Australian Public Universities Research Articles

Towards Connectivism: Exploring Student Use of Online Learning Management Systems during the Covid-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound global impact on students, necessitating a shift towards fully remote e-learning via digital learning management systems (LMS). Despite this significant shift, there is a paucity of research exploring how students of varying academic performance levels engage with e-learning resources. This study addresses this gap by leveraging self-regulated learning theory and connectivism theory to analyze 129,567 activity logs from an Australian public research university. These logs encompass the online learning activities of 313 students and provide insights into their utilization of course files, discussion forums, gradebook, and online quizzes. Our analysis reveals significant differences in how students of varying academic performance levels engage with these resources. We found that higher-performing students tend to view course files, view and create forum posts, and access online quizzes more frequently, suggesting a positive correlation between active engagement with these resources and academic performance. However, the frequency of gradebook views did not significantly differ among students of different performance levels, indicating that grade tracking may not be a strong determinant of academic success. These findings underscore the importance of active engagement with online resources in academic success and provide valuable insights for educators and institutions in designing online courses and strategies to support student learning. The study also highlights the need for further research to understand the nuances of student engagement with e-learning resources. The implications of these findings extend beyond the pandemic, contributing to the broader discourse on e-learning and academic performance.

The beat goes on? The current presence of music education in Australian public universities

Instruction in the theory and performance of music has been part of Australian higher education since the nineteenth century. Using the online content analysis approach, this article analyses current units of study and curricula in each Australian public university that continues to teach music. This study provides a detailed analysis of what is taught and how universities providing music education conceptualize the merit and usefulness of this field of study. Our analysis reveals that music education in Australian public universities remains relatively common, but also identifies the trajectories that music education has followed, including departures from traditional classical performance and music theory to coursework offerings that have been enabled by methodologies prevalent in social and cultural history. Universities offering music education have also tried to position such education as fundamental to securing a career, but offer very little in the way of units aiming to develop a broader understanding of the industry or inculcating career-relevant skills beyond those that are strictly relevant to music making.

Administrative Intensity and Financial Sustainability: An Empirical Analysis of the Australian Public University System

ABSTRACT However, to date no attempt has been made to investigate the impact of administrative intensity on financial sustainability in the university sector. To address this gap in the literature, this paper examines the impact of administrative intensity on financial sustainability in Australian universities over the period 2009/10 to 2018/19. Our findings show that administrative intensity significantly affects the financial sustainability of Australian universities in a U-shaped form. Moreover, significant differences exist between the different categories of university in the association between administrative intensity and financial sustainability. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of its broader policy implications.

“I changed my mind after my placement”: The influence of clinical placement environment on career choices of final-year pre-registration nurses

BackgroundClinical placements (CPs) in the final year of nursing education largely impact nursing students’ professional development by exposing them to nursing realities. Nursing students also use placement exposure to identify suitable career opportunities for their upcoming professional life. However, there is limited evidence on how final-year CPs may attract pre-registration nursing students into different nursing specialties, including hospital and non-hospital settings. AimTo explore the influence of CPs in the final year of nursing education on pre-registration student nurses’ career decisions. MethodA narrative inquiry approach was utilised. A purposeful sample of 12 final-year students from two Western Australian public universities participated in the study. Data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews. This article follows the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research. FindingsThe final-year CPs mainly influenced nursing students’ career decisions in three ways: they helped them create new career paths, and some students refined their career plans while others reaffirmed their career choices. Four main themes were generated, including nature of the clinical environment, ward or unit culture, preceptorship, and career progression. ConclusionThe final year of study is crucial for nursing students as they make career plans in preparation for the transition to their professional roles. The students make short- and long-term career plans at this stage, which may influence their commitment to nursing. Implication for practiceThe outcome of this study may assist stakeholders in nursing education and health care in developing policies for CPs and students’ career guidance. These policies may encourage pre-registration nurses to develop career interests in the less-preferable nursing specialties such as community nursing and residential aged care.

Navigating intellectual property (IP): A comparative analysis of Australian universities' IP policies.

The push towards research commercialisation at universities has highlighted the importance of intellectual property (IP) policies in fostering innovation and guiding and managing research commercialisation activities. This paper undertakes a content analysis of intellectual property policies of all (37) Australian public universities, focusing on policy objectives, definition of IP, ownership of IP created by different creators, and distribution of net commercialisation revenues. It is found that all universities assert ownership over staff-created IP, particularly when related to employment or utilisation of university resources. For students, policies tend to balance their rights with university interests, with nuanced approaches for different types of student participation, but the focus of most policies was on postgraduate students engaging in research activities. While some policies had clear arrangements for IP created by visitors and affiliates and Indigenous cultural and intellectual property (ICIP), about a quarter of policies did not specify arrangements for these groups. Revenue sharing arrangements vary but generally award something between a third to a half of net revenue to creators, to both acknowledge their contribution and incentivise further innovation. Policies included a broad spectrum of objectives, from protecting and commercialising IP to fostering innovation and societal benefit, reflecting varying strategies across the higher education sector. Policies could benefit from further clarity in certain areas such as the rights of students or other creator groups. Research is needed to assess the effectiveness of these policies and their influence on innovation and commercialisation activities.

Student perceptions of immersive block learning: an exploratory study of student satisfaction in the Southern Cross Model

ABSTRACT In immersive block models students learn over shorter teaching periods and with fewer concurrent units than in typical semester or trimester models. A core aim of many such innovations is to enhance students’ learning outcomes; however, there are few investigations of student satisfaction at scale in immersive block models. This paper reports on an exploratory study of results from an institution-wide student feedback survey administered at an Australian public university that has introduced a 6-week immersive block model across the institution. Two strands of analysis were undertaken. Strand 1 (N = 4,157) compared satisfaction ratings across units delivered in the immersive block model in 2021 with ratings from the trimester model in 2019. Strand 2 (N = 1,925) explored the relative strengths of correlations between individual survey items and overall unit and overall teaching satisfaction in the immersive block model. The research found that overall, five of seven unit satisfaction indicators and all six teaching indicators improved to a statistically significant degree in the immersive block model. While student perceptions of workload appeared to be most susceptible to negative change, the correlation between workload and overall unit satisfaction was relatively weak compared to other unit indicators, suggesting that students have some tolerance for reduced satisfaction with workload. Meanwhile, the data suggest that students’ overall satisfaction with their units in the immersive block model appears most strongly tied to their satisfaction with teaching. Overall satisfaction with teaching appears most strongly associated with academics presenting content in a clear manner while showing concern for students’ learning.

Evolutionary science in denominational colleges at Australian universities, 1907–2020

ABSTRACT This article examines the place of evolutionary science in protestant and Catholic residential colleges associated with Australian public universities across the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Although faith-based universities are a relatively recent phenomenon in Australia, a quasi-federal model of secular teaching and accrediting universities linked to church-run non-teaching residential colleges developed with the founding of the first Australian university, the University of Sydney, in the 1850s. The model was subsequently replicated, with local variations, across the first generation of Australian public universities. This interface between mainstream secular and more selective religious spaces makes the colleges an instructive setting in which to examine science-and-religion ideas in institutional context. As principally pastoral, residential institutions the colleges did not have curricula or significant research programmes of their own, but student publications produced within them shed light on the attitudes and beliefs of students and some staff regarding evolutionary science, and science more generally, in relation to religion. The article analyses a corpus of more than 700 student publications published between 1907 and 2020 and associated with the Universities of Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland, the three institutions with the most developed collegiate systems. The analysis shows the complexity of ways in which evolutionary science was understood within the denominational colleges, and the limits set to those understandings by college authors’ plural institutional contexts.

Global university rankings: The macro-micro contradiction in public university management

Performance measurement and management has become a passion, even approach-ing a mania, of Australian public universities. In a world of multiple, competing global rankings of universities, known as global university rankings (GURs), our public universities pit themselves against each other competitively in seeking to ascend selected ranking regimes that best suit and reflect their institutions. This Australian study delves into this New Public Management (NPM) driven mantra, by examining the explicit mission or purpose statements (hereafter “missions”) and the vision or ambition statements (hereafter “visions”) of the 37 public universities in Australia in late 2021/early 2022, based on their public disclosures. This study provides widespread evidence of the formal aspirations of these institutions to act in the public interest and to serve and advance society, communities and people. At the same time, however, the main operational game, or rather the passion being played out by these institutions, is facilitated by means of the transformative (or potentially corrupting) power of GURs in moving Australia’s public universities progressively towards a self-interested corporate culture and associated dysfunctional behaviours in creating competition within and across public universities. This dichotomy is identified as the “macro-contributions” approach to university management as opposed to the “micro-measurement”, metrics-driven approach to university management, described herein as “the macro-micro contradiction” in public university management. Accounting as performance measurement is portrayed as transformative, influencing human behaviour, shaping organisational culture, and impacting the organisational and social functioning and development of these institutions. Moreover, public universities, in substance, become what they are not.

O tempora: The current presence of classics and ancient history in Australian and New Zealand public universities

The study of classics has been part of Australian and New Zealand higher education from the beginnings of tertiary education in these countries, followed shortly after by the study of ancient history. This article offers an analysis of current units of study in each Australian and New Zealand public university that continues to teach classics and ancient history. Set in the context of the origins of this field in both countries and contemporary debates on the value of studying not only the humanities in general but also classics and ancient history in particular, this article offers detailed analysis of what is taught and how universities conceptualize the merit and usefulness of this field of study. Analysis reveals some decline in more traditional areas, but also identifies the evolutionary trajectories that classics and ancient history have followed, including departures from the ‘sober’ political history to offerings that have been enabled by methodologies prevalent in social and gender history.

Does online engagement matter? The impact of interactive learning modules and synchronous class attendance on student achievement in an immersive delivery model

One Australian public university is radically changing the way it delivers higher education, introducing a 6-week immersive scheduling delivery model across all units and courses. Despite the emerging success of block and immersive models for raising the performance of diverse student cohorts, the design factors underpinning positive outcomes are underexplored. This paper presents a mixed methods study of the impact and value of student engagement with interactive and responsive online content modules and synchronous classes in an immersive scheduling model. The findings indicate that behavioural engagement with online learning modules has a positive effect on academic success and is a significant predictor of a higher final score. Qualitative data indicate several attributes of high-quality online learning modules that students appear to associate with engagement and deeper learning in the immersive model: interactivity, media richness, constructive alignment, flexibility and responsiveness. Synchronous class attendance did not impact final scores; however, students nonetheless valued the opportunity to form safe and supportive communities of inquiry during classes. This study demonstrates that in times of increasing demand for more flexible learning, immersive scheduling models that are founded on active learning principles and embed interactive, responsive, media-rich online learning modules can improve student engagement and performance. Implications for practice or policy: Higher education practitioners should integrate interactive, responsive, media-rich and constructively aligned online learning modules into curricula. Synchronous active learning classes that create safe communities of inquiry should be offered alongside options for asynchronous participation. Low levels of engagement with online learning modules should prompt follow-up from educators to raise engagement and bolster academic achievement. Immersive delivery models are effective curriculum innovations that, when designed with interactive online modules, can support improved academic achievement.

Sexism in the silences at Australian Universities: Parental leave in name, but not in practice

AbstractUnequal distribution of child rearing and domestic responsibilities between parents contributes to gender inequity, a wicked problem in Australia. Inequitable parental leave policies at Australian public Universities place the burden of care squarely on the mother, diminishing or absenting the father. We examine how the gendered nature of the existing policies are constructed in ways that create inequities and discourage their uptake. A post‐structural feminist lens provides us with a theoretical vantage point from which this wicked problem can be problematized. We present three recommendations for enabling more equitable outcomes for parents. The first is to eradicate the punitive approach and support flexibility; second, the policies must be parental leave in name, provision and practice; and finally we recommend a minimum parental leave standard for Australian universities nationally. These findings have policy‐level significance for redressing parental leave inequity within the Australian university context. The paper concludes with theoretical contributions, practical implications, and suggestions for future research.

Is it Time to Rationalise Humanities Education in Australian Public Universities?

This study examines how Australian public universities have a presence in the various discipline areas recognised by the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Using the prism of public value, we interpret how universities articulate the legitimacy of teaching humanities. Through a careful audit of available secondary data, we advance a typology of humanities education. Our principal finding is that Australia's humanities presence is surprisingly homogenous, with only a few universities proposing a specialised offering. We contend that this creates an environment where universities may be forced to consider abandoning their humanities offerings unless a higher degree of differentiation takes place.

Administrative scale economies in public organisations: evidence from Australian public universities

ABSTRACT A voluminous empirical literature has examined scale economies in public organisations, particularly in local government. By contrast, little effort has been directed at the empirical investigation of economies of scale in higher education administration, including in Australian universities. To address this gap in the empirical literature, this paper examines administrative scale economies and task density in Australian public universities for the period 2009/10–2018/19 using a pooled data framework. We find that there are administrative scale economies in Australian universities and that task density is a key determinant of administrative intensity. In addition, regional universities exhibit a higher level of administrative intensity than their metropolitan counterparts. We conclude by canvassing some of the main public policy implications of our findings.

Accounting as rhetorical devices during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from Australian universities

PurposeThis paper has two purposes. First, it aims to explore how Australian universities used calculative rhetoric and practices through accounting numbers to persuade employees and legitimize their financial recovery plans to alleviate the financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, it aims to analyze how the accounting-based solutions were legitimized through a well-blended pathos, logos and ethos rhetoric.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on a rhetorical theory of diffusion, we employed a qualitative research design within all 37 Australian public universities involving Internet-based documentary analysis.FindingsThis study finds that in an urgent crisis like the fiscal crisis caused by COVID-19, universities again found rescue in accounting tools, in particular budgets, as a rhetorical device to justify their operational and strategic choices such as job-cuts, programs closures and staff pay-cuts. However, in this crisis, the same old accounting-based solutions were even more quickly to be accepted by being delivered in management’s colorful blending of pathos–logos–ethos rhetoric.Research limitations/implicationsWhile this study is constrained to Australian public universities’ financial responses, its findings have implications for university decision-makers and higher education policymakers across the globe when it comes to university management using calculative devices in persuading employees to work their way through financial hardship caused by an extreme health crisis-like COVID-19 pandemic.Originality/valueThis study adds more evidence that the use of budgets as a calculative tool continues to play a key role in organizations in the construction, mobilization and preservation of certain strategic and operational choices during volatilities. Especially, the same way of creating calculative-based solutions can be communicated via the colorful blending of different rhetoric to make it acceptable.

Review of practice & policy strategies for managing digital communication and ICT use in Australian universities

This paper explores practices and policies for managing information communication technologies (ICTs) and ensuring healthy and productive work environments in higher education settings. This was informed by: (1) semi-structured interviews with 12 senior Human Resource and Wellbeing personnel recruited from 11 public Australian universities; and (2) a review of policy documents that address ICTs/digital communication sourced from 37 Australian public universities. Analyses revealed that ICT management involved balancing flexibility and boundaries and expectations around responsiveness. Findings from interview data revealed that to improve ICT management it is important to develop university guidance material, detangle the notion of responsibility, establish boundaries around expectations of responsivity, provide more education and develop positive working practices. Thematic analysis and subsequent quantification of 654 policy documents revealed gaps in the university policy context on the topic of digital communication. The largest proportion of policies focused on privacy and security, followed by media representation of the university (e.g., throughout branding), then bullying, harassment and discrimination. We make recommendations for policy and practice improvement. It would be beneficial for future research to assess the impact of enacted digital communication management strategies (e.g., policy interventions) on worker wellbeing and work practice outcomes.

Primary specialisations in Australia: graduates’ perceptions of outcome and impact

In 2014, the Australian Government established the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG) to advise on how teacher education programmes could ensure new teachers were adequately prepared for the classroom. Following this, the Australian Government endorsed a key recommendation of the TEMAG Action Now: Classroom Ready Teachers report, the inclusion of specialisations in primary Initial Teacher Education (ITE). This research was conducted at an Australian public university that, in 2016, had embedded specialisations in a revised primary teacher programme structure and was one of the first ITE institutions in Australia to graduate primary teachers with a specialisation. Using a mixed-methods case study design with convenience sampling, this study sought to investigate these primary graduates’ perceptions of undertaking a specialisation in relation to the development of content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge in the specialist area, as well as perceived employment advantages. This research took place over 4 years with participants having completed a Bachelor of Education (Primary) at least three months prior to participating. The participants reported benefits to having completed a primary specialisation but expressed concerns about their preparedness to teach their specialisation and whether it would result in any advantages for employment. Recommendations from the participants included teaching practice in their area of specialisation, consideration of specialist skills and changing the timetabling of the specialisation in the programme. Ultimately, there is a need for ongoing research in this area to determine the extent to which primary specialisations deliver the intended outcomes and impacts at both the policy driver level and the university level.

Efficiency evaluation of graduation process in Australian public universities

First-year attrition and on-time graduation are key challenges for contemporary universities, which determine their efficiency. Based on the benefit of the doubt approach, this study reports the efficiency of the graduation process in 37 Australian public universities. The super-efficiency model extended by restrictions on virtual weights is used. The proposed model considers the attrition rate and the on-time graduation rate separately for domestic and overseas students and other variables, like student-staff ratio, the share of full-time students and the share of online students. Some additional factors are included, such as the university's affiliation with a grouping, the year of the university founding and basic data on the subject mix of universities courses, explaining the rankings created. The analysis indicates that research-oriented universities achieve better results and overseas students perform better than domestic ones. Also, it can be seen that the universities dealing with large-scale online learning are underperformed. The obtained results allow all stakeholders to understand better the efficiency of the graduation process. The main findings are consistent with research published elsewhere.

Innovation Hubs in Australian Public Universities: An Appraisal of Their Public Value Claims

ABSTRACT The past decade has witnessed an increased presence of innovation hubs in Australian public universities. This has occurred against a backdrop of public universities, as public institutions, being expected to create value for their host nation. However, the types of public value that such hubs are aiming to create is not altogether clear. Using the theoretical prism of a priori public value, this study examines how the innovation hubs of Australian public universities are proposing to create public value. After establishing a working definition of ‘innovation hub’ in the context of public universities, a thematic analysis of their websites was undertaken to examine how they are positioning themselves with regard to realizing public value. Such an analysis assists with establishing what types of public value they allude to online, and sheds light on how Australian public universities are using innovation hubs to differentiate themselves in an increasingly crowded innovation landscape.

The commercialized Australian public university: An accountingized transition

AbstractThis paper explores the impact of neoliberalism on Australia's public higher education system. It examines flaws in the university system revealed by the COVID‐19 pandemic and identifies how the conditions created by neoliberal policies have limited universities' capacity to respond to a crisis. The paper reviews the previous literature on universities, neoliberalism policies, and new public management practices. It uses data from the literature, newspapers, and contemporary documents to shape an overview of the Australian public sector university system up to 2021 and its transformation by stealth. The impact of this transformation has been a heavy reliance on international onshore student fees to fund operations, infrastructure, and research activities. COVID‐19‐related public health measures have caused a significant downturn in the number of international students studying in Australia, in turn, creating a financial crisis that has seen many tens of thousands of university staff losing their jobs and courses being cut. The transformation has also seen accountingization of both individual academic and university performance to become the norm. The quantified performance metrics associated with accountingization have become universities' new language, and their goal displaced ends. Revenue generation and expenditure has been privileged over making a contribution to the nation and society. We call for a radical rethinking of the public sector university mission for the ultimate benefit of the Australian community.

“Taming the black elephant”: assessing and managing the impacts of COVID-19 on public universities in Australia

Purpose The Australian higher education sector faces severe risks from the consequences of COVID-19. This paper aims to explore these risks, their immediate impacts and the likely future impacts. The authors specifically focus on the institutional financial and social risks arising from the global pandemic. Design/methodology/approach The authors collect data using the 2019 annual reports of the 37 Australian public universities and relevant media contributions. The findings of identified sector change are interpreted through Laughlin’s organisational change diagnosis. Findings The sector confronts significant financial and social risks because of its over-reliance on income from fee-paying onshore overseas students resulting in universities primarily undertaking morphostatic changes. These risks include job losses, changing employment conditions, mental health issues for students, scholars, other staff, including casual staff, online learning shortfalls and the student expectations of their university experience. The study reveals how many of these risks are the inevitable consequence of the “accountingisation” of Australian public universities. Practical implications Despite material exposure, the universities provide only limited disclosure of the extent of the risks associated with increasing dependence on overseas student fees to 31 December 2019. The analysis highlights fake accountability and distorted transparency to users of audited financial statements – a major limitation of university annual reports. Originality/value Research on the Australian higher education sector has mainly focussed on the impact of policies and changes. The public disclosure of critical risks taken by these universities are now addressed.