HuNI: Helping humanities researchers get lucky

For the past three years a team of researchers have been working on ways to help people navigate a path through the expanding world of online information. The result is the Humanities Networked Infrastructure (HuNI) platform: huni.net.au

Portfolio careers for medical graduates: implications for postgraduate training and workforce planning.

Portfolio careers in medicine can be defined as significant involvement in one or more portfolios of activity beyond a practitioner's primary clinical role, either concurrently or in sequence. Portfolio occupations may include medical education, research, administration, legal medicine, the arts, engineering, business and consulting, leadership, politics and entrepreneurship. Despite significant interest among junior doctors, portfolios are poorly integrated with prevocational and speciality training programs in Australia. The present paper seeks to explore this issue. More formal systems for portfolio careers in Australia have the potential to increase job satisfaction, flexibility and retention, as well as diversify trainee skill sets. Although there are numerous benefits from involvement in portfolio careers, there are also risks to the trainee, employing health service and workforce modelling. Formalising pathways to portfolio careers relies on assessing stakeholder interest, enhancing flexibility in training programs, developing support programs, mentorship and coaching schemes and improving support structures in health services.

Humanities Networked Infrastructure (HuNI) research platform

HuNI (Humanities Networked Infrastructure) combines data from many Australian cultural websites into the biggest humanities and creative arts database ever assembled in Australia. HuNI data covers all disciplines and brings together information about the people, works, events, organisations and places that make up the country's rich cultural landscape.

Linking and sharing data in the humanities and creative arts: building the HuNI Virtual Laboratory

The Humanities Networked Infrastructure (HuNI) is one of the national Virtual Laboratories that are being developed as part of the Australian government's National e-Research Collaboration Tools and Resources (NeCTAR) programme. This paper examines the methodologies and technical architecture being deployed by HuNI to link and share Australian data in the humanities and creative arts.

Dilemmas concerning the employment of university graduates in China

This article draws on a ‘within-subject’ design of employment of university graduates in China over two different periods, namely 2008 and 2014. This research was conducted based on semi-structured interviews and secondary data analysis with four groups of key stakeholders including universities, government agencies, labor-market intermediaries and university graduates. The ‘within-subject’ design enabled an in-depth exploration of how changes at formal and informal institutions affect the employment of university graduates in a fast-changing labor market. The results show that lack of institutional interactions, socially constructed norms that influence graduates’ perceptions and ambiguous directions of educational policies significantly affect university graduates’ employment.

Aggregating cultural heritage data for research use: The humanities networked infrastructure (HuNI)

This paper looks at the Humanities Networked Infrastructure (HuNI), a service which aggregates data from thirty Australian data sources and makes them available for use by researchers across the humanities and creative arts. We discuss the methods used by HuNI to aggregate data, as well as the conceptual framework which has shaped the design of HuNI’s Data Model around six core entity types. Two of the key functions available to users of HuNI – building collections and creating links – are discussed, together with their design rationale.

Employer expectations of public relations graduates’ transmedia storytelling proficiency

The rapid evolution of information and communication technologies presents challenges for public relations educators as they seek to develop pedagogical approaches that balance theoretical concepts with a practical or ‘working’ knowledge of new media platforms. The incipient practice of transmedia storytelling in public relations contexts offers a timely example of this pedagogical flashpoint. In this study, the authors explored the incorporation of transmedia storytelling within current public relations practice and employer expectations of the transmedia storytelling proficiency of recent public relations graduates.The study took a qualitative approach with findings based on 15 semi-structured interviews with senior public relations professionals from four Australian states and five industry sectors. Findings suggest transmedia storytelling campaigns of varying complexity are a common characteristic of contemporary public relations practice, and that digitally literate graduates who can provide evidence of a solid theoretical knowledge and practical skills in relation to transmedia storytelling are highly sought after by the practitioners who took part in the study.

Inquiry-based learning in teacher education: a primary humanities example

Inquiry-based learning features strongly in the new Australian Humanities and Social Sciences curriculum and increasingly in primary school practice. Yet, there is little research into, and few exemplars of, inquiry approaches in the primary humanities context. In this article, we outline and explain the implementation of a place-based simulation as a vehicle for inquiry in a humanities subject in a teacher education course. Preliminary findings of surveys of pre-service teachers conducted pre and post the implementation of the inquiry model suggest increased engagement and enhanced learning outcomes. Further analysis is required in order to determine the depth of pre-service teachers’ understanding of inquiry approaches.

International education, the formation of capital and graduate employment : Chinese accounting graduates’ experiences of the Australian labour market

Since the late 1970s, international education has steadily gained in popularity in China.An emerging middle class seeks to strengthen its position in China’s rapidly stratifyingsociety under its socialist market economy with the shift from wealth creation for all towealth concentration for a few. Previously, a foreign qualification was considered apassport to success in either the host or home country’s labour market. But the growingpopularity of overseas study, coupled with the massification of the Chinese highereducation, means Chinese international students are seeking to distinguish themselvesin an increasingly competitive global labour market. This longitudinal study of internationalgraduates, backgrounded by Australian employer perceptions, examines thejourneys of 13 Chinese accounting graduates as they attempt to transition from anAustralian university into the Australian labour market. Bourdieu’s thinking tools offield, capital, disposition and habitus are utilised to consider how different cultural,social and linguistic capitals inform employer understandings of ‘employability’ meantChinese accounting graduates significantly adjusted their life goals.

Work readiness of nursing graduates: current perspectives of graduate nurse program coordinators

BACKGROUND: The transition from nursing student to graduate remains problematic internationally with issues arising concerning graduates' work readiness upon commencing employment. AIM: This exploratory study specifically investigated perceptions of graduate nurse program coordinators on the work readiness of nursing graduates, with the aims of identifying strengths, weaknesses and challenges that exist. DESIGN: Qualitative descriptive design. METHODS: Sixteen graduate nurse program coordinators were interviewed from various health-care services in the state of Victoria, Australia. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis was used to disclose reoccurring themes and sub-themes. FINDINGS: This paper reports on one theme, preparation readiness, and three sub-themes associated with this theme; clinical skills deficits, communication issues and transitioning as an enrolled nurse to a registered nurse. CONCLUSIONS: There are several areas of weaknesses and challenges for nursing graduates in their preparation for practice. As a poorly understood area, evidence from this study will inform curriculum development and transition programs, not only in Australia, but also internationally.

Development, implementation and evaluation of an interprofessional graduate program for nursing-paramedicine double-degree graduates

Over the past decade, several Australian universities have offered a double degree in nursing and paramedicine. Mainstream employment models that facilitate integrated graduate practice in both nursing and paramedicine are currently lacking. The aim of the present study was to detail the development of the Interprofessional Graduate Program (IPG), the industrial and professional issues that required solutions, outcomes from the first pilot IPG group and future directions. The IPG was an 18-month program during which participants rotated between graduate nursing experience in emergency nursing at Northern Health, Melbourne, Australia and graduate paramedic experience with Ambulance Victoria. The first IPG with 10 participants ran from January 2011 to August 2012. A survey completed by nine of the 10 participants in March 2014 showed that all nine participants nominated Ambulance Victoria as their main employer and five participants were working casual shifts in nursing. Alternative graduate programs that span two health disciplines are feasible but hampered by rigid industrial relations structures and professional ideologies. Despite a 'purpose built' graduate program that spanned two disciplines, traditional organisational structures still hamper double-degree graduates using all of skills to full capacity, and force the selection of one dominant profession.