Accounting for local government boundary changes in South Australia : valuing assets and liabilities or valuing revenue streams

This paper examines the methodologies adopted in the transfer of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses resulting from boundary changes associated with municipal amalgamations in South Australia during the late 1990s. It investigates the methods employed for apportioning these financial elements, valuations used and financial settlements required. Significant transfers occurred in only three cases. In two cases, councils used simple, pragmatic methods to apportion assets and liabilities, similar to those used previously in Victoria. In the third case a transfer price was calculated based on the net present value of revenues. This method is quite different from previous methods examined and is appropriate where one council will make significant future gains at another council's loss because of net revenue transfers.

The rise and fall of management: undergraduate engineering management education in Australia

The modern disciplines of engineering and management are inextricably linked. Frederick Taylor, Henry Gantt and Henri Fayol are engineers whose names are also part of the history of the theory and practice of management. As far back as 1968 it was identified that, “In all phases of practice in the profession the technical work is coupled, to a greater or lesser extent, with engineering management.” For more than 20 years the call had been increasing for an improvement in the preparation of engineering graduates in the area of management skills. In 1989 the IEAust created the task force on management engineering with the goal of formulating a policy for management education in engineering undergraduate courses. In 1990, the Council of the IEAust approved the Policy on Management Studies in Engineering Undergraduate Courses that said, “From January 1991 the Institution will require at least 5% management content in all professional engineering undergraduate courses and that the total of all management and management related components rises to the vicinity of 10% by 1995.” A 1999 analysis of engineering programs showed that the Policy had been applied with enthusiasm by about one-third of the engineering schools, fairly well in another third, remaining responses were ineffectual. Around the same time, revisions to the IEAust accreditation requirements de-emphasised the importance of management studies, mentioning it only as a subset of ‘professional practice’. By 2004 the IEAust stage 1 competency standards for professional engineers mentioned ‘management’ in only three of 79 indicators of competency. In 2002, the IEAust established the Centre for Engineering Leadership and Management. In December 2005 CELM established a working group, “…for improving the business and management content of undergraduate courses. It appears that it’s back (about 20 years) to the future for Australian undergraduate engineering management education.

Mapping postgraduate nurse education in Australia 2001-2002

Workforce planning at a national level within nursing and midwifery has been largely fragmented and uncoordinated with health-care organisations, state health authorities, peak nursing organisations and the tertiary sector often engaging in independent decision making and planning. In order to gain an increased understanding of the complexity of contemporary nurse education and to quantify the number of graduates of nursing education courses into categories that are meaningful for workforce planning, the federal Department of Education, Science and Training commissioned a national study in 2002. The aim of this study was to map and quantify current and projected numbers of Australian domestic nursing postgraduate students within their respective specialisation according to each State/Territory. All Australian universities offering postgraduate courses in nursing were electronically surveyed (n=30). Two non-university providers of postgraduate nursing education were also asked to participate, but only one responded. Data were gathered on the number of domestic postgraduate nursing students enrolled in 2002, the number of course completions in 2001 and projected completions for 2002. Of the 13 broad band specialty categories developed for the study, the specialties of Midwifery and High Dependency were dominant in both student enrolments and course completions, including projected completions. The range of specialties that were offered varied by State/Territory, as did the number and percentage of students enrolled, completing and projected to complete each specialty program. Generic courses (without listed specialisations) continue to complicate the process of attempting to tease out and quantify accurately the number of enrolled and completing postgraduate students according to area of specialty practice.

Barriers to pharmacist participation in continuing education in Australia

Background: The pharmacy profession recognises of the need for continuing education (CE), however, the rate of participation in organised CE remains low. Little is known about the reasons for low participation rates in CE, particularly in the Australian context. Aim: This research aimed to identify the barriers to participation of Australian pharmacists in CE. Method: Focus groups were held with Australian community pharmacists, grouped into experienced pharmacists, recently qualified pharmacists, pharmacists with specialist-training needs, and pharmacists practising in rural or remote areas. Focus group transcripts were thematically analysed. Results: Barriers identified by pharmacists included time constraints, accessibility - in terms of travel and cost, relevance, motivation, quality and method of CE delivery. Participants provided ideas to improve uptake of CE. Conclusion: The major barriers identified were time, accessibility and relevance of content. To improve uptake of CE a wider variety of flexibly delivered programs supplemented with in-depth workshops could be utilised.

Music education in Australia : valuing cultural diversity

Australia is a ‘mosaic of cultures’, the borders between cultures, communities and societies are continually blurring, thus music and multiculturalism cannot be divorced from society per se. As teachers are agents of change, broadening students’ experiences and understandings of ‘other cultures’ can only enhance the provision of inclusive, rich, multicultural programs at schools. The article considers notions of multiculturalism, cultural diversity and music education. It also raises concerns and issues when valuing cultural diversity in music education. Music is an effective platform to foster understanding of difference within and beyond the classroom. I propose that teacher education courses provide intercultural inclusive practices.

Reviewing research in education in Australia and the UK: evaluating the evaluations

In many countries concerns have been expressed about the merits of educational research. This paper reports on the outcomes of a review of reviews of such research in Australia and the UK. Taken at face value, the latest round of reviews are largely critical in the UK (where they have generated much debate) and mainly favourable in Australia (where they have not). In accounting for this difference the paper suggests that it might be explained in part as a function of how the reviews were conducted. In the UK reviews have tended to begin with the research and work forward to practice whereas in Australia they have been inclined to begin with practice and work back to the research. It is suggested that policy makers, practitioners and researchers in Australia and the UK have much to learn from each other's experience, as have those in other countries planning similar reviews.

Lack of integration of medical education in Australia: the need for change

The lack of cohesion across health and education sections and national and state jurisdictions is counterproductive to effective national policies in medical education and training. Existing systems in Australia for medical education and training lack coordination, and are under resourced and under pressure. There is a need for a coordinated national approach to assessment of international medical graduates, and for meeting their education and training needs. The links between prevocational and vocational training must be improved. Tensions between workforce planning, education and training can only be resolved if workforce and training agencies work collaboratively. All prevocational positions should be designed and structured to ensure that service, training, teaching and research are appropriately balanced. There is a need for more health education research in Australia.

Improving outcomes-based engineering education in Australia

Graduate attributes are now a ubiquitous feature of higher education in Australia and internationally, and have been part of engineering education for more than a decade. The idea of graduate attributes is an apparently simple concept, focusing on educational outcomes, rather than inputs and process. While there is evidence of some benefits in engineering education arising from the introduction of outcomes-based accreditation, there is also evidence of many short-comings of the graduate attributes approach. There would be significant value in Engineers Australia providing additional discipline-specific guidance on attribute development. There would be significant value in Engineers Australia simplifying and consolidating the current multi-document accreditation system. A genuinely outcomes-based accreditation system would be based (only) on the demonstrated individual student attainment of appropriate graduate attributes, which might be delivered/gained by a range of means, including distance education. To fully meet the letter and spirit of the law for accreditation, programs will need to adopt some method of certification of individual student attainment of graduate attributes - one such method would be the use of student portfolios.