Summary of Key Points
Theme 1: (a) Higher education serves a multiplicity of
roles and to delineate the debate into knowledge vs vocational
training polarisation is counterproductive.
(b) The modern Australian higher education sector is responsible
for training graduates who have a firm grasp of the skills of
observation, analysis and critical evaluation.
(c) Higher education must be of a world standard and be able to
prepare graduates for an uncertain future
Theme 2: (a) Higher education sector growth must assimilate
to an environment which requires appropriately targeted services
to not only the population centres, but also to the regional centres.
(b) While industry has a role in determining the cirriculum of
modern Australian universities, emphasis should still be placed
on producing well rounded graduates who have a firm grasp of the
essential skills.
(c) Australian graduates must be trained to meet a diversity of
world demands and trained for a multiplicity of roles.
Theme 3: (a) Australian and International students should
now be recognised as consumers and protected by the rights which
accompany such status.
(b) Two areas of immediate concern are Consumer and Trade protection
and OHS&W
(c) A possible solution for such problems is to amend the Commonwealth
Funding Regulations to include protection of students' rights.
Theme 4: (a) Three perennial problems in higher education
teaching and research training can be separated into three areas:
IT and Technical services and Physical Space.
(b) One solution to these problems is one-off grants to ameliorate
situations where the problems are reaching crisis point.
Theme 5: (a) The present Relative Funding Model recognizes
the different costs associated with different courses and different
strategic priorities.
(b) A greater share of the RFM funds should be directed to postgraduate research students, in particular.
Introduction
The Adelaide University Postgraduate Students' Association Inc.
(PGSA) represents the interests of 3500 PhD, Masters (Research
and Coursework), Graduate Diploma, Graduate Certificate and Honours
students at the University of Adelaide. On behalf of these students,
the PGSA presents the following submission to the West Review
Committee into Higher Education.
The Review Committee has been commissioned to formulate a blue
print for higher education over the next twenty years. As such,
the recommendations of the Review Committee will have an effect
on the educational opportunities of at least the next two generations
of Australians. The issue at hand is whether the role of the Federal
Government is to be increased or decreased in both regulatory
and funding terms, and concurrently, whether future tertiary graduates
will be sufficiently educated and skilled to deal with the vagaries
of the next millennium.
This theme is adequately discussed by Dr Donald Horne, Weekend
Australian 19-20 April 1997, but it is worth noting that commentators
on the present plight of higher education, regardless of ideological
stance, agree that there is an increasing disparity in the abilities
of various social groups to access the resources of society, including
higher education - the present trend towards 'user pays' is both
an admission of the failure of society to provide opportunities
for disadvantaged groups and a destruction of the concept of education
as a community resource. At the same time as being part of the
problem, modern universities are increasingly being expected to
solve the problem.
The PGSA would like to remind the Review Committee of the tradition
on which the modern Australian university was founded - the medieval
European university. These communities of scholars were founded
on the concept of collegial academic freedom and operated, as
such, under a great deal of autonomy. Decision making was based
on consensus and students had an equal say regarding what was
taught, how it was taught and even who taught it. Many of these
'universities' were nomadic, moving from town to city to town
and landlords, merchants and nobility saw benefits to the local
economy in attracting the student dollar - often encouraging the
students with incentives such as cheap accommodation and discounted
goods and services.
While the PGSA does not advocate the return to such a system,
there are a number of principles which are relevant to the current
debate:
The Government's present rationale is market driven, yet the Government,
if it fails to recognize these three principles, will fail to
recognize the unique market conditions which govern the Higher
Education Sector.
THEME ONE: THE ROLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA'S
SOCIETY AND ECONOMY
The PGSA believes that the higher education sector is unique not
only in its multiplicity and complexity of its structure, but
also in it purpose.
On the one hand higher education represents for many people the
final chance to examine, analyze and critique the society and
the world in which we live in. It also a refinement of socialisation,
fostering knowledge of other societies cultures, beliefs and systems
of knowledge - a breeding ground for tolerance and an acceptance
of difference.
On the other hand, the higher education sector is also clearly
an institution which has a core responsibility to train and skill
its customers for the societal needs, now and into the future.
Often the 'combatants' of this debate position themselves into
either one group or the other - knowledge for knowledge's sake
vs vocation training. While not wishing to enter this debate in
this limited forum the PGSA believes that there is a middle position
which can accommodate both positions.
Australia is often perceived as the most isolated society in the
western world. As such, Australia often embraces ideologies developed
outside itself, often without sufficient critical evaluation.
In the recent past, Australia has evolved as a follower, not the
leader it once was in social, economic and technological development.
While the higher education sector has traditionally been disassociated
from Australian achievements, the higher education sector has
grown in its importance.
Because Australian graduates will be performing world-wide, there
is a great need to ensure that they have received not only a career-oriented
education but also an education which equips them to deal with
difference - an education which embraces change.
Higher education should not be seen as an economic gain for a
privileged minority. On the contrary, higher education should
be seen as a system of training which produces graduates who are
a resource to society, not only economically, but also culturally.
While the PGSA acknowledges that teaching and research in Australian
universities should be relevant to modern society, modern society
should not lose sight of the applicability of skills gained from
a university education across the whole range of disciplines.
Skills such as observation, understanding and critical evaluation
are skills which are used every day and while a university is
not the only institution which is capable of teaching these skills,
it is an institution which concentrates on these skills.
THEME TWO: FACTORS AFFECTING THE DEMAND FOR AND
PROVISION OF HIGHER EDUCATION OVER THE NEXT 10 TO 20 YEARS
Throughout the 1990s the Federal Government has given increasing
attention to methods of evaluation of the higher education sector
- both in research output and in teaching and learning outcomes.
However, it must be remembered that it is the student (whose average
age is increasing) who is in a prime position to judge.
In the last twenty years the structure of Australian and international
industry has made increasing demands as to the nature of higher
education and university education in particular. Tertiary institutions
may well turn out graduates who are career oriented, but there
is increasingly no market for their skills. Australia is orienting
itself towards service provision, but the higher education sector
has been slow to respond to this change. At the same time, there
is an increasing necessity for 'lifelong education' and individuals
who can compete successfully on a global basis. The higher education
sector is in a prime position to deliver an education for society's
changing needs. However, this position necessitates continual
upgrading of teaching, learning and training practices as well
as an emphasis on information technology and the capital equipment
necessary for research.
However, the factors affecting the demand for higher education
places would also appear to be determined by the ability of Australian
society to adapt. The development of regional centres of higher
education are imperative, especially in a country such as Australia,
with its concentration of population along the eastern seaboard.
Implied in the terms of reference for the review, is the need
for distinction to be made between higher education, vocational
education and training and secondary school input. It is reasonable
to suggest that educational input into the higher education system
begins a long time before secondary school is reached. What we
are considering is the re-organisation of society by the considered
allocation of ìtax-payer'sî funds, manifestation
of the economic responsibility required of government.
With an acceptance of global competition in higher education there
needs to be a combination of the following:
| Didactic and | Enterprise Learning Modes: |
| Learning from a teacher alone
Passive role as listener
Learning from written texts Learning from 'expert' frameworks of teacher Learning from feedback from on key person (the teacher) Learning in well organised, timetabled environment Learning without pressure of immediate goals Copying from other discouraged Mistakes feared Learning by notes | Learning from each other Learning by doing Learning from personal exchange and debate
Learning by discovering (under guidance)
Learning from reactions of many people
Learning in flexible, informal environment
Learning under pressure to achieve goals Learning by borrowing from others Mistakes learned from Learning by problem solving |
Source: Gibb A 'The Enterprise Culture and Education'
International Small Business Journal 11,3,24. 1993
In order to maintain enterprise in the development of higher education,
no segment of society can be overlooked - access and equity
are key elements for continual modification. A society that denies
any of its members participation in its education on any grounds,
whether economic or not, is a society that will stagnate and atrophy.
Further, Australia's ability to compete on the world stage will
be severely hampered.
THEME THREE: REGULATORY AND ADMINISTRATIVE FRAMEWORK
FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
Implicit with the intent of the Federal Government to move towards
a ìuser paysî system for students in the University
sphere is the necessity to recognize societal responsibilities.
The PGSA believes that the two main areas of responsibility yet
to be addressed by the Federal Government are Consumer Rights
and Occupational Health and Safety in the delivery of educational
services.
Consumer Rights
As stated above, the PGSA believes that one of the principles
in the delivery of education in the modern Australian system is
that students are consumers. However, neither the Federal Government
nor the universities are yet to recognize this important status.
Students as consumers are entitled to consumer protection in regard
to the provision of education services covering the areas of advertising,
value delivery of goods and services, replacement or refund options
and damages payments if applicable. There is already considerable
concern among full fee paying students from overseas:
The main worry among international students that was relayed on
to us focused on the potential threat to the quality of education
in Australia following the proposed budget cuts..(1)
Students have the right to expect reciprocal standards of professionalism
from the ìteachersî they will be directly funding.
There is already a perceived problem of untenured lecturers withholding
information from the students they see as future competition.
Recent statements from the Federal Government argue for universities
to adopt a more competitive market approach yet the Government
fails to recognise that the considerable expense of withdrawing
from a non performing University is not the same as withdrawing
from a non performing primary/secondary school.
One solution to this problem is that students should be covered
under the auspices of the Trade Practices Act. It has already
been suggested that it is only a matter of time where the Universities
are confronted with accusations of possible collusion with regard
to their individual and collective performances.
Thanks to fees, informal talks between universities these days
are a dangerous business. The chairman of the Australian Competition
and Consumer Commission Allan Fels has warned that universities
may be breaking the Trade Practices Act if they discuss fee levels
or other competitive practices among themselves. (2)
However, litigation could be avoided by ensuring, through Commonwealth
Funding Regulations that universities are required to adopt fair
trading regulations - ensuring accuracy of advertising, refund
and replacement options, and processes for resolving customer
complaints.
Occupational Health Safety and Welfare
The PGSA believes that it is not good enough for tertiary institutions
to concentrate on the implementation of OHS &W only in the
areas of laboratories, workshops and field work. The environment
provided for general students must also be addressed - overcrowded
lecture theatres, inadequate ventilation, inadequate fire escapes.
Institutions must provide the means of analysing the effects of
stress on employees and to address issues of intimidation, and
discrimination on race, gender, sexual preference, religious or
cultural bases. Universities are industries, and as such must
address the following criteria with regard to the issues above.
This necessitates knowledge and implementation of (at least) the
following:
1. Sufficient administration, documentation and reporting procedures
2. A system of responsibility and obligation
3. Environmental impact considerations
4. Effective communication between staff and/or students
5. Safe plant and equipment
6. Hazard identification by staff and students
7. Adequate fire safeguards and attendant staff /student training
8. Correct manual handling procedures
9. Adequate First Aid equipment
10. Suitable working environment
Conclusion
Without resolving these conflicts the Federal Government is placing universities at risk of litigation. The days of considering students as consumers of a free service are over and until it is recognised that their status as consumers have changed, there is little doubt that universities will continually be challenged in their responsibilities.
THEME FOUR: FINANCING HIGHER EDUCATION TEACHING
AND RESEARCH TRAINING
If higher education bodies are considered to be a business, they
should be accountable for their funding. They should be funded
as through a development bank in order to incorporate the vast
differences between these bodies. These differences incorporate
mean student age, mode of study (internal, external, full or part
time), information and communications technology, structural development
and local curricular demands.
In 1995 the Postgraduate Students: Association of the University
of Adelaide conducted a survey of the amount of resources available
to postgraduate students. Rather than ask the students directly,
the PGSA approached Departmental Heads and/or Postgraduate Coordinators
as to their perceptions of what their departments provided. All
but a few departments replied to the detailed questionnaire and
those responses were then forwarded to postgraduate representatives
in their respective departments for comment. Again only a few
failed to reply.
Surprisingly, there is a general consensus among both students
and staff that the facilities and resources provided to postgraduate
students at the University of Adelaide were unsatisfactory. Where
there were discrepancies it was not with the nature of the problems,
but in the extent to which these problems are effecting the research
capabilities of postgraduate students at the University of Adelaide.
The main areas of concern highlighted by the survey were in the
areas of computing and IT facilities, technical and specialist
support and physical space.
Computing and IT Facilities
It is slowly being recognised in the tertiary sector the importance
of training students in the use of modern Information Technologies.
Unfortunately, this area is also a rather expensive area, especially
for an institution which is starting from a low base level. However,
the PGSA - and other student bodies around Australia - believe
that it is such an important area that we urge the committee to
consider recommending a one-off funding injection to those institutions
whose facilities are below standard.
Technical and Specialist Support (including Library Resources)
Many postgraduate students at Adelaide are infuriated by the lack
of technical and specialist support throughout the University
which is afforded by field assistants, laboratory assistants and
statistical and IT advice.
At the same time the resources of the library are being squeezed
to the point of not being useful. Journal collections are being
cut or amalgamated and some are not being replaced and monograph
purchases are being increasingly limited to only those which are
used as undergraduate texts. Other resources, such as IT, and
specialist librarians are at breaking point.
The PGSA asks that the committee recognise these shortfalls in
postgraduate education and recommends that either that a program
of funding be introduced to reduce this problem, or alternatively
recommend that DEETYA require that a small, but adequate percentage
of existing Commonwealth funding for postgraduate research students
be directed to technical and specialist support.
Physical Space
In the 1995 survey many students commented on the lack of physical
space provided to them. The PGSA acknowledges that the location
of many universities, especially those located in the CBD of State
capitals, makes the solution to such a problem difficult. However,
the PGSA recommends that the committee consider this problem.
Conclusions
Upon informally discussing these issues with both members of the
University of Adelaide 'management' and other student bodies of
Australian universities, the PGSA believes that these are endemic
problems across the tertiary sector and are severely impacting
on the research capabilities of Australian research students.
While some problems can not be totally solved without massive
injections of capital, the PGSA believes that library and technical
assistance can be easily accommodated by the Commonwealth insisting
that a small percentage of the existing funds allocated to postgraduate
research students be ear marked for use in solving these problems.
As consumers of a service in the true sense, students should be
provided with what they are paying for. This is, of course, a
area of grave concern for those already full fee paying students,
notably those from overseas, who are critically assessing the
value of an education at an Australian university.
THEME FIVE: FUNDING OF HIGHER EDUCATION RESEARCH
Currently the Relative Funding Model is used by both DEETYA and
the University of Adelaide to determine how and where the annual
Commonwealth funding grant is allocated. Although similar, the
RFM used by the University is slightly different from that used
by the Government. The justification for this difference is that
the University has strategic priorities which require more or
less funding to be diverted to areas of high cost or strategic
importance. Ideally, both models recognise the actual cost of
each discipline of study and fund them appropriately - thus courses
in Agriculture, Medicine and Science are funded more heavily than
Social Science and Humanities, Law, Economics and Architecture.
Two vital components of the RFM are the terms EFTSUs (Equivalent
Full Time Student Units) and WEFTSUs (Weighted Equivalent Full
Time Student Units). EFTSUs, as the acronym suggests, interpolates
student load from actual numbers to a number of full time student
units (incorporating part time students)..While this process has
been recognised as a crude method of interpretation of student
needs, one EFTSU is attached to a number of variables, such as
teaching time, resources allocation and even physical space required.
One of the key problems of relying on EFTSUs to allocate funding
is the difference in the cost requirements of each course and
each level of study in each course. To counter this discrepancy
the term WEFTSU is used.
Using the RFM weighting a WEFTSU equals the amount of EFTSUs multiplied
by the RFM weighting - for example, the RFM weighting for undergraduate
study in Agricultural Studies is 1.4 , therefore 150 EFTSUs -
1.4 x 150 = 210 WEFTSUs. By contrast undergraduate studies in
Humanities and Social Sciences has a weighting of 1.0, therefore
150 EFTSUs - 1.0 x 150=150 WEFTSUs. The WEFTSU value is the most
important value in Resource Allocation in not only recognising
the different costs associated with running different disciplines
of study, but also as a tool for allocating resources.
The are used to allocate resources in the following way. As stated
above, each EFTSU is equated to a number of variables, one being
the cost of one full time student or value ß. DEETYA, therefore,
distributes funding to the Universities via the RFM, using the
formula total number of WEFTSUs x ß. Until recently an EFTSU
or ß, equated to funding of $4,500. Using the examples above,
the faculties of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Humanities
and Social Sciences would receive $945,00 and $675,000 respectively
for having the same number of students, ie. 150 each. The difference
is even greater at the postgraduate level where Agriculture and
Natural Resources is weighted at 2.7 while Humanities and Social
Sciences is weighted at 2.0.
Conclusion
The examples above are theoretical as the University, the Faculties
and the respective Departments have administrative overheads,
including wages, which in some cases can take up to 70% of funding.
It is clear that in the case of postgraduate research students,
they are not getting the resources which the University is funded
to give them. Often postgraduate funding is being used to support
undergraduate teaching, and in the 'hard' science areas, postgraduate
are not only funding their own research infrastructure costs and
undergraduate costs, but staff also. There is a clear case for
at least a small percentage of the funding produced by postgraduate
research to be quarantined for the direct use of the students
- conference costs, thesis production and additional technical
and library support.