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education links e-news on higher education[ background ] [ index ] [ previous issues ] [ subscribe ] Issue 10Atlas of Higher EducationThe Atlas of Higher Education, was recently released by Dr David Kemp, Minister for Education, Training and Youth Affairs. This publication is proving to be a useful tool in helping universities and regions better understand each other. Australian universities can play a crucial role in developing regional economies. The aim of the Atlas is to build understanding between regions and their universities of opportunities available in their local area. The Atlas provides for each region:
The Atlas also gives a detailed picture of student flows across Australia. It shows the areas that are losing students, and the areas gaining students. Hard copies can be distributed on request via email at highered@dest.gov.au The hard copy publication has an online companion volume containing more information at the postcode level. The online version should be available in the near future on the Department’s web site at www.dest.gov.au Australian Partnership for Advanced ComputingOpening of APAC national facilityOn Tuesday, 15 May 2001, the largest supercomputing facility in the country was officially opened by Dr David Kemp, Minister for Education, Training and Youth Affairs. The facility belongs to the Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing (APAC), which was established with a Commonwealth grant of $19.5 million in 1998. The opening took place at the Australian National University, home to the APAC National Facility. The new Compaq Alphaserver SC will provide five to ten times more capacity than is currently available in Australian universities and will be capable of processing a million instructions per second. When the APAC National Facility receives a further upgrade in October this year, it is expected to be among the top sixty of the most powerful systems in the world. In his speech, Dr Kemp told the audience that the National Facility was also a mass data storage system capable of storing several hundred thousand full-length movies or all the books in our National Library. He went on to say that the facility would provide an added boost to the massive $2.9 billion research and innovation investment being made by the Government over the next five years. This Government investment was announced earlier this year in Backing Australia’s Ability: An Innovation Action Plan for the Future. APAC’s Executive Director, Professor John O’Callaghan, expects that nearly 300 researchers will make use of the APAC national facility over the next few months. It is already in use twenty-four hours a day. Funding Boost for Indigenous Health EducationThe Minister for Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Dr David Kemp has approved additional funding of $80 000 under the Higher Education Innovation Programme (HEIP) to support the continuation of the Master of Applied Epidemiology – Indigenous Health (MAE-IH). The MAE-IH programme is run by the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University. The MAE-IH programme is focussed on Indigenous community health and over the past three years it has made a valuable contribution to increasing knowledge about Indigenous health and building links between Indigenous communities and health service organisations. The programme emphasises the integration of research and evaluation with practical policy and service delivery solutions. Course Experience QuestionnaireWidening the scope of the Course Experience QuestionnaireThe Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) is being extended. Over the past seven years, the CEQ, which forms part of the Graduate Destination Survey (GDS), has been used to survey Australian university graduates about satisfaction with their studies. These surveys are conducted annually by the Graduate Careers Council of Australia (GCCA) with funding from the Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs. The CEQ comprises 25 ‘items’ which are used to generate five scales of student experience. The scales are: good teaching; clear goals; appropriate workload; appropriate assessment; and generic skills. The impetus for extending the CEQ beyond these 25 ‘items’ (or five scales) arose from growing concern within the higher education community that important dimensions of university student experience were not being covered by the existing CEQ. In an attempt to address these concerns, the Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA) commissioned a report entitled Development of the Course Experience Questionnaire which was undertaken by the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne. This report, due to be released mid-May, proposes to extend the CEQ to measure broader aspects of student experience. The report recommends the inclusion of the following scales: student support; learning resources; learning community; intellectual motivation; and graduate qualities. An extended version of the CEQ will be trialled. The GDS Survey Reference Group is currently examining the appropriate sample design for the trial. Institutions will be contacted shortly regarding their participation in the trial. Validating Scholarship in University TeachingUniversities are using information and communication technologies (ICT) more and more to enrich and extend teaching and learning, but how do they ensure the quality of ICT based resources? How do universities recognise and reward the time and effort invested by academics who develop these resources? How does the higher education sector disseminate good practice and promote the wider use of quality ICT-based resources across the sector to support good teaching and learning? Validating Scholarship in University Teaching attempts to answer some of these questions. This report, by Dr Peter Taylor from Griffith University, was undertaken through the Evaluations and Investigations Programme of the Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs and is due for publication in mid-May. It reports on the first stage of the trial of a national scheme for independent expert review of teaching and learning resources which were developed using ICT. This report provides a valuable discussion on the benefits of a national scheme: how it might be developed, and the resources needed to assist producers and reviewers to participate in the trial. Stage two of the trial is currently underway. The discussion and resources in the report are the product of Dr Taylor and his team plus the results of a workshop held at Griffith University involving academics from a large number of universities, editors of academic journals in engineering, nursing and management, and senior university managers. Enjoy the read. BiotechnologyLearning outcomes and curriculum development in biotechnologyThe Australian Universities Teaching Committee (AUTC) contributes to the Government's commitment to promoting quality and excellence in university teaching and learning in Australia. The AUTC administers a grants programme designed to identify and support effective methods of teaching and learning and seeks to promote the dissemination and adoption of such methods across the higher education sector. E-news is progressively covering all the projects currently receiving AUTC funding. This issue's article relates to Learning Outcomes and Curriculum Development in Biotechnology. This project seeks to address the question: are Australian universities offering programmes which will meet the needs of the developing Australian biotechnology industry? The project team will use surveys and interviews to assess the current status of biotechnology teaching in Australian universities, and to internationally benchmark these activities. Employment trends and needs for the emerging biotechnology industry in Australia will also be assessed to allow suggestions to be made regarding changes and improvements required in the teaching and learning process. Biotechnology offers great potential for boosting the Australian economy. Education for the biotechnology industry can come from a range of disciplines primarily in the biological and health sciences but also in bioengineering and commerce. Biotechnologists require a sound understanding of biological science but may also need experience in technology management, entrepreneurship and a knowledge of issues relating to the commercialisation of intellectual property. Biotechnology degrees are only offered at a few Australian universities so far. The skills for this field may be developed within combined degrees, an undergraduate degree of more than 3 years in length, or an undergraduate degree followed by coursework postgraduate programmes within the field. This project aims to clarify some of these issues. It is being led by Professor Peter Gray (University of New South Wales), Associate Professor Ross Barnard (University of Queensland) and Associate Professor Chris Franco (Flinders University). Completion of the first stage of this project is expected in March 2002 Publications & Websitesrecently releasedQuality of Australian Higher EducationThe third in an annual series of reports on the quality of Australian higher education, Quality of Australian Higher Education contains an overview of quality across the sector and publishes quality assurance and improvement plans of thirty nine higher education institutions. Enquiries about an individual institution’s approach to enhancing and assuring the quality of its operations can be directed to the contact officer listed in the quality assurance and improvement plans. www.dest.gov.au/highered/pubs/quality00_02 Tables from the forthcoming Finance Selected Higher Education StatisticsThese tables contain statistics compiled from annual financial reports prepared by Australian universities as at 31 December each year. (internet only) www.dest.gov.au/highered/statpubs.htm#financepubs due out soonThe 1999 Postgraduate Research Experience QuestionnaireThe current (1999) version of the Postgraduate Research Experience Questionnaire (PREQ) was developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research and the Graduate Careers Council of Australia. It is designed to provide information on the educational experiences of students in higher research degree courses in Australian institutions. The PREQ has a number of potential uses: providing a national overview of broad issues; setting a context against which institutions might undertake their own analyses, and identifying examples of good practice. favourites
to grab a copyInternet versionsMost of our publications—from October 1996 onward—are available in full on the DETYA website at: www.dest.gov.au/highered/repts.htm Hard copiesCopies of most of our publications can be purchased from AusInfo’s Government Information Bookshops. Locations and contact details for the AusInfo bookshops are available at: www.dofa.gov.au/ausinfo/infoaccess/ia_infoshops.htm EnquiriesGeneral enquiries about publications can be emailed to Websites, links & updateswebsites
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www.dest.gov.au/highered/links.htm updatesDETYA’s website has new information posted to it on a regular basis. You can keep up with changes via the free Site Change Subscription Service (SCSS). This Service notifies subscribers of significant updates and additions to DETYA websites. how it worksInterested parties need to register to the subscription service. Registration involves providing your email address and selecting the parts of DETYA’s website you wish to be notified about. what it doesOnce registered, subscribers will be sent a weekly email (usually on Monday evenings) with a brief description of any changes and the address for such pages. At www.dest.gov.au select Site Change Subscription Service Copyright© Commonwealth of Australia 2001 This work is copyright. It may be reproduced in whole or in part for study or training purposes subject to the inclusion of the source and no commercial usage or sale. Reproduction for purposes other than those indicated above, require the written permission from the Commonwealth available through AusInfo. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the Manager, Legislative Services, AusInfo, GPO Box 1920, Canberra ACT 2601. The views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs. Contacte-news on higher education editorial enquiries: e-news on higher education e-news is available on the Internet at: Full PDF [ background ] [ index ] [ previous issues ] [ subscribe ]
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