Information systems teaching and research in West Australian universities

Abstract

The authors of this chapter examine the current state of the development of information systems (IS) teaching and research within Western Australia (WA). A brief overview of the WA environment is followed by an exploration of teaching and research in the four main universities. This is examined against the framework for the study and, in particular, the impact of social processes (Ariav et al. 1987; Klein et al. 1991) and local contingencies (Culnan et al. 1993; Checkland and Holwell 1998), which are found to be of relevance to historical developments. The West Australian scene Western Australia is the largest state in Australia, spanning 2400 km from north to south and encompassing more than 2.5 million square kilometres. The state is fairly isolated from the rest of Australia and still maintains something of a ‘frontier’ mentality. This is compounded by the low population, with only two million inhabitants, approximately 73 per cent of whom live in the capital city of Perth, which has a current population of 1.5 million. The rest of Western Australia is populated by small country towns, which are typically remote from other centres and many of which lack basic infrastructure such as health and education services. In particular, broadband access is variable and information and communication technology (ICT) services can be poor.