Graduate Education for Leadership in Sustainable Development Innovation , Practice and Research

This paper reflects on the motivation, method and effectiveness of teaching leadership and organisational change to graduate engineers. Delivering progress towards sustainable development requires engineers who are aware of pressing global issues (such as resource depletion, climate change, social inequity and an interdependent economy) since it is they who deliver the goods and services that underpin society within these constraints. In recognition of this fact the Cambridge University MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development has focussed on educating engineers to become effective change agents in their professional field with the confidence to challenge orthodoxy in adopting traditional engineering solutions. This paper reflects on ten years of delivering this course to review how teaching change management and leadership aspects of the programme have evolved and progressed over that time. As the students on this professional practice have often extensive experience as practising engineers and scientists, they have learned the limitations of their technical background when solving complex problems. Students often join the course recognising their need to broaden their knowledge of relevant cross-disciplinary skills. The course offers an opportunity for these early to mid-career engineers to explore an ethical and value-based approach to bringing about effective change in their particular sectors and organisations. This is achieved through action learning assignments in combination with reflections on the theory of change to enable students to equip themselves with tools that help them to be effective in making their professional and personal life choices. This paper draws on feedback gathered from students during their participation on the course and augments this with alumni reflections gathered some years after their graduation. These professionals are able to look back on their experience of the taught components and reflect on how they have been able to apply this key learning in their subsequent careers.

Designing and delivering clinical risk management education for graduate nurses : an Australian study

In order to enhance their capabilities in clinical risk management (CRM) and to be integrated into safe and effective patient safety organisational processes and systems, neophyte graduate nurses need to be provided with pertinent information on CRM at the beginning of their employment. What and how such information should be given to new graduate nurses, however, remains open to question and curiously something that has not been the subject either of critique or systematic investigation in the nursing literature. This article reports the findings of the third and final cycle of a 12 month action research (AR) project that has sought to redress this oversight by developing, implementing and evaluating a CRM education program for neophyte graduate nurses. Conducted in the cultural context of regional Victoria, Australia, the design, implementation and evaluation of the package revealed that it was a useful resource, served the intended purpose of ensuring that neophyte graduate nurses were provided with pertinent information on CRM upon the commencement and during their graduate nurse year, and enabled graduate nurses to be facilitated to translate that information into their everyday practice.

Action research in cooperative education projects : developing lifelong capabilities for improving practice

There are natural synergies between action research as a method of inquiry and the practice of cooperative education. In the search to integrate theory and practice, action research is underpinned by a philosophy of experiential learning. Similarly, cooperative education is underpinned by the belief that in order to learn, there also needs to be action. The work of cooperative education students is also founded on data-based reflection is highly context based and usually collaborative; important characteristics of action research (Cardno, 2003). These similarities between action research and cooperative education provide a starting point in conceptualizing the adoption of action research for sport cooperative education projects. How can action research be integrated within cooperative education projects? This paper will discuss the theoretical basis of action research and illustrate through the use of case studies why and how action research has been utilized in cooperative education projects in sport and recreation. Sport students undertake a range of activities in the cooperative education setting. Some complete basic day to day tasks in recreation centers and with sports teams and others act as volunteers in major events. While these types of roles can fulfill desired outcomes for cooperative education program (for student, industry organization and institution), the adoption of action research can add a further dimension because it aims to create change within the setting under investigation. Through the use of cooperative education projects, students are in a unique position to frame a problem, integrate theory, determine action, and implement and evaluate that action. This paper explores how action research is used in cooperative education projects to help develop capabilities for improving practice.

Expectations and perceptions of overseas students in a Post-graduate corporate accounting subject : a research note

This study examines the expectations and perceptions of overseas students undertaking the post-graduate corporate accounting subject taught at an Australian university. An understanding
of students’ perceptions and expectations in learning of the subject is important in assisting
accounting academics to enhance their teaching programmes, and to manage the diverse student
cohorts which are now a feature of university classrooms in Australia. The findings show that
overseas students expected the post-graduate corporate accounting subject to be challenging and
interesting. Moreover, they expressed a strong desire that the subject should emphasise the
practicalities of accounting.

Graduate students lend their voices : reflections on the 10th seminar in health and environmental education research

Graduate students were invited by their faculty advisors to attend the 10
th Seminar in Health and Environmental Education Research. Afterward, they were encouraged to comment on their experiences, involvement, and positioning. Two main authors developed survey questions and retrieved, analyzed, and synthesized the responses of four other graduate students. The overall experience of attending an invitational research seminar evoked various ideas about graduate students’ present and future roles in research communities.

Mapping WIL activities in the curriculum to develop graduate capabilities : a case study in accounting

Big business continues to request universities to produce graduates who possess both technical and generic skills. Although work-integrated learning (WIL) programs can be used to develop these skills, WIL placements in Australia are undertaken by a minority of students. Perceiving a gap, one Australian university undertook a major WIL revamp to expand WIL offerings embedded within its courses. This required major organizational change that impacted significantly on curriculum design. From a quality assurance perspective, this paper provides an overview of a revised WIL program in the accounting discipline, and discusses the issues and challenges associated with the revised WIL program four years after its implementation. The findings demonstrate that the discipline area has not yet fully met the revamped WIL program as defined by university policy. Recommendations are provided that form a valuable learning tool for educational institutions considering embedding broadly defined WIL within their courses.

Uses of management control and performance measurement systems by Deans and Heads in Australian universities: their effects on research, teaching and networking capabilities

Invoking a resource-based view (RBV), this study investigates relationships between management control systems (MCSs) use, including information use from performance measurement systems (PMSs), and organisational capabilities in the context of academic units of Australian universities. Increased competition and attention to distinctive capabilities amongst universities, particularly at their strategic operating unit level of a Faculty1 or School2, provides the setting for application of this theoretic perspective. Based on a questionnaire survey of all Faculty Deans and Heads of Schools in all 39 universities in Australia, evidence is provided on relationships between diagnostic and interactive use of MCSs, attention given to imposed and discretionary types of PMS information, the strength of capabilities of the academic unit and, in turn, overall performance of the academic unit. Highlights of findings are that Heads/Deans conceived capabilities of their unit in functional dimensions, not in generic dimensions as found in prior literature; interactive MCS use and imposed performance measures, respectively, direct relate to several types of capabilities and indirectly to performance of the academic unit, but diagnostic MCS use does not. The findings have practical implications for styles of control systems use and performance information use by management in universities.

In search of innovative capabilities of communities of practice : a systematic review and typology for future research

Peer reviewed

Augmentation of research and analysis capabilities for timely support of automotive fuel economy activities. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Augmentation of research and analysis capabilities for timely support of automotive fuel economy activities. Volume II: appendices A through C. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Augmentation of research and analysis capabilities for timely support of automotive fuel economy activities. Volume III: appendix D. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Augmentation of research and analysis capabilities for timely support of automotive fuel economy activities. Volume I: summary. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Graduate study and research in civil and sanitary engineering.

Mode of access: Internet.