Towards a new policy environment for indigenous people, culture and knowledge in Australian higher education: an examination of issues and possibilities for institutional and government policy

The purpose of this discussion paper is to stimulate an examination of critical issues in Indigenous higher education and encourage new possibilities to be explored. It invites a wide sharing of views. The paper
does not attempt to trace the full history of the policies for Indigenous higher education and the successes and failures. The focus instead is on the major contemporary issues and the key questions that might be considered by the conference participants.

Using accelerated, whole-of-brain learning techniques in higher education: principles and practice

Accelerated learning is an integrative method of learning, combining both sides of the brain to strengthen a student's relationship with self, teacher, subject matter and other students, and so assists students to achieve deep, rather than surface, learning. While the approach has been used to teach school pupils and trainees in the corporate world, its use in marketing education in universities is limited, and there are no reports of studies focusing on its use in postgraduate coursework degrees. Thus this paper examines how accelerated learning could be used in teaching marketing at universities at the MBA level. Some techniques are synthesised from the literature that are particularly appropriate for the students and constraints of an MBA program in a university. We conclude that accelerated learning techniques can be used and are effective in a MBA program. Essentially, accelerated learning incorporate many, already known ideas but it is a useful comprehensive framework.

Security and ethical issues in the virtual world of Second Life

In recent times, Virtual Worlds such as Second Life have generated substantial publicity due to the participation of Fortune 500 companies, and other public and private organisations. As practitioners continue to discuss how organisations could derive business value from Virtual Worlds, new security and ethical issues in Virtual Worlds have emerged to challenge Virtual World users and stakeholders. This paper discusses privacy, intellectual property and a host of other security and ethical issues in Virtual Worlds. It contributes to practice and research by (i) providing insight into emerging security and ethical issues in Virtual Worlds, (ii) analysing the implication of these issues, within and beyond Virtual Worlds, and (iii) raising awareness on security and ethics among Virtual World users and stakeholders.

Existence of externalities from investment in higher education research and development

Research undertaken for this thesis supports the underlying claim that education does generate externalities. By examining the impact of higher education R&D on Australian state production, the results suggest that both pure and applied R&D have a statistically significant impact on Australia's regional economic performance.

Interdisciplinary higher education : perspectives and practicalities

"Interdisciplinary Higher Education" offers a contemporary of our understanding and practice of interdisciplinary higher education. Part I (Chapters 1 to 5) considers a range of theoretical perspectives on interdisciplinarity: the nature of disciplines, complexity, leadership, group working, and academic development. Part II (Chapters 6 to 18) provides more than a dozen vignettes of interdisciplinary practice, drawn from Australian, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Increasing professionalism of higher education managers and administrators : Focusing on research managers and administrators

The aim of this paper is to discuss the increasing professionalism of research managers and administrators. The paper firstly discusses recent changes to the research environment and follows with changes to research administration. Then follows with the discussion of the research method and research findings. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with research managers and administrators working in various Higher Education Institutions in the North West of England during the period from June to August 2005. Four interviewees were research managers and administrators working in research support and another four working in research students support areas. Two research support officers and two research student administrators have research backgrounds while the other two have administration background. The interview questions aim to seek the interviewees comments on the development of knowledge and skills that facilitate them to perform their role and the preference modes for delivering the professional development events. The interviewees working on different areas have different requirement on their knowledge requirement. The interviewees working in research student support area think it is important to develop their knowledge on their understanding of students needs. While, the interviewees working in research support suggested that it is important to be kept updated on changes to the research environment and relevant policies. The interviewees with different backgrounds have different skills training needs. Interviewees with research background suggested it is important to provide research skills training for colleagues who do not have research background. On the other hand, interviewees with administration background think their administration skills should be further enhanced. All interviewees prefer that professional development events be delivered in informal mode, such as conference and workshops.

Higher education development and knowledge economy optimism in Ethiopia

Higher education has been assigned new global importance. It is now the vehicle of choice for nations seeking to increase their competitiveness in an expanding knowledge economy. In developing nations, higher education has also been linked to goals to reduce poverty, under the influence of transnational aid agencies such as the World Bank and its knowledge-driven poverty reduction strategies. Drawing on Amartya Sen’s capability approach to development, this paper argues that this instrumentalization of higher education produces narrow conceptions of development, poverty and knowledge, and an unfounded optimism in ‘knowledge for skills’. The site for this analysis is the development and rapid expansion of Ethiopia’s higher education system, with its antecedents in a centuries-old religious education system but with more recent beginnings in the 1950s and, since the 1990s, under the influence of the World Bank. At stake are opportunity and process freedoms and the deprivation of capability (i.e. poverty) resulting from the constraint of these, evident in the nation’s higher education system. The paper concludes that without concerted efforts to redress injustices and to protect and expand people’s freedom, Ethiopian higher education has little to contribute to national socio-economic transformation agendas.

An Examination of the merits of a human rights-based approach to higher education teaching and learning, compared with welfare and market-based approaches.

The thesis concludes that a human rights-based approach to higher education will produce better teaching and learning outcomes than welfare state or market-based approaches. It is intended that this research might influence an improvement in policy-making, identify a ‘feasible utopia’ for higher education, and contribute to discussion about the public interest role of higher education.

What can Hannah Arendt's theorising add to equity policy activism in higher education institutions?

Human rights theory is based on universalistic moral perspectives that regard each individual as a bearer of rights. These rights are often legislated nationally and implementation mandated for institutions including higher education institutions. Arendt contests this kind of governance and ruling. Arendt argues for an agonal politics. Arendt theorises politics and power as something that cannot occur in isolation; it is through ‘acting in concert’ with others that a political community is constituted. Arendt advocates for a public space where people can take care of the ‘public things’ between them to work out how to live together. In this paper I reflect on my role promoting equity within Australian higher education institutions and explore what Arendt’s theorising can add to rethinking this kind of human rights work. Arendt argued that re-valuing politics would pave the way to a ‘new appreciation of human plurality’ (Villa 1996: 17). I will argue that the ‘Fair Chance for All’ (1990) equity policy promoted a form of identity politics within higher education institutions. I argue that Arendt’s theorising can effectively disrupt identity politics and offers a corrective to the way human rights legislation and related institutional policies tend to focus on specific target populations.

Higher education, real income and real investment in China : evidence from Granger causality tests

This paper employs cointegration and error-correction modelling to test the causal relationship between real income, real investment and tertiary education using data for the People's Republic of China over the period 1952-1999. To proxy tertiary education we use higher education enrolments and higher education graduates in alternative empirical specifications. One of the paper's main findings is that real income, real investment and tertiary education are cointegrated when real investment is the dependent variable, but are not cointegrated when either tertiary education or real income is the dependent variable. We also extend the in-sample analysis to examine the decomposition of variance and impulse response functions.

Confidentiality and disclosure : assessment and intervention issues

This portfolio addresses the moral, ethical and legal issues that impact upon decisions to maintain or disclose confidential communications. The tensions and moral dilemmas that are created when a conflict between these aspects arises are considered. Risk assessment procedures that inform decisions to maintain or disclose confidential information are discussed, as are issues related to the practical implementation of planned interventions. The topic is addressed by firstly reviewing professional codes of conduct and legal requirements to maintain confidentiality. The limits of confidentiality and privileged communication are then reviewed together with legal requirements of “duty to warn” or “duty of care”. These requirements are then related to risk assessment procedures and relevant interventions. Four case studies that illustrate the practical application of assessment techniques in the decision process and planned interventions are presented. They cover such diverse topics as disclosure and suicidal intent, threat of harm to a third party, risk of transmission of the AIDS virus and “duty to warn” and maintenance of a minor’s confidential communications. The ways in which these issues were addressed and the outcome is presented. NOTE: All names and details that have the potential to identify the people whose cases are presented here have been changed to protect their anonymity.