Submission to the Review of Higher Education Financing and Policy

The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering

A primary object of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering(ATSE) is to promote in Australia the application of scientific and engineering knowledge to practical purposes. The Academy provides a forum for study and discussion and the formulation of comment and advice to government and the community on technological and engineering matters.

The Fellowship is broad and contains many of the most distinguished Australians in the fields of technological sciences and engineering.

The Academy recognises the importance of ensuring discipline diversity and excellence in course quality across all disciplines. It has a special interest to ensure that Higher Education contributes adequately to the professional and vocational needs of those many graduates who will go on to create the wealth, jobs and welfare needed in the increasingly technological and engineering-based Australia.

The Academy has developed a policy on education embracing the various sectors: primary, secondary, tertiary and continuing education. A copy of the ATSE education policy is provided as an attachment to this submission. Section 3.4 relates to University education. The particular focus in this submission is on the graduate and on the role of research within higher education, but other points are addressed using the structure in the call for submissions.

Theme one:The Role of Higher Education in Australia's Society and Economy

1. Higher education has a prime responsibility, not just to sustain, but to help advance the quality of life and standard of living of the Australian community.
2. The sector must preserve a balance between educational activities oriented towards social, cultural and wealth-generating outcomes.
3. Science and technology students should be exposed to a relatively broad education at undergraduate level covering the fundamentals of science, technology and engineering.
4. It is vital that improved linkages between industry, government instrumentalities and tertiary institutions be achieved, including increased involvement of other sectors in curriculum design, development and delivery. Initiatives such as the Cooperative Research Centre program, external members on Faculty Boards and industry-sponsored studentships have been effective in this regard. Curricula and course structures should be relevant to current social and economic realities and to future needs.
5. In an ever more technological global society graduates require a knowledge of technology within a social and economic context, a capacity to apply that knowledge within a chosen area of speciality, a broadening social maturity based on appreciation of the humanities and human values, a capacity to relate and communicate socially and a constructive and positive attitude to the society into which they will graduate. In this context, the enhanced popularity of combined degrees is welcomed.
6. The global nature of technology and trade requires the future graduate to be able to operate effectively in this global environment with a consequent need for higher education itself to develop offshore alliances, international partners and "virtual departments" exploiting the multi-media revolution to sustain excellence. The early success of a number of Australia’s leading Universities in developing such alliances is to be applauded.
7. The rate of change of the work environment is increasing rapidly, consequently the ATSE supports the role of postgraduate education and training and continuing professional development activities in maintaining and extending the skills, knowledge and flexibility of practitioners. This development imposes further responsibility on the higher education sector for ensuring that students gain a thorough grounding in the basic skills of mathematics, physics and the skills of written and spoken expression.

Theme two:Factors Affecting Demand over the next 10 to 20 years

1. Higher education in Australia can play a major part in arresting the drift within Australia to more lower-paid and lower skill jobs if its graduates and staff contribute to the development of modern commerce and industry based on high level knowledge and skills.
2. Much of modern industry and commerce is team based, integrating across discipline and national boundaries and reliant on an hierarchy of skills at the levels of both university and technical and further education. Higher education institutions need to recognise and to respond to the increased and changing demand.
3. Understanding and planning for the future requires a sense of national vision and strategic policy direction. The development of a widely supported national technology and industry policy and strategy would clearly position Australia as an internationally competitive nation in the 21st century.

Theme three:Regulatory and Administrative Framework for Higher Education

1. Institutional autonomy and academic diversity within a robust accountability framework are vital to the health and international excellence of the Australian higher education system.
2. The uniformity of offerings across Australian higher education institutions is a fundamental weakness leading to non-viable departments and schools and lack of the diversity essential within a changing and evolving society. It can be an impediment to the development of schools of recognised world leadership levels. A framework is required which generates viable departments and schools through a process of rationalisation and student mobility.
3. Quality assurance processes including benchmarking against best practice should be integral to responsible management of the teaching and learning environment. It is reasonable to expect higher education institutions to establish monitoring and evaluation programs. Feedback to students, funding providers and the community should be the central part of accountability and audit processes.
4. Incoming students should have a wide choice of institution within an open and Australia-wide competitive market.
5. Higher education as a sector must be given incentives to provide education associated on the one hand with the advancement of knowledge within research and professionally-based institutions and, on the other, with scholarship based on professional practice within institutions linked intimately to the community, industry and the professions. Some institutions can be expected to focus more on one than the other. Educational diversity is a strength from which Australia should derive much benefit.
6. An outcome of the deregulation of the higher education sector, with a decreasing proportion of overall funding being derived directly from Government, should be a lightening of the administrative burdens imposed on Universities through the requirement to provide data to government bodies.
7. While having regard to the educational benefits of industry-linked university activities, a fair competition policy should apply to commercial activities which are in direct competition with the private sector.

Theme four:Financing Higher Education Teaching and Research Training

1. The sources of finance for higher education institutions are appropriately diverse. Industry and the community, as well as the individual, benefit from the professional expertise available, from the new knowledge created and from investing in a high level skills base.
2. The primary function of government should be to ensure that the core funding to Australia's public higher education institutions is sufficient to maintain essential infrastructure and educational programs at a level of quality commensurate with the need to train high quality graduates for an increasingly competitive world environment. It is appropriate that the level of support varies with the mission of the institution.
3. Students should contribute to the costs of their education; however, safeguards must exist to ensure equity and access programs provide for the intellectually gifted, but socially or economically disadvantaged, to have continued access.

Theme five:Funding of Higher Education Research

1. Research funding should be structured to encourage diversity and responsiveness to community and market needs including recognising the importance of research training.
2. The maintenance of a diversity of funding bodies targeting different research sectors is favoured. The focus on sectors improves the setting of research priorities and the linkages between funding providers, research participants and end users, where appropriate.
3. It is essential that adequate funding is provide to establish and maintain research infrastructure which is vital to underpin research programs. Such funding should be provided on the basis of research performance either through an incentive-based research quantum block grant to institutions or through full funding of research projects.
4. Block grants for research should be predominantly towards encouraging "pinnacles of excellence" at the level of large research groups or departments undertaking integrated programs of strategic basic and applied research. Within such a funding environment, it must still be possible for the individual to obtain direct project funding but on the basis of outcomes rather than promise.
5. Collaborative research grants and CRCs are excellent in their objectives and have brought a wider perspective to academic life. To date there are encouraging outcomes in improving cooperative linkages. However there is still considerable scope to further improve the ability of industry to fully exploit the results of such collaboration.
6. Incentives which result in increased effective collaborative and commercialisation links between the science and technology knowledge base of universities and the economic development processes of Australia should be developed.
7. The movement of staff between universities, industry and government to broaden the knowledge and professional experience of staff as well as to enhance research collaborations is strongly supported.

Concluding Remarks

Australia has a strong and diverse higher education sector which underpins the economic prosperity of the nation. The sector is currently under considerable financial stress as it seeks to enhance its performance relative to developed and developing nations. It is vital that adequate resources and effective and efficient academic practices exist to ensure that a world class skills base for Australia is secured. The substantial role the higher education sector plays in the social and cultural development of the nation through its discipline diversity should not be underestimated.

The recent ASTEC Future Needs study identified six key issues for Australia all of which are pertinent to the role of higher education:

• The Need for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
• The Need for a Technologically Literate Society
• The Need to Capture Opportunities from Globalisation
• The Need to Sustain Our Natural Environment
• The Need for Continuous Improvements in Community Well-Being
• The Need to Build a Forward Looking Science and Technology System.

To achieve desired outcomes will require adequate funding levels, diversity of curricula, freedom of student choice, a challenge to the rigidity of faculty structures, reassessment of the contribution of each academic to teaching, administration and research, and a closer involvement of the higher education with the local community, including innovative industry.

In the open-market of the next century, Australia will require a much clearer sense of focus and purpose if it is to sustain its quality of life and standard of living. The most powerful agents of change are its young graduates. Higher education must be forward looking and prepare its graduates for their future life in a challenging and technology-based world economy and society.

Attachment to:

Submission to the Review of Higher Education Financing and Policy

ATSE POLICY ON EDUCATION

Summary

The Academy has formulated this policy to establish priorities for the promotion and advancement of education particularly in the technological sciences and engineering.

It believes an awareness of the relevance of science and technology in everyday life should form part of the curriculum at primary level. In secondary education, it supports the development of broad national curriculum guidelines which will ensure that fundamental principles are adequately covered, provide suitable preparation for students with differing career goals and prepare students for lifelong learning. University education in technological sciences and engineering should expose students to a relatively broad education covering the fundamentals as well as preparing graduates for the effective practice of technological sciences and engineering. It supports the continuous review of technological science and engineering courses to ensure a balance between general and specialised education to prepare students for a wide range of employment opportunities.

The Academy stresses the importance of postgraduate training, both coursework and research and continuing professional development, so that individuals can take up leadership roles in academe and industry.

1. PREAMBLE

The objectives of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering include a commitment that it will undertake to encourage education and research in technological sciences and engineering and in the education and training of professional and technical staff. It also aims to encourage and enhance the pursuit of excellence in the technological sciences and engineering and in the management and development of technological industries.

In light of these objectives, the Education Committee of the Academy maintains an overview of educational issues of interest to the Academy and recommends priorities for the promotion and advancement of education. Current factors contributing to educational change of particular interest to the Academy are:

• the recent restructuring in the university sector resulting in universities pursuing diverse goals and objectives
• the impact of developments in information technology
• the challenges of global economic competition
• the requirements of environmental protection and sustainable development
• the technical and social transformations currently taking place
• the rapid developments in engineering and science education in other countries especially in the Asia-Pacific region.
• the changing demographics and student interest in careers in technology and engineering

2. GUIDING PRINCIPLES

The Academy aims to:

• be involved in the long term strategy for education in technological sciences and engineering,
• increase public understanding and awareness of the nature and role in society of technology and engineering,
• provide an ongoing assessment of the need for change in science and engineering education and implement strategies to reflect the changing engineering environment and the emerging new technologies,
• assess the impact of sustainable development on education policy including such matters as the need for:

1. a change in attitude to technology development and engineering practices which allow for the issue of sustainability and which considers the consequences of the United Nations Conference on Education and Development,
2. a new approach to environmental economics,
3. greater involvement of other disciplines such as architecture, economics, law, industrial design, business studies and social sciences.

• maintain existing links and seek new links to work with relevant professional bodies, provide advice in response to requests from governments and other appropriate organisations and actively raise and discuss significant issues with government.

3. EDUCATION

3.1 Primary

The Academy believes that an awareness of the relevance of science and technology in everyday life and the process of engineering which converts science and technology into products and services should form part of the school curriculum at primary level. Emphasis should be given to a basic understanding of scientific principles and facts. All teachers at the primary level should have a basic appreciation of science and technology issues. Courses should be made available to achieve this objective

3.2 Secondary Education

3.2.1 National Curriculum Framework

The Academy supports the development of a national curriculum framework which contribute to:

• ensuring that fundamental principles are adequately covered,
• maintaining a high standard,
• eliminating inconsistencies between States,
• improving mobility of students,
• minimising barriers to higher education,
• providing suitable preparation for students with differing career goals,
• preparing students for life-long learning,
• promoting a knowledge of technology.

The development of a national curriculum framework should be achieved in full and open consultation with both discipline and teacher-based professional organisations. The framework should retain diversity and flexibility, acknowledge the importance of local requirements and take into consideration the needs of vocational training.

3.2.2 Teacher Education

• Prerequisite subjects for tertiary education in technological sciences and engineering should be taught by qualified teachers preferably with a university major or higher degree in that discipline and with relevant experience.
• Teachers should be provided with opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills in the practical application of their disciplines to society and industry so as to engender interest and enthusiasm amongst their students. The achievements of teachers in this regard should be adequately recognised.
• Career advisers should also be given more opportunities to improve their awareness of the careers that exist in science and engineering.
• Greater emphasis should be placed by teachers on encouraging more women into science, technology and engineering

3.2.3 Every effort should be made to encourage the brightest students in science and mathematics to undertake courses in education and the technological sciences and engineering

3.2.4 Funding

Public funding of secondary education institutions should be at a level which would provide a variety of courses to meet the differing goals of students at the highest possible standards. Members of the Academy are encouraged to become actively involved in these issues at the state and local level.

3.3 tafe

The Academy recognises the importance of the Technical and Further Education (TAFE) System as a vital component of the whole education spectrum. A healthy TAFE system provides an essential underpinning of the drive towards international competitiveness and the development of the increasing skills base that is required by all segments of the economy.

The Academy therefore seeks to encourage:

• The recognition that the TAFE system has a unique and significant role in education in the applied sciences and engineering that is different from, but complementary to that provided by the University system.
• Adequate coordination between Universities and TAFE to ensure that students transferring from the TAFE system to a University receive proper recognition for their prior training.
• Close cooperation between the TAFE system, the Universities and, where appropriate, with industry to ensure optimum utilisation of facilities and equipment.
• The maintenance of close contacts between TAFE teaching staff and industry to ensure that courses are meeting industry needs and that the staff remain fully cognisant of technology change in their area of activity.

3.4 university education in technological sciences and engineering

3.4.1 Overview

Major developments in technological sciences and engineering practices have occurred due to geopolitical changes, changes in the provision of infrastructure and financing and the expansion of information technology and environmental awareness. The Academy in general believes that:

• Students should be exposed to a relatively broad education at undergraduate level covering the fundamentals of science, technology and engineering.
• Universities should have a commitment to prepare graduates for the effective practice of technological sciences and engineering.
• Curricula and course structure should be relevant to the current social and economic realities and to future needs. They should reflect the vital role undertaken by professional scientists and engineers in innovation, in establishing new enterprises, in redirecting existing products and processes and in developing new products and services.
• Wherever possible, students should be required to undertake appropriate practical experience external to the University during their undergraduate courses.
• Students should be made aware of the importance of maintaining a high standard of professional ethics.
• Gifted students should be encouraged to undertake technological science and engineering courses by the provision of attractive scholarships.

The Academy also seeks to encourage:

• improved linkages between industry and tertiary institutions, including increased industry involvement in curriculum design, development and delivery,
• best practice and initiatives in education methods, including open learning and distance education, and the need for the integration of efforts as a consequence of changing practices and facilities,
• the examination of the structure and content of engineering courses with the development of engineering design as critical issues,
• creativity and implementation of projects which require the integration of a large number of different disciplines including management skills,
• an examination of the length of time necessary to prepare a student for a career in professional engineering and technology disciplines.

The Academy therefore supports:

• continuous appraisal of technological science and engineering courses to ensure a balance between general and specialised education required to prepare students for the range of employment opportunities.
• interaction with industry to determine how new and emerging technologies can best be accommodated within courses to meet current and future needs.
• the accrediting role of national professional associations and their wider role in contributing effectively to the continuous improvement in the quality and relevance of technological science and engineering education.

3.4.2 University Teaching

The Academy supports:

• the need of Universities to appoint and retain first class academic staff with both exceptional teaching and other academic capabilities, as well as practical experience
• the trend by universities to move away from rewards and promotion policies mostly based on research performance and publication to broader criteria including the quality of teaching, interaction with industry, consulting and community service.

3.4.3 University Staff Education

The Academy strongly supports the movement of staff between universities, industry and government to broaden the knowledge and experience of staff. It also advocates that all University academic staff should undertake courses in communication and teaching skills, including lecture presentation and the use of computer-aided learning technologies.

3.4.4 Postgraduate and Lifelong Education

The Academy stresses the importance of postgraduate training for individuals who seek to have leadership roles in academe and industry. It also advocates an increase in the employment by industry of graduates with higher degrees.

Continuing Professional Education

The Academy supports the role of postgraduate education and training and continuing professional development activities in maintaining and extending the skills and knowledge of practitioners engaged in academia, professional practice and in research and development.

Research Training

The Academy supports:

• the development of more research initiatives in the universities,
• the need for an increase in the number of postgraduate research scholarships with stipends sufficient to attract first class applicants,
• the need to build an improved research infrastructure in universities,
• efforts to improve inter-university collaborations as well as collaborations between universities and industry, both in Australia and overseas,
• the increased co-operative interactions between universities, industry and government research organisations particularly through the establishment of Research Centres of Excellence,
• an active involvement of industry in postgraduate training,
• the granting of double degrees (already established in a number of universities) in engineering combined with another discipline to provide a broader education.

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