The University of Western Sydney's central original purpose and its formal charter oblige it to provide university standard education in keeping with the needs and aspirations of the people of Greater Western Sydney.
Greater Western Sydney has characteristics which compel that charter to be upheld. These include:
The City Council embraces the presence of the University of Western Sydney within the City believing that it:
The University's clients are the people of Greater Western Sydney, particularly its young people. They have special characteristics which compel the University to continue its focus on its central and original purpose.
In 1992 Council and the University signed a joint statement pledging continued support for each other in the pursuit of common aims and objectives in the interest of all those working and residing in the region. Both organisations share a common commitment to the growth and development of the educational, cultural and economic life of the City of Penrith.
Council's Strategic Plan has, as one of its objectives, the promotion of the City as the education centre of Western Sydney. This had led to the establishment of close links with the University in the areas of future planning, economic development, the provision of scholarships and academic projects with staff and students.
Council is committed to continue this co-operative arrangement to achieve greater integration of the University with the City.
Investment in High Education is an investment in our future. In a fast-changing world, an individual's education cannot be once-only. It has to be continuing or lifelong, with opportunities to study flexibly and conveniently at different times throughout one's life. Universities play a pivotal role in lifelong learning, where people can increase their knowledge and skill as the need arises. Higher Education and the activities of Universities such as UWS support communities to thrive and prosper. To achieve this, the higher education system needs to be more diverse to meet growing and more diverse societal needs. The charter of UWS targets the provision of high quality higher education to Greater Western Sydney.
Greater Western Sydney has a diverse, fast-growing population. Many of its communities are unfamiliar with higher education. In the main, they have fewer tertiary qualifications, comparatively low incomes and low University attendance rates. If the people of Greater Western Sydney are to do well and take their full place in mainstream Australian society, there is an overwhelming equity case for expanding university opportunities in the Greater Western Sydney.
The University of Western Sydney must be for all the people of Greater Western Sydney and for their children. Access to higher education allows people to take full part in the growing prosperity of the country, contributing through their skills to its wealth. It gives them a stake in the country, and allows them to participate in mainstream culture. It is an effective means of combating the social exclusion and alienation.
In less than twenty years access to university education is likely to be seen as a fundamental human and civic right. Going to university at some time for some purpose will be as normal as participating in secondary education. Universities will be fully part of the normal life, culture and resource of the City and the Region.
To be valued, useful and successful, Universities must forge strong partnerships, especially within their regions. UWS, as a developing university is strategically poised to provide models for other Australian universities in respect of the partnerships it could establish with the other stakeholders in its region. Its development, work and accountability will increasingly be with and to these diverse stakeholders on whom its success depends. Council sees itself as one of these stakeholders.
Theme two: Factors affecting the demand for and provision of higher education over the next 10 to 20 years.
As stated above, higher education will need to expand and adapt to meet diverse, ever-changing needs. The region served by UWS is arguably amongst the fastest growing in Sydney and probably, Australia. The increasing need for lifelong learning in order to remain competitive is becoming evident. This places a requirement for greater flexibility in terms of course content and mode of learning.
Continuing rapid technological and economic change, as well as social and cultural change will also create a continuing need for more higher education. Old jobs will change or disappear. New jobs are forming. In Penrith City the self-employed and small-medium enterprise sectors will continue to expand. Individuals will change jobs more frequently during their lives than is the case today.
Even in the more secure continuing forms of employment, such as in the public sector, career progression will require a return to higher education several times during a working career. Lifelong learning will be a requirement for the acquisition of emerging skills and career progression.
This need will undoubtedly turn into demand as aspirations rise and obsolescence of knowledge and skills occurs. Flexible, diverse and relevant higher education provision will cause new needs to appear. This will, in turn, become demand for different knowledge and skills.
To remain successful, organisations will become learning organisations which seek to use opportunities for high education to survive and stay ahead in an increasingly competitive environment.
New information technologies will assist distant and self-directed learning, but there will continue to be a demand for face-to-face learning. Human beings are social animals so the demand for more flexible and alternative forms of learning will increase.
Over the next 10 to 20 years there is likely to be much experimentation with new forms of partnership and education provision. There will be greater co-operation and linked provision between schools, TAFE, universities and also the workplace. Work based learning accredited by higher education is expanding, as it TAFE-University partnerships in the provision of higher education. The physical adjacency of UWS and TAFE at Werrington and Quakers Hill is already facilitating new forms of learning and co-operative arrangements. Robust quality assurance must be provided to ensure that these emerging forms of partnership produce educational outcomes which are of guaranteed high quality.
Different forms of overseas higher education partnerships and provision will also grow rapidly (offshore teaching, campuses abroad, validation and accreditation of others' teaching, joint and split degrees). Universities will have to become more accountable to their stakeholders and the communities they serve and their standards more transparent.
Theme three: Regulatory and administrative framework for higher education
An increasing amount of higher education will take place in more diverse places, forms and ways. Universities should remain the main accrediting bodies for degrees and should exercise this role through a strong mechanism of accountability to the community. Universities and their programs should, in the public interest, remain in the public sector. Council supports the current situation where universities continue with a significant part of their funds coming from the public purse. Accountability for these public assets needs to be more transparent.
Effective participation in universities' management via governing and advisory bodies has enhanced public accountability in the past, however, a greater level of involvement and participation could enhance future accountability. To support this clarity of mission and strategy are required to both manage the changing environment to allocate resources transparently, ensure quality and monitor performance. There is an ongoing role for government and other key stakeholders in assuring that accountability systems are in place and working effectively.
It is essential that universities (and their component parts) be able to complete freely across all areas of endeavour and be judged on performance rather than on past reputation. Universities (like business enterprises) wax and wane over the years. Reward and public support must be earned on current performance with regular, transparent performance monitoring
In Council's view the nation's high education needs will be best served when government recognises the need for open competition, with transparent assessment of performance and public accountability.
Theme four: Financing higher education, teaching and research training
Entry level higher education (the first degree or equivalent) should be seen as a right-of-access for any Australian with the aspiration to attempt it, whether initially or following work and other life experience.
HECS allows access to higher education while sharing the cost of provision between individuals and the State. HECS needs to be maintained to facilitate access to accessible undergraduate education.
Mature age and part-time forms of study are increasingly important. Student support mechanisms must ensure that these are not disadvantaged in changed forms of funding for study. Any new scheme such as voucher based funding must assure access especially for prospective first generation students from new ethnic communities, working class families and geographically disadvantages and marginalised communities and regions.
Access to University places for Australian students should not be on the basis of ability to pay. Any scheme which allows Australians to buy full-fee places at University must be very carefully developed and closely monitored to ensure that it enhances quality of access rather than displacing underprivileged students with wealthy students. Mechanisms must be put in place so as not to lead to the creation of a two-tier university system in which wealth buys privilege through later life. Substituting wealth for merit would not assist Australia in a competitive global market.
Universities will need to preserve the integrity of this assessment process. It would be seen as distasteful if universities were pushed towards fee for service which could see a conflict between teaching excellence and cash flow.
Postgraduate levels of study lend themselves to different mixes of contribution between different stakeholders. In many cases full-fee regimes are appropriate, the contribution being divided between employer and the individual which are suited to the particular course purpose and content.
An increase in private providers of higher education may have the effect of weakening the current system by taking only the easy low-cost and lucrative business. For economic reasons, they may not contribute to the fuller and richer benefits of a university which occur as a consequence of established funding arrangements, such as the cultural and social infrastructure which forms part of the environment of a University.
If the easier-to-provide courses are removed through low-infrastructure private providers the quality of student services, campus life and ultimately of degrees and what they contribute to individuals and society are likely to suffer. A region like Greater Western Sydney would be especially disadvantaged by such an approach, since it needs balanced and relatively secure funding to build up the still growing higher education infrastructure which the region needs.
Theme five: Funding of higher education research
All universities must be heavily committed to research, most of it conducted at low cost with modest facilities in most academic disciplines. The main resource required for research is academic time, in a supportive environment conducive to scholarship and research. Council is not supportive of any notion that only some universities can be `research universities' for cost reasons or for other notions of national advantage. Several leading Australian universities had very modest profiles twenty years ago and in a closed non-competitive regime they would have remained obscure. Twenty years from now Greater Western Sydney will expect to have a very eminent university, strong in research, which contributes to the region's economic prosperity and social health. Nothing in the review should inhibit this.
A new `paradigm' of research is emerging and is now evident both here and abroad. UWS should earn an eminent position in the next 20 years developing in practical ways in which new research partnerships, partnership with other organisations and the community are put to service. At the same time it will provide a home for leading edge research.
The Review should recognise afresh the changing nature and newer purposes of university research and researching for the 21st century, and support development in these directions.
It is also essential that allocation of public funds for research are transparently open, competitive and fair with inbuilt performance measures. Data on research performance must be clear, accurate and open to public accountability.
Universities must co-operate and share costly research projects. Allocation of large grants and facilities to universities should be on competitive merit openly established, not the monopoly of any university or group of universities.