hb.), New York: Palgrave, xvii+224pp., 2015. Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer Betty Reardon’s preface to Al-Daraweesh and Snauwaert’s

ended. Nonetheless, the book presents this as an ongoing

book starts with an all too often rehearsed and almost

debate.

never fulfilled platitude – ‘this is a ground breaking

To support that, the authors wheel out one of Germany’s

book’ (p. iv). While claiming to reach beyond the worn

more conservative sociologists, Karl Mannheim’s work

out path of the conflict between ‘Universalism and

‘Ideology and Utopia’ (1929). This is a rather odd choice

Relativism’ (p. 75), the book remains trapped between

since Mannheim’s ideology book occasionally features

both. It is this tension that defines the book’s six chapters

– more for historical than any other reasons – in books

on human rights, hermeneutics, isomorphic equivalents,

on the history of ideology (Rehmann 2013). Despite the

fusions of horizons, pedagogy, and its conclusion. In the

author’s extensive use of Mannheim (pp. 4-7), he did

preface, Betty Reardon also notes that ‘as a Freirean, I

not write on universalism, relativism, human rights and

view epistemology as the process of making knowledge

education but – as his book says – on ideology. With the

in learning toward a social or political purpose; in the

backdrop of Mannheim, the authors note, ‘human rights

case of learning for reconciliation, new knowledge [and]

educators seek to liberate ourselves from the absolutism

problems are essentially those of power relationships’

of the Universalist approach’ (p. 4). Perhaps ever since

(xiii). Nonetheless, it remains an open secret how ‘a

Cicero (106BC-43BC), it is a rather classical rhetorical

Freirean framework [leads to the idea that] no sphere

approach to set up two conflicting views – universalism

more than that of the struggle for gender justice is more

vs. relativism – against one another and then offer a

in need of dialogical equality’ (p. xvi). Many of these

middle way out. Historically, this rhetorical device has

themes – as important as they are – are hardly Freiran.

worked rather well ever since but other than its oratory

Freire (1970) is not so much about reconciliation but

value, it does not offer much on human rights education.

about liberation. He does not mention gender justice but

On human rights, the authors outline four generations of

oppression in general and his work is not built around

human rights:

‘power relationships’ but centres on education, student

a) the Universal Declaration,

centred pedagogy, oppression and domination, class,

b) setting standards,

capitalism and, above all, liberation and emancipation.

c) culture, environmental, and development rights, and

The book’s introduction starts with a defining statement: ‘one of the most influential debates central

d) the realisation of human rights (p. 10).

to human rights has been the conflict between two diametrically opposed schools of thought on human

But none of them is specifically dedicated to ‘the

rights: universalism and cultural relativism’ (p. 1). In the

preservation of the social, political, and cultural autonomies

published body of contemporary moral philosophy and

of people within diverse cultural contexts’ (p. 10) as

the philosophy of education, relativism appears, if at all,

relativism advocates. Instead, the four generations of

as a marginal issue (e.g. Noddings, 2015). In the political

human rights testify to the dominance of the universalism

domain, universalism has, particularly since the ‘United

of human rights, so much defamed by the authors. Despite

Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948),

that and to further cultural relativism, Al-Daraweesh and

also won the argument. In any case, the ‘universalism-vs.-

Snauwaert seek to support their case by highlighting ‘the

relativism’ debate might have experienced a bit of a late

ethical systems within Buddhism and Confusionism’ (p. 11).

transfusion under hallucinations of postmodernism some

What they do not mention is the fact that these are religions

years back but other than that, the debate has largely

and not fully developed ‘ethical systems’. Armed with

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Human rights and education Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer

’

that, the first chapter deepens the ‘universalism-relativism’

On this reading,Freire presents the critical-emancipatory

divide when rhetorically noting,‘who are we to judge other

interest in liberating people from oppression. He is not

cultures?’ (p. 14), even though the authors themselves

a representative of the hermeneutical approach that

admit ‘culture is one of the most elusive terms to define’

Freire, quite like Habermas and the Frankfurt School,

(p. 49). In any case, the moral philosophy of universalism

also uses. But Freire, the Frankfurt School and Habermas

has never been about ‘judging other cultures’. Instead,

– unlike Al-Daraweesh and Snauwaert – do not stop at

what philosophy does – when understood as ‘love of

understanding because their epistemological-educational

wisdom’ (φιλοσοφία) – is providing an overall framework

concepts reach beyond mere understanding. Hence

from which inhumane actions – often justified under the

emancipatory critique remains the key to Habermas, Freire

rather nebulous ideology of ‘culture’ (as Al-Daraweesh and

and Kant. If nothing else, Kant’s as well as Nietzsche’s

Snauwaert themselves admit) – are assessed and rejected

critical thinking came out of a critique on religion.

when violating the Declaration of Human Rights and when

Given that, Kant and Freire would hardly subscribe to

contradicting the demands of moral philosophy.

‘we offer a philosophical definition of human rights that

As witnesses for relativism, conservatives such as William

is both consistent with the approach and exemplified

of Ockham and David Hume are presented together

in two traditions: Buddhism and Confucianism’ (p. 48).

with Nietzsche who is not so much a representative of

Universalism, Kant, and the United Nations would argue

‘perspectivism’ (p. 17) but of moral nihilism – hence

that it might just be the other way around: Buddhism and

Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil (1886). And perhaps

Confucianism have to be consistent with human rights.

it is not so much that ‘Kant attempted to rescue

Human rights set the terms for ‘the Human Condition’

universalism’ (p. 17) but Kant’s – still being perhaps

(Arendt) – not Buddhism or Confucianism. Nonetheless,

‘the’ most recognised philosopher on universalism –

the book outlines ‘the three schools of Buddhism [and]

‘categorical imperatives’ that have provided milestones for

Confucianism [that] also have different manifestations,

universalism and cosmopolitanism. And as a little annex

and teachings, depending on space and time’ (p. 78).

to Kant, universalism, cosmopolitanism and ‘global justice’

Perhaps statements like these are a case of what

(the book’s subtitle), perhaps it is worthwhile to include

American philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre (1999, p. 319)

Thomas Pogge – easily assessable through <wikipedia.org/

once noted as, ‘always ask about any social and cultural

wiki/Global_justice>. Needless to say, Kant’s entire moral

order what it needs its inhabitants not to know’. What

philosophy is as absent as his categorical imperatives. Just

readers of this book should not know are perhaps

three minutes would have given the authors an initial idea

things like the Confucian idea that ‘the woman follows

of Kant’s philosophy (see Davis (2009)).

the man; in her youth she follows her father and elder

Based on these rather problematic distortions, the book

brother; when married, she follows her husband; when

enters Chapter two on hermeneutics (pp. 47ff.). Despite

her husband is dead, she follows her son’ (Dawson, 1915).

Betty Reardon’s Freire announcement in the preface,

This hardly squares with Betty Reardon’s feminist preface

Chapter two runs into more problems. Hermeneutics is

to the book and human rights. Equally, the much quoted

commonly associated with understanding but Freire was

Dalai Lama’s religion (pp. 88-98) and his own institutional

never just about understanding. Freire is about oppression

setup only allow a man (sic!) to rise to the top (www.

and the liberation from domination. Once placed into

dalailama.com). Above that what one also does not want

the Habermasian framework of a ‘knowledge creating

to mention in a book on human rights are facts such as

interest’, the difference between Freire on the one hand and Al-Daraweesh and Snauwaert’s book becomes clear. The basic idea behind Habermas’ ‘Knowledge and Human Interests’ (1987) is that there are three knowledge creating interests: a. an empirical-positivist interest in control b. an interpretive-hermeneutical interest in understanding (from Hermes, the interpreter of the words of the Greek Gods); and

young Tibetan boys were regularly taken from their peasant families and brought into the monasteries to be trained as monks. Once there, they were bonded for life. Tashì-Tsering, a monk, reports that it was common for peasant children to be sexually mistreated in the monasteries. He himself was a victim of repeated rape, beginning at age nine (Parenti, 2007; Goldstein 1997). The chapter on ‘fusion of horizons’ highlights that ‘the term FGO represents the diversity of genital-operation

c. a critical-emancipatory interest in, as Freire would say,

practices’ (p. 134) which the authors view as being

the liberation of the oppressed and as the Frankfurt

similar to ‘cosmetic procedures such as labiaplasty [and]

School would say ‘emancipation’.

weight-loss surgery’ of Western women (p. 139). Perhaps

100

Human rights and education Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

destroying a woman’s ability to experience sexual

that ‘in [Freire’s] problem posing, educators and learners

fulfilment is not quite the same as a Botox injection – just

discuss and analyse their experience and knowledge

as castrating the authors of this book might not be the

from contextual perspectives’ (p. 181). Expanding on this

same as a nose job.

should have been the prime task of a book on ‘human

The next chapter on pedagogy is not an application of Freire to human rights education. Instead, it notes that human rights education has produced three unfavourable orthodoxies: the hell and heaven binary, the oneway traffic paradigm, and the abolitionist paradigm [outlining that] people in the heavenly domain, that is, Western countries, believe if a society has not met the expectations that result from human rights knowledge, it is automatically rendered hellish (p. 142).

rights education’. Instead of telling readers in their conclusion that ‘the aim of the book was to find a compromising ground between two hard-lined schools of thought on human rights: universalism and cultural-relativism’ (p. 191) and getting bogged down in it, the book is predominantly not about ‘human rights education’. Instead, it is about the conflict between universalism and relativism – something that should have been no more than a ‘background

Perhaps the key question that should be discussed in a

briefing’ for a book on human rights education. Human

book on human rights education lurks behind the author’s

rights education should have done what it aims to do,

‘how is it possible for human rights education to gain mass

namely discussing human rights education. And for that,

cultural legitimisation, when the culture, whereby human

Paulo Freire provides the utmost valuable insight. In

rights are applied, is already being redeemed as hellish?’

conclusion, for those who are interested in human rights

(p. 144). Once the ideological baggage barricading the

education, perhaps reading Freire remains one of the

author’s aim (human rights education) is removed, the

most helpful things one can do.

key question might be: ‘how is it possible for human rights education to gain legitimisation’? And for that, the

Thomas Klikauer is a senior lecturer teaching MBAs at the

book’s universalism vs. relativism theme hardly assists

SGSM, University of Western Sydney, NSW. He is currently

such a project just as the book’s ‘hell-vs.-heaven’ does

working on a book entitled ‘Management Education – from

not provide a useful concept for human rights education.

Managerialism to Emancipation’ to be published in 2016 by

After all, it was what the authors present as ‘heaven’ that

Palgrave UK.

crusaded and conquered, turned slavery into a global

Contact: T.Klikauer@westernsydney.edu.au

issue, established

colonies, invented

concentration

camps and Auschwitz, and today relentlessly enforces euphemistically called ‘structural adjustment programs’ and ‘austerity measures’ leading to severe reductions in educational and health funding with all the pathological outcomes that one can imagine. Perhaps the answer to what should have been the core question of the book comes from a non-heavenly and non-Euro-centred writer: Paulo Freire. Rather than telling readers that ‘there is no infallible human rights heaven’ (p.

References Davis, S.P. (2009). Three Minute Philosophy – Immanuel Kant. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwOCmJevigw Dawson, M. 1915. The Ethics of Confucius. Retrieved from www.sacred-texts. com/cfu/eoc/eoc/index.htm Freire, P. 1970. Pedagogy of the Oppressed (transl. by Myra Bergman Ramos), New York: Continuum. Goldstein, M. & Siebenschuh, W. & Tashì-Tsering, 1997. The Struggle for Modern Tibet: The Autobiography of Tashì-Tsering, Armonk: M.E. Sharpe.

145), something that human rights and the philosophy of

Habermas, J. 1987. Knowledge and Human Interests, Cambridge: Polity Press.

universalism have never claimed, a book on human rights

Mannheim, K. 1929. Ideology and Utopia, reprinted (1936), London: Routledge.

education might have discussed how Freire, who features

MacIntyre, A. 1999. Social Structure and Their Threats to Moral Agency, Philosophy 74, no. 3, p. 311-329.

quite prominently throughout the book (pp. xiii, 11, 149, 157, 162-164, 181), can be applied to human rights education. Apart from ‘learners and educators have been engaged in education utilising what Freire (2005) refers to as the banking model’ (p. 149), this remains absent from a book on ‘human rights education’. And this is despite the fact that the authors are aware that ‘the pedagogy is empowering, since it enables students to reflect on

Nietzsche, F. 1886. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future [Jenseits von Gut und Böse: Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft], edited by Rolf-Peter Horstmann (2002), Cambridge: Cambridge UniVersity Press. Noddings, N. 2015. Philosophy of Education (4th ed.), Boulder: Westview Press. Parenti, M. 2007. Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth (www.michaelparenti. org). Rehmann, J. 2013. Theories of ideology: the powers of alienation and subjection, Leiden: Brill.

human rights issues and concerns’ (p. 168). This becomes even clearer when Al-Daraweesh and Snauwaert note vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Human rights and education Reviewed by Thomas Klikauer

101

’

Begin the beguine? Beginning a Career in Academia: A Guide for Graduate Students of Color by Dwayne A. Mack, Elwood Watson & Michelle Madsen Camacho (Eds.). ISBN: 978-1-138-78364-5 (hbk); ISBN: 978-1-138-78365-2 (pbk); ISBN: 978-1315-76854-0 (ebk), Routledge, New York, xvi + 204 pp., 2015. Reviewed by Dennis Bryant This book contains sixteen papers, four of which were

that environment. Nevertheless, some of AUR readers

produced by the editors.The sixteen papers are organised

might find the checklists to be useful as starting points.

into three parts. Part I is entitled Practical Advice for

However, staying on the theme of checklists, I did find a

Finding Success in the Academic Job Market, and accords

related downside. The checklists are mostly supported by

with the title. However, Part II is concerned with Identity,

anecdotes, several of which I found to be questionable.

Fit, Collegiality and Secrets for Thriving in the Ivory Tower,

One such example occurs in Chapter 2 The Pitfalls and

and this suggests that the book’s contents are more

Pleasures of the Academic Job Market, by Michelle Madsen

broadly focussed than the title intimates to the reader. In

Camacho, where the author relates that ‘a sour impression’

itself, this is not necessarily a problem, but the title-content

was generated by an applicant when the applicant

mismatch did succeed in deflecting my attention, mainly

expressed a wish to have a post-interview drink (page 23).

because I had started to wonder about the descriptive

This had occurred after the interview had terminated and

powers of the authorship.

the applicant had departed the interview space.

Part III did not soothe away my worries. It is entitled

There was one further representation that frayed my

Work-Life Balance: Strategies for Transitioning from

patience with the title, and indeed with the book. As far

Graduate School to the Classroom. Overall, having three

as I could see, almost all the checklists would be relevant

such parts might be considered as more ambitious than is

to any person trying to navigate the Academy, so I was

reflected in its title. Ergo, I had a distinct urge to rename

bemused that the title suggested the book was particularly

this book, by replacing ‘Beginning’ with ‘Navigating’ in the

relevant to ‘of Color’ navigators. Therefore, I must say that

title. A small change, but one which I felt could be readily

I see no sense in having ‘of Color’ in the title, apart from

justified.

what might be a marketing ploy for the US market.

Admittedly, it is a strange sensation for a reviewer to

In summary, I think of this book in the two following

want to amend a book’s title, but the sensation persisted.

ways. Returning to the urge to amend the title to reflect

As I read through the first five papers in this book, it

the book’s reality, I now suggest that a more descriptive

became clear to me that this book was a checklist of how

title that would best serve this book is A Checklist for

to navigate through the Academia experience. Therefore,

Navigating a Career in Academia in the US.

I thought it would be appropriate to further amend the title by prefixing it with A Checklist for [Navigating a

My second impression is that this book is unlikely to favourably impress readers.

Career in Academia: A Guide for Graduate Students of Color]. Again, I think this would be warranted to apprise

Dennis Bryant is concerned with literature that can inspire

the unwary reader.

and support the academy to expand its teaching effectiveness,

While I welcome checklists, I must say that the ones in this book were oriented markedly towards US tertiary

thereby inspiring rising student learning outcomes. Contact: jabanungga@hotmail.com

situations, and might not always be relevant outside

102

Begin the beguine? Reviewed by Dennis Bryant

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

’

Meaningless messages and sugary slogans Selling Students Short: Why you won’t get the university education you deserve by Richard Hil. ISBN 978 1 74331 889 8, Allen & Unwin, 227 pp., 2015. Reviewed by Ian R Dobson

In 2012, Richard Hil amused and horrified us with his scathing, witty and must-read Whackademia – an insider’s account of the troubled university (2012), in which he presented an important critique of the

interested in what students expect from a university education, what they had or had not learned, and the relevance or otherwise of their courses to everyday life (p. 11).

unfortunate direction Australian university education has

Unsurprisingly perhaps, students don’t see universities

been taking. (See also the review in AUR 54(1), 2012). Hil

as providing the full, enriching experience they thought

has ‘done it again’ with his new book Selling students

they’d be getting: ‘…both domestic and international

short – why you won’t get the university education you

students complain, often bitterly, of isolation, loneliness

deserve. Beg, borrow or steal this one! (Actually, buy it

and an absence of meaningful personal relationships. For

instead).

all the corporate bluster about choice, there really only

Richard Hil’s descriptions of the experiences of

appears to be one – to enter a neoliberal world of hyper-

contemporary students sadden those of us who were

functionality that ultimately privileges work and economy

fortunate to have been a university student in earlier

over the more mundane wonders of human life’ (p. 4).

days (the late 1960s in my own case) before universities

The PR and marketing divisions of universities also get

started to behave like banks or supermarkets (and in

a serve, and Hil adds: ‘…if you want to check the quality

some cases, like shonky used car dealers), and when

of the products being peddled by our higher education

students were still students, not customers or clients.

institutions, you shouldn’t approach senior management,

Hil exposes universities’ propensity to gild the lily, and

marketing personnel or policy makers because they all

demonstrates through his research the credibility gaps

have a stake in the existing system’ (pp. 198-199).

that exist between the rhetoric and the reality of the

Hil confirms what we already know about the rapacity

‘student experience’, and what employers would like

of the international student market. By recruiting students

from university graduates they hire, and their perceptions

with an insufficient grasp of English, universities are

of what they get. A ‘lose-lose’ situation?

hardly being fair on their ‘clients’. He reinforces what we

Selling Students Short is based on a serious amount

have heard from other sources (including ABC TV, 2015)

of desk top research, an extensive interaction with the

about questionable marketing practices by immigration

literature on higher education and direct quotations from

agents and others, and soft marking of student essays and

university staff, but this work has been augmented by 150

examination papers, in order to keep the cash cow alive.

conversations with students. As Hil puts it:

Of course, ‘functional illiteracy’ is a concern among many

During the course of researching this book, I have looked through hundreds of university websites, brochures, newspaper and magazine articles and advertisements, and what becomes strikingly apparent is the relentless emphasis on job readiness and career. Any sense of a broader, civically engaged education, grounded in less instrumental values, is crowded out by a focus on industry-relevant skills or, in the current vernacular, ‘graduate attributes’ (p. 3). When talking to students, Hil says ‘I raised many questions during the course of my conversations, but I was mostly

domestic students as well. In Selling Students Short, Hill wants to ‘reclaim higher education’. He says ‘These days, the marketised university is in the same ballpark as companies that sell muesli bars, insurance, dog biscuits, washing powder and corn chips’. Sad but true. He rightly sticks it to some current vicechancellors (or ‘presidents’ as many seem to prefer these days. Where is their sense of history?), ‘In the meantime, many of our highly-remunerated vice-chancellors, many of whom experienced the wonders of free education and a

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

Meaningless messages and sugary slogans Reviewed by Ian R Dobson

103

’

vibrant campus life themselves, have set about creating

Toss Gascoigne managed to become Tess (p. 164), and

a dystopian future which includes the emptying out of

earlier, Joy Talukdar might not have been pleased to find

campuses by shifting study, encouraging fee hikes… and in

that he had been granted a gender reassignment (p. 74).

many cases, opening their doors to just about anyone who

(OK, so that one was a tough one!). Once a pendant,

cares to enter. Some of these same vice-chancellors write

always a pedant!

books and articles that celebrate the modern university

Selling students short has a harder edge to it than

without ever mentioning the full spectrum of student

Whackademia does, but you need to have a copy of both.

experiences or the seething disconent of academics’ (pp. 203-203). One always has a few piddling editing concerns. These are minor, but it is hard to understand how publishers

Ian R Dobson is editor of Australian Universities’ Review and an Adjunct Professional Staff Member at Monash University, Victoria.

don’t pick some of them up. For example, Melbourne’s main north-south thoroughfare, SwansTon Street managed to lose its ‘t’ (p. 123), while Swinburne University of Technology in Hawthorn became SwinbOurne University

Reference ABC TV (2015). Degrees of deception, Four Corners. Retrieved from https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=T4YsjxTgOLk.

in the eastern suburb of HawthornE (p. 126). Elsewhere,

104

vol. 58, no. 1, 2016

“Education is the most poweful weapon which you can use to change the world.” - Nelson Mandela

Every day you inspire, helping people grow. You’re the leaders, the educators and the professional staff that make aspiring students’ dreams possible. That’s why we’re invested in you. As a customer owned bank, dedicated solely to the Victorian education community, our profits go back to you through competitive financial solutions, more personalised service and support of education. Helping each other do more, be more, achieve more.

Call 1300 654 822 I Visit victeach.com.au

Bank

I Save I Borrow I Invest I Protect

www.aur.org.au Since 1958, Australian Universities’ Review has been encouraging debate and discussion about issues in higher education and its contribution to Australian public life.

AUR

aur

Volume 49, Numbers

AUSTRAL IAN UNI VERSITI ES REVI EW

AUSTRALIA

ISSN 0818-8068

1 & 2, 2007

The future face The crisis in our

The Humaniti

es: the poor

of higher educatio

universities:

who’s to blame?

relations of innovatio

How not to fund

N UNIVERSIT

n policy

teaching and

learning

IES REVIEW PUBLISHED

The Howard Era – In Retrospect?

Higher Education Policy’s Groundhog So farewell, Mr Robin Days son: The Monas h plagiarism debac le

ISSN 0818-8068

Volume 46, Number

2, 2004 Published by

NTEU

Want to receive your own copy of Australian Universities’ Review (AUR)? AUR is published by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) twice a year. NTEU members are entitled to receive a free subscription on an opt-in basis – so you need to let us know. If you are an NTEU member and would like to receive your own copy of AUR, send us an email at aur@nteu.org.au. Subscription rates for non-members are available at www.aur.org.au. If you would like to become a member of NTEU, contact the local Branch office at your institution, or join online at www.nteu.org.au/join.

BY NTEU