After decades of chalking up record profits, Australian universities are now mired in a deep crisis. But if we’re going to defend — let alone rebuild — the sector, its champions have to reject the subordination of education to the bottom line.
If Australian Universities Are Going To Survive, They Can’t Just Produce “Job-Ready” Graduates
Coincidentally – or perhaps not – one of the most valuable skills taught in the humanities is that of critical thinking.
Ideally, critical thinkers learn to question everything, including existing social norms and traditions. They learn to think systemically. They look beyond the obvious. They use evidence, logic and reason in their arguments. They avoid making assumptions. They consider different perspectives and they use all those skills and more to arrive at judgements. These skills are invaluable in personal and working life. Indeed, critical thinking is taught in some schools with a view to equipping students for life post-school, no matter what direction that takes.
via The Morrison Government’s assault on critical thinking — and dissent
Passing the baton to the kids of the wealthy hasn’t changed (ODT)
Extreme student poverty is not new. Since 2006, around one in seven full time, domestic undergraduate students have regularly gone without food or other necessities because of a lack of finances, according to Universities Australia research.
These are not rich students who are temporarily short of cash, but students from poorer backgrounds who are struggling to survive at university. These students have problems with accommodation, transport, food, clothing and even medication. Not surprisingly, these students’ studies are also impacted.
The casualisation of university teaching is not a stop-gap solution. It is central to the business strategy of modern Australian universities.
At graduation ceremonies at the end of the year, universities will display their students’ achievements to friends and family and give them an opportunity to thank the staff. Most of the people who have taught them won’t be there.
The uncapping of undergraduate university places enabled tens of thousands of people from poorer backgrounds to access higher education but it failed to boost opportunity for Indigenous and rural students and caused a spike in dropout rates, a major new study has found.
via Uncapping uni places boosted opportunity for many — but not rural and Indigenous students
This is what ultra-Conservatives rail against and want our universities to be rid off HASS Humanities and Social Science degrees. They were poison to the Nazis as well the Catholic Church which banned Catholics from studying or reading Sociology it’s too dangerous for them the Curch that is. In fact the social sciences can cause individuals to break down. Sociology likens social life of men as sitting on a mop bucket and caught by the balls. When trying to stand putting ones foot on the pedal each time trapped. By revealing the mop buckets of our social life social science has the ability to set one free and that for conservatives is dangerous. (ODT)
It makes no sense. As Senator Arthur Sinodinos said while minister for industry, innovation and science, “the advancement of the Australian economy relies on robust research from physical science and social science alike.
Not being ones to boast, the social scientists would like you to know their former students pretty much run the world. They’ve produced the majority of ASX-listed chief executives. Probably just as true of the public service and politicians.
Add the arts and humanities, and most of the tertiary-educated workers in Australia have HASS degrees. Almost three-quarters of university students are in HASS courses. Most of the overseas students paying full freight for their degrees – and now constituting one of our top export earners – do HASS courses, particularly business courses.
Recent times have seen heated debates in Australia about whether higher education tuition fees should be deregulated, and about the private/public benefits of higher education. A question that goes to the heart of these debates is whether higher education is primarily considered as a social institution, as an industry like any other, or as infrastructure.
The recent decision to eradicate all tertiary fees in Germany provides interesting points of comparison between how Australia and Germany view education.
In Australia, recent decades have seen a considerable shift toward conceiving of higher education primarily in terms of an “industry”. As part of this change, universities have become increasingly regarded as corporate organisations competing in the local and international service economy.
At the same time, the perception of universities as social institutions providing orientation to society has waned. In line with this shift in perceptions, the relative public funding provided to universities has suffered a continuing reduction. In 2012, less than 50% on average of the revenue of “public” higher education providers came from Australian government sources.
In Germany, the purpose of higher education has likewise become in recent times increasingly framed in terms of more practical economic goals and concerns.
But in Germany, in contrast with Australia, the political push for a more practical, economically oriented view of higher education is not so much centred on the notion of universities becoming corporate organisations competing in a marketplace. Rather, in current German politics and policies, universities tend to be primarily regarded as vital infrastructure for the economy at large.
This difference in how the economic role of universities is framed in each country translates into different approaches to core policy issues such as funding, tuition fees and internationalisation.
In Germany, as has been recently noted in The Conversation, even low-level tuition fees have proven to be rather unpopular. As a result, all German states have eventually scrapped all fees. Moreover, there still is a relative consensus in the political arena that it is the government’s responsibility to provide the bulk of funding to universities. German universities receive around 90% of their funds from the public purse.
Over recent years, Germany has become increasingly proactive in attracting international students to its higher education institutions. A particular focus has been on attracting students from China and India. According to the 2014 Trends in International Student Mobility survey, Germany’s popularity as a destination for international students has been growing very rapidly, and has recently overtaken that of Australia.
The primary motive for this push toward internationalisation in German higher education has been the need to tackle shortages of skilled labour. A related concern has been addressing long-term demographic developments. There are no tuition fees for international students in Germany. This is not likely to change in the near future, partially due to legal constraints imposed by the German constitution.
By contrast, Australian universities have been attracting international students, very successfully to date, mainly in order to compensate for the reduction of public funding from the Australian government.
Overall, the framing of higher education in terms of infrastructure may be one of the reasons for there being less reluctance in Germany to provide substantial public funding to universities than there has been in Australia. It also may partially explain why, in Germany, the debate concerning the public and/or private benefits of higher education, which we have become accustomed to in Australia, has had hardly any traction whatsoever.
The framing of higher education as industry in Australia has led to universities successfully diversifying their funding sources. As a result, universities have become less reliant on the public purse. However, it has also come at the cost of major higher education policies and institutional strategies in Australia often lacking a long-term vision. Moreover, it has led to the creation of a higher education sector in Australia that is heavily exposed to risks associated with the international student market.
olddogthoughts 