Australian Higher Education

Václav (later Victor) Vodička AM DA (Prague) FRMIT MACE (28 September 1921 - 30 September 1992) was a Czech born gold and silversmith who emigrated to Australia in 1950 and taught at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) from 1955 to 1983. It has been noted that 'his contribution to Australian jewellery was made as the lecturer in charge of gold and silversmithing in Australia'.

Focusing on the themes of culture and e-learning 2.0, this study provides a Grounded Theory exploration of the experience of Saudi Arabian students in Australia. The research was conducted because a growing number of Saudi Arabian students chose to pursue their studies abroad in countries with very different cultural and educational environments such as Australia, and there is little in the literature that focuses on Saudi Arabian students’ experiences, specifically with new learning settings. The study aims to explore the experiences of Saudi Arabian higher education students in Australia and the opportunities and challenges that emerge from these experiences. An essential part of this research is discovering the role of culture in shaping attitudes and experiences of Saudi Arabian male and female students within an Australian e-learning 2.0 higher education environment. A qualitative approach based on Charmaz’s Constructivist Grounded Theory approach was adopted to allow the participants to describe their experiences and to analyse the gathered data. Three theoretical underpinnings based on cultural, educational and technological theoretical perspectives, were used to understand the data gathered. Twenty Saudi Arabian higher education students sponsored by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Education to study at Australian universities were surveyed and interviewed using semi-structured interviews. The twenty interviews were transcribed into 5000 lines of text and over 800 excerpt basic statements were subsequently extracted from the raw data. Through a line-by-line initial coding process, over 400 line-by-line initial codes emerged. Through the constant comparative method focusing on coding the relevant data, a reduced list of (38) initial codes emerged; these were identified as the most frequently repeated and relevant codes to address the research questions. The focused codes were categorised into three conceptual categories: ‘adaptation to the Australian cultural environment,’ ‛adaptation to the Australian education system,’ and ‘engagement in learning through technology.’ Each of the three categories was associated with a set of subcategories. Through the theoretical coding process, key theoretical concepts were drawn, and the conceptual categories and their interplay were specified and explained in a theoretical model. Key findings from the analysis indicated that: (i) Saudi Arabian students experienced a number of cultural and educational challenges while studying in the Australian higher education environment; (ii) Saudi Arabian students were able to utilise the e-learning 2.0 environment in their respective universities as a learning enabler to help them overcome some of their educational challenges. In an e-learning 2.0 environment, they were able to interact with other people while preparing themselves to become more interactive in their classes. The enabling affordances of the e-learning 2.0 environment also served as a learning facilitator where the students successfully engaged in, and adapted to, the Australian higher education environment. Furthermore, (iii) e-learning 2.0 platforms were utilised by the students as a sociocultural enabler, helping them to transcend some of the sociocultural challenges. However, for some participants, the language barriers, the gender segregation culture and the technology expertise persisted as intervening challenges even in the enabling e-learning 2.0 environment. The theoretical model developed in this study contributes to our understanding of international students’ experiences with, and attitudes towards an e-learning 2.0 environment and its role in their cultural and educational adaptation in a new setting.

In the Master of Fine Art, a new student charged two classmates with sexual harassment.  The only black classmate for supposedly bumping into her at the narrow entrance door in a ‘rhythmic, hip-swaying manner.’  Unsigned statements were made to damage three students’ lives.
                           
RMIT - Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia

Theological education finds itself in uncertain times, with questions about its future coming from many angles. With religion losing its pride of place in society, with increased government scrutiny and decreased government funding, with fewer full-time students (and fewer students all together), with increasing ambivalence toward traditional training within churches and without, and with serious questions being raised about its very nature and value—many wonder what the future will look like for theological education, if it even has one. None of these questions is answered, at least not directly, by Volf and Croasmun’s new book, For the Life of the World. But it does address the most fundamental issues of them all: What is theology and what is it for? And in doing so, it provides a point of departure for the most foundational issues in theological education, too: What is it and what is it for? This paper reviews the book with an eye toward its contribution to these questions.

During 2020 and beyond, coronavirus disease has profoundly disrupted global economic, health and higher education systems. As universities shuttered campuses and businesses locked down, Australia's export education sector stalled. Many international students who were able to return home, did so, while those who could not, would experience varying levels of support and exclusion. Government policies and practices during 2020 are analysed alongside research literature and media reports to provide an overview of how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the Australian higher education sector and international students. Specifically, the analysis addresses the emerging and emergent impact of this pandemic on the public higher education sector and its international education activities and proposes corresponding recommendations for systemic and institutional recovery. These recommendations call for increased government fiscal and welfare support, strengthened regulatory safeguards, extended post-study work rights, progress regarding foreign qualifications recognition, and institution-level strategies. A long and varied list of sources chronicles events.

When studying abroad in different cultural and educational environments, international students face many opportunities and challenges. Focusing on the themes of culture and e-learning 2.0, this study explores the experiences of Saudi Arabian students in the Australian higher education environment. Through adopting the Grounded Theory approach, the research develops a theoretical model which contributes to understanding the students’ experiences with e-learning 2.0 while studying in Australia.

Graduate attributes refer to an amalgamation of cognitive, personal, interpersonal and social skills, abilities and qualities that students are expected to develop and apply during and after their degree programme. They have been widely adopted across higher education in Australia and internationally. In this article, I review some of the continuing problems of graduate attributes in the Australian higher education sector some twenty years after their introduction, including the concepts of employability and work-readiness; the processes of mapping and resourcing; and whether graduate attributes are generic. This examination foregrounds the ongoing pitfalls of graduate attributes in relation to their purpose, contextualisation and implementation. While there remains potential positive student and institutional outcomes from graduate attributes, the continuing problems of resourcing and the diversity of roles and purposes that universities serve for students and communities, are being overlooked.

Abstract
The research findings on which this report is based arise from a five-year study funded by the Australian Research Council. Devoting herself fulltime to this project, between June 2015 and June 2020, the author undertook a multi-sited longitudinal ethnographic study of a core group of 50 young women from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) who travelled to Australia for tertiary education. The focus was on Chinese students’ social and subjective experiences of educational mobility: everything outside of study. This report addresses pragmatic questions about Chinese students’ experiences of life and wellbeing in Australian cities.
A key purpose of this report is to identify problems in the Chinese international student experience. The study found that Chinese international students in Australia experience a number of vulnerabilities including: restricted access to reliable local information; exploitation in rental accommodation; racism, social exclusion, and restricted opportunities for intercultural mixing; restricted work opportunities and exploitation at work; difficulties understanding and engaging with Australian police processes; and difficulties accessing Australian health systems including mental health support.
The detailed recommendations presented in each section of this report are based on the central recommendation that international students should be reconceptualized as part of the national youth population and residents in local communities, with associated rights as such.

Construction organisations appear to place a high value on graduates who possess what has been recently labelled as the Grit personality in their hiring. Grit is defined as a combination of passion and perseverance. This paper explores this personality characteristic and its utility in an undergraduate construction management program. Currently, Grit is a popular subject amoung educational researchers and appears to be a valuable trait for the student and the employer. Many studies have predicted long-term success in a career, but it does not significantly improve academic success. This paper is a beginning examination of the possibility of growing the Grit personality and awareness of its utility in construction management students. The data collection began in mid-2021, making the sample size small but growing. The researchers measured Grit with a well-accepted instrument via an anonymous survey. We have taken a starting sample, and it is a snapshot of the effect of academic and employment intensity. The results conclude that there is no significant effect regardless of employment intensity and study hours while matriculating through a construction management program. This paper proposes developing a teaching and assessment approach for increasing Grit in a construction management program. The researchers also recommend that discipline leaders continue to build a culture that promotes a passion for construction with a personal commitment to excellent work. This readily connects to the industry's desire for "gritty" minded graduates.

I argue that working-class students need to be better integrated into social life at university in order for them to have a better opportunity to succeed. I discuss this issue in the context of (a) a recent meta-analyses showing the working-class students are less integrated at university than middle-class students and (b) the Australian Government's recent initiative to increase the number of working-class students at Australian universities.

The research findings on which this report is based arise from a five-year study funded by the Australian Research Council. Devoting herself fulltime to this project, between June 2015 and June 2020, the author undertook a multi-sited longitudinal ethnographic study of a core group of 50 young women from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) who travelled to Australia for tertiary education. The focus was on Chinese students’ social and subjective experiences of educational mobility: everything outside of study. This report addresses pragmatic questions about Chinese students’ experiences of life and wellbeing in Australian cities. A key purpose of this report is to identify problems in the Chinese international student experience. The study found that Chinese international students in Australia experience a number of vulnerabilities including: restricted access to reliable local information; exploitation in rental accommodation; racism, social exclusion, and restricted opportunities...

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relevance of undergraduate community development courses in two cultural contexts. There has been little research on the experiences gained through community development courses, or on the relevance of higher education in general. This thesis investigates the perspectives of community development students, staff and graduates on learning and skills gained in undergraduate community development courses at Victoria University (VU) in Australia and at Nacional University of Timor Lorosa’e (UNTL) in Timor-Leste. The community development course outlines at VU and at UNTL are similar, thus one aim of this study is to reveal if these comparable course outlines are applicable both in a developed country and in a developing country.

A case study approach was used to research the courses, and the methodology used to gather information was mixed-method. Data collection was conducted through questionnaire survey and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with community development staff, graduates and students. The main source of information was from the interviews which provided data not only to answer the research question but also to describe the history of the two courses, a topic which has not been explored previously. Triangulation was used to check the information obtained, and the analysis included investigating the multiple-choice questions in the questionnaires quantitatively. The open questions in the questionnaires and the transcripts of the interviews were qualitatively assessed using a thematic approach. 

According to the results of this research, the undergraduate community development courses at VU and UNTL are relevant to their contexts, and both courses share somewhat similar values and notions of the role of community development practitioners. However, the results show that despite these similarities, and although the undergraduate community development course outlines at VU and UNTL are similar, cultural context strongly shapes the ways in which community development learning and skills are offered and acquired. Considering the future of the two courses, this study suggests that it is essential to maintain a focus on global phenomena and to continue to update the course content. Further, since the two courses are not only shaped by the cultural contexts but also by global implications and the distinctive nature of community development itself, it is beneficial for the courses to consider increased cross-cultural learning experiences between VU and UNTL. The overall conclusion was that the courses are significant in both Australian and Timorese contexts, and the contents of the courses refer to the current developmental stages of the two countries. Nevertheless, this thesis suggests that because of their high levels of personal dedication and their insights on development, the undergraduate community development course may be more practically relevant for students in Timor-Leste.

This paper reports the quantitative findings of a study on conceptions of positive career outcomes held by Chinese students who returned home to work after gaining higher education qualifications in Australia. The study explores what positive career outcomes mean to Chinese returnees, the actual positive career outcomes Chinese returnees have experienced and contributing factors to the positive career outcomes achieved. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are used and here the analysis of the quantitative findings is presented. The survey data show that Chinese returnees assign greater importance to 'soft outcomes' relating to personal and life fulfilment than 'hard-outcomes' such as employment results. Also the discrepancy between the returnees' ideal and actual outcomes is greater in the soft outcomes than the hard outcomes. Statistical analysis indicate three emergent, distinct groups of conceptions of positive career outcomes. The qualitative findings will be presented separated.

Planning education is often criticized for being " too theoretical " and subsequently producing graduates who lack the requisite technical skills for the job market – who, in other words, are not " work ready. " It is assumed that employers will prefer graduates with technical and procedural know-how. This article reports on an employer workshop to evaluate the urban planning studio courses at the University of Queensland in Australia. The results were surprising. The attending employers agreed that procedural planning skills can be learned " on the job " while the university environment is an opportunity to develop critical and spatial thinking.

Australia's ageing professors might be sans frontiers (without borders), in terms of the infinite subjects over which they range and on which they claim expertise, and the disparate forms of media they now embrace. But they are also, seemingly, without arguments and without intellectual rigour and honesty. Their meagre intellectual efforts in so many areas-say, climate alarmism-are, alas, increasingly well known among the taxpaying public. That their squalid endeavours of the mind attract not only taxpayer funds but now global private sector backing should worry us all, given their increasingly compromised, indeed, clueless, and in many cases, dangerous, output. Once respectable research institutes are now in the pay of Big Pharma. https://politicom.com.au/virus-delivers-riches-to-the-compliant-few/ But it isn't only the medical sciences, with direct, pay-day largesse from the pharmaceutical industrial complex, who are getting in on the act of cheering on the vaccines, the vaccine mandates and the multifarious, new forms of discrimination they bring. Now the social sciences and the humanities are in danger of losing what little credibility they still possess. Recently I had cause to critique the output of one academic who should know better. He is, or was, from the right-of-centre of Australian scholarship. Greg Melleuish of the University of Wollongong opined that the still-unvaccinated were an example of what economists call the "free rider" problem. The unvaxxed, in other words, were receiving a "benefit" from the State and (supposedly) not paying for it. https://politicom.com.au/vitriol-humiliation-replace-mateship/ Now there is another, decidedly not from the right-of-centre. His name is David Hayward, of RMIT University. When I worked there, two of my then colleagues, Sinclair Davidson and Steven Kates, and I used to joke that we were the only known right-wingers in the entire University, which counted around six thousand academic staff.

Student feedback-based evaluation performs a significant social role in framing perceptions of the quality of teaching in contemporary Australian higher education. Yet its emergence is a relatively recent phenomenon, having only been in widespread application since the mid-1980s. The early manifestations of student feedback-based evaluation came with newly emerging academic development units with a motive to enhance the quality of local teaching and to afford student retention. However, new motives for assailing student feedback evolved with the rapid growth in student numbers, the introduction of student fees and heightened levels of inter-institutional competition for students. As a result, student feedback-based evaluation progressively became also a powerful proxy measure of teaching and curricula quality assurance at an individual, institutional and sectoral level [Blackmore, J. (2009). Academic pedagogies, quality logics and performative universities: Evaluating teaching and what students want. Studies in Higher Education, 34(8), 857–872. doi:10.1080/03075070902898664]. This generated critical tensions between the seminal motive of student feedback around quality improvement, and the rising quality assurances discourses, academic performance management demands and institutional marketing. In this paper, the complex social origins of these competing motives for student feedback-based evaluation in Australian higher education will be explored and analysed. It is argued this provides an important means of understanding the polarising effects of student feedback-based evaluation in Australian universities.

This paper focuses on understanding Saudi Arabian students‟ engagement in e-learning 2.0 in Australian higher education. Eight Saudi students enrolled in the Australian Higher Education were interviewed to discuss their experiences and attitudes towards e-learning 2.0 using Semi-structured interviews. A qualitative approach was adopted to analyse the gathered data. The approach was based largely upon Charmaz‟s constructivist grounded theory. Key findings indicated that Saudi Arabian students were able to utilise the e-learning 2.0 settings in their respective universities as tools in which they interacted with other people while preparing themselves to become more interactive in their classes. At the same time, e-learning 2.0 served as a means for these students to steadily get over the socio-cultural barriers that might hinder them from making the most out of their education in Australia. However, it was also found that the language barrier that persisted even in the e-learning 2.0 environment made it more challenging for students to break through other barriers. Furthermore, it was found that the gender segregation culture that Saudi Arabian students have been used to still affected them in Australia, even in taking advantage of the e-learning 2.0 opportunities. This paper presents a discussion of four axial codes /categories that were identified that shape the Saudi students' attitudes, experiences and their engagement with e-learning 2.0. Specific attention is given to the 'Engaging in learning through technology' axis.

Enabling courses are designed to assist with the upskilling of non-traditional students in order to make the transition to university more seamless. Enabling educators understand that the cohort who enter via the enabling pathway are unique and require holistic support as the students develop their academic skills and their self-efficacy. Class attendance has long been regarded as a vital component of a quality education, but with the accessibility of online material and the ever-increasing opportunities to study online, the viability and value of face-to-face classes is being challenged. This paper reports the findings of a research project that sought to better understand enabling students' conceptions of the benefits of attending face-to-face, on-campus classes and the factors that influence their choices to attend. The project investigated the link between attendance, academic achievement and retention and aimed to identify a more effective alignment between the conception of expectations and the provision of a quality learning experience.

This book addresses how Western universities have constructed themselves as global providers of education, and are driven to be globally competitive. It examines how the term ‘international’ has been exploited by the market in the form of government educational policies and agencies, host institutions, academia and the mass media. The book explores matters relating to the role of the English language in international education in general and the field of TESOL in particular. It demonstrates how English and TESOL have exercised their symbolic power, coupled with the desire for international education, to create convenient identities for international TESOL students. It also discusses the complexity surrounding and informing these students’ painful yet sophisticated appropriation of and resistance to the convenient labels they are subjected to.

The Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) is a survey conducted with all Australian university graduates within 12 months after completing a university degree qualification. It assesses a graduate’s overall experience and assessment of their university and program of study. As such it acts as a form of performance assessment of teaching in the Australian tertiary sector. The CEQ has a long history and originated from the sector, and particularly by Ramsden and other academics keen to foster reflection on and evaluation of tertiary teaching quality. This policy research paper provides an overview of the CEQ, its history and its location with contemporary Australia government policy aimed at advancing quality tertiary education. It outlines the contents and administration of the survey and its evolution, the policy context in quality assurance and teaching standards in tertiary education, and parallel practices of teaching evaluation in Australian institutions, public policy and internationally, and considers how the CEQ is located in the wider governance of Australia’s university governance at both the institutional and sectorial levels. As such it sits alongside parallel processes of performance measurement and governance of research within Australian universities. 1 The authors acknowledge the advice and feedback received from Richard James and Theresa Sauter on earlier drafts of this report.

Universities across the world are floundering from the effects of coronavirus. Many have lost significant income from falling student numbers, vacant student accommodation and inopportune investments. Some are struggling to survive and risk bankruptcy. Countless universities are cutting jobs and pay and conditions, which is further shrinking these institutions and compromising their scholarship – including scholarship on COVID-19.

The ubiquity of Web 2.0 technologies means students require a base level of digital literacies in order to succeed in 21st Century (C21st) learning environments. However, in the era of widening university participation it is problematic to assume that students will enter higher education with the digital literacies required to support their academic endeavours. This paper describes the theoretical and pedagogical impetus behind two distinct approaches to enhancing digital readiness among undergraduate students in Australian and Malaysian universities. A comprehensive literature review and adoption of the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc) six capabilities of digital literacies model as the underlying theoretical framework guided the development of two distinct projects, one based at an Australian university and the other at a Malaysian university. The Australian approach focused on the development of a suite of online modules utilising an adaptive e-Learning platform (AeLP). The Malaysian approach focused on facilitating digital readiness among education students through student-created learning objects that simultaneously served as interactive pedagogical products and cognitive tools for facilitating learning. The cases presented demonstrate two distinct approaches to developing curriculum to support students’ digital literacies that respond to two different contextual situations. Subsequent investigations into the student experience will inform future decisions regarding the use of AeLPs and cognitive tools in tertiary institutions, in addition to providing valuable information on the design of curriculum to support digital literacies instruction in the Australasian university context.

There is no doubt that the Australian higher education system has grown dramatically in the last fifty years. Yet so much of this growth has not been primarily driven by the genuine educational aspirations of government leaders to grow a high quality university system. Instead, growth has primarily (though not exclusively) come from real political pressures to broaden access to a university education. Unfortunately all too often the need to address these political demands has led to educational pragmatism, centred on generating university places rather than genuinely building the capability of Australian universities. Now we are on the eve of a further dramatic transformation, again based on the logic of expanding university places. This transformation is driven by a radical model that is unashamedly based on ‘other people’s ideas’, amounting to the effective privatisation of Australian higher education. This paper will reflect on this broad history and will argue that this market-driven model will represent (another) failure of leadership in higher education.

Primarily developed as an alternative to narrow measures of well-being such as utility and resources, Amartya Sen’s capability approach places strong emphasis on people’s substantive opportunities. As a broad normative framework, the capability approach has become a valuable tool for understanding and evaluating social arrangements (e.g. education policies and development programmes) in terms of individuals’ effective freedoms to achieve valuable beings and doings. This paper explores the recent emergence of ‘capability’ in Australian education policy, specifically in the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper. We explore capability as a framing device and reveal how its various meanings are at odds with the scholarly literature, specifically Sen’s conception of capability and its implications for social justice in and through education. The analysis shows that the social justice intent of a capability approach appears to be overtaken in the White Paper by an emphasis on outcomes, performance and functionings that seek to serve the nation’s economic interests more than the interests of students, especially the disadvantaged.