This book seeks to understand the effects of the current information revolution on universities b... more This book seeks to understand the effects of the current information revolution on universities by examining the effects of two previous information revolutions: Gutenberg’s invention and proof of printing in 1450 and the Scientific Revolution from the mid- fifteenth to the end of the seventeenth century. I review significant changes since the early modern period in universities’ students, libraries, curriculum, pedagogy, lectures, assessment, research, and the dissemination of these changes across the globe. I argue that significant changes in the transmission and dissemination of disciplinary knowledge are shaped by the interaction of three factors: financial, technological, and physical resources; the nature, structure and level of knowledge; and the methods available for managing knowledge.
This book seeks to increase our understanding of how vocational and higher education are structur... more This book seeks to increase our understanding of how vocational and higher education are structured as tertiary education systems in developed countries and possibilities for alternative structures. The study uses the method of comparative education to yield these insights and the book develops an analytical framework for international educational comparisons in Chapter 2.
The study found two broad tendencies or patterns for structuring tertiary education and the book seeks to explain why countries adopt one or the other of the patterns. In the Anglo-US pattern of vocational and higher education institutions having relatively general and overlapping roles, there is a range of practices in structuring higher education. Some jurisdictions such as California formally divide their higher education institutions into segments with markedly different roles and funding levels. Other jurisdictions distinguish between their higher education institutions, but less markedly or less formally. At the other end of the continuum, some jurisdictions such as Australia and Scotland have formally unified systems of higher education. The book considers the merits of these arrangements and, in particular, considers whether formally segmenting an elite sector of higher education makes highly selective institutions less accessible to students transferring from vocational education. The book finds that it does not and seeks to explain why this is so.
A final aim is to systematize the options available to governments for structuring vocational and higher education and this is done in Chapter 9. These several aims of the book are aspects of one overall question that the book seeks to answer: Why have sectors?
This is a submission to the Australian Senate inquiry into vocational education and training in S... more This is a submission to the Australian Senate inquiry into vocational education and training in South Australia, which was established by conservatives to try to attack the South Australian Labor Government before the forthcoming election.
In it I argue that the problems with public vocational education in South Australia are shared by all other Australian states and result from the fragmentation of financing, student loans, curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and quality assurance.
I argue further that Australian vocational education and training policy also suffers by being fragmented between the Australian and State and Territory governments. This Senate review of Tafe SA perpetuates and exacerbates this fragmentation of vocational education and training policy, as if the South Australian Government’s policy and funding of vocational education and training were unrelated to its funding agreements with the Australian Government, vocational education student loans, standards, quality assurance and related issues.
Abstract: Degrees in technical and further education (TAFE) are relatively new, but are likely to... more Abstract: Degrees in technical and further education (TAFE) are relatively new, but are likely to grow as a consequence of government policies that both seek to increase the percentage of Australians holding a bachelor degree and create a more unified tertiary education sector. There are ten TAFE institutes authorised to offer higher education in five states, with fewer than 1600 higher education students in TAFE in 2006. Initially, TAFE institutes focused on niche programs not offered by universities; however, they now offer vocationally focused ...
This paper considers higher education programs that are offered by institutions that have histori... more This paper considers higher education programs that are offered by institutions that have historically and still predominantly offer vocational education programs. These arrangements are called higher education (HE) in further education (FE) in England. The paper compares HE in FE in Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand and the US. The paper notes that what is considered ‘further’ and ‘higher’ education differs in each jurisdiction. Nonetheless, it is possible to compare bachelor degrees offered by Australia’s vocational education and training institutions, Canada’s community colleges, England’s further education colleges, New Zealand’s institutes of technology and polytechnics and the US’ 2-year colleges.
This paper reports progress with a project funded by the Australian National Centre for Vocational Education Research to examine higher education programs offered by public further education colleges, which in Australia are called Technical and Further Education (Tafe) institutes. This report concentrates on just 1 of the several issues that arose in the study: interviewees’ accounts of the implications of higher education in further education for the identity of institutions, teachers and students.
In the third part of the paper we invite reflection on 3 questions: why is higher education in further education expanding, how is higher education in further education being structured by the broader relations between the sectors, and what may be the future of higher education in further education?
This presentation reports on an Ontario government funded project on educational pathways. It exp... more This presentation reports on an Ontario government funded project on educational pathways. It explores whether graduates stay within the same field of study when they undertake a second postsecondary education qualification. It examines educational pathways within fields of study between educational institutions (college to college; college to university; university to college; and university to university) and by qualification level (diploma to degree, degree to diploma, degree to post-graduate qualification etc). It compares the outcomes in Ontario with Canada overall (excluding Quebec). Preliminary findings show that: • The percentage of students who move from college to university is lower in Ontario than it is for Canada; • Within Ontario and Canada, the most common pathway consists of students who undertake a first and second qualification in university; • The extent to which students stay within the same field of study when they undertake a second PSE qualification varies. Ov...
This presentation reports on an Ontario government funded project on educational pathways. It exp... more This presentation reports on an Ontario government funded project on educational pathways. It explores whether graduates stay within the same field of study when they undertake a second postsecondary education qualification. It examines educational pathways within fields of study between educational institutions (college to college; college to university; university to college; and university to university) and by qualification level (diploma to degree, degree to diploma, degree to post-graduate qualification etc). It compares the outcomes in Ontario with Canada overall (excluding Quebec). Preliminary findings show that: • The percentage of students who move from college to university is lower in Ontario than it is for Canada; • Within Ontario and Canada, the most common pathway consists of students who undertake a first and second qualification in university; • The extent to which students stay within the same field of study when they undertake a second PSE qualification varies. Ov...
This report tests these policy objectives by exploring the nature of educational pathways and the... more This report tests these policy objectives by exploring the nature of educational pathways and the links between educational pathways and the labour market in Ontario, and it compares these outcomes with Canada as a whole. Its purpose is to inform policy and practices at the departmental level within PSE institutions, at the institutional level and at the system level as a whole. It finds that the extent to which students stay within the same field of education when they undertake a second PSE qualification varies quite widely between fields of education, but that overall, pathways within fields of education are quite modest.
This reports an investigation of the feasibility of introducing a new approach to qualifications ... more This reports an investigation of the feasibility of introducing a new approach to qualifications which would involve:
identifying 4 types of qualifications;
supporting 3 roles of qualifications;
introducing vocational streams; and
developing ‘productive capabilities’.
This proposes a considerable simplification of Ontario's arcane formula for allocating funds to u... more This proposes a considerable simplification of Ontario's arcane formula for allocating funds to universities, which is outlined in its operating funds distribution manual of 152 pages. I suggest that Ontario could learn a lot from the arrangements of the Higher education funding council for England when it funded all higher education subjects.
Australian governments made vocational education 'industry led' from the mid 1990s and greatly in... more Australian governments made vocational education 'industry led' from the mid 1990s and greatly increased its marketisation from the 2000s. Yet employers have largely not assumed the leadership role that governments seek to thrust upon them, aside from complaining about substantial failures of quality and standards brought about by relentless funding cuts and marketisation. The Government seeks to solve these problems with yet more employer engagement and by extending marketisation to the development of qualifications standards, and it launched this more circumscribed review than its companion so it could establish its new market by July 2015. This brief submission of 3 pages makes these points and suggests modifications of the Government's proposal to ameliorate the worst effects of the further marketisation the Government seems determined to introduce.
This is a submission to the Australian Government's review of training packages, which are the na... more This is a submission to the Australian Government's review of training packages, which are the nationally mandated specification of vocational qualifications. The Government's discussion paper picks up several points made by my partner Leesa Wheelahan, colleagues and me over the last few years. However, it leaves unexamined the shackling of qualifications to atomised work tasks and has other limitations which are noted in this brief submission of 4 pages
This paper examines the policies to achieve universal participation in postsecondary education of... more This paper examines the policies to achieve universal participation in postsecondary education of 3 governments: those of Ontario, the UK (for England) and Australia. All 3 jurisdictions have high tuition fees and already have high access yet seek to further increase participation and attainment. But they do so in very different ways. The paper compares the governments’ policies on financing, relations between institutions, the involvement of community colleges and the role of private institutions in progressing towards universal postsecondary education. The paper finds two different approaches to achieving government goals in higher education – by formal planning and by constructing a market – and suggests that each is likely to achieve the goals government set for them.
This paper makes recommendations on institutional policies, governance and organisational arrange... more This paper makes recommendations on institutional policies, governance and organisational arrangements that enhance student outcomes in dual sector universities in Australia and to consider the implications for qualifications and curriculum. It has been commissioned by the Dual Sector Cohesion Project under the auspices of the University of Ballarat and Swinburne University of Technology. Student outcomes include pathways, transition arrangements, cross sector development and delivery of programs such as associate degrees, joint awards, and integrated degrees as canvassed in Dual Sector University Cohesion – A Discussion Paper (Matthews and Murphy 2010). However, while this project is about Australian dual sector universities which have substantial load in both vocational and higher education, the issues discussed in this paper arise to varying extents in other cross sectoral institutions which offer vocational and higher education although with a small minority of provision in one sector. There are 90 institutions that are registered to offer both vocational education and training and higher education qualifications in Australia. This includes the five dual sector universities, about half of Australia’s remaining universities, 11 TAFEs and 57 private providers (Wheelahan, Arkoudis, Moodie, Fredman and Bexley 2011).
‘Integration and fragmentation of post compulsory teacher education’, Journal of Vocational Education and Training
The boundaries between vocational and academic post compulsory education have been blurred by stu... more The boundaries between vocational and academic post compulsory education have been blurred by students combining vocational and academic studies and by students transferring increasingly between the two types of education. Institutions are also blurring the boundaries between the sectors by increasingly offering programs from two and sometimes three sectors. In contrast, teachers seem more entrenched than ever in their own sector. This article reports a project on the preparation of Australian teachers of vocational education. It examines the prospect of integrating the preparation of teachers in post compulsory education to teach in schools, vocational education institutions and higher education institutions. It argues that greater differentiation between different types of vocational teachers and vocational teacher preparation can support the development of a continuum along which it would be possible to establish points of commonality with the preparation of school and higher education teachers.
This book seeks to understand the effects of the current information revolution on universities b... more This book seeks to understand the effects of the current information revolution on universities by examining the effects of two previous information revolutions: Gutenberg’s invention and proof of printing in 1450 and the Scientific Revolution from the mid- fifteenth to the end of the seventeenth century. I review significant changes since the early modern period in universities’ students, libraries, curriculum, pedagogy, lectures, assessment, research, and the dissemination of these changes across the globe. I argue that significant changes in the transmission and dissemination of disciplinary knowledge are shaped by the interaction of three factors: financial, technological, and physical resources; the nature, structure and level of knowledge; and the methods available for managing knowledge.
This book seeks to increase our understanding of how vocational and higher education are structur... more This book seeks to increase our understanding of how vocational and higher education are structured as tertiary education systems in developed countries and possibilities for alternative structures. The study uses the method of comparative education to yield these insights and the book develops an analytical framework for international educational comparisons in Chapter 2.
The study found two broad tendencies or patterns for structuring tertiary education and the book seeks to explain why countries adopt one or the other of the patterns. In the Anglo-US pattern of vocational and higher education institutions having relatively general and overlapping roles, there is a range of practices in structuring higher education. Some jurisdictions such as California formally divide their higher education institutions into segments with markedly different roles and funding levels. Other jurisdictions distinguish between their higher education institutions, but less markedly or less formally. At the other end of the continuum, some jurisdictions such as Australia and Scotland have formally unified systems of higher education. The book considers the merits of these arrangements and, in particular, considers whether formally segmenting an elite sector of higher education makes highly selective institutions less accessible to students transferring from vocational education. The book finds that it does not and seeks to explain why this is so.
A final aim is to systematize the options available to governments for structuring vocational and higher education and this is done in Chapter 9. These several aims of the book are aspects of one overall question that the book seeks to answer: Why have sectors?
This is a submission to the Australian Senate inquiry into vocational education and training in S... more This is a submission to the Australian Senate inquiry into vocational education and training in South Australia, which was established by conservatives to try to attack the South Australian Labor Government before the forthcoming election.
In it I argue that the problems with public vocational education in South Australia are shared by all other Australian states and result from the fragmentation of financing, student loans, curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and quality assurance.
I argue further that Australian vocational education and training policy also suffers by being fragmented between the Australian and State and Territory governments. This Senate review of Tafe SA perpetuates and exacerbates this fragmentation of vocational education and training policy, as if the South Australian Government’s policy and funding of vocational education and training were unrelated to its funding agreements with the Australian Government, vocational education student loans, standards, quality assurance and related issues.
Abstract: Degrees in technical and further education (TAFE) are relatively new, but are likely to... more Abstract: Degrees in technical and further education (TAFE) are relatively new, but are likely to grow as a consequence of government policies that both seek to increase the percentage of Australians holding a bachelor degree and create a more unified tertiary education sector. There are ten TAFE institutes authorised to offer higher education in five states, with fewer than 1600 higher education students in TAFE in 2006. Initially, TAFE institutes focused on niche programs not offered by universities; however, they now offer vocationally focused ...
This paper considers higher education programs that are offered by institutions that have histori... more This paper considers higher education programs that are offered by institutions that have historically and still predominantly offer vocational education programs. These arrangements are called higher education (HE) in further education (FE) in England. The paper compares HE in FE in Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand and the US. The paper notes that what is considered ‘further’ and ‘higher’ education differs in each jurisdiction. Nonetheless, it is possible to compare bachelor degrees offered by Australia’s vocational education and training institutions, Canada’s community colleges, England’s further education colleges, New Zealand’s institutes of technology and polytechnics and the US’ 2-year colleges.
This paper reports progress with a project funded by the Australian National Centre for Vocational Education Research to examine higher education programs offered by public further education colleges, which in Australia are called Technical and Further Education (Tafe) institutes. This report concentrates on just 1 of the several issues that arose in the study: interviewees’ accounts of the implications of higher education in further education for the identity of institutions, teachers and students.
In the third part of the paper we invite reflection on 3 questions: why is higher education in further education expanding, how is higher education in further education being structured by the broader relations between the sectors, and what may be the future of higher education in further education?
This presentation reports on an Ontario government funded project on educational pathways. It exp... more This presentation reports on an Ontario government funded project on educational pathways. It explores whether graduates stay within the same field of study when they undertake a second postsecondary education qualification. It examines educational pathways within fields of study between educational institutions (college to college; college to university; university to college; and university to university) and by qualification level (diploma to degree, degree to diploma, degree to post-graduate qualification etc). It compares the outcomes in Ontario with Canada overall (excluding Quebec). Preliminary findings show that: • The percentage of students who move from college to university is lower in Ontario than it is for Canada; • Within Ontario and Canada, the most common pathway consists of students who undertake a first and second qualification in university; • The extent to which students stay within the same field of study when they undertake a second PSE qualification varies. Ov...
This presentation reports on an Ontario government funded project on educational pathways. It exp... more This presentation reports on an Ontario government funded project on educational pathways. It explores whether graduates stay within the same field of study when they undertake a second postsecondary education qualification. It examines educational pathways within fields of study between educational institutions (college to college; college to university; university to college; and university to university) and by qualification level (diploma to degree, degree to diploma, degree to post-graduate qualification etc). It compares the outcomes in Ontario with Canada overall (excluding Quebec). Preliminary findings show that: • The percentage of students who move from college to university is lower in Ontario than it is for Canada; • Within Ontario and Canada, the most common pathway consists of students who undertake a first and second qualification in university; • The extent to which students stay within the same field of study when they undertake a second PSE qualification varies. Ov...
This report tests these policy objectives by exploring the nature of educational pathways and the... more This report tests these policy objectives by exploring the nature of educational pathways and the links between educational pathways and the labour market in Ontario, and it compares these outcomes with Canada as a whole. Its purpose is to inform policy and practices at the departmental level within PSE institutions, at the institutional level and at the system level as a whole. It finds that the extent to which students stay within the same field of education when they undertake a second PSE qualification varies quite widely between fields of education, but that overall, pathways within fields of education are quite modest.
This reports an investigation of the feasibility of introducing a new approach to qualifications ... more This reports an investigation of the feasibility of introducing a new approach to qualifications which would involve:
identifying 4 types of qualifications;
supporting 3 roles of qualifications;
introducing vocational streams; and
developing ‘productive capabilities’.
This proposes a considerable simplification of Ontario's arcane formula for allocating funds to u... more This proposes a considerable simplification of Ontario's arcane formula for allocating funds to universities, which is outlined in its operating funds distribution manual of 152 pages. I suggest that Ontario could learn a lot from the arrangements of the Higher education funding council for England when it funded all higher education subjects.
Australian governments made vocational education 'industry led' from the mid 1990s and greatly in... more Australian governments made vocational education 'industry led' from the mid 1990s and greatly increased its marketisation from the 2000s. Yet employers have largely not assumed the leadership role that governments seek to thrust upon them, aside from complaining about substantial failures of quality and standards brought about by relentless funding cuts and marketisation. The Government seeks to solve these problems with yet more employer engagement and by extending marketisation to the development of qualifications standards, and it launched this more circumscribed review than its companion so it could establish its new market by July 2015. This brief submission of 3 pages makes these points and suggests modifications of the Government's proposal to ameliorate the worst effects of the further marketisation the Government seems determined to introduce.
This is a submission to the Australian Government's review of training packages, which are the na... more This is a submission to the Australian Government's review of training packages, which are the nationally mandated specification of vocational qualifications. The Government's discussion paper picks up several points made by my partner Leesa Wheelahan, colleagues and me over the last few years. However, it leaves unexamined the shackling of qualifications to atomised work tasks and has other limitations which are noted in this brief submission of 4 pages
This paper examines the policies to achieve universal participation in postsecondary education of... more This paper examines the policies to achieve universal participation in postsecondary education of 3 governments: those of Ontario, the UK (for England) and Australia. All 3 jurisdictions have high tuition fees and already have high access yet seek to further increase participation and attainment. But they do so in very different ways. The paper compares the governments’ policies on financing, relations between institutions, the involvement of community colleges and the role of private institutions in progressing towards universal postsecondary education. The paper finds two different approaches to achieving government goals in higher education – by formal planning and by constructing a market – and suggests that each is likely to achieve the goals government set for them.
This paper makes recommendations on institutional policies, governance and organisational arrange... more This paper makes recommendations on institutional policies, governance and organisational arrangements that enhance student outcomes in dual sector universities in Australia and to consider the implications for qualifications and curriculum. It has been commissioned by the Dual Sector Cohesion Project under the auspices of the University of Ballarat and Swinburne University of Technology. Student outcomes include pathways, transition arrangements, cross sector development and delivery of programs such as associate degrees, joint awards, and integrated degrees as canvassed in Dual Sector University Cohesion – A Discussion Paper (Matthews and Murphy 2010). However, while this project is about Australian dual sector universities which have substantial load in both vocational and higher education, the issues discussed in this paper arise to varying extents in other cross sectoral institutions which offer vocational and higher education although with a small minority of provision in one sector. There are 90 institutions that are registered to offer both vocational education and training and higher education qualifications in Australia. This includes the five dual sector universities, about half of Australia’s remaining universities, 11 TAFEs and 57 private providers (Wheelahan, Arkoudis, Moodie, Fredman and Bexley 2011).
‘Integration and fragmentation of post compulsory teacher education’, Journal of Vocational Education and Training
The boundaries between vocational and academic post compulsory education have been blurred by stu... more The boundaries between vocational and academic post compulsory education have been blurred by students combining vocational and academic studies and by students transferring increasingly between the two types of education. Institutions are also blurring the boundaries between the sectors by increasingly offering programs from two and sometimes three sectors. In contrast, teachers seem more entrenched than ever in their own sector. This article reports a project on the preparation of Australian teachers of vocational education. It examines the prospect of integrating the preparation of teachers in post compulsory education to teach in schools, vocational education institutions and higher education institutions. It argues that greater differentiation between different types of vocational teachers and vocational teacher preparation can support the development of a continuum along which it would be possible to establish points of commonality with the preparation of school and higher education teachers.
Missing links: the fragmented relationship between tertiary education and jobs
This report explores the transitions students make in undertaking a second qualification (i.e. wh... more This report explores the transitions students make in undertaking a second qualification (i.e. whether they change field of education and/or move between the VET and higher education sectors). It also looks at the reasons why they decide to undertake another qualification. A combination of data from the Survey of Education and Training and interviews is used to look at these transitions in four industry areas – finance, primary industry, health and electrical trades/engineering. Overall, the extent that students stay within a particular field of education depends on whether there are well defined occupational pathways within the field. This work is part of the three-year research program Vocations: the link between post compulsory education and the labour market.
Revitalising the vocational in flows of learning and labour
This discussion paper introduces the overarching concepts for the three-year research program, 'V... more This discussion paper introduces the overarching concepts for the three-year research program, 'Vocations: the link between post compulsory education and the labour market'. The paper also outlines the key findings from the initial investigations of each of the related research strands in the program. Overall, initial research has found that, due to the fragmentation of pathways within education and within the labour market, the relationship of pathways between education and the labour market are also fragmented. In order to understand this more clearly, the authors explore the concepts of transition systems, skill ecosystems and capabilities. A number of dilemmas for further research are also put forward.
This presentation covered two aspects of a research project conducted by Ontario CAAT Baccalaurea... more This presentation covered two aspects of a research project conducted by Ontario CAAT Baccalaureates team. The research project, which is funded by Ontario Human Capital Research and Innovation Fund (OHCRIF), explores the impact of college baccalaureate degrees on colleges and students in Ontario. The double session featured two members of CAAT Baccalaureates team. In the first part entitled 'Apples to Apples? Are College and University Baccalaureates the Same?' Diane Simpson, a doctoral student at OISE, discussed the curriculum analysis of college baccalaureate programmes in comparison to university baccalaureate programmes in research university and applied university. Her findings provided insight into the orientation of the degree programs offered by different types of institutions. The second part entitle 'Access and the Identity of College Baccalaureate Students in Ontario', Edmund Adam, a doctoral student at OISE, focused on the impact of college baccalaureates on access for students from disadvantaged backgrounds and student identity. Edmund discussed the analysis of interviews with baccalaureate students at five Ontario colleges. His findings provided empirical evidence for the role of college baccalaureates in widening accessibility to undergraduate education in the province.
Presentation to the symposium on pathways to education and work convened by the pathways to educa... more Presentation to the symposium on pathways to education and work convened by the pathways to education and work research group of the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, held on 5 April 2016.
This presentation is of the proposed principles and framework of making decisions on pathways in Ontario.
Notes for a presentation to the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities’ Strategi... more Notes for a presentation to the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities’ Strategic Policy and Programs Division and the Corporate Coordination Branch conversation on innovation: part III, 6 June 2016, MaRS Discovery District, Toronto.
These notes observe that while Australian colleges are valued by regional communities, they have a minimal if any role in the federal government's policies and programs for regional development. The notes observe the well established distinction between invention and innovation and cite Australian data which finds that innovation is not concentrated in high technology industries and that innovation is not mainly the commercialisation of research.
The notes conclude that while Australian colleges' role is normally confined to preparing graduates for work and upgrading and broadening the skills of people already in work, colleges have potentially valuable roles in accelerating the diffusion of new techniques amongst existing industry hubs and fomenting alliances amongst firms with common interests.
Notes for discussant comments for the symposium on President Obama's policy for community college... more Notes for discussant comments for the symposium on President Obama's policy for community colleges: evidence of organizational change and impact on underserved students, AERA 2016 annual meeting, April 12, Washington, DC.
This elaborates on part of Griffith University’s submission to the Productivity Commission’s stud... more This elaborates on part of Griffith University’s submission to the Productivity Commission’s study of public support for science and innovation in 2006. The paper argues that concentrating on commercialising intellectual property may be an obstacle to its diffusion. It suggests that the better approach may be for universities to simply give away most intellectual property as a contribution to the general good. Universities may include in their intellectual property licensing agreements a general ‘jackpot’ or ‘blockbuster’ clause that provides that should the intellectual property contribute to a ‘jackpot’ of revenues of, say, $50 million over 10 years, there would be a sharing of revenue determined by a nominated commercial arbitrator.
Notes for a presentation to the Canadian Institutional Research and Planning Association 2017 con... more Notes for a presentation to the Canadian Institutional Research and Planning Association 2017 conference, October 22 – 24, Toronto.
This presentation uses data from Statistics Canada’s National Graduate Survey 2013 and its 2011 National Household Survey to investigate the further study and employment destinations of Canadian college and university graduates. Outcomes differ markedly by field but for unregulated fields, the proportion of graduates who proceed to further study or employment in the same field is much lower than commonly assumed. This has implications for student services, for curriculum and for the design of pathways between study and work. This work offers institutions national data against which they may compare their analyses of their own data.
Notes for a presentation to the Canadian Institutional Research and Planning Association 2017 con... more Notes for a presentation to the Canadian Institutional Research and Planning Association 2017 conference, October 22 – 24, Toronto.
This presentation uses data from Statistics Canada’s National Graduate Survey 2013 and its 2011 National Household Survey to investigate the further study and employment destinations of Canadian college and university graduates. Outcomes differ markedly by field but for unregulated fields, the proportion of graduates who proceed to further study or employment in the same field is much lower than commonly assumed. This has implications for student services, for curriculum and for the design of pathways between study and work. This work offers institutions national data against which they may compare their analyses of their own data.
This gives the steps of my argument about digital disruption presented in my book 'Universities, ... more This gives the steps of my argument about digital disruption presented in my book 'Universities, disruptive technologies, and continuity in higher education: the impact of information revolutions' (Moodie, 2016).
VET FEE HELP is a program of income contingent loans that the Australian Government makes availab... more VET FEE HELP is a program of income contingent loans that the Australian Government makes available to all citizens enrolled in accredited vocational education and training diplomas. It is similar to HECS, the income contingent loans that have been unproblematic in higher education since they were introduced in 1989. However, VET FEE HELP has been scammed and successive Australian governments have introduced successive changes to try to stop the scams.
On 29 April 2016 the Australian Government published a paper inviting discussion of a number of ideas for ending the scamming of VET FEE HELP
The key question this paper considers is 'what should vocational qualifications look like if the ... more The key question this paper considers is 'what should vocational qualifications look like if the links between qualifications and jobs are so weak?' It focuses on vocational education and training in wealthy liberal market countries. It shows that VET institutions are blamed for skills mismatches and for not producing the right kind of worker with the right kind of skills required by employers, when it is the structures of the labour market that shape and condition the way qualifications are used in the labour market. The key distinction is between regulated occupations which have tight links to qualifications, and unregulated occupations which have loose links to qualifications. The paper uses the Varieties of Capitalism approach, skills ecosystems and transition systems literature to consider the relationship between VET and the labour market on the one hand, and to education more broadly on the other. It shows that VET's low status in liberal market economies arises from its impoverished notions of skills, its weak links to the labour market, and that it functions as a weak, second-‐class educational pathway. The paper uses concepts of vocations and vocational streams to argue that VET needs to prepare students for a broader field of occupational practice, using curriculum designed to produce autonomous agents who are skilled at work, who can contribute to their families, communities and society. It argues that VET policy needs to become more differentiated to reflect the differences between regulated and unregulated occupations, and between the requirements of different vocational streams.
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Books by Gavin Moodie
The study found two broad tendencies or patterns for structuring tertiary education and the book seeks to explain why countries adopt one or the other of the patterns. In the Anglo-US pattern of vocational and higher education institutions having relatively general and overlapping roles, there is a range of practices in structuring higher education. Some jurisdictions such as California formally divide their higher education institutions into segments with markedly different roles and funding levels. Other jurisdictions distinguish between their higher education institutions, but less markedly or less formally. At the other end of the continuum, some jurisdictions such as Australia and Scotland have formally unified systems of higher education. The book considers the merits of these arrangements and, in particular, considers whether formally segmenting an elite sector of higher education makes highly selective institutions less accessible to students transferring from vocational education. The book finds that it does not and seeks to explain why this is so.
A final aim is to systematize the options available to governments for structuring vocational and higher education and this is done in Chapter 9. These several aims of the book are aspects of one overall question that the book seeks to answer: Why have sectors?
Papers by Gavin Moodie
In it I argue that the problems with public vocational education in South Australia are shared by all other Australian states and result from the fragmentation of financing, student loans, curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and quality assurance.
I argue further that Australian vocational education and training policy also suffers by being fragmented between the Australian and State and Territory governments. This Senate review of Tafe SA perpetuates and exacerbates this fragmentation of vocational education and training policy, as if the South Australian Government’s policy and funding of vocational education and training were unrelated to its funding agreements with the Australian Government, vocational education student loans, standards, quality assurance and related issues.
This paper reports progress with a project funded by the Australian National Centre for Vocational Education Research to examine higher education programs offered by public further education colleges, which in Australia are called Technical and Further Education (Tafe) institutes. This report concentrates on just 1 of the several issues that arose in the study: interviewees’ accounts of the implications of higher education in further education for the identity of institutions, teachers and students.
In the third part of the paper we invite reflection on 3 questions: why is higher education in further education expanding, how is higher education in further education being structured by the broader relations between the sectors, and what may be the future of higher education in further education?
identifying 4 types of qualifications;
supporting 3 roles of qualifications;
introducing vocational streams; and
developing ‘productive capabilities’.
The study found two broad tendencies or patterns for structuring tertiary education and the book seeks to explain why countries adopt one or the other of the patterns. In the Anglo-US pattern of vocational and higher education institutions having relatively general and overlapping roles, there is a range of practices in structuring higher education. Some jurisdictions such as California formally divide their higher education institutions into segments with markedly different roles and funding levels. Other jurisdictions distinguish between their higher education institutions, but less markedly or less formally. At the other end of the continuum, some jurisdictions such as Australia and Scotland have formally unified systems of higher education. The book considers the merits of these arrangements and, in particular, considers whether formally segmenting an elite sector of higher education makes highly selective institutions less accessible to students transferring from vocational education. The book finds that it does not and seeks to explain why this is so.
A final aim is to systematize the options available to governments for structuring vocational and higher education and this is done in Chapter 9. These several aims of the book are aspects of one overall question that the book seeks to answer: Why have sectors?
In it I argue that the problems with public vocational education in South Australia are shared by all other Australian states and result from the fragmentation of financing, student loans, curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and quality assurance.
I argue further that Australian vocational education and training policy also suffers by being fragmented between the Australian and State and Territory governments. This Senate review of Tafe SA perpetuates and exacerbates this fragmentation of vocational education and training policy, as if the South Australian Government’s policy and funding of vocational education and training were unrelated to its funding agreements with the Australian Government, vocational education student loans, standards, quality assurance and related issues.
This paper reports progress with a project funded by the Australian National Centre for Vocational Education Research to examine higher education programs offered by public further education colleges, which in Australia are called Technical and Further Education (Tafe) institutes. This report concentrates on just 1 of the several issues that arose in the study: interviewees’ accounts of the implications of higher education in further education for the identity of institutions, teachers and students.
In the third part of the paper we invite reflection on 3 questions: why is higher education in further education expanding, how is higher education in further education being structured by the broader relations between the sectors, and what may be the future of higher education in further education?
identifying 4 types of qualifications;
supporting 3 roles of qualifications;
introducing vocational streams; and
developing ‘productive capabilities’.
This presentation is of the proposed principles and framework of making decisions on pathways in Ontario.
These notes observe that while Australian colleges are valued by regional communities, they have a minimal if any role in the federal government's policies and programs for regional development. The notes observe the well established distinction between invention and innovation and cite Australian data which finds that innovation is not concentrated in high technology industries and that innovation is not mainly the commercialisation of research.
The notes conclude that while Australian colleges' role is normally confined to preparing graduates for work and upgrading and broadening the skills of people already in work, colleges have potentially valuable roles in accelerating the diffusion of new techniques amongst existing industry hubs and fomenting alliances amongst firms with common interests.
This presentation uses data from Statistics Canada’s National Graduate Survey 2013 and its 2011 National Household Survey to investigate the further study and employment destinations of Canadian college and university graduates. Outcomes differ markedly by field but for unregulated fields, the proportion of graduates who proceed to further study or employment in the same field is much lower than commonly assumed. This has implications for student services, for curriculum and for the design of pathways between study and work. This work offers institutions national data against which they may compare their analyses of their own data.
This presentation uses data from Statistics Canada’s National Graduate Survey 2013 and its 2011 National Household Survey to investigate the further study and employment destinations of Canadian college and university graduates. Outcomes differ markedly by field but for unregulated fields, the proportion of graduates who proceed to further study or employment in the same field is much lower than commonly assumed. This has implications for student services, for curriculum and for the design of pathways between study and work. This work offers institutions national data against which they may compare their analyses of their own data.
On 29 April 2016 the Australian Government published a paper inviting discussion of a number of ideas for ending the scamming of VET FEE HELP
https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/2017-vet-fee-help-scheme-redesign-discussion-paper
This is my first draft submission. I welcome comments. Submissions are due by 30 June 2016.