Campus Review - Aug 2013

WWW.CAMPUSREVIEW.COM.AU | VOL. 23 | issue 8 | august 2013

State of research: More pressure than ever to publish

Page 14

Australia’s

top 5 innovators Meet professor Matthew Brown

The University of Wollongong (UOW), recognised in the most recent Australian Government research assessment process as amongst the nation’s top ten research intensive universities, is making a series of strategic appointments, including seeking a number of outstanding academic leaders within its Faculty of Business.

The Faculty of Business is seeking to further enhance its teaching and research strength in three of its core discipline areas: Economics, Finance and Marketing. These appointments will be awarded to genuine academic leaders who enjoy collaborating with similarly passionate and dedicated scholars, both within their discipline area and beyond; who will thrive in an environment where they can take a leadership role in shaping the research agenda; who have a track record in mentoring ambitious young researchers; and who have a proven ability to consistently produce high quality scholarly output in their discipline area. The stature and drive to further develop the performance and international reputation in research and teaching of the Faculty and the University is essential.

PROFESSOR OF MARKETING This position will enhance the research capability and reputation of our Marketing discipline. We have a strong focus on applied research and are seeking someone with broad expertise in multiple research methods relevant to marketing who can mentor our growing number of highly research intensive and well published academics across a diversity of applied marketing areas.

Contact: Dr Graham Little on Graham.Little@perrettlaver.com or +44 (0)20 7340 6268 For further information or to apply in confidence, please visit Perrett Laver’s secure candidate portal at http://www.perrettlaver.com/candidates quoting reference 1348/2

PROFESSOR OF FINANCE The successful candidate will provide strong research and teaching leadership within a growing Discipline with the aim of building its profile. The position holder will have a strong international research profile through an established record of research achievements and evidence of research leadership. They have proven expertise in a major area of finance, with sound knowledge of corporate finance and market microstructure in particular.

Contact: Dr Graham Little on Graham.Little@perrettlaver.com or +44 (0)20 7340 6268 For further information or to apply in confidence, please visit Perrett Laver’s secure candidate portal at http://www.perrettlaver.com/candidates quoting reference 1348/1

PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS Our Economics discipline has a strong focus on applied economics, with a growing number of highly research intensive and well published early career researchers. The successful candidate will be an applied micro-economist with proven expertise and a strong research track record in labour, education and/or health.

Contact: Dr Jack Bircher on Jack.Bircher@perrettlaver.com or +44 (0)20 7340 6220 For further information or to apply in confidence, please visit Perrett Laver’s secure candidate portal at http://www.perrettlaver.com/candidates quoting reference 1348/3

An attractive remuneration package will be negotiated including generous superannuation, leave provisions and (if applicable) fares and relocation allowance for the appointee and dependants. As women are under-represented in academic positions, suitably qualified women are encouraged to apply.

Closing date: 12pm Sunday 1 September 2013, Australian Eastern Standard Time.

DISCOVER/ENQUIRE/ACHIEVE CONNECT: UOW EMPLOYMENT

contents EDITOR Antonia Maiolo (02) 9936 8618 antonia.maiolo@apned.com.au Journalist Aileen Macalintal aileen.macalintal@apned.com.au production manager Cj Malgo (02) 9936 8772 cj.malgo@apned.com.au Subeditor Haki P. Crisden (02) 9936 8643 edmedia.subeditor@apned.com.au Graphic Design Ryan Salcedo ryan.salcedo@apned.com.au SALES Steven Patrick (02) 9936 8661 steven.patrick@apned.com.au SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES (02) 9936 8666 subs@apned.com.au PUBLISHED BY APN Educational Media (ACN 010 655 446) PO Box 488 Darlinghurst, NSW 1300 ISSN 1037-034X Print post approved: 10001945 Cover image Professor Matthew Brown University of Queensland

04

faculty focus 24 Co-morbidity education

05 Keep the caps off

technology 26 Virtual unis – friend or foe?

v

New programs for nurses managing mental illness

Calls to trim TEQSA Report unveils the impact of enrolment caps

06 Higher ATARs

Unis move to limit low-score students

08 CQU cuts 166 jobs

How technology is changing education

28

Declining international revenue to blame

international education 12 Speaking up

Pressure to publish can be too much

VET 32 Carer crisis

32

Workforce shortage in healthcare, Cooke says

34 Vocational education

TAFE plan for youth unemployment: trade diplomas

36 Identity crisis

18 Rebranding education

Where does the mid-level qualification fit?

Unis need to move with the times

38 Overcoming SES

20 Smarter regulation

A burning question answered

Ensuring VET quality

Campuses must factor in sustainability

New tertiary teaching hospital

Student gives a reminder of what matters

We reveal who made our top 5

policy & reform 14 Research ethics

TAFE 28 Growing services

VC’s corner 30 Positive feedback

09 Leading innovators

22 Building for the future Audited 2,664 September 2012

12

news 04 Red tape review

CISA conference gives students the stage

PUBLISHER’S NOTE © Copyright. No part of this publication can be used or reproduced in any format without express permission in writing from APN Educational Media.

The mention of a product or service, person or company in this publication, does not indicate the publisher’s endorsement. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the opinion of the publisher, its agents, company officers or employees.

08

38

noticeboard 39 The latest in staff appointments

more than a room We draw on global expertise to provide quality facilities and exciting student communities

www.campusreview.com.au

Issue 8 2013 | 3

news

Tethers

for TEQSA

Review suggests smaller role for national body and more coordination among regulators to cut through red tape.

By Antonia Maiolo

A

review has found the higher education sector’s national regulatory body should have its functions reduced, amid concerns universities are overloaded with red tape.

The independent report, Review of Higher Education Regulation, examined the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency’s (TEQSA) role in the sector and how the burden of regulation could be reduced in higher education without compromising quality.

The review stated that TEQSA’s legislation did not appear to be operating the way the government or the sector originally intended.

“The regulatory principles of necessity, risk and proportionality embedded in [The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011] were included to ensure that the focus of TEQSA’s activities did not unnecessarily burden existing high-quality providers,” the report outlined.

But since TEQSA’s establishment, universities have raised concerns of increased paperwork and duplication in meeting certain requirements. The report stated this might be because the agency emerged in an already crowded regulatory environment.

A spokesperson for minister for higher education Senator Kim Carr said different regulatory obligations have 4 | Issue 8 2013

resulted in duplication, incongruence and even conflicting requirements, placing unnecessary compliance strain on institutions. “The report suggests it is time for all the regulators to step back and recognise their place in a broader regulatory ecosystem, and better coordinate their demands on universities,” the spokesperson said.

The review included a number of recommendations to address this, including: reducing TEQSA’s functions to its core activities and cutting its number of commissioners; reducing duplication by better aligning the work of regulators; a ministerial direction to the TEQSA CEO regarding allocation of resources so courses can be accredited more quickly; and the speedy implementation of a single national higher education data collector.

The report also recommended that universities receive greater autonomy and become “primarily self-regulating”.

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) shared the concerns of the report’s authors, professors Kwong Lee Dow and Valerie Braithwaite, and said it was supportive of the bulk of their recommendations.

“We agree with removing TEQSA’s responsibilities for quality assurance, as well as requiring [the agency] to detail how it applies the principles of risk and

proportionality to different types of higher education institutions, such as universities and small for-profit providers,” NTEU president Jeannie Rea said.

Professor Barney Glover, chair of Innovative Research Universities and vice-chancellor of Charles Darwin University, said the report made clear that the legislative framework had pushed TEQSA into difficult positions and that the relationships across various bodies must be improved.

Glover said the report’s authors “propose that TEQSA focus on the registration and course accreditation roles that are at the heart of its responsibility and explicitly work in partnership with other bodies and providers”. He explained that these actions would produce a regulatory system consistent with the initial plans for TEQSA. University of Sydney vice-chancellor Dr Michael Spence also welcomed the report’s conclusions.

“We believe the regulatory red tape burden we face is stifling the international competitiveness of Australia’s higher education sector,” Spence said.

He agreed that the recommendations in the report would help address these issues. “We particularly welcome the strong recommendation that [TEQSA’s role] be clarified and focused on provider registration and re-accreditation,” he said. n

news

Caps off

to opportunity

Educators back finding that restoring limits on university placements would unfairly cut access to university.

By Antonia Maiolo

A

Grattan Institute report has found it would be a “policy tragedy” to recap university places.

The government is considering ending the demanddriven system by limiting public university enrolments, which would cut costs. But in the report, Keep the Caps Off!, the Grattan Institute’s higher education director, Andrew Norton, argues that recapping university places would make Australia’s higher education system less fair, less efficient and less productive.

“Putting caps back on the higher education system would hit the people who miss out hard,” Norton said. He added that many students who did get a place would also be worse off because they would be “less likely” to be able to enrol in their preferred course or university.

The report found a strong link between socioeconomic status (SES) and ATAR scores. It also demonstrated that a minimum score for entry would reduce the number of students with lowSES backgrounds entering university. Applicants with high SES dominated the 80-plus ATAR group, whilst low-SES students outnumbered high ones amongst school leavers with ATARs below 60. But the review determined that a set minimum of 60 for school leavers wanting to enter university would be “unfair” because more than half of students with a score below that mark successfully complete a qualification and the cut-off would exclude them.

From 2009-13, offers to school leavers with ATARs below 60 increased by 86 per cent as a result of the removal of enrolment caps, the report states. And Norton’s analysis showed that most of the students entering with low ATARs completed a degree within seven years.

The chair of the Regional Universities Network (RUN), professor David Battersby, said Keep the Caps Off! echoed the network’s concerns that recapping would limit the number of disadvantaged students able to attend university.

He explained that maintaining the demand-driven system was important in order to expand the rate of participation in higher education in regional Australia, where it is about half that of capital cities, and where many students are of low SES, are first in family to go to university, or both.

Acting vice-chancellor of Swinburne University of Technology professor Jennelle Kyd said the demand-driven system had also made it possible for institutions to deliver education in new ways. For example, the report pointed out that Swinburne could not have created Swinburne Online under the old system of Commonwealth-supported places.

As the Grattan report explains, “Swinburne would have needed to go through a slow political process to get new places, with no recent precedent for such a large number of new students at a single institution.” n

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Scholarship package is valued at up to AUD 135,000 Applications open 1 July – 30 September 2013 Funded through the Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education

For more information: www.fulbright.com.au or 02 6260 4460

See “Minimum resistance”, page 6. www.campusreview.com.au

Issue 8 2013 | 5

news

Minimum

resistance

UNSW pushes ATAR requirements much higher as the debate over scores and their use continues.

By Aileen Macalintal

L

ast month, Australia’s top eight universities proposed a minimum Australian Tertiary Admission Rank of 60 for entry nationwide. Now one elite institution has set the bar much higher.

UNSW has introduced a minimum ATAR of 80 across all its undergraduate degrees.

The move has been met with a mix of criticism and support, as well as many discussions about what an ATAR score should mean.

Aside from UNSW, the Group of Eight elite universities are Australian National University, the University of Adelaide, the University of Queensland, the University of Melbourne, the University of Western Australia, Monash University and the University of Sydney, but other institutions are also sharing their thoughts on what this move will mean to students from various backgrounds.

Quality and space

In his video message to UNSW staff, vice-chancellor Fred Hilmer said much thought had been given to where the university was heading with enrolments.

“Over the last few years, we have grown very substantially, adding more than three 6 | Issue 8 2013

per cent of students, year by year.”

Hilmer said this was not sustainable for two reasons: “One is just the size of the campus and the pressure on our physical facilities if we keep growing, but the other is the impact on quality. We really need to ensure that the students we take are the students of the highest quality.

“In order to do that in the context of an outlook for lower growth in enrolments, we will from next year be applying a minimum ATAR of 80 to all courses other than those where there is entry through portfolio.

“We will of course continue with the bonus points to recognise disadvantage and other areas of achievement that are important, but we will cap the number of bonus points that are possible at 10.”

These concerns about quality follow higher education minister senator Kim Carr’s expressed concern about the rising number of students with ATAR scores below 50 who are entering universities.

Greens oppose move

Greens higher education spokeswoman senator Lee Rhiannon harshly criticised Hilmer’s announcement. She called it a distraction from the issue of the lack of university funding and student support.

“Mr Hilmer’s unilateral move to prohibit students with an ATAR below 80 from enrolling at UNSW is a self-serving manoeuvre promoted to artificially boost the university’s reputation,” Rhiannon said.

“This announcement seems to be driven by vice-chancellor Hilmer’s desire to be seen as a mover and shaker more than anything.”

The Greens, the Student Representative Council at UNSW and the National Union of Students have opposed the university’s move which, they argue, will exclude capable students.

“It is disappointing that Mr Hilmer has broken ranks with the growing call for the $2.3 billion [in education] cuts to be restored and for a funding increase for our universities,” Rhiannon said. The senator added that the real issue affecting higher education quality was lack of spending at a federal level, due to the failure to increase base funding.

Recently, the federal Labor Party, backed by the Coalition, initiated $2.3 billion in cuts to universities, slashing courses and casualising workforces.

Hilmer, also chair of the Group of Eight, presented the minimum-60 plan in July in response to Carr’s call for alternatives to the cuts.

Rhiannon said that if UNSW wanted students from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve high results, Hilmer should ensure university staff have adequate resources, pay and conditions, reduce student-teacher ratios, stop cutting courses and back calls for greater support for students.

Other opinions The systems for accepting applicants vary among the Group of Eight and other universities – and so did opinions on ATAR minimums.

ANU is one institution that does use a minimum. Its bottom score has long been set to the same 80 mark that UNSW recently announced.

news degree not being able to do so immediately”, Dawkins explained.

The university’s deputy vice-chancellor academic, professor In that case, he said, expanding the offering of sub-degree Marnie Hughes-Warrington, said it also “has a published schedule programs would be important, as this would guide students with of bonus points. It also publishes information about all of its lower ATARs towards successful entry into bachelor’s degrees. admissions mechanisms”.

Under a minimum-ATAR system, students with potential aptitude The University of Queensland, unlike most undergraduate based on criteria other than that score also might be denied an programs in Australia, does not use the ATAR as its primary opportunity to start courses. criterion. Instead, the institution relies on the Overall Position (OP) Dawkins said this could be a problem because other criteria system to determine place offers. might be “better predictors of likely success and essential UQ says it supports the review of that system that is now attributes for a successful career”. underway, but with care.

“Many universities, like VU, are using more sophisticated entry “We welcome the recently announced review into the Overall pathways, such as dual-credit programs, which are providing Position system,” UQ deputy vice-chancellor academic, professor exciting new partnerships with schools and attracting students Joanne Wright, said. “The greater mobility of the Australian to tertiary studies, ensuring they are better prepared and have a population is another reason to consider providing applicants with better chance at succeeding,” he said. comparable opportunities nationwide.”

He was also amongst those who warned that minimum As for ATARs, Wright said the school’s leaders see setting a scores might disproportionately affect students from lower minimum score as an opportunity to strengthen the community’s socioeconomic backgrounds. understanding of tertiary entry in Queensland, adding that UQ “Research shows that there is a high correlation between does not support minimum entry scores that would compromise low ATARs and financial and social disadvantage, meaning access to a tertiary education. that capping places based on an arbitrary ATAR would result in She explained that ATARs did not necessarily provide an more academic and financial advantage being provided to those adequate measure of the attributes a student would need to who are already privileged, at the expense of those who are succeed in a course. disadvantaged,” he said.

“We periodically review the outcomes for students entering Professor Richard James, pro vice-chancellor equity and UQ on a range of entry scores in a variety of programs to ensure student engagement at the University of Melbourne also did not a balance is maintained between demand for courses and the see standard entry scores as a good idea. availability of places,” she said.

James said, “The University of Melbourne Asked if a standard minimum ATAR score would Instead has strong demand for all its new-generation affect students from disadvantaged backgrounds, degrees and our clearly-in ATARs are the highest the deputy vice-chancellor said that UQ offered of widening in the sector. Combined with the highly effective a range of initiatives specifically to assist such participation, Access Melbourne program that takes into students. “Two initiatives are the UQ Link program we’re restricting account a broad range of criteria for students and scholarship opportunities for students who from disadvantaged backgrounds, the university have been educationally disadvantaged due to their participation. has in place high-quality student selection circumstances or geographic location,” she assured. practices and student outcomes.”

Officials from other universities expressed reservations about university autonomy, the limits of the ATAR’s ability to predict success and the impact imposed minimums The ‘widening participation’ agenda would have on the quality of the student experience.

In an interview with Charles Sturt University deputy vice-chancellor “We have no plans to set a minimum ATAR across the board Garry Marchant, the university’s position on this issue was clear, at this time,” University of Sydney vice-chancellor and principal “We don’t think there should be any change in the current policy”.

Dr Michael Spence said. “The University of Sydney is deeply There is no need to impose any minimum scores, for a number committed to ensuring that the most promising students, whatever of reasons, he said: “ATARs are not perfect predictors of success. their social or cultural background, can thrive and realise their full At the very high end, they’re very good predictors; at the very potential, and focusing only on their ATAR attainment may not be low end, they’re very good predictors, but in the middle, which the best way to encourage this.” includes the 50 to 60 to 70 range, they’re not perfect predictors.”

He said the university’s stance was that providing a quality It’s weak, Marchant said. experience for all students of all backgrounds helped to ensure the “The bottom line is, the whole policy issue relies on an university’s success. argument that ATARs determine the quality of graduate outcomes, “We have not significantly expanded student numbers under which is not a sensible argument,” he said. the current demand-driven system,” he said. “There has, Marchant said Charles Sturt didn’t have a set minimum ATAR consequently, been no reduction in the quality of our students.” score. In some programs, it has gone below 60, but not below 50.

Victoria University was also against a national minimum.

“We’re involved with a lot of indigenous communities, and as “We believe in the autonomy of universities to set the entry we know, a big part of ATAR is socially determined,” he explained. standards for their courses,” Victoria University vice-chancellor “It’s about what school you go to, what resources are available to and president, professor Peter Dawkins said. “We are subject to you or in the place where you live.” This is why regulating the ATAR appropriate regulatory oversight designed to ensure appropriate across universities might be a problem for regional institutions. standards and it is our responsibility to ensure that our students Marchant also agreed that increasing the ATAR minimum could meet those standards.” very well filter out some students of specific backgrounds.

He added that Victoria University focuses on its students, “Instead of widening participation, we’re restricting it,” he said. regardless of their backgrounds, and as a dual sector university has He elaborated that it seemed counter to the widening flexibility in its entry and exit points. participation agenda. “The government and the university have “We also have a commitment to provide additional support, for jointly invested in a whole lot of programs to help students example in the areas of language, literacy and numeracy, where upgrade any shortcoming, build up their skill sets and their students need it,” he said. academic skills so they can succeed; so going back to raising up Setting minimum entry scores for school leavers would be likely minimum ATARs, cutting some people out, just doesn’t make a lot to result in “some students who currently can enter a bachelor’s of sense,” he said. n www.campusreview.com.au

Issue 8 2013 | 7

news

Swinburne joins

the MOOC torrent

Technical university joins growing trend with three announced online courses. By Aileen Macalintal

S

winburne University of Technology has joined institutions worldwide in offering Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), through Open Universities Australia’s (OUA) free platform, Open2Study, which launched in March as a partnership between OUA and a number of Australian and international universities.

The first batch of Swinburne courses launched in early August. It included basic physics, innovation for powerful outcomes and concepts in game development. Later this year, basic chemistry and robotics will be introduced.

Swinburne Pro Vice-Chancellor learning transformations professor Gilly Salmon, said more than 20 per cent of the university’s students were already doing digital studies through Swinburne Online and OUA programs, but they wished to extend their reach.

Salmon said the three courses, as well as others to come, were based on the institution’s strengths as a university of technology and innovation. “The MOOCs offer free access to learning experiences for anyone with a good internet connection anywhere in the world,” she said.

The subjects will run for only a month. They are available entirely online with short video lectures, quizzes and student discussion forums. Participants may earn badges for learning and helping other students.

Some participating academics have adapted their courses to suit high school students, too, using practical

CQU cuts 166 jobs Decline in international students led to losses; staff input helps some retain jobs.

C

entral Queensland University has cut 166 jobs in order to generate about $25 million in budget savings, mostly in response to the downturn in international student enrolments.

Vice-chancellor and president professor Scott Bowman said, “The fact that the university has been able to make the required savings with fewer than anticipated job losses [the original estimate in May was 200] is due in no small part to staff input into the development of the restructure model.

“The final restructure model shows 131 staff departures from voluntary separations, and 35 from forced redundancies,” Bowman said.

Due to the restructure, new vacancies had also been created and were open to all staff, Bowman said, including those displaced by the process. “This will likely result in 8 | Issue 8 2013

the net loss in staff being even fewer still.”

The cuts came following the drop in international student enrolment and consequent financial losses.

“Despite recording the second-highest rate of domestic student growth [in the country] over the past three years, at 28.2 per cent,” Bowman said, “the effect of the downturn in the international student market has been too large to absorb.” He said CQU sustained a $26 million loss in 2012 due to a decline in international student numbers, long-term investments in research capacity, new courses and strategic capital works.

All departing staff members are being offered a comprehensive range of counseling, guidance and career services.

The cuts have been focused on administrative areas to protect teaching positions and those providing direct

examples and different teaching techniques.

OUA chief executive Paul Wappett is delighted that some of Swinburne’s top lecturers are involved in Open2Study.

“The development process for one of our courses is a rigorous one,” Wappett said.” For lecturers, this involves turning complex concepts and lectures into easily digestible 5-10 minute segments.

“This is then supplemented with quizzes and assessments to ensure the students are gaining new knowledge and comprehension.

“They then spend five gruelling days with our video production crew to shoot the content. Our results suggest students are enjoying the quality and engaging experience. For example, our lecturers use iPads and perspex glass screens to create live illustrations that appear on the screen.

“When you enter the classroom, you will see the videos, social discussions with fellow students and course materials all located on the one page,” Wappett said.

“This is a feature unique to Open2Study.”

He called the platform perfect for those who are “curious about online study, looking to boost their professional skills, returning to study or just wanting to learn something new”. n support to students. “This was purely to ensure disruption to students was kept to an absolute minimum,” Bowman said.

The vice-chancellor insisted there would be no more planned cuts. “There is no need for further measures as part of this process to restore financial sustainability,” he said.

Asked how the cuts would affect learning, teaching and other operations, Bowman said the impact would be limited and hopefully unnoticeable to students.

“Voluntary separations and redundancies were signed off only after careful consideration to ensure there would be no major impact on teaching, learning and other core services,” he explained.

He said a lengthy consultation has resulted in overwhelming feedback from staff and all input was carefully considered and in many cases implemented.

“The process has been ongoing since the start of June and the restructure model has involved multiple rounds of revisions.”

He added that the university strived to keep open communication channels with all affected unions and ensured they had ready access to staff and executives to discuss issues or ideas as they arose. n

news

Top 5

innovators We asked you to nominate an academic who has made an extraordinary breakthrough in their field this year. Here is our first Top 5 round-up, as chosen by you. By Antonia Maiolo

Reinventing research funding Deb Verhoeven is using crowd funding and social media to help small research projects launch and survive Under the expert guidance of professor Deb Verhoeven, Deakin University researchers have discovered crowd funding – an innovative way to finance academic projects.

Wanting to help small-scale research projects get off the ground, Verhoeven set up the first official partnership between crowd-funding website Pozible and a university – the Research my World initiative.

Pozible allows people to promote their idea or project to drum up financial support. Verhoeven voluntarily led eight diverse research groups from across the university as they ran their crowd-funding campaigns.

The media campaigns lasted 45 days.

Members of the public were able to pledge donations. Once a project achieved its funding target, pledges were converted into paid donations. Of the eight projects, six were successfully www.campusreview.com.au

funded within the timeframe, raising more than $60,000 altogether.

“There are so many barriers for young, early researchers with small-scale projects, Verhoeven said. “They just want a small amount of money, so I thought, ‘Why couldn’t we do this?’ It just looked like a brilliant way to reconnect universities to the public.”

With the assistance of other media experts, Verhoeven coached and mentored the researchers through the process – helping them set up their social media feeds and promotional materials and guiding them throughout their entire campaigns.

The campaigns helped generate more than 200 stories in traditional and online media over the 45 days. The projects were mentioned in TV reports and received more than 3000 tweets. The campaigns also worked closely with smaller communities – led mostly by the researchers themselves, who attended town hall meetings, gave

Name: Deb Verhoeven University: Deakin University Position: Professor of media and communication Faculty: Arts and Education lectures to community groups and attended fetes and festivals. Such involvement allows research success to be measured in terms of a project’s importance to the public rather than just the view of other academics, Verhoeven said.

“By going directly to the public to fund their projects, researchers break down the walls between universities and the community, giving the public greater insight and involvement in what we do as academics,” she said.

Verhoevens’ efforts have been praised by the researchers, who are grateful to her for helping them get their message out to the public to build their profile on a local and global scale.

Verhoeven said she and her team were now working with Pozible to extend the project to the wider university sector.

Issue 8 2013 | 9

news Reinventing Sanskrit study McComas Taylor is reviving study of an ancient language around the world McComas Taylor, an expert in the classical Indian language Sanskrit, has given students across the globe access to a world-first online course, sparking renewed interest in the ancient tongue.

This year, for the first time ever, the entire content of the first-year Sanskrit curriculum was packaged into an eTextbook, which is helping the material reach a new demographic.

Offered by Australian National University, the entire course, including materials, was preloaded onto iPads and couriered out to students worldwide – all over Australia and as far as Singapore and the US. “All over the world, Sanskrit departments are in decline,” Taylor said.

“But my program reaches out to a new demographic – Hindus, Buddhists, yoga teachers and students and people who have deep engagement with different facets of Indian art, music, dance and song.”

He explained that there will never be more than a handful of students wanting

I always loved the idea of teaching one of the oldest languages with the newest technologies. to learn Sanskrit in any given location. He said the trick was to find ways to reach out to this scattered demographic.

“I spent three months last summer teaching Sanskrit to my iPad, so the iPad can teach Sanskrit to my students.

This frees me up to spend quality time interacting with them, practising conversation, chanting and helping out with questions.

“I always loved the idea of teaching one of the oldest languages with the newest technologies.”

Each week, students view introductory videos, watch Taylor model the pronunciation and patterns in Sanskrit conversation, practice a short poem and listen to a series of mini-audio lectures.

Taylor then meets with all the students for

Reinventing fly ash Sri Bandyopadhyay has found a way to make a cheap by-product of coal power attractive to many industries A common waste material is being converted into engineering gold thanks to the research efforts of UNSW researcher Sri Bandyopadhyay.

For the past seven years, Bandyopadhyay has been working to promote the use of fly ash – a freely available by-product from coal-fired power stations – in Australia.

To make the fly ash more attractive to Australian consumers, Bandyopadhyay and his research team developed a technique to turn the powdery material from black to near white.

“People call it a waste material. I do not like this notion,” Bandyopadhyay said.

In fact, fly ash is a cost-effective alternative to calcium carbonate (mineral used as filler in plastics in huge quantities) and can be used to 10 | Issue 8 2013

strengthen commercial polymers, such as plastics, ceramics, cement, potteries and even white paints.

Bandyopadhyay is committed to getting Australia to use 100 per cent of all fly ash material, not only because it is cheap, but also because using it in the manufacture of products and energy storage could stop it from being dumped back into the environment.

Australia now uses only about 40 per cent of its fly ash, whilst China, for example, already use 67 per cent of the amount it produces.

“Our near-whitened fly ash will save lots of other valuable minerals such as calcium carbonate.”

Bandyopadhyay worked closely with Cement Australia to advance the technology that can take fly ash from black to nearly as white as calcium carbonate.

Name: McComas Taylor University: Australian National University Position: Head of the South Asia program Faculty: Asian Studies 90 minutes in a virtual classroom so they can interact with him and each other.

Today, Taylor teaches 52 students across five classes, a jump from the six enrolled when he first began teaching in 2006.

“The result has been remarkable …

Early indications are that overall learning outcomes have improved,” Taylor said, adding that there are now students from Europe, the US and south Asia in his classes.

Taylor’s passion for Sanskrit began 20 years ago when he first read the Indian epic the Mahabharata in a potted translation. He pledged that he would spend the next 10 years studying Sanskrit so he could read it in the original.

Sanskrit is an Indo-European language and the key to classical Indian civilisation, which can be traced back as far as 300BC.

Name: Sri Bandyopadhyay University: The University of New South Wales Position: Associate professor Faculty: Science The whitening might encourage coal power stations, the utility industry and governments to use fly ash in whitethermoplastics/thermosets, cement, concrete, non-load bearing bricks, non-ferrous metals and geo-polymers.

Fly ash also has potential in dielectric and capacitor applications. The project is now ready to be adopted for large-scale applications and has already drawn the attention of India, Singapore and China.

Bandyopadhyay plans to set up and lead a fly ash recycling engineering centre to further promote the use of the material.

“I would like to see that this is done for Australia,” he said. “It is not my personal gain but it is my personal love and dream.”

news Reinventing arthritis research Matthew Brown’s genetics discovery has created new possibilities for treating a rare and crippling disease A Queensland medical researcher is paving the way for new treatments of ankylosing spondylitis (AS), a severe type of arthritis that affects more than 80,000 Australians.

The breakthrough came when professor Matthew Brown, a leading international researcher in musculoskeletal disease genetics, alongside his team at the University of Queensland Diamantina Institute, found the two major gene determinants of AS. “The genes that we identified are involved in the causation of the disease and hadn’t been considered in AS at all,” Brown explained.

His groundbreaking research has led to treatment trials, in which pharmaceutical professionals are working with researchers to find therapeutic treatments for the disease, which ultimately cripples its sufferers.

AS causes inflammation and pain in the spine and other joints. It occurs

when the immune system attacks the joints in the spine and then new bone grows around the affected areas, fusing the spine together and stiffening it permanently.

It can also affect other organs, such as the eyes and less commonly the heart, lungs and kidneys.

Brown, who is also principal investigator in international consortia studying AS, says the disease is as common as type 1 diabetes. It usually first appears between the ages of 15 and 45 and is about three times more common in men than women.

As of now, there are no treatments available to prevent the long-term physical effects of the disease, Brown said.

He has been awarded the $1.25 million Premier’s Science Fellowship to develop his work on the diagnosis and treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and tuberculosis.

He said research into these two diseases was related, as they share susceptibility factors.

Reinventing solar power David Jones is producing extra-large cells that have the potential to make solar power much cheaper Dr David Jones has led a team of researchers from the University of Melbourne, CSIRO and Monash University in producing the largest flexible solar cells ever to be printed in Australia.

Jones is the project coordinator of the Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium (VICOSC) – a partnership of research and industry associates.

After six years of working on the development of printed organic solar cells, Jones and his team discovered a way to print organic photovoltaic cells the size of an A3 sheet of paper.

Thanks to a new solar cell printer, worth $200,000, the cell is 10 times the size of ones they had previously made.

“We have shown that it is possible to use commercial printers to print solar cells,” Jones said.

Using semiconducting inks, the solar cell modules are printed straight www.campusreview.com.au

onto a paper-thin flexible plastic film.

The researchers then encapsulate it in a protective sheet, just like laminating a piece of paper. With the ability to print at speeds of up to 10 metres a minute, they can produce one cell every two seconds.

“This is truly a great opportunity to change the way we perceive renewable energy,” Jones said.

He said sun-powered cells are generally still expensive when compared with other sources of renewable energy or traditional power. So in order to allow a large-scale roll out of solar energy, new technologies need to make it cheaper. Jones said the new process is a fundamentally different approach that could do the job.

Studies have indicated that organic solar cells can generate power cheaply. “Lowcost, printed, organic solar cells could be printed on and embedded into many building materials, so that when you build a house you would automatically install solar arrays.

Name: Matthew Brown University: University of Queensland Position: Director of the University of Queensland Diamantina Institute and professor of immunogenetics at UQ

“The techniques we are developing have real commercial possibilities and healthcare benefits,” he said.

He recalls that he became interested in a career in genetics research in the late 1980s, when the causative gene for cystic fibrosis had just been detected.

He said that discovery created a huge amount of interest and excitement amongst patients and the research community.

“I’d always been interested in genetics and although I enjoyed clinical medicine a lot, I realised I could make a better contribution by doing research,” Brown said.

“Genetics research in rheumatic diseases was just taking off, and so that’s how I got involved.”

Name: David Jones University: University of Melbourne Position: Associate professor and project coordinator for Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium (VICOSC) Faculty: Science

“I would like to see every house, factory, school or warehouse covered with solar cells,” Jones said.

The benefits could potentially be much broader, however. “When affordable renewable energy becomes available, we will be able to drive power storage systems, use the energy to drive chemical transformations or simply deliver purified water to millions of people worldwide who do not have daily access to clean drinking water,” Jones said.

“As the technology develops and our ability to print and integrate printed solar cells into more products progresses, so will the range of applications and products that become available.”

Issue 8 2013 | 11

international education

Voices from around the

world CISA members take the stage at annual conference to let international educators know what’s on their minds. By Helen Zimmerman and Phil Honeywood

12 | Issue 8 2013

international education

A

s international education professionals, our careers are very much based on fulfilling the dreams and aspirations of our global students. Yet how successful have we been as an industry at listening to their collective voices and making room on the podium? Recently, they let us know.

The Council of International Students Australia (CISA) held a three-day conference, together with its 3rd Annual General Meeting, July 8-10 at Sydney Institute of TAFE. Joining the 180 student representatives were many international education officials from institutions and peak bodies, plus federal, state and local government officials, an NSW Government MP and a federal Opposition shadow minister.

This was indeed an appropriate forum for us to hear what international students were saying. After all, CISA has a constituency of almost 500,000.

The conference got under way with two important launches. The first was the Student Welcome Services Online Orientation Program. This initiative is being provided free to education institutions thanks to International Education Association of Australia (IEAA) corporate affiliate Allianz Global Assistance.

There was also a real buzz in the air when the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC)-sponsored CISA project “I’m not Australian, but I have an Australian Story” was launched. It’s designed to raise awareness about international students’ presence and their positive participation in the Australian community. It can be found at www.cisastories.net.au.

Even as the industry has been urging governments and the media to promote the good news stories of international education, CISA has quietly got on with doing just that.

After “I’m Not Australian” came some exposition on the state of international education in this country.

Key points included: • 25 per cent of Australia’s students in higher degree by research programs are from overseas.

• DIAC is promoting an Australian social inclusion and diversity strategy.

• The NSW Government is demonstrating strong support for international education through a new statutory authority, StudyNSW. • The recently established Tuition Protection Service (TPS) has taken a collaborative approach to working with international students who have genuine concerns about their education providers – the nine provider closures TPS has supervised to date have been well managed.

• NSW Police have now incorporated prevention of crime against international students into its corporate plan.

• Shadow minister for universities and research, Senator Brett Mason, endorsed many of the Chaney Review recommendations and explained the Coalition’s two-way New Colombo Plan policy.

Notwithstanding all of these presentations, the greatest benefit was definitely gained from the panel debates, particularly those with students on stage. Highlights included: • ASQA and TEQSA commissioners and International Student Advisers Network of Australia president Danielle Hartridge debating the issue of too much regulation in our sector. A key question asked was, “Are education providers being forced to focus their resources on compliance at the expense of services to students?”

• Kevin Brett from i-graduate reporting on research showing that international students’ current key priorities are career advice, employability skills and work placements. Australian employers want good communication, analytical and interpersonal skills from international job candidates.

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This tied in well with a subsequent debate on strategies for English language acquisition and transitioning to the workplace, where the best advocates for good practice were students themselves.

New CISA president Thomson Ch’ng explained how he improved his English by watching question time in Parliament and taking on public speaking and leadership roles. Student Salih Azahrani suggested playing team sports and being proactive in mixing with different cultures in Australia.

Ex-international student Danny Ong challenged pupils to communicate with one another in English and not their native languages.

Throughout the conference, CISA was generous in its acknowledgement of the role the sector plays in supporting students to ensure success and positive experiences. However, it raised the question of how generous we are in including CISA and its constituents in our conferences and forums – not just to pose questions from the floor, but join us on the podium.

Finally, we would like to congratulate CISA’s newly elected president Ch’ng.

IEAA has enjoyed an excellent working relationship with recent CISA presidents Arfa Noor and Aleem Nizari and their executive committees.

We are delighted the legacy of their hard work will now be taken up by Ch’ng and his team.

Their efforts inspire all of us who work in the dynamic international education sector to constantly remind ourselves of the priority that must be given to students’ voices.

As Senator Mason said at the conference, international students “honour and trust Australia with their futures”. n Helen Zimmerman is the president of IEAA. Phil Honeywood is the executive director.

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Issue 8 2013 | 13

policy & reform

14 | Issue 8 2013

policy & reform

Researchers under the

microscope Projects face greater scrutiny all around as competition for dollars increases. By Louis White

T

he much publicised drama over Queensland University of Technology scientists who received more than $1 million to produce a now-discredited research paper is one of 52 disputes over research conduct that the National Health and Medical Research Council has had to investigate throughout the past six years.

QUT scientists received a $275,000 federal grant. They got a further $225,000 from then-premier Peter Beattie’s state government for related work. Their total funding package was worth more than $1 million, to which the university also contributed, along with Brisbane company Tissue Therapies.

The paper, submitted in 2010, focused on stem cell research for growing tissues. US scientific journal Stem Cells and Development retracted it after a whistleblower pointed out errors.

The scientists have since abandoned the work and there is the possibility that QUT could be forced to pay back money depending on the NHMRC investigation.

The school has informed the Crime and Misconduct Commission and the NHMRC and it must be stated that the scientists involved were cleared of any misconduct. But one wonders whether the QUT scientists felt pressured to get their research published before it was ready, having received such a large grant and with the media watching – not to mention the politics involved.

The NHMRC is one of many bodies that receive grants from the Australian Research Council. In 2012-13, the ARC administered a budget of $879.1 million under the National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP). That total includes funding awarded to Australian universities and other eligible administering organisations.

In 2012, Monash University was awarded the largest total amount, followed by The University of Queensland and The Australian National University.

But the reality is that despite this vast pool of money, research funding is decreasing and universities are regularly looking to sources other than federal and state governments to fund vital projects.

“Research funding pots are shrinking and the landscape is changing as funding bodies are keen to tackle major societal challenges of our time and encourage the finding of solutions www.campusreview.com.au

through international collaborations,” says Dr Karen Shaw, director of research and development at Murdoch University.

“Consequently, there are more competitive pressures on academic staff to justify how they will spend research monies, particularly those coming from the public purse. Research outputs in the form of high-quality publications are one way of demonstrating a return on research investment. So yes, academic staff probably do feel some pressure to regularly publish their work.”

They are certainly under scrutiny. Of the 52 investigations NHMRC alone has launched over the past six years, 46 have been concluded and 20 allegations were found to have a base.

Institutions, researchers or third parties raised 35 of the allegations, whilst the remaining 17 were highlighted through the research council’s peer review processes. The most common basis for claims of misconduct was the alleged misuse of data.

In addition to this, the ARC itself has extensive reporting requirements attached to research funding that it awards. The specifics for each project are listed in the relevant contract. The lists can be long: progress reports, final reports, end-of-year reports, audited financial statements, annual reports and reports on contributions from partner organisations.

Reports on output and outcome play an increasingly significant role in government research funding and policy. The ARC compiles the statistics and reserves the right to withhold further payments for any project until the appropriate reports have been received and assessed as satisfactory.

World leaders

In order to meet these requirements, all Australian universities have thorough research processes and checks. The Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research was developed as a guide to responsible practices and to promote integrity. It helps institutions develop their own employee codes of conduct and procedures for the investigation of allegations of wrongdoing.

“A research paper usually represents the culmination of outcomes of a discrete piece of work within an overall research program,” Shaw says. “The qualities required to write and submit research papers will vary between academic disciplines and research journals will specify the format in which they require the manuscript.”

Australian universities rank high in research worldwide. For example, in the last national quality assessment, Murdoch University had the following disciplines assessed as above or well above world Issue 8 2013 | 15

policy & reform standard: physical chemistry, crop and pasture production, resource engineering and extractive metallurgy, agricultural biotechnology, clinical science, immunology, medical microbiology, zoology, animal production, genetics, veterinary science and environmental science.

Universities around Australia do not apply research quotas on their academics. They want staff to be free to discover what they can through disciplined methods.

“We have no quota on how many research papers are to be submitted each year,” Shaw says. “We encourage all of our academic staff to submit to the highest quality publications possible in their field, which are subject to a peerreview process.”

Professor Keith Nugent, deputy vice-chancellor research, La Trobe University, says, “It is important to the university that its researchers test and share their findings by publishing in widely read journals, but a quota system is not in place.

“In some areas, additional resources may be available to staff who have demonstrated they have an active research program that is esteemed by their peers through their publication history.”

The competitive nature of research is intensifying. “More high quality research is

being done around the globe than ever,” Nugent says. “For researchers and their universities to stand out and develop, they need to be publishing research that others are reading and acting on.

“They will need to do original research that contributes to knowledge that is of interest to others working in the field, and write up their findings according to the publications’ submission guidelines.”

La Trobe has established five research focus areas around its strengths: securing food, water and the environment; understanding disease; sport, exercise and rehabilitation; building healthy communities and transforming human societies.

“In addition to these, the Australian Research Council’s Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) process ranked La Trobe as the top institution in the nation for research in microbiology and equal top with just one other university in biochemistry and cell biology, and veterinary sciences,” professor Nugent says.

“Historical studies and archaeology were also assessed at the top ranking, highlighting the university’s renowned strength in humanities. La Trobe ranked third in Victoria for the number of fields of research evaluated at world standard or above.”

Monash University is another big tertiary

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16 | Issue 8 2013

institution that prides itself on its research rankings. Monash has been assessed as well above world standard in all disciplines and it scored 5 in the 2012 ERA rankings.

There were 22 disciplines to achieve that score but even they acknowledge times have changed.

“Generally, there is more emphasis in the university sector on research performance than there was a decade ago,” professor Pauline Nestor, pro vice-chancellor research at Monash, says. “Again, at Monash, academic staff are encouraged to publish research that is of high quality and that is likely to have impact, rather than simply focusing on the quantity of research published.

“The university has targets – not quotas – for research performance. They are faculty and discipline specific.”

Professor John Ozolins is chair of the human research ethics committee and deputy chair of the academic board at Australian Catholic University.

“Australian Catholic University follows very closely the requirements of the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research and the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research in particular and other legislative requirements, as necessary,” Ozolins says. n

policy & reform

ARC funding Publicly funded research agencies other than universities are eligible for ARC funding under the NCGP for selected schemes. These agencies include: • Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies • Australian Antarctic Division • Australian Institute of Marine Science • Anglo-Australian Observatory • Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation • Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation • Defence Science and Technology Organisation • Geoscience Australia • Commonwealth-funded research centres, which are a separate corporate entity from other eligible organisations.

Some National Health and Medical Research Council-accredited institutes, including independents, are eligible for funding only under the Future Fellowships scheme.

The ARC also funds a number of research initiatives in cooperation with other Australian Government agencies and has been working closely with: • The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (for National Information and Communication Technology Australia) • Grains Research and Development Corporation (for the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics) • The National Water Commission (for the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training).

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is a government-funded tertiary institution in Hong Kong. It offers programmes at various levels including Doctorate, Master’s, and Bachelor’s degrees. It has a full-time academic staff strength of around 1,200. The total consolidated expenditure budget of the University is close to HK$5 billion per year.

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING Assistant Professor / Research Assistant Professor in Environmental Management and Sustainable Development The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is seeking a highly motivated individual with a PhD degree related to Environmental Management and Sustainable Development (with an undergraduate training in Science or Engineering). The Department enjoys high reputation in conducting application oriented research and has well established connections with industry partners and government agencies in Hong Kong. The new appointee will further add to existing research strengths in environmental engineering and sciences of the Department and its Research Centre for Environmental Technology and Management.

The Department offers academic programmes at various levels, including MPhil degree and PhD degree, in the disciplines of Construction and Transportation Engineering, Environmental Engineering Science, Geotechnical Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, and Structural Engineering. The Department currently has 40 faculty members and about 34 technical and administrative personnel and is committed to the international standards of excellence in teaching and research. Please visit the website at http://www.cee.polyu.edu.hk for more information about the Department.

The appointee will be required to (a) teach relevant subjects at various levels; (b) supervise student projects and theses; (c) initiate, lead and participate in research activities; and (d) undertake relevant administrative duties.

Applicants should (a) have a PhD degree in Environmental Management or Sustainable Development or a related discipline (with a first degree in Science or Engineering); (b) have strong commitments to excellence in teaching and research; and (c) be able to demonstrate effective classroom teaching skills and have good interpersonal skills.

Applicants for the Assistant Professor post should also have a good record of research and scholarship. Applicants for the Research Assistant Professor post should also (a) have the relevant postdoctoral research experience (as supported by evidence of research projects and outputs); and (b) demonstrate potential for establishing significant externally funded research programmes. Preference will be given to those with demonstrated track record and expertise in teaching and research on environmental management and sustainable development. Relevant professional qualifications and working experience in government or industry will be an asset.

Remuneration and Conditions of Service A highly competitive remuneration package will be offered. Initial appointment for Assistant Professor will be on a fixed-term gratuity-bearing contract. Appointment for Research Assistant Professor (with remuneration package same as that for an Assistant Professor) will be on a fixed-term gratuity-bearing contract for up to three years. Re-engagement thereafter is subject to mutual agreement. Applicants should state their current and expected salary in the application.

Application Please submit application form via email to hrstaff@polyu.edu.hk; by fax at (852) 2364 2166; or by mail to Human Resources Office, 13/F, Li Ka Shing Tower, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. If you would like to provide a separate curriculum vitae, please still complete the application form which will help speed up the recruitment process. Application forms can be obtained via the above channels or downloaded from http://www.polyu.edu.hk/hro/job.htm. Recruitment will continue until the position is filled. Initial consideration of applications will commence on 30 September 2013. Details of the University’s Personal Information Collection Statement for recruitment can be found at http://www.polyu.edu.hk/hro/jobpics.htm.

www.campusreview.com.au

Issue 8 2013 | 17

policy & reform

Tactics shift

with the times O

Higher education is changing more rapidly than ever and marketing needs to adjust just as quickly. By Neil Shewan 18 | Issue 8 2013

ver this decade there will be more change in university brands than in any other we have seen. My son – now 12 – is likely to be one of many Australian students who will build their own course from a selection of universities around the world. His course will be delivered predominantly online, and his qualifications will be recognised globally.

So how do traditional universities respond to these changes – and how do they shape their brands to compete in an increasingly global and online market?

Universities have traditionally relied on heritage as a cornerstone of their brand. Heritage speaks to history, character, social class and status.

It focuses on links between the past and present: shared experiences and a common history.

Early university brands were underpinned by visual identities and rituals that dated to mediaeval times – including the use of shield logos, university colours, ceremonies and traditional clothing to signify hierarchy.

Until the last century, a university education was not a right but a privilege, limited to the elite, who were chosen through family connections, wealth or religious scholarship and selection. The modern

university, however, is run as a business. The high regard for the integrity of academia is still of utmost importance, but this is now combined with the reality of being accountable for balance sheets and focused on market needs.

Governments realise the valued role universities play in building the knowledge base of their people and the prosperity of the economy, yet most institutions are still constrained by fiscal pressures that limit educational budgets.

Universities under such pressure are looking for new ways to secure direct funding, through joint-ventures with the private sector for research and facilities, as well as through the sale of education to overseas students and alternative delivery methods.

Online: blessing or curse?

Depending on whom you talk to, online delivery of education is either the saviour or death of education. Two platforms gathering momentum globally are Coursera and Apple’s iTunes U. Coursera was launched on April 23 last year as a partnership between Princeton, Stanford, Michigan and Pennsylvania universities. In September, the company announced that more than 1.5 million

policy & reform students had signed up for its courses.

Although many of these students may not progress past the first lesson, tens of thousands of them are attending each course and receiving education from some of the world’s best professors.

Coursera is run by a team of just 20 people, including 13 from Stanford.

There are now more than 30 universities offering courses on the platform.

The other major player, iTunes U, launched in May 2007. Apple announced it exceeded 1 billion downloads this February, with over 250,000 enrolled students and 1200 universities and colleges on the service.

Australian universities have embraced iTunes U. La Trobe University has over 1400 lectures and resources online, and 14 full courses, including The European Union in the New Millennium and Press and Society. In September 2012, the institution exceeded 1 million downloads for the first time and The Roman World became the third LaTrobe course on iTunes U to achieve more than 50,000 subscribers.

The courses provide a taste test of the university experience in the hope that this will lead to fee-paying students.

So why put all this effort into something that the universities provide for free?

In an interview last year with The Age, Swinburne University of Technology pro vice-chancellor professor Gilly Salmon said universities might agree to allow free access to their resources because of altruism or the chance to feature their academic work to the world. (Swinburne has now done so, see “Swinburne joins the MOOC torrent”, p8.)

Free and open

Whilst online course providers look for a commercial model that will support their offerings long term, a number of services are appearing that aim to disrupt education with altruistic motives.

Take Melbourne Free University as an example. The university provides a platform for learning, discussion and debate that is open to everyone. Its website describes its origins: “The MFU was established in 2010 in response to Australia’s increasingly outcome-oriented education system, and aims to offer space for independent engagement with important contemporary ideas and issues. There is no enrolment, no registration, no fee; you are free to come to any session.”

Another free education service has gained momentum in the US – the Khan Academy. The idea was put forward in 2004 when Salman Khan began tutoring his cousin, Nadia, on a challenging maths problem over the internet. In 2006, he moved the tutorials to YouTube. As of August 2013, he had more than 1.3 million www.campusreview.com.au

subscribers and nearly 300 million lessons had been downloaded.

Students worldwide have been attracted to Khan’s concise, practical and relaxed teaching method. In a recent interview, he explained his motives: “With so little effort on my own part, I can empower an unlimited amount of people for all time. I can’t imagine a better use of my time.”

To support increasingly open access to education, governments are putting in place initiatives to expand the sector.

Last September, at the 2012 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ministerial meeting in Vladivostok County, Russia, APEC issued a joint statement on education that prioritised enhancing the mobility of students, researchers, and education providers across member economies.

Building the regional strength of education and removing boundaries between countries also means greater cross-border recognition of qualifications.

The APEC region contains some of the world’s largest exporters and consumers of education services. Opportunities exist for a significant expansion of trade in education services to the benefit of all economies if the flow of students and researchers can be encouraged and transaction costs reduced.

This creates both opportunities and threats for Australia, where the system relies upon international student income.

There has already been significant reform in the higher education system locally, following the introduction of Transforming Australia’s Higher Education System initiatives in 2009 in response to the Bradley Review. The reforms address a broad range of issues. Those focused on increased participation have a significant impact on university brands.

So what next?

How do you manage a university brand within such a period of change in the sector? The first step is to recognise the brand’s implications.

Online education changes the distribution method. It decreases or removes the tangible bricks-and-mortar aspect of the brand, as well as the human interaction.

The objective here is to look at how the physical interaction with the brand can still be maintained online, albeit in different ways. The winners will be those that create a sense of place and community around their offer.

Online education also means the identity of the student is hard to confirm for assessment and qualification. Open Universities Australia reached an important milestone in September, when 20 students graduated Curtin University’s bachelor of education online course, after sitting their

final exams on campus. Universities that are providing an online education offering will have a clear advantage in solving challenges and gaining recognition and trust in the space.

The rise in free education is good for humanity. The value of high-quality, free education that is highly accessible globally is inspiring and exciting. For university brands, the challenge is to think about where the value sits. Current free education from universities appears to be focused on marketing the experience of their brand. It provides a connection between student and university in a nonthreatening way that will hopefully lead to enrolment at a bricks-and-mortar campus.

It also provides a way for universities to build online assets. Universities will come under increasing internal pressure to create a revenue stream from online products.

Robust assessment and awarding of qualifications will be a key offline role universities can play in this space.

Opening up education for greater accessibility contrasts with a history that has its roots in elitism and status. Many universities will value this opportunity to broaden their net and increase income streams. The temptation to dilute the brand with a focus on quantity of students over quality of outcomes will be a key challenge to overcome. In contract, other universities will increase their elitist approach to enrolments, in juxtaposition to the mass education offerings. That elitism will, however, become increasingly difficult to uphold in the face of corporate social responsibility pressures.

Opening up to greater international competition will require a change in branding as well – the need for further differentiation. It was useful for universities to offer a wide range of courses when geography limited how far a student would travel for a given course. In the future, there will be increasing competition from global players with a reputation for excellence in specialised disciplines. To compete in such a market, universities will need to specialise, or focus on courses where there is value in customised local content.

Bricks-and-mortar campuses will always have a place in the education system. They allow students and lecturers to engage at a human level, developing leadership and social skills. However, current shifts in accessibility and education delivery are creating major change in the way we perceive and interact with our education brands.

At the end of the decade, we will see which universities have survived and prospered from this wave of change. n Neil Shewan is the managing director of TANK Branding.

Issue 8 2013 | 19

policy & reform

Good reform comes in small packages The growth of the training package model is unsustainable under today’s system. Change is necessary – and it needs to be smarter, rather than bigger.

By John Hart

F

rom training entitlements to transparency measures, the current pace and scale of reform in Australia’s VET system has been unprecedented. Whilst these changes represent important pieces of the reform puzzle, it is the delivery of consistent and high-quality training and assessment based on industry-defined standards that remains the lynchpin of a successful system.

In recognition of this, Industry Skills Councils – with support from the National Skills Standards Council and the Department of Innovation, Industry, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education – has undertaken a project that proposes additional information for training packages to ensure the quality of delivery and assessment.

Fifteen years ago, the training package model was developed to align qualifications more directly with national competency standards and job outcomes, to reduce regulation by removing requirements for state-based course accreditation and to create greater flexibility in delivery strategies.

Today, training packages specify the skills and knowledge required to perform effectively in the workplace. This leaves trainers and supervisors with the

20 | Issue 8 2013

responsibility to develop learning strategies that are suitable to the individual learners’ needs, abilities and circumstances, enabling the national system to respond to individuals’ diverse educational, ethnic, social and geographic backgrounds. Most importantly, as industries’ needs evolve, so do the nationally endorsed qualifications and units of competency.

Since their introduction, training packages have been enormously successful.

The leaders of the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Australian Council of Trade Unions described them as “one of industry’s most prized strategic assets in building a world-class workforce and securing our position in the global economy”.

They also sit at the nexus of a large, diverse and complex system.

There are nearly 5000 registered training organisations, more than 1.4 million enrolments in training package qualifications annually and revenue in the sector totalling $8.38 billion. And given the introduction of demand-based funding, further expansion is all but guaranteed.

Yet without addressing the issue of quality, this growth is unsustainable.

Industry Skills Councils represents the bodies responsible for developing the training packages, in partnership with their industry stakeholders. However, the skills councils have a limited role in ensuring that Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) consistently interpret, deliver and assess the requirements of the standards for all units and qualifications.

This is stymieing effective regulation and is a missed opportunity. Change is necessary, albeit without sacrificing flexibility and innovation in training delivery.

In short, we need smarter regulation, not more regulation.

The national VET regulator is on the record as supporting this type of approach.

In its submission to the National Skills Standards Council’s 2012 Review of the Standards for the Regulation of VET, the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) plainly stated that “the link between the national standards for the regulation of VET and the training package requirements needs to be strengthened”.

The regulator’s reason? “To provide greater consistency in how industry and training providers interpret and implement vocational training.”

This is the missing link in safeguarding quality in the system.

policy & reform This is why the Industry Skills Councils’ VET Quality Report proposes using existing policy instruments – the Standards for Training Packages and the Standards for RTOs – as vehicles to set clear delivery and assessment measures against specific qualifications and/or units of competency.

ASQA would benefit as well.

Regulators would have an unambiguous understanding of what “quality training and assessment” means within a variety of contexts.

But the best part of this system is that it can be highly targeted.

Units and qualifications that are deemed high risk or that apply to high-consequence areas can be identified as requiring additional rigour in relation to delivery and assessment methods.

As the developers of training packages, skills councils, in partnership with industry, are perfectly positioned to select and define the appropriate measures for specific units of competency and qualifications.

To give an example, one of the proposed delivery measures is specific trainer requirements.

This would involve the training package clearly stipulating the industry-determined Australian Qualifications Framework-level credentials, experience and currency that

would be required of a trainer for particular qualifications, skill sets or units.

These are things industry has never been able to clearly specify. Making the change would mean that students undertaking nationally accredited training could be assured that their instructor has the requisite skills, knowledge and currency – as determined by industry – to deliver the outcomes defined nationally.

Trainer requirements are but one example of this greater specificity. The appropriate modes, volume of learning and range of training conditions are just a few of the equally critical quality delivery measures that are outlined in the VET Quality Report.

Complementing these elements are the industry-defined assessment methods and tools, reasonable adjustments and validation models that should be present in every assessment.

Confidence in the VET system amongst industry and enterprises is vital in this time of change. The proposed measures would provide further assurance of outcomes and also more closely link the delivery and assessment of training to the skills standards.

At its June 17 meeting, the National Skills Standards Council announced that

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There are nearly 5000 registered training organisations, more than 1.4 million enrolments in training package qualifications annually and revenue totalling $8.38 billion. it would engage in discussions with key stakeholders to inform its consideration of the quality measures identified in the VET Quality Report, with a view to developing draft amendments to the Standards for Training Packages for endorsement by ministers later this year.

I, for one, look forward to watching these developments unfold during the coming months. n John Hart is chair of the Project Steering Committee that developed the VET Quality Report.

The VET Quality Report, which details all of the proposed measures, is available free at www.isc.org.au

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Issue 8 2013 | 21

policy & reform

Building

a cam

In an arms race for federal funding, universities are encouraged to work out how much space they need and how to use it most efficiently. By Aileen Macalintal

V

isiting one’s university years after graduation can be such a nostalgic experience. Every space may have a memory attached to it, and any spatial change may ignite feelings – fierce disapproval, sudden detachment, or deeper longing.

Despite the disruptions it may cause, however, change is inevitable. Old buildings will fall and new ones will come. And in modern times, many of these architectural decisions are based on the question of sustainability.

What is sustainable and what is not are necessary questions in determining whether a university space should be kept, re-designed, or zapped. Sometimes tradition and character must be balanced against these concerns.

“I think that in general, if too many buildings are demolished and replaced, there’s a danger of universities losing their sense of character and sense of slow steady growth over time,” says Peter Malatt, director of Six Degrees architects, who believes that every building in a university has a story to tell.

“If you go to a campus with many new buildings, it’s a little bit like going to an office park,” Malatt says. “There’s a sort of depressing feeling about it. There’s something not quite right about a university that’s full of new buildings. It just doesn’t feel like it’s got a sense of continuity caring about the past.”

At some point a building has to be kept because the university cares for its history, he says, even if that costs more.

Most people who have been to universities share a sense of belonging to the place, he says, and when buildings are replaced, the sense of place is lost. “Universities are like a big family with a lot of shared history, and a lot of it is based on a sense of place.”

Such competing interests are front and centre as higher education

22 | Issue 8 2013

policy & reform undergraduate, researcher and educator.

In addition, he says, flexible designs should reflect the principles that a university stands for: inquiry, freedom of thought and the ability to ascend.

Refurbish or build?

mpus

that fits

heads towards a review of space expectations and use.

Malatt says the federal government has put some new controls on universities, requiring them to describe their space allocation and use before any further funding is approved. “I think the government is perhaps aware of the fact that there is the tendency for space to proliferate at universities without a specific use being assigned to it,” he says, commenting further that the quality of space at some Australian universities is poor.

Using space wisely

In properly managing space, higher education institutions must focus on three things, according to Malatt: teaching spaces, research spaces, and enough social spaces for the undergraduate students.

He says more social space should be created because going to universities is about the social experience of engaging with the lecturers and tutors, student bodies and colleagues.

“One of the challenges for the universities now is to maintain their desirability as the place to be,” he explains. “Some of the universities have been falling behind quite badly in this respect.”

That feeling of personal experience needs to be returned, in his opinion. “I think in general the push is less space per student,” he says, but in return for providing less space per student, the proportion of social space has to be increased to compensate for that. “The number of students has doubled, sometimes tripled.

And the social spaces haven’t been increased.”

How can universities oversee the amount they need in the future? Universities in Australia already try hard to achieve flexibility in design, Malatt says.

For example, “all of them are now using a centrally programmed timetable to maximise the use of teaching space, to avoid space with low occupancy over the course of a semester”. But he thinks they should fund research into the allocation of space and proportion, within the context of the experience of the www.campusreview.com.au

In striving for these goals, Malatt says, refurbishment is often a better idea than building anew but it needs to be looked at closely because it’s not always less costly.

“Refurbishment certainly has its own advantage from a sustainability point of view,” he says. “It’s getting more and more expensive to refurbish, especially for those [sites] with technical requirements, like laboratories and extensive training areas.”

He says one of the ways refurbishments can make new adequate space is by repurposing locations that are outmoded.

“Spaces have usually become inadequate or not particularly well suited to modern teaching,” Malatt says. “Most of the older buildings are very difficult to use other than for their original purpose. Often they’re extremely good buildings in their old forms, and they’re quite good to repurpose as student or research spaces, but they’re often not good for their original purpose, like home to the faculty or education space.”

On the other hand, Geoff Hanmer, director of ARINA Hayball campus architects, says refurbishment is not necessarily better than building anew.

“The case for refurbishing science buildings or laboratory buildings is quite weak because the sorts of laboratory that were cutting edge in the 1960s are not cutting edge now,” Hanmer says.

“I think we need to think about providing new buildings for new scientific processes.”

For other parts of the universities, he says it’s a matter of having a careful plan.

Less space

Hanmer insists that Australian university plans should have a working space target, rather than simply letting building areas accumulate as they may.

“Australian universities have a wide allocation of space per student,” he says. “Universities tend to aggregate spaces instead of plan them. Existing buildings are often just left as they are.

This, of course, is a situation where we have what we call ‘legacy buildings’ from the ’60s and ’70s.”

Clearly, universities need less space, according to Hanmer.

In the UK, the Space Management Group identifies ideal space as less than nine square metres per student. Hanmer compares this with Australia, where the space proportion in university campuses ranges between five and 20 square metres of usable floor area per effective full time student load.

“In Australia, the Tertiary Education Facilities Management Association [TEFMA] carries out a similar role to the SMG, but it sets its targets by surveying existing space use,” he says.

“According to TEFMA, the space occupied by most higher education institutions in Australia is … at least 1.4 times more than the SMG target.”

He also points out that the amount of space the university needs decreases over time, due to factors such as web-based undergraduate teaching. Hanmer says a sustainable plan will reduce the area of a building to the minimum necessary to perform its mission. “This will reduce the amount of energy required for operation and maintenance.

“In Australia, we have too much space but less quality,” he explains. “We have a lot of space that is not contributing properly to either teaching or research.

“What we need in Australia is a counterpart to the SMG that has a clear remit from the government to properly manage space in the sector by setting measurable guidelines that universities must follow if they wish to receive federal funding.” n Issue 8 2013 | 23

faculty focus

Nurses get more education on co-morbidity W There are new programs in the works to ensure nurses have the right skills to manage patients presenting with both mental and physical health conditions.

By Amie Larter

24 | Issue 8 2013

ith yet more research suggesting that physical health conditions amplify the risk of mental illness, nurses and nursing students are being called on to increase their knowledge in order to successfully manage cases where physical and mental issues coexist.

About one in nine Australians aged 16-85 have a mental health disorder and a physical condition at the same time, according to the federal government’s latest figures on co-morbidity of mental disorders and physical conditions.

A report from the World Federation for Mental Health argues that a greater focus within healthcare on such cases is necessary, stating that “even though mental health services are increasingly being recognised as critical, they still get short shrift”.

Associate professor Kim Ryan, CEO of the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses (ACMHN) believes that with the relatively even spread throughout regional and rural Australia, the nursing profession is positively placed to address this growing concern.

faculty focus “To ensure good health outcomes, it is critical to educate nurses about the co-morbidity of mental illness and chronic disease, and to equip them with the knowledge and skills to identify and manage the health of clients,” she said.

“Every nurse at some stage will work with a client who is at risk of developing, has developed, or has shown early signs and symptoms of mental disturbance.”

Ryan believes that with suitable education and training, nurses can play a vital role in the prevention of mental health problems and identifying early symptoms, and that they are also critical to the provision of timely, effective and appropriate treatment services to patients.

Given the statistics and an overwhelming response from a survey sent out to more than 2500 general nurses, the ACMHN applied for and received funding to develop a free e-Learning program to assist nurses in identifying and managing mental health issues in patients who also have chronic physical disease.

The course is funded by the Department of Health and Ageing’s Chronic Disease Prevention and Service Improvement Fund. It uses video vignettes and activities to highlight key issues related to mental health.

Broken down into five easy-to-complete 20-minute modules, the courses give nurses access to information across four chronic disease categories: respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes.

A variety of interactive applications, including video stories, photos and quizzes are used to demonstrate skills related to communication, identification of mental health issues, managing difficult situations and understanding grief and loss.

The program is put together and backed by an expert reference group that includes Commonwealth chief nurse Rosemary Bryant, as well as groups such as the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses (CATSIN), APNA (the peak

professional body for nurses working in primary healthcare including general practice), CRANAplus and the National Mental Health Consumer and Carer Forum, among others.

“The course is aimed at getting nurses to recognise that there are things that they can do in their daily practice that will improve the physical outcomes for their patients by touching on their mental health and their emotional wellbeing,” said Peta Marks, senior project officer at ACMHN, “and to help nurses realise that those things aren’t necessarily scary – they can do small things that will make a big difference.

“We [ACMHN] are really trying to change the way that we nurses have been conditioned, and are doing so along with other mental health organisations and universities.”

A multidisciplinary approach to practice has also been highlighted to students through a recent initiative from the University of Wollongong’s (UOW) school of nursing, midwifery and Indigenous health.

Fifteen bachelor of nursing students, psychology students, an exercise physiologist, four nursing academics, a credentialed mental health nurse working in private practice and 28 people with lived the experience of mental illness attended a Recovery Camp for five days, where students were able to learn about approaches to mental health through the lens of another medicine-related discipline.

“Of all the illnesses or issues nurses are going to encounter, mental health issues are going to be encountered everywhere,” said Dr Lorna Moxham, professor of mental health nursing at UOW. “Healthcare can be very much compartmentalised, so what happens often is you may well have a mental health issue and have quite a severe or chronic physical illness, but it doesn’t get the attention it should because the primary focus is the mental illness … when what we need is a holistic approach.

“We talk about it, but I don’t think healthcare does it very well.”

Students had to meet specific nursing objectives under the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council competency standards, but the main aim was to see the clients through more of a holistic lens – away from the small acute care medical model they would experience in hospital.

Moxham confirmed that students got to see clients from a psychosocial perspective – one that acknowledged that, yes, the patient had mental illness, but they also had physical illnesses, children, work and families, and their mental illness was just a small part of the overall picture.

Sonia White, a third-year student who attended the camp, said it was a wonderful opportunity to focus on the mental health aspect, and is definitely something that should be done on a more regular basis.

“Mental health issues are so prevalent in society. It doesn’t matter what realm of nursing you go into, you will come across people who have mental issues, so it’s very important everyone understands people’s feelings and thoughts,” she said. “The camp was a great learning experience because you could spend time with people, instead of a hospital environment, where it is just generally in and out.

“It has definitely helped me see that everyone has a story, everyone has a background; so you really have to treat everyone individually and work step-by-step with each person.”

UOW lecturer Chris Patterson said that whilst students are generally receiving great training in mental health nursing, with co-morbidity becoming an increasing concern, nurses in practice require more and ongoing training in being able to recognise related issues.

“Once nurses practise in an area that focuses more on physical diseases, there is a tendency to forget or be unsure of mental health issues,” he said. n

Recovery Camp was attended by student and practising nurses together with academics and those with personal experience of mental illness. www.campusreview.com.au

Issue 8 2013 | 25

technology

MOOCs and the

corporate world Internet-based learning is here to stay; traditional educators in the realm of business need to adjust.

By James Guthrie

T

echnological advances and the rise of online education models, in particular massive open online courses (MOOCs), are changing the higher education landscape. Just what impact this will have on the future of business education and professions is difficult to predict.

The uptake of MOOCs has been markedly rapid. In 2011, Stanford University, in the US, offered a free course on artificial intelligence, for which 160,000 students from over 190 countries enrolled in just a few weeks. Almost 20,000 students completed the course and received a Statement of Accomplishment.

Although the experience did not provide course credits for actual degrees, it delivered a prestige credential adapted to the internet.

The paradigm shift accelerated when Harvard University partnered with Massachusetts Institute of Technology to launch edX in 2012. In Australia, institutions such as Australian National University, the University of Queensland, the University of Melbourne and the University of Western Australia all offer a MOOC through US-based outlets.

Education providers, students, professions and employers are watching 26 | Issue 8 2013

the virtual education space with interest.

None more so than business educators, who recognise the challenges to overcome and the opportunities to seize. But what do MOOCs mean for future generations of business students?

With over 3 million pupils worldwide taking part in MOOCs, the educational opportunities for those students disadvantaged by geographic, financial or social factors are undeniable. This opens up potential to make future generations more educated than any before. If education is the key to social mobility, then MOOCs can make a major difference.

For both students and educators, MOOCS offer exciting possibilities in relation to peer-to-peer teaching and assessment, as well as access to leading global experts and teachers.

In terms of on-campus education, MOOCs can provide universities with the opportunity and incentive to experiment with course delivery to optimise the experience. Routine tasks can be removed from face-to-face teaching, making time spent in the classroom more meaningful.

This is particularly relevant for business students, whose skill set upon graduating must include teamwork, collaboration and oral presentation.

So what are the concerns? One issue is high attrition rates – in some courses the figure is 80 per cent to 90 per cent. Also problematic for MOOC providers is how to provide assessment and accreditation.

Not only is plagiarism potentially rife, the sheer numbers of students make effective assessment difficult. And although it’s not widely possible to gain a degree by MOOCs study now, if and when it is, will mainstream employers value a MOOC degree? Whilst learners in MOOCs courses need to be self-directed and self-motivated, which are valuable employment skills, can the business skill set outlined previously be taught online?

It appears that in one form or another, MOOCs are here to stay. The onus now is well and truly on traditional educators to adapt to the changing market and develop strategies to improve the learning experience for students.

One prediction for learning is that it will be self-directed and personalised, brought about by the open and continuous opportunities available to learn online.

Future learning models may increasingly be about applying knowledge in contextspecific circumstances, and only when necessary. It’s different from being in a lecture theatre or classroom. And because

technology With over 3 million students worldwide taking part in MOOCs, the educational opportunities for those students disadvantaged by geographic, financial or social factors are undeniable.

it is contextual, it could be argued that it has more meaning and relevance to the end user. At the forefront of the potential revolution, there are likely to be changes in postgraduate courses, where students are already established learners and motivated to study for professional development.

Imagining the future of education delivery is an ambitious task.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia is committed to taking a leadership role in this debate. Our concern, as always, is with quality – we see the quality of learning outcomes as key to the success or failure of MOOCs. We are collaborating with education providers to create the best possible model for business and accounting education. It’s clear that the digital age must be embraced in order to remain relevant and sustainable.

There are significant benefits to be gained if – and this is a big if – the education content of business and accounting courses is constructed and delivered effectively.

The keys are deciding how to make best use of the changes

evolving technologies bring on and determining which models of innovation to adopt. Whilst we embrace the opportunities MOOCs provide in terms of equity and access, we also believe that these concepts are meaningful only when underpinned by quality.

There is a plausible future for higher education in an online world. The virtual university provides many opportunities for the accounting profession to work with educators on the quality of both the online and on-campus experience for students. Other important issues include opening up the profession to a more diverse range of students and candidates, anywhere/anytime continuous professional development, and the accreditation of future business professionals.

For educators of present and future members of the profession, a new era is emerging in which accounting is influencing the education of its future practitioners with the aim of creating the best learning experiences.

Ideally the education of the future will be a blend of technology and face-to-face learning that will benefit practitioners, graduate students and academics and, ultimately, preserve the legitimacy of professions in society – including accounting.

More insights into this changing era in education are available in the publication The Virtual University: Impact on Australian Accounting and Business Education, co-produced by the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia and the University of South Australia’s Centre for Accounting, Governance and Sustainability. It explores the concept of the virtual university from the perspective of a range of contributors, from industries such as IT and publishing and from professional bodies, industry groups and the higher education sector. It is available online at www.charteredaccountants.com.au/academic n Professor James Guthrie is head of academic relations at the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia.

®

www.campusreview.com.au

Issue 8 2013 | 27

TAFE

All’s well for

dream

facility New Sunshine Coast health and well-being precinct ready to serve the region. By Leeza Boyce

28 | Issue 8 2013

All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.

TE Lawrence The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

W

hen the federal government announced funding of $46.8 million to enable the $63 million Sunshine Coast Health and Social Wellbeing Learning Precinct at Kawana to proceed, the dream to develop a modern TAFE facility adjacent to Sunshine Coast University Hospital (SCUH) became a reality.

The precinct is a contemporary example of the infrastructure described in the Queensland Skills and Training Taskforce Report and is designed with the region’s future in mind. Each year, about 10,000 patients travel to Brisbane for complex treatment. SCUH and the new TAFE campus at Kawana will provide the facility, skills and staff so this travel is no longer required.

SCUH will be a tertiary teaching hospital offering a range of new and expanded healthcare services.

It is scheduled to open in 2016 with 450 beds, is expected to grow to 738 beds by 2021, and can reach more than 900 beds if needed. SCUH will also include the Skills, Academic and Research

Centre. SARC will deliver training programs for existing health professionals and hands-on clinical experience for students training to become health professionals. It will also assist health professionals undertaking postgraduate training and innovative clinical research. It will be delivered in partnership with the Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service, Sunshine Coast University and Sunshine Coast Institute of TAFE. SARC is part of the institute’s vision to become a recognised leader of skills training and research in Australia.

Sunshine Coast TAFE has been looking for an opportunity to establish a presence to service the rapidly growing area on the southern end of the coast for some time. That presence will help train the extra 241,000 workers the Community Services and Health Industry will need in the future.

The health and well-being precinct is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us as educators to make a difference to Australians. It won’t just be TAFE occupying the site; key partners will also be in the 10,000-square-metre facility, adding a new dimension to our institute’s customer value.

This kind of adaptive leadership is not new to Sunshine Coast TAFE. For a relatively small institute, we have made a big impact on the Queensland and Australia VET scene.

In looking for challenges and new frontiers, our institute has also established a reputation for its work in the Pacific. Australia Pacific

TAFE

Technical College is a centre of training excellence, helping the people of the Pacific region achieve Australian-standard skills and qualifications for a wide range of vocational careers. Campus locations include Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.

Sunshine Coast TAFE, in conjunction with Box Hill Institute of TAFE, manages this project on behalf of AUSAID. We are also industry leaders as the first TAFE Queensland institute to implement a Reconciliation Action Plan, with a strategy to ease the transition from school to TAFE and increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in VET at Sunshine Coast TAFE. Our commitment has raised our Indigenous student populations to well above the national and state averages. Through support and consultation on academic, personal and career matters, we have increased the completion rate for our Indigenous students and facilitated pathways to higher VET qualifications.

We were also the first Australian educational organisation to be certified carbon neutral and are a member of a community that is passionate about sustainability.

Through reducing electricity consumption, doubling our recycling rates, establishing Australia’s only Sustainability Discovery Centre and developing new initiatives towards www.campusreview.com.au

a sustainable future, we have become a source of knowledge in this area and a frontrunner for sustainability in our region.

VET is a sector that all industrialised economies have had to rely on for their advancement; and it is a sector that employs large numbers of highly skilled people.

With 58 TAFE institutes across Australia and the Pacific, TAFE is a brand that has a long history of delivering high quality, reliable products and it has the credentials to prove it. With over 2000 providers in the VET marketplace, quality has become a point of parity, rather than a point of differentiation.

Competition is increasing in the sector.

In the past, Sunshine Coast TAFE mainly competed against other local institutions; however “elsewhere” is now a ready option for our students. They can study online, intra-state, interstate or internationally, with a range of providers, including universities. As educators, we work to create relationships and agreements with other providers to support student choice and movement across sectors, jurisdictions and national boundaries. We understand employers want knowledge and application of skills, not just knowledge. We also recognise the new age requires adaptable workers who can multitask.

We understand learning is an attitude and that Sunshine Coast TAFE graduates

are distinguished by this hallmark. Our graduates are destined to be sought after by employers and our partners are helping us deliver on this promise.

Our partnerships define us and deepen our reputations as authorities in our chosen fields. In a world where academia increasingly sits outside our institutions, they ensure our longevity and relevance to new generations of learners.

Millennial students are the largest and most diverse generation of learners, whose education occurs best when situated in an authentic context.

A generation of digital natives, they are determined, driven achievers who depend on technology and their support systems. Through blended delivery, increased mobility and enhanced customisation, TAFE will meet the challenges of the 21st century and refine our knowledge and skills to incorporate students’ goals and motivations and match future learning experiences with collaborative delivery and advanced learning resources.

We look forward to the year ahead and welcome new challenges as we prepare this generation of learners for the new frontier.

See you there. n Leeza Boyce is director of Sunshine Coast Institute of TAFE. Issue 8 2013 | 29

VC’s corner

People

are still the

key indicators Numbers, metrics and KPIs must never replace a university’s unique and vital mission.

By Celia Hammond

30 | Issue 8 2013

I

recently provided an update to The University of Notre Dame Australia community in which I highlighted some key milestones and achievements of the university: growth in applications and enrolments; consistent 5-star ratings in graduate satisfaction from the Good Universities Guide; new courses; new buildings; more capital projects on the go; and more research activity than ever before. Like all universities, we like to share and celebrate these milestones with all members of our community. They are items capable of being quantifiably measured and easily converted to performance indicators.

I was delighted to receive feedback from a number of people who expressed their joy in our successes. There was, however, one letter I received from a recent Notre Dame graduate that caused me to pause and reflect. The gist of the note was that whilst she was happy for our success, she did not think our celebration of these milestones reflected what she believed our university was about. I was told, politely and clearly, that we were focusing on the ‘numbers’ and the ‘physical aspects’, and ignoring the fact that every single one of those numbers was a person … and that the capital works, as important as they are, are meaningful only because of what we do with them or in them. She expressed concern that if these quantifiable measurements became our sole

or even predominant focus, we would forget our fundamental purpose and ultimately cease being the special place that she had experienced.

Our graduate is correct.

In the current world in which all Australian universities operate, and with billions of taxpayer dollars being spent annually on higher education, it is imperative that all universities remain accountable. It is imperative for all to gather reliable data and information, to evaluate it, and to use it to measure, benchmark and help guide innovation and improvement. All universities must use the tools and measures available to achieve the accountability and responsibility required of them, and nothing less than this should be countenanced.

Despite all this, universities as individual organisations, and the higher education sector as a whole, must avoid being seduced by the apparent certainty of statistics, KPIs, metrics, survey results, rankings, benchmarking and the rest of the ever-expanding list of quantifiable measures.

Universities must resist the lure of allowing the tools or metrics to become the end in and of themselves. A healthy balance sheet, whilst a desirable and good outcome, loses most if not all meaning unless it is being sought and achieved within the context of an institution’s distinct and special mission and purpose. Likewise, an increase

VC’s corner in research outputs is worth celebrating not simply because it raises the ranking of the university (as desirable as that may be), but fundamentally because that research is adding to knowledge and hopefully to the betterment of society.

Universities are complex organisations. There is a constant tension and struggle to balance what academics might call the dark side (for example, processes involving risk management, financial accountability or business planning) with allowing the free and easy pursuit of worthy and genuine academic endeavours aimed at fulfilling the university’s mission. The challenge to keep these in balance is a real one; and I would guess it’s not one that can be answered for all time for all situations with a one-size-fits-all approach.

However, whilst I cannot identify an easy answer, I do heed the words of the graduate who reminded me that one sure way to lose the balance is to forget the beautiful, empowering and ultimately good purposes for which universities are established.n Professor Celia Hammond is vice-chancellor of The University of Notre Dame Australia.

AsiaBound grants provide study opportunities for Notre Dame students More than 50 University of Notre Dame Australia students will have the opportunity to study in Asia in 2014 as part of their degree, thanks to funding from the Australian Government’s AsiaBound Grants Program.

The university received significant funding for 54 scholarships across seven projects in several disciplines.

The grants will allow students from Notre Dame’s three campuses, in Fremantle, Sydney and Broome, to undertake practicum, clinical placements, research trips or service projects for up to six months in some of the most majestic and culturally diverse countries in the world – nations that are rising in dominance in the global economy.

The aim of the AsiaBound program is to increase the overall number of Australian students with a first-hand study experience of Asia, including language acquisition.

Notre Dame received AsiaBound grants for studies in arts and sciences, medicine, health sciences, education, and nursing and midwifery, to be

undertaken in locations including India, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan and Taiwan.

Pro vice-chancellor international and research professor Peta Sanderson said the funding would give students an excellent opportunity to participate in culturally significant academic experiences and to develop or enhance their language skills.

“Notre Dame is delighted to be awarded this funding, which will enable a significant number of Australian students, who otherwise may not have had the opportunity, to embed a firsthand study experience in Asia within their university degree,” professor Sanderson said. “The value of an immersion in another culture and the opportunity to learn a second language cannot be overstated and the focus of the AsiaBound program will enable us to strengthen relationships with partner institutions in the region.”

AsiaBound provides funding each year for 3600 Australian students to participate in a study experience in Asia.

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Issue 8 2013 | 31

VET

The carer crisis looms

Is anything more important than refugee boats and the price of carbon?

One CEO says yes – if you’re paying attention. By John Mitchell

W

ith the federal election looming, the national media is consumed by a narrow range of issues, such as a solution to the influx of refugee boats and finding a palatable position on carbon emissions and pricing. But have the media and politicians overlooked a bigger issue that deserves front page attention?

Yes is the answer, according to Rod Cooke, CEO of the Community Services and Health Industry Skills Council.

“We work in a unique position in [between] the education sector and the health sector and our observation is that Australia’s biggest crisis is not the boats, it’s not carbon tax, it’s the massive growth in health and care costs,” Cooke says.

To back that up, he points to predictions that within 20 years under current policies, “every state government’s entire budget would be spent on health and care. If that’s not a crisis I don’t know what is.”

“All we’re doing at the moment is reinforcing the current paradigm of the medical model that’s sending us broke,” Cooke 32 | Issue 8 2013

says. “We need to move from cure to prevention, with a better focus on wellness.”

A better policy setting would be to let consumers drive the agenda, he says. “It’s about shifting to a consumer-led model, where consumers determine what care they get and where and how. It’s about delivery in the home and in the community, which is where people want it to be done, not in really expensive hospitals with really expensive super medical specialists.”

The crisis in health costs will only deepen unless there is a dramatic change in policy settings, Cooke says. “The other issues are the ageing of our population and the workforce. Following the intergenerational report that was published a number of years ago, nothing’s happened, which is unfortunate.”

Cooke says health and care workers are facing what he calls a double whammy: they make up “the fastest-growing and the largest part of Australia’s workforce” but there are already shortages and these are likely to get worse as staff age.

“On average, they are about 47 years of age, so in 20 years they’re going to be shifting from being a carer to being a patient, so we have the double whammy of an older workforce that’s going to be retiring.

“We need an extra 800,000 aged-care workers over the next 20 years and we need an extra 120,000 to 125,000

VET disability workers over the next three to five years, and I don’t know where they’re going to come from because our unemployment rate is so low.

“Even the number of long-term unemployed isn’t enough; even if we got every one of them into a job there’s not enough to go around.”

It’s a VET issue

The workforce shortage is more a VET issue than a higher education one, Cooke says.

“At the moment, in the health and care workforce, there are about 1.3 million people and about two-thirds of those do not have a degree and never will; they are the assistant workforce, or the VET workforce. This is the area that we’re interested in and we work in. Yet at the moment, all the national initiatives are about pumping up the number of doctors and nurses.”

Cooke is concerned that there are high levels of funding for doctors while most of the work is done by people without degrees.

“The touch point of carers in Australia is not the degreed professions, it’s the aged-care workers, the child-care workers, the disability workers,” he explains. “They’re the ones the population of Australia deals with on a day-to-day basis, yet all our [policy] focus and all our funding is on the degreed professionals.

“If it wasn’t for the assistant care workforce, our country would grind to a halt. If you can't get childcare, if you can't have somebody to look after your aged parents, if you can't have somebody to look after a disabled sibling, you can't work. And so we need to look at how we’re going to provide that workforce and that care. It will not be provided by a degreed professional; it will be done by a VET worker.”

Cooke is passionate about the need for a dramatic increase in the volume of VET programs for carers, yet governments are making cuts to the sector.

“When we talk about needing 800,000 more aged-care workers and 125,000 disability workers … We need to double our national training capacity to have any hope of meeting those numbers of trained people. We train about 20,000 aged-care workers a year, but we need to train 40,000 people a year from now, today, for the next 20 years, to meet our 800,000-worker target.”

At the same time that we need more VET students “our federal and state governments are dismantling the vocational education and training infrastructure. It is going to higher education via Bradley and into the schools via Gonski. Clearly, VET is not just being starved, it’s being dismantled www.campusreview.com.au

We need a national campaign to say to people, ‘This is a great industry, come and work here.’ It’s not just that there’s a job for you in aged care or disability; we’re talking about a wide range of jobs and professions and careers that people can enter and then move around in. because each state government is cutting the cost of VET and the TAFEs seem to be bearing the brunt of it.”

Cooke suggests that the reduction in TAFE infrastructure, particularly in regional areas, runs counter to the national need for increased training of care workers.

“Often TAFEs are the only ones that go into regional areas with thin markets,” he explains. “Often they’re the only ones with the infrastructure – the staff, facilities and equipment – to be able to deliver high-quality training and numbers and high-volume numbers.”

Cooke says the nation “cannot wait for a couple of years to think about it [because by that time perhaps TAFEs will have sold off] a lot of their facilities. How do we make sure that they’re still there and they’re delivering [the training required]?”

Promoting attractive careers

Instead of making cuts to VET, Cooke recommends a national promotional campaign to attract more people to undertake VET programs that lead to new jobs and satisfying careers.

“We need to have a national recruitment campaign that points out the value of this sector. We need a national campaign to say to people, ‘This is a great industry, come and work here.’ It’s not just that there’s a job for you in aged care or disability; we’re talking about a wide range of jobs and professions and careers that people can enter and then move around in.”

Cooke wants the national campaign not just to attract sufficient numbers, he wants it to draw high-quality entrants.

“We need to make sure we get great people entering the profession because you and I at some point are going to be needing aged care, so I want to make sure there are great people there, as everybody does,” he says. “If you’re a parent, you want to have terrific people working in the local child care, and if you’ve got a disability you want great carers to provide the support that you need, so we need to make sure we get our share of the best and brightest to come in.”

He believes it is possible to promote this positive image of the industry and change its public image: “If you want to change public opinion, as was done [by the mining industry] with the mining tax and by the clubs and hotels around gambling,

you pump $20 million or $30 million into a national promotional campaign.

I think that’s the federal government’s responsibility to fill that gap and to develop, maintain and promote the campaign.”

To offer more training that is attractive to trainees and meets the needs of employers, Cooke says, providers will need to be much more proactive.

“We see a different model of approach for registered training organisations [RTOs].

I don’t think it is acceptable now or in the future that the providers just provide training; they need to work with employers to find out what those employers need.

A local employer will want different things from his workforce, so an RTO will need to work with them to tailor the content of a qualification or training to more closely meet the employer’s needs.

“RTOs need to almost become business consultants. That’s a message I’ve sent to RTOs in many forums: I’ve said, ‘You need to work with the employer, you need to help hem understand their strategy, you need to help them with a workforce development plan, and you need to tailor the training to work in with what the employer wants and needs.’ There must be more creative approaches by RTOs for how they deliver the numbers [of trained workers].”

He repeats that the escalating cost of health and care based on the reactive, not preventative, model and the lack of skilled carers are issues worthy of prime attention in the forthcoming federal election, but the media and politicians are not prioritising this industry’s needs.

“We think it is an election issue but the elected officials haven’t woken up to the fact. Both major parties are focused on issues that in the scheme of things aren’t as pervasive as health and care. It just does not seem to be the election issue and I’m intrigued why, because in 20 years’ time all the state government budgets are going to be spent on health and care.

“It is a crisis that we know about now, but nobody’s doing anything.” www.cshisc.com.au/media/184810/CS_ HISC_Position_on_industry_FAQs.pdf Dr John Mitchell’s company measures workforce capabilities. Go to www.jmaanalytics.com.au Issue 8 2013 | 33

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Another

way

to work it It’s a good time for alternate approaches to lowering youth unemployment, such as the trade diploma.

By Bruce Mackenzie

O

ne of the imponderables of government policy relates to the future of vocational education and training in Australia.

In just over 40 years, Australia, as a result of reforms initiated in the 1970s through the so-called Kangan Report, built a world-class VET system. Its centrepiece was the emergence of new institutions called Technical and Further Education Institutions (TAFEs).

These have played an important role in allowing Australia to maintain social cohesion and reduce inequality and have helped make the country internationally and economically competitive.

It is, therefore, difficult to understand why state governments have so savagely attacked these institutions in recent years. There is no doubt that, in terms of offering opportunities to the most marginalised people in this country, and in terms of responsiveness in meeting the needs of individuals and industry, TAFEs have been star performers amongst our educational institutions.

Vocational education is an integral part of the education system and it helps the Australian community cope with societal change.

One change at the moment is an emerging problem for governments – the growth in youth unemployment. This will become a more acute social issue because there has been a simultaneous downturn in the availability of apprenticeships, an important destination for young people, especially men.

High youth unemployment and low levels of educational achievement are not outcomes that any government or any community would want. However, the existing model depends upon employment as the only way in which skilling can occur.

Apprenticeships have a retention rate of just 50 per cent and take longer to complete than a bachelor’s program at most of our higher education institutions.

34 | Issue 8 2013

An alternative approach, which could run parallel to our existing apprenticeship model, involves using our TAFE institutions and Australia’s group training companies as cornerstones for skills development. Some time ago, I produced a series of papers on the concept of trade diplomas. Their underlying principles are: •S kill development can occur without an indenture. Fulltime institutional training, combined with work placement, will provide better educational outcomes for a student and arguably equivalent skill levels in less time than existing apprenticeship schemes.

•P roductivity improves if you have a better-educated workforce.

•E ducation speeds up the process of technological diffusion.

•V ocational education is more than training people for the workplace. Knowledge workers require sound foundations in maths, science and communications, and an understanding of technology. Our trade training curriculums therefore need modernisation.

• Teachers need to become facilitators of learning and make better links between academic and technical studies and the workplace.

•A ccess to skills development and future employment should not be limited to those fortunate enough to obtain an indenture.

•E xisting programs focus primarily on the development skills for the workplace. No attention is given to the development of the individual in the context of personal development, further education and career aspirations.

Students would be better qualified and as well skilled as apprentices under the existing system because they would have completed a Trade Accreditation Test and undertaken more intensive off-the-job training than is now available.

The scheme has a number of potential advantages, including:

VET • The student is closely monitored by the TAFE institution. With such monitoring and a reduction in exposure to poor treatment on the job, attrition would, arguably, lessen.

• It reduces reliance on long-term employment contracts and provides a steady flow of skilled workers.

• It enhances trade training and vocational education. One reason trade training is often not the first choice for parents is that apprenticeships are not seen as a positive educational option.

This scheme facilitates access to higher education as well as skilled trade status. Wider opportunities become available to the student immediately and in the future.

• Employers would have confidence in students’ skill levels, knowing they have successfully completed a Trade Accreditation Test.

• Careful monitoring of the on-the-job component by the group training company or institution creates a better alignment between off-the-job learning and on-the-job learning.

Challenges

To introduce a scheme like this requires addressing a number of matters, including: • Courses would have to be constructed to provide better links between various levels in the Australian qualifications framework.

• Employers may not want tradespeople skilled so quickly, as apprentices are often seen as a source of cheap labour.

• Employer incentive payments may be reduced.

• The existing apprenticeship system has been in place for many years and whilst some would argue that it is an industrial arrangement rather than an educational one, it has strong advocates, even with a 50 per cent attrition rate.

• Trade Accreditation Tests would have to be developed.

Accessing work

Under current arrangements, employers receive incentives to take on an apprentice. Whilst these vary, about $5000 in subsidy payments are available. As an alternative, I propose that at the end of the two-year study program and on completion of the Trade Accreditation Test, students should have a $5000 voucher to be paid to an employer as a wage subsidy in return for 12 months employment. The subsidy could be considered part payment for

participation in an internship program.

A preferred model, which would enable TAFE institutions to work more closely with group training companies, would be to use those companies for work placement during the two years of institutional training. At the completion of the term, the group training company would take responsibility for the employment of students for 12 months, for which it would receive payment. The Australian Government now pays universities significant amounts of money to find clinical placements for students undertaking health-related programs. I cannot see why the development of skills training would not attract the same support, especially in times of high youth unemployment.

Reform means improvement

Reform in vocational education has been linked to nothing more than structural change. But reform is supposed to mean improvement. If the results that have shown up in the recent Victorian training market statistics are any guide, then there has been a significant misuse of the word reform.

There has been no reform in the core business of VET, that is, in the curriculum and the mechanisms that are used to deliver that curriculum. The issues raised in this paper reflect the neglect of our system. Apprenticeships have been totally resistant to change. We have little knowledge as to what attracts students to skills training, why retention rates appear to be so poor, where apprentices go if they drop out, why employers take on apprentices, and so forth.

This proposal would lead to systemic change in curriculums, the role of the teacher, links with employers, and the means for bringing together group training companies and institutions. It would almost certainly improve retention rates and VET’s status.

Arguably, it would be far more cost-effective and politically palatable than following the mantra of marketisation that has done so much damage, produced such appalling results and cost so much money. Of course, concepts such as this threaten existing superstructures and getting these to shift ground is a daunting challenge for any government. That is why so little change has occurred.

Bruce Mackenzie PSM, retiring Chief Executive of Holmesglen Institute.

Explaining the trade diploma

The trade diploma concept is best illustrated by example.

The one given here is for a carpenter and joiner who, over two years, completes a Certificate III and Certificate IV, and also undertakes 1000 hours of work placement. After two years of study, the student undertakes a Trade Accreditation Test. A student doesn’t need to gain employment to enter a trade diploma. Rather, access to employment comes at the completion of the educational program. However, as part of this plan there is significant work placement (1000 hours). Not dissimilar to the way in which we develop academic and workplace skills for our healthcare workforce. The trade diploma works like this: Year 1 – Carpentry Trade Diploma Off-the-job training (Cert II)

16 weeks x 40 hours = 640 hours

On-the-job training

16 weeks x 40 hours = 640 hours

Off-the-job training (Cert III)

8 weeks x 40 hours = 320 hours (completed Cert III off-the-job requirements)

Total Year 1

1600 hours over 40 weeks

Year 2 Off-the job training

34 weeks x 20 hours = 680 hours (completed Cert IV off-the-job requirements)

On-the-job training

8 weeks x 40 hours = 320 hours

Total Year 2

1000 hours over 42 weeks

Total Years 1 and 2

2600 hours (excluding Trade Accreditation Testing)

In this configuration, students at the end of Year 1 have completed all of the academic requirements for a Certificate III. They still have to complete approved work experience and at the end of Year 2 they have to undertake a Trade Accreditation Test (say 80 hours maximum). www.campusreview.com.au

Issue 8 2013 | 35

VET

Where the middle road leads Study finds age, field have biggest impact on effectiveness of mid-level qualifications. By Nick Fredman

V

ocational certificates have traditionally been tied to the trades, and bachelor’s degrees to the professions. What’s the labour market niche for those qualifications that fall in between?

In the Australian Qualifications Framework’s descriptions of diplomas, advanced diplomas and associate’s degrees, each one is depicted as preparing graduates to “undertake advanced skilled or paraprofessional work and as a pathway for further learning”.

But how well do such qualifications provide a route into further education? And how well do they prepare young people entering the labour market to gain highly skilled or paraprofessional work? How well do they help existing workers advance up the occupational skills ladder?

Tom Karmel and colleagues at the National Centre of Vocational Education Research have, over the past seven years or so, highlighted something of an identity crisis for mid-level qualifications – in particular the vocational diploma.

They point to a steady decline of diploma enrolments from 2001 to 2007 and showed from NCVER’s annual Student Outcomes Survey that whilst diplomas can provide employment and wages benefits for graduates, they generally do not do so for those already holding a Certificate IV. Further, census data from 1996 and 2006 suggests that the skill level of jobs held by those whose highest qualification is a diploma is declining, and that many jobs that were previously dominated by diploma graduates have become dominated by bachelor’s degree graduates.

36 | Issue 8 2013

VET This work seems to tell a story of diplomas squeezed between higher certificates and the steady advance of the bachelor’s degree caused by creeping credentialism.

The LH Martin Institute, with the support of NCVER, is leading a project examining pathways in and between education and work. The current and potential roles of mid-level qualifications have been a central concern of this research.

A key finding has been that educational pathways cannot be considered, or made more effective, in isolation from the labour market. The Australian market is, we’ve found, highly segmented, with major barriers to advancement in many fields. Exacerbating these structures in recent years has been an increase in higher- and lower-skilled jobs and a decline in intermediate jobs. Due to such structures and trends, mid-level qualifications and work are now the missing links in effective pathways for many fields, apart from some regulated professions and trades.

We’ve examined participation in, and outcomes from, mid-level qualifications. We’ve found that the fall in diploma enrolments of the early and mid 2000s reversed strongly from 2007: in fact, full-time equivalent student load in diplomas increased overall by 71 per cent between 2002 and 2012, larger than the increase of 40 per cent in bachelor’s degree load over that period (advanced diploma load did decline by 4 per cent in this time). Also, the associate’s degree load increased over six-fold between 2002 and 2012, albeit from a small base.

However, such change varied markedly by field. For example, in the broad field of health education, diploma load increased by 607 per cent between 2002 and 2012, probably reflecting a change in nursing registration enrolment requirements from a Certificate IV to a diploma in all states.

By contrast, diploma load in the natural and physical sciences was virtually the same in 2012 as it was 10 years before.

We’ve also examined how employment, further studies and skills outcomes from mid-level qualifications have varied by field of education and age, using the 2011 Student Outcomes Survey (defining mid-level qualifications for this purpose as qualifications at “diploma and above” levels). We wanted to examine the age differentiation to test the idea that mid-level qualifications play different roles at various stages of a career: labour market entry and pathway to further study for young people; skills development and occupational advancement for older workers.

We found outcomes varied considerably by field and age group. Graduates with diplomas and above had similar rates of full-time employment to graduates of certificates III and IV: all from 53 per cent to 55 per cent. However, the full-time employment rate for graduates with diplomas and above varied by broad field, from 35 per cent for information technology to 75 per cent for education. When we accounted for differences of gender, field of study and whether graduates worked before study or not, the probability of employment for diploma and above was 22 per cent for those aged 15 to 24 and a little higher – 28 per cent – for those over age 24.

Graduates with diplomas and above also had a similar rate of participation in further study (34 per cent) as Certificate IV (33 per cent) and Certificate III (29 per cent) holders. This reinforces a finding from other data (the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Survey of Education and Training) that an increasing proportion of people are undertaking multiple stints of study, from varied starting points. The rates of those undertaking study at a level of bachelor’s degree or higher was more highly differentiated. Graduates with diplomas and above were at 15 per cent, with 7 per cent for Certificate www.campusreview.com.au

IV and 4 per cent for Certificate III. Further study among diploma-and-above graduates also varied by field. The rates ranged from 23 per cent in agriculture and environmental studies to 44 per cent in engineering.

And although 29 per cent of diploma and above graduates in the natural and physical sciences were in study at a bachelor’s degree level or higher, this proportion was only 5 per cent in agricultural and environmental studies.

Further study also varied by age. Whereas the probability of further study (of any sort) was 39 per cent of graduates with diplomas or above aged 15-24, the rate was about 30 per cent for those aged over 24. The probability of further study at bachelor’s degree or higher was 14 per cent of those diploma-and-above graduates aged 15-24 – statistically very similar to the 12 per cent for those aged 25-44. However, the rate among those 45 and over was only 7 per cent.

We measured occupational progression in terms of whether work after study was at a higher skill level than before study. Overall, the rate for such progression was higher for Certificate III graduates (22 per cent), many of whom have clear pathways to the skilled trades, than for graduates of Certificate IVs (12 per cent) or programs for diplomas and above (17 per cent). Among diploma-and-above graduates, there was marked variation by broad field. For example, in agriculture and environmental studies, where the industry can have particularly high barriers to advancement, the proportion that had progressed was just 10 per cent. In health it was 32 per cent, reflecting the clear pathway to enrolled nursing that a diploma can provide.

It was in age variation that the results for occupational advancement were unexpected. Although the probability of moving into more highly skilled work was 36 per cent for diploma-and-above graduates aged 15-24, for those aged 25-44 it was 7 per cent, and for those 45 and above, 3 per cent. Although it should be noted that the survey is undertaken six months after graduation, and improved job outcomes for many would no doubt take longer, these results for older workers were surprising.

Hence, our examination of the role of mid-level qualifications today shows a mixed picture. After a period of decline, increasing numbers are studying diplomas, whilst the place of the advanced diploma is perhaps being overtaken by the relatively new contender, the associate’s degree.

But patterns of participation, and outcomes, vary markedly by field of education in ways related to changing labour market occupational regulatory structures. Mid-level qualifications appear to play somewhat different roles according to field of education and work, as balances between labour market entry, pathways to further study and occupational progression vary in different fields.

On the whole, however, the effectiveness of midlevel qualifications in providing links to further study and more highly skilled work is much better for young people entering the labour market than for older people, and skills progression through working life is a major missing link. As such pathways are generally better in the more regulated trades and professions, our findings suggest that better coordination in the structures of education and work between employee and professional bodies, government, industry and educational institutions is needed. n Nick Fredman is a research fellow at LH Martin Institute.

Issue 8 2013 | 37

VET

A moment that made a difference A presentation helps one educator find the answer to a burning question about opportunity.

By Stuart Middleton

A

research report had just been released and after the launch I turned to a colleague and asked: “Do you mean to say that education cannot do much about social class and socioeconomic factors?”

“Almost nothing,” he said in a resigned kind of way.

It seems to me to be defeatism of the lowest (or perhaps highest?) kind to think that a set of determinist forces conspire to overpower all the energy that education and learning can bring to bear in leading people to brighter and better futures. And it was in stark contrast to a presentation I attended the following day from Andreas Schleicher, deputy director for education and skills and special adviser on education policy to the OECD SecretaryGeneral. The theme of his speech was predominantly that it is possible to improve the quality and equity of education in a short space of time.

He reminded us that if New Zealand raised the performance of its low-equity institutions, it would be number one in the world. But the challenge is not only in those institutions identified as serving communities of the disadvantaged (the majority of students from these communities are in bog-standard institutions). The challenge is there for all teachers in all institutions and schools.

This information was not entirely new to us but having it said with the authority of such a figure gives it added meaning and force. Schleicher identified six areas on which to focus. At the top was the necessary belief that all students can

38 | Issue 8 2013

achieve. How often do we hear the apologists for failure blame the home and other factors in depicting a scenario without hope? The message all students need is “you can succeed”.

Schleicher went on to emphasise the importance of a well-developed delivery chain. This has notions of linkage and strength. It also echoes the ideas of pathways, managed transitions and seamlessness that have become increasingly prevalent in educational discourse. In New Zealand and Australia, we might well reflect on our respective strengths in providing such a connected and democratic learning environment.

There is no doubt that a strong education system places a clear importance on having the capacity at the point of delivery. This requires the creation of a profession that attracts the best teachers and leaders, retains them and gets them committed to system-wide development.

There is the need for professional growth that goes beyond mere participation; not just doing a course, but activity involving reflection, a call for collaborative action with colleagues and a network of community-based support.

The importance of balancing autonomy with accountability was another strong point Schleicher made during his visit. A collaborative environment would ensure this is achieved in a manner that adds value to the system. I have thought often that New Zealand and Australia education professionals have an obsession with autonomy but a loathing for accountability.

That is why the question, “Who’s accountable for educational failure in New Zealand and in Australia?” has long been sufficiently answered simply with, “No one!”

But that might be about to change with the new responsibilities for boards of trustees outlined in the most recent amendment to the Education Act. However, ascribed accountability is only part of the deal; real

accountability is a deeply seated part of professionalism.

There was another deeply challenging idea from Schleicher as well: put resources where they have the most impact. I didn’t think it appropriate to ask whether, in light of this, the failure of our commitment to systems for describing the socioeconomic status of education providers and the lack of any significant indication that we are improving outcomes for the disadvantaged are simply dark and dirty secrets of education. We can choose, he concluded, to have an education system that moderates inequality or reinforces it.

Question time brought the tired old apologists to their feet. We are misunderstood! Do you realise how diverse we are? You can’t compare us with A, B, C and D. And so on. Then I got on my feet and sought the microphone.

I got the chance to ask one question.

It was the one that nags at me every day, a question that drives my argument for new and different ways of working.

“Does anyone have to fail?” After speaking about the complexities, the issues, the combination of factors, Schleicher answered, “It is hard to change income inequality but changing levels of education inequality will bring change.”

I think I have an answer to the question I had asked the day before – education can do something to minimise the impact of socioeconomic factors.

And why does this matter to all of us?

The 2013 OECD Yearbook is a good read and it’s interesting to note the piece there

by Andreas Schleicher, deputy director for education and special adviser to the Secretary-General. In it, he makes a simple point: Countries that are unable to mitigate the impact of socioeconomic background on student performance during compulsory education are unlikely to solve that problem in higher education. n

noticeboard

strictly speaking SCUMBLE & SCUMBALL Visitors to the JMW Turner exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia may come across scumble, a curious word from the C19 art world. It refers to the technique of applying a thin coating over lighter paint colours, so they shine through as if through mist or clouds. The verb scumble is a C18 derivative of scum, with the frequentative suffix -le (also found in crumble, sparkle etc.) plus an intrusive b. As an artistic term, scumble escapes the generally pejorative sense of scum (as in scum of the earth), and may be used figuratively by writers of poetic prose, witness “frequent clouds now scumbled the sky” (1905), and “a golden scumble of October haze” (1884), cited in the Oxford English Dictionary online. The similar-sounding scumball also makes affirmative use of scum, to refer to an annual charity car rally begun in 2006 under the name “Scumball 3000”. The participants drive vehicles that cost no more than £500 ($850) to mystery destinations in Europe. The name was, however, challenged by the organisers of Gumball 3000, another British motoring event used to promote expensive sports cars. The Scumball rally has since been rebadged the Scumrun, and trademarked with its own logo.

But scumball lives on as a generic term for the alternative car rally, putting positive vibes back into the word.

Written by emeritus professor Pam Peters, researcher with Macquarie University’s Centre for Language Sciences and author of the Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage.

Norham Castle, Sunrise Artist: William Turner

www.campusreview.com.au

Chief information officer

The University of Newcastle has appointed Mark Pigot its new chief information officer. Pigot, who began on June 25, was the director of ICT infrastructure and operations at the University of Sydney, which he joined in 2008 as the director of service management.

His career began in financial services, where he worked with some of Australia’s largest providers, including the Commonwealth Bank and EDS. He has since spent more than two decades in the IT sector. Chief operating officer Nat McGregor said Pigot would bring his experiences across all aspects of IT to the role. “His professional experience extends to multinational organisations, including Reckitt and Colman,” McGregor said.

Executive director IT

Brendan McHugh has

joined Charles Sturt University as the executive director information technology. McHugh will head a division that manages $28 million in funds annually and oversees 7500 email accounts, 4800 phones, 1200 computer laboratory and public access computers, while juggling 3000 bookings for video-conferencing rooms each month. Prior to his appointment, McHugh was general manager IT with the Liquor Marketing Group in Sydney. He has also been Rebel Group’s chief information officer. He has also worked in Canada, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. Notably, he is a member of the British Computer Society and a Chartered Information Technology Professional.

Principal, strategist

After more than five years in service as the eighth vice-chancellor of Monash University, professor Ed Byrne has accepted an appointment as principal and president of King’s College, London. Byrne will make his return to London at the end of next year.

Monash University chancellor Dr Alan Finkel said Byrne’s achievements included the strengthening of the academy, the refinement of campus structure and strategic expansion of the Monash international footprint through core partnerships with the University of Warwick in the UK, and in China. He also helped develop the Campus Master Plans for Monash’s major Australian campuses at Clayton and Caulfield. A national and international search for Byrne’s successor will commence soon.

Dean of law

Professor Sarah Derrington has taken the position of dean of law at the University of Queensland. Derrington said she would seek to consolidate the law school’s position among the best in the Asia-Pacific region. The UQ alumna is a practicing barrister; she was appointed a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law in 2009.

As a teacher at the UQ Law School between 1994 and 2011, Derrington was director of the Centre for Maritime Law and the Marine and Shipping Law Unit. She serves on the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, the Admiralty Rules Committee (Commonwealth) and the Maritime Law Association of Australia and New Zealand, of which she was president.

International ecology expert

An internationally recognised expert in river ecology has been appointed pro vice-chancellor Research at the University of Western Australia. Professor Peter Davies has been acting in the position since September last year. Davies has won several major project grants at UWA, including a large ARC Linkage Grant in 2012. He is a UWA graduate (bachelor of science with first class honours in zoology, and a PhD) who worked as a research officer before completing his doctorate in 1993.

For 10 years, he served as UWA professor and foundation director of the Centre of Excellence in Natural Resource Management, based in Albany, before taking on the pro vice-chancellor role.

Swiss Army mechanic

A former Swiss Army mechanic is one of the three lecturers who joined the Charles Darwin University teaching team in Alice Springs for the start of semester two. Alex Eberli, who has joined the School of Trades, completed a motor mechanic’s apprenticeship as a civilian with the Swiss Army in the 1980s. He has worked for a motor vehicle dealership in Armidale and also taught at the New England Institute of TAFE. The two other lecturers, Jodie Carr and Lauren Wapling, have joined the School of Health, Community and Children’s Services. Wapling will initially be involved in the VET in Schools program. Carr will deliver certificates II, III and IV. Issue 8 2013 | 39