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With reference to the thematic questions and issues, the following material indicates that:
Universities should at all times have their own nature and direction at issue if they are to truly be institutions dedicated to thinking. This on-going self-examination should result in dynamic institutions, experimenting with new forms, and changing with the times, if not leading changes to our times.
Whatever reforms are proposed to the tertiary education system, those reforms must establish a universities that are change-able. For only such change-able universities will be sustain-able.
Whilst transformations to funding processes may prompt the development of certain financial self-sustain-ability in universities, this sort of reform alone will not be sufficient to constitute the sort of culture of change that is required, and it may even obstruct the establishment of such a culture.
The ambition for the reforms must therefore be very high. The result must be a powerful culture of thinking and action in which, at the least, the current terms of reference are adopted by universities as part of a perpetual self-questioning.
The higher education system at the moment comprises institutions in different locations that are basically similar with respect to the style of education employed. Actual developmental changes in the quality of that educational service will only arise if universities begin to compete across a range of educational styles and with innovations in educational style.
To begin this process, some institutions must be allowed to be established that compete with existing universities not on the basis of what is learnt and where, but how learning happens. Only out of a system of real diversity will there emerge a lively and progressive competition that will deliver substantial leading improvements in education.
The current process focuses on accrediting the input to a course, and consequently tends to standardise the way courses happen. Quality assurance processes evidence this. In addition, such procedures operate prospectively, making judgements about proposals before they are tried by comparing them to what is already in existence. Conservative inertia is inevitable.
What should be accredited is rather the output from courses. By ignoring the input to courses, experimentation with the mode of learning used would be encouraged. The logic is precisely one of ac-credit-ation, where developments are lent speculative resources and then retrospectively assessed on their performance. This should apply to all courses, whether existing or new. No courses should have `tenure', but all be required to keep proving their provisional worth. Only such an approach will ensure the updating of all courses and the removal what is obsolete.
Obviously measuring output is more difficult than input, but processes for on-going interviews with employers for instance already have models to draw on. Finding ways of measuring the quality of learning from a course is easier than innovating in the current system.
What is completely absent from existing universities and absolutely necessary for sustainable futures is relationality: the ability to work across cultures and current divisions of knowledge and practice. Only with the ability to learn in changing circumstances which comes from learning in a changing environment, will graduates have the ability to direct change.
This proposed "UniVersity" is being designed to maximise the relationality of its learning environment. It will therefore be a very distinctive institution. It will be primarily a professional researching servicer that educates. The primary learning activity will be apprentice-style participation in simulated, then live, developments of sustainability. Contrary to current bifurcating tendencies, this institution will bring high level critical research to thoroughly engaged training processes.
This selective institution of higher learning will cater to ambitious, serious students, mostly graduates, overseas students and professionals. It will have a large proportion of industry sponsored places for corporations seeking attuned, flexible employees. The UniVersity's environment will be thoroughly intercultural, with every student being treated as a `foreigner' and required to learn a new language and culture through peer interaction.
The proposed "UniVersity" will stand on the dynamic ability of its graduates, which will be manifested in the substantial sustainments the institution's projects will bring, first to its local region (the troubled Central Coast will become a demonstration of sustainable regional development), and then around the world.
Further details about the DYNAMIS Project's ambitions and processes are available from the EcoDesign Foundation. But this brief outline should suffice to indicate that this institution will be a private sector contribution to an immediate broadening of the public's choice. It will not only offer new knowledges and practices to be learnt, but provide a benchmark for relevant and powerful new ways of learning.
We submit this project to the Higher Education Review with the expectation that our style of project not be obstructed by the reforms arising from this Review, and possibly even be encouraged.
It does this by providing the means to think, create and mobilise new knowledges and practices of design that can engage the critical problems of the biophysical, technological and social environment. Its means are theoretical and applied research, educational activities, demonstration projects, displays and exhibitions, publishing, information services, consultancy services and product and project innovation.
The EcoDesign Foundation is housed in its Rozelle Display and Research Centre, a retrofitted school building demonstrating ecologically sustainable design principles, processes, products and materials.
The core staff comprises researchers, educators, designers and planners. Nearly all the staff have extensive experience teaching and researching in universities and have all left the system to set up this alternative place for committed thinking and action.
For the last 4 years, the Foundation has been running a comprehensive program of distinctive tertiary and professional development courses accredited through agreements with various universities and professional associations.
The Foundation's experiences as an educational innovator and provider working between the public and the private sectors have provided it with a much needed perspective on the current state and future of higher education.