Conference report : ‘For the Socially Responsible University’. Reflections on Universidad 2014, the 9th International Higher Education congress in Havana, Cuba, February 2014

This article describes salient aspects of 'Universidad', the 9th International Higher Education conference held in Havana, Cuba, in February 2014. Addressing the conference theme, 'For the Socially Responsible University', participants debated the university's capacity to lead societies in matters of knowledge creation and diffusion, and discussed how it could help governments in the quest for solutions to inequality and exclusion. A particularly interesting panel was one that discussed the social commitment of Hugo Chavez, the late president of Venezuela, and his work to support the expansion of education.

The application of non-profit marketing in the international higher education sector

This study considers the impact of the university service and learning environments (which we define as non educational factors) on student satisfaction among international postgraduate students from Asia studying in Australian universities. It is based on the expectations/perceptions paradigm and analyses the relationship between key variables and overall satisfaction of student groups in respect of their service and learning environments. The aim of this paper is to consider the importance of non-educational factors in international postgraduate university students, in particular, with regard to information and communication, infrastructure, and university recognition. The data used in this study is derived from a mail survey conducted among international postgraduate students from China, India, Indonesia and Thailand studying in five universities in Victoria. Structural Equation Modelling was used to understand the relationship between the constructs in this study. The results indicate that noneducation related factors are very important to international postgraduate students and they are predictors of overall satisfaction.

Globalisation and international higher education : contested positionings

This article stems from recent policy research involving participants in an international higher education program. Story lines of the program from Thai and Australian policy makers and policy actors are interpreted from a poststructural stance. Through the multiple and shifting positionings of the participants, agency and identity within this globalised space is constructed and reconstructed. The study contributes constructions of the relationship between globalisation and international higher education previously obscured by the apparent domination of the neoliberal discourse. Possibilities for international higher education as constructive of globalisation are encountered in these policy readings.

Constructing globalisation in international higher education

The discourse of internationalization is well established but it appears that globalisation has crept ‘by stealth’ (Currie, 1998) into our international programs resulting in an apparent domination by a neoliberal economic discourse. Clyne, Marginson and Woock (2001), drawing on research regarding globalisation and internationalization in Australian universities, suggest that this domination is so pervasive that the term is “irretrievably lost” to cultural usages of globalisation. This paper arises from a case study of the understandings of globalisation within an international higher education program. Understandings of globalisation were sought from both Australian  and Thai policymakers and participants in an international higher education program. It is argued that domination by the neoliberal discourse is evident and predominant but that, in the use of metaphors of globalisation by these  educators, a repositioned understanding from lived experience exists alongside the economically dominated experience of international higher  education. It is here that divergent understandings of globalisation are  constructed. These findings are of value to those involved in the  internationalization of higher education.

Competition or collaboration: policies and practices in international higher education

Universities in the twenty-first century experience numerous competing drivers that shape their sense of purpose and role in society, their perspectives of knowledge and its production and their overall sense of being in the world. One major force is marketplace discourse, in particular neo-liberalism and competition, which is discordant with the discourse of academic collaboration and collegial sharing. This review essay examines what it means to ‘be’ a university in light of these overarching discourses and what is envisioned for universities of the future.

The power of play: preparing international higher education students for practicum

With an increased number of international students undertaking higher education courses (degrees), Australian universities are challenged to prepare international students with the necessary understandings, knowledge and skills to effectively participate in the workplace. For many students, understanding Early Childhood Education in Australia is a new way of viewing teaching and learning from their own cultural perspective. In order to facilitate successful engagement during pre-service teacher practicums (placements) and in response to concerns raised by mentorteachers in the workplace, a pilot program was run at Deakin University in 2015 for students to undertake before placement. The program focused on ‘play’ as an innovative model of teaching. This paper situates itself as part of a wider study Improving work placement for international students, their mentors and other stakeholders. It draws on narrative reflection, classroom observation, questionnaire and interview data from the early childhood strand within the Master of Teaching course at Deakin University. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis the data was analysed and coded into two emerging themes: building confidence and competency skills and connecting to the early childhood context. Generalisationscannot be made to other educational institutions or context however; the findings reveal that ‘play’ can be used as a powerful tool to empower students to make connection with early childhood settings. It is hoped that the findings may provide a platform for further dialogue with other universities regarding how best we can prepare international education students at Australian universities for their practicum experience.

Student equity's starring role in Australian higher education : not yet centre field

The field of Australian higher education has changed, is changing and is about to change, repositioned in relation to other ‘‘fields of power’’. It is a sector now well defined by its institutional groupings and by their relative claims to selectivity and exclusivity, with every suggestion of their differentiation growing. The potential of a ‘‘joined-up’’ tertiary education system, of vocational education and training (VET) and universities, has the potential to further rework these relations within Australian higher education, as will lifting the volume caps on university student enrolments. Moreover, Australian universities now compete within an international higher education marketplace, ranked by THES and Shanghai Jiao Tiong league tables. ‘‘Catchment areas’’ and knowledge production have become global. In sum, Australian universities (and agents within them) are positioned differently in the field. And being so variously and variably placed, institutions and agents have different stances available to them, including the positions they can take on student equity. In this paper I begin from the premise that our current stance on equity has been out-positioned, as much by a changing higher education field as by entrenched representations of social groups across regions, institutions, disciplines and degrees. In taking a new stance on equity, the paper is also concerned with the positioning in the field of a new national research centre with a focus on student equity in higher education. In particular, the paper asks what stance this new centre can take on student equity that will resonate on a national and even international scale. And, given a global field of higher education, what definitions of equity and propositions for policy and practice can it offer? What will work in the pursuit of equity?

More towards the centre : searching for field position for student equity in Australian higher education

The field of Australian higher education has changed, is changing and is about to change, as it is repositioned in relation to other ‘fields of power’. It is a sector now well defined by its institutional groupings – the Go8, the IRUs, the ATN and the rest – and by their relative claims to selectivity and exclusivity, with every suggestion of their differentiation growing. Even within these groupings there are distinctions and variations. Moreover, Australian universities now compete within an international higher education marketplace, ranked by THES and Shanghai Jiao Tiong league tables. ‘Catchment areas’ and knowledge production have become global. And the potential of a ‘joined‐up’ tertiary education system, of VET and universities, will rework relations within Australian higher education, as will lifting the volume caps on university student numbers. In sum, Australian universities (and agents within them) are positioned differently in the field, although not in the stable relations imagined by Pierre Bourdieu in the France of the 1960s. And being so variously and variably placed, institutions and agents have different stances available to them, including the positions they can take on student equity. In this paper I begin from the premise that our current shared stance on this has been out‐positioned. Nation‐bound proportional representation loses its equity meaning when the Australian elite send their children to Harvard, Yale, Oxford and Cambridge. The same could also be said, and has been, about equity representations by region, institution, discipline and degree. What then, also, for a new national research centre with a focus on student equity and higher education, for its research agenda and positioning in the field? What stance can it take on student equity that will resonate on a national and even international scale? And, given a global field of higher education, what definitions of equity and propositions for policy and practice can it offer? What will work in the pursuit of equity?

Central European Higher Education Cooperation Conference Proceedings

This volume comprises of selected papers that were originally presented at the first Central European Higher Education Cooperation (CEHEC) conference held in Budapest from 28-29 January 2015. The CEHEC was the first of a series of conferences organized at the initiative of the Center of International Higher Education Studies (CIHES) at Corvinus University of Budapest and Central European University (CEU), in collaboration with partners from the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.

Satisfiers and dissatisfiers for international students of higher education : an exploratory study in Australia

This paper explores the main satisfiers and dissatisfiers for international students in Australia’s higher educational sector. Using a critical incident technique, this study is conducted with international students of higher education in Australia. Four categories of satisfiers and dissatisfiers emerge from the data which are related to individual performance, quality of the educational service, socialisation, and living conditions.

Realigning capital portfolios : international students' educational experiences in higher education

This paper reports on first year experiences of international students who use English as an additional language (EAL) in higher education in Australia. It examines how valued resources can foster a positive educational experience of these students from sociological perspectives. It draws data from an interview study, exploring narrative accounts of 17 EAL international students from nine countries about their educational relations and strategies across their first year of study. Their narratives were analysed through Bourdieu's concepts of field, habitus, capital and legitimation, as well as tools of narrative inquiry. The paper finds that the students took up strategies to realign their capital portfolios with new rules of the game. Their decisions were dependent on their personal trajectories and conditions on offer. This paper suggests that more effort needs to be made to understand international students' differentiated access to valued resources in higher education.

Indigenous epistemology : creating an international Indigenous higher education space in the wake of the western “university of excellence”

Interest in the participation of Indigenous peoples in higher education has, in recent times, gained momentum with an increasing number of advocates challenging the global history of culturally inept policies and practices imposed within the western higher education system. To address the challenges being presented by Indigenous communities and other groups (often relegated under the banner of disadvantaged or equity) Western Universities are promoting a shift toward inclusive policies and practices. Frustrated with the offerings of the Western Higher Education system, a global movement of Indigenous academics, Elders and knowledge holders are developing strategies to meet the educational needs of their own communities, in order to find a way forward. The mobilization of Elders and Indigenous academics has resulted in the development of a global higher education network which is proving to be a significant force in changing the position of Indigenous participation in higher education. The World Indigenous Network Higher Education Consortium (WINHEC) has presented a significant challenge to those barriers within the western higher education system that has historically demonstrated an inability to develop culturally inclusive practices within their institutions. This paper examines the development of a world Indigenous higher education movement and its contribution to the history of the “university” within the context of western higher education institutions. Outlined in this examination will be a synopsis of the development of the “University of Excellence” and the creation of an international Indigenous space within higher education.

The history, content and evolution of The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education

The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education (Int J FYHE) began in 2010 with a specific FYHE focus and has published two issues per year with one issue linked to The International First Year in Higher Education Conference (FYHE Conference). This issue—Volume 6, Issue 1—is the last under this title. In 2015 the Journal will align to a new conference that has a broader focus on Students, Transitions, Achievement, Retention and Success (STARS). At this significant point and before we move on to the new journal, the journal team felt it was appropriate that the Feature in this final issue of the Int J FYHE should summarise the Journal’s activity over the years from 2010 to 2014.