Description
Book SynopsisReshapes the current public and academic conversations about higher education policy and practice to determine what is good higher education policy. Brings together a group of higher education experts from different disciplinary backgrounds including policy studies, history, sociology, political science, and education to explain the Australian university experience today. Covers topics of great interest to researchers, postgraduate students, practitioners of higher education policy and practice; historians of education, politics, and Australian life; and general readers interested in universities as social institutions. Australian Universities: A conversation about public good highlights contemporary challenges facing Australian universities and offers new ideas for expanding public good. More than 20 experts take up the debate about our public universities: who they are for; what their mission is (or should be); what strong higher education policy entails; and how to cultivate a robust and constructive relationship between government and Australian universities. Issues covered include: How to change a culture of exclusion to ensure all are welcome in universities, especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students as well as those from low socio-economic backgrounds. How "educational disadvantage" in Australia often begins in school and is still the major barrier to full university participation. The reality that funding for research and major infrastructure requires significant additional funds from non-government sources (e.g. international student fees). A lack of policy recognition that international university students increase Australias social, cultural and economic capital. Pathways to making policy decisions wide-ranging, consultative, inclusive and inspired rather than politically partisan and deologically driven. The impact of COVID-19 on universities, and particularly how the pandemic and governmental responses exacerbated extant and emerging issues. Australian Universities rekindles a much-needed conversation about the vital role of public universities in our society, arguing for initiatives informed by the realities of university life and offering a way forward for government, communities, students and public universities together to advance public good.
Table of ContentsStarting the conversation Julia Horne and Matthew A.M. Thomas
Part 1: Reimagining Australian universities
1. The One Sydney, Many People story Lisa Jackson Pulver with Peta Greenfield
2. One million livelihoods: granting social citizenship to Australian university students Susan Goodwin and Ariadne Vromen
3. Why are Australian universities so large? Glyn Davis
4. Reform for what purposes? Higher education enrolment in Taiwan and implications for Australia Ren-Hao Xu
Part 2: Reconsidering students
5. When do we answer the call for cultural change? Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and higher education Jennifer Barrett, Lisa Jackson Pulver, Peta Greenfield and Michelle Dickson
6. Beyond “access” and “affordability”: young people talk about university participation Samantha McMahon and Valerie Harwood
7. International students in Australia since the early 1900s Julia Horne
8. International students: during, before and after Gaby Ramia
Part 3: Rethinking structures
9. Who should pay for university? Eight logics of higher education funding in Australia Gareth Bryant
10. Fees and HECS and the politics of access to university Gwilym Croucher
11. The Job-ready Graduates Package and what it means for students Tim Payne
12. Twenty years of research in Australia’s universities and implications for the future Alan Pettigrew
Part 4: Revisiting the public good
13. Let us have more scientists, and more humanists Michael A. Goodman
14. Building a university culture fit for purpose Tim Soutphommasane and Stephanie Wood
15. Teaching and learning at Australian universities in uncertain times Matthew A.M. Thomas, John Iromea, Remy Low, Victoria Rawlings, and Susan Banki
16. Universities, their publics, and climate change Tamson Pietsch
Continuing the conversation Julia Horne and Matthew A.M. Thomas
