Chapter 1 Introduction
1.6 Thesis structure
The structure of this thesis adopts primarily a chronological narrative history approach spanning a period of nearly 170 years from the establishment of Australia’s first university, the University of Sydney, in 1850, to the present day. This is interspersed with thematic history
4On 1 February 2020, the Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business merged with the Department of Education and Training, to form the new Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE, 2020)
5 An email response to my inquiry regarding this issue indicated that staff with a high teaching load are included in the data for Teaching and Research staff, because they are still expected to undertake some degree of research (C.
Wilson, personal communication, 7 February 2020).
22
which analyses events and issues at the global and national levels that have influenced teaching quality and its status in Go8 universities. Considerable emphasis is given to the changes that occurred in higher education since the introduction of the Unified National System (UNS), by John Dawkins, Minster for Employment, Education and Training (Dawkins, 1987a, 1988), as these provided the main catalyst for the development of teaching specialist positions in most Australian universities, including the Go8s.
These changes included a focus on equity and diversity by both Labor and Liberal Coalition governments from 19906 to increase the participation of students from low socio- economic, regional and Indigenous backgrounds, as well as the numbers of women in
traditionally male dominated courses such as engineering. The Australian Universities Quality Agency established in 1999, and legislation introduced from 2007 required universities to support Australia’s education export industry, by ensuring that international students received a quality education (see Table 4.1). Major reviews of higher education commissioned by the Australian Government from 1998, were undertaken to ensure that higher education addressed industry and community needs (see Chapter 4). Committees were established by governments to advise and oversee teaching quality, and national grants and awards were introduced as
incentives for improvement in teaching (see Table 5.1). This was reinforced through the introduction of the Commonwealth Government’s Performance-Based Funding for the Commonwealth Grant Scheme in 2020 (DET, 2019a), thus further linking funding to teaching performance. A number of student surveys instituted nationally from 1991, culminating in the University Experience Survey (2012), provided feedback on their learning experience. The
6 The A Fair Chance For All (DEET, 1990) Discussion Paper provided the impetus for universities to diversify and
expand their student enrolments.
23
results published by both the Australian Government and The Good Universities Guide7, place further pressure on universities to treat their students as customers and the Australian taxpayer as shareholders.
The expansion and complexity of the sector required skilled academic staff who could adapt their curricula and teaching to reflect the latest developments in scholarship and
information technology to address economic demand and students’ abilities and expectations.
These developments placed even greater impetus on the Go8s than other Australian universities, given their reliance on international students to fund research to maintain and enhance their international league table rankings and reputations.
This thesis is divided into nine chapters, with Chapters 2-8 each focusing on a key theme.
Throughout these chapters there is also an examination of the underlying issue concerning the effect that changes to teaching and academic work have on the purpose of universities and the role that they perform in addressing Australia’s social and economic needs.
Chapter 2 discusses the formation of Australia’s research-intensive universities and the factors which drove education policy between World War II and the inception of the UNS. It examines the secular and utilitarian roles and models that universities adopted within the
developing nation and the increasing value of research following its contributions to both World Wars and the economic reconstructions that followed.
Chapter 3 contexctualises developments in Australian higher education through thematic history by exploring the macro narratives of globalisation, neoliberalism, New Public
Management and the digital revolution. These continue to shape global trends in higher education.
7 The Good Universities Guide is produced by The Good Education Group, an independent company, that publishes
statistics on a range of criteria to allow comparisons to be made regarding universities’ performances.
24
Chapter 4 analyses Commonwealth Government higher education policy and examines the major reviews that occurred since the introduction of the UNS. These include the West Review (1998), the Nelson Review (2002), the Bradley Review (2008), the Lomax-Smith Review (2011), the Kemp-Norton Review (2014) and the aborted Birmingham Review (2016).
Other issues covered in this chapter include the public funding of universities, and the dominant theme of quality assurance with its increased emphasis on management and accountability. This led to the creation of the Australian Qualifications Framework (DEET, 1995) and the Australian Quality Assurance Framework (Department of Education, 1985).
Chapter 5 focuses on the changes that occurred in Australian university teaching over the past three decades in relation to the expansion and diversification of Australia’s higher education sector. Issues discussed include funding, measuring, supporting and rewarding teaching quality, and the segmentation of academic work leading to the rise of ‘third-space professionals’8
(Whitchurch, 2008), and teaching only staff, including teaching specialists.
Chapter 6 examines The Group of Eight Ltd., which was established to protect the interests of its network of eight research-intensive universities by developing partnerships with international leading education networks and by influencing national higher education policy.
Of special interest is the level of its commitment and leadership in relation to teaching.
Chapter 7 discusses the purpose of teaching in each Go8, the support that teaching receives, the contribution that the teaching-research nexus makes to student learning and academic work, and the recognition and rewards for teaching.
Chapter 8 concentrates on teaching specialists within each Go8 to determine whether the rhetoric concerning their contribution to teaching quality is supported by access to scholarship, leadership and promotion. The issue of the professionalisation of teaching is examined to gauge
8 These represent a hybrid of academic and administrative staff
25
whether teaching specialists experience similar professional development and status within their field compared to other categories of academic staff.
Chapter 9 provides the conclusion to this study through its synthesis of the information presented throughout the thesis. It begins with a summary of the factors and the rationales leading to the adoption of teaching specialist positions by Go8 universities, in order to
understand why they have been adopted and whether the expectations for these roles have been or are likely to be fulfilled. The findings are based predominantly on the levels of support that are available to teaching specialists, from The Group of Eight Ltd, as an incorporated body representing the interests of its members, from other networks dedicated to teaching quality such as Advance HE9, from other universities (e.g. Monash’s relationship with Warwick University), and from the Go8 institutions themselves. The support teaching specialists receive informs the value each Go8 institution places on teaching. This ultimately has implications for the status of teaching specialists. It informs whether they represent a growing community of elite teachers, or whether they comprise another underclass of teaching only staff, whose continuing or fixed work contracts represent their only real advantage over casual staff.
9 This is an international organisation, formerly known as the Higher Education Academy, that provides fellowship
programs to academics who wish to improve and achieve recognition for their teaching skills.
26