Monday, August 27, 2007

Institute to train future leaders

AN institute for the training of the next generation of university and VET leaders would offer consultancy services as well as masters degrees and short courses, its prospectus has announced.

The LH Martin Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Management will open its doors at the University of Melbourne on August 30.

The prospectus, released yesterday, says the institute will allow senior education managers, public servants, policy analysts and researchers to get together to “explore the leadership and management implications of their changing environment and policy framework”.

The institute's main game is education: it will offer masters courses and short award and non-award courses.

The flagship masters will be delivered only part-time and modularised so students can build it around their jobs.

Courses would also be developed for members of governing bodies, the prospectus said.

“Applied research skills in management and policy analysis will form a significant component of the institute's program and may become the centrepiece of specialised award or short courses,” the prospectus says.

Collaborations would be a mainstay for the institute: the University of New England's Centre for Higher Education Management and Policy will be a primary external collaborator, and UNE will be represented on the institute's advisory board.

A university spokesman told The Australian the institute would differ from the existing Centre for the Study of Higher Education in that it would be a teaching institute.

The CSHE is primarily a research body, although the two would collaborate from time to time.

A selection process for a director of the LH Martin Institute was under way, the spokesman said.

The University of Melbourne received $10million in May from federal Education, Science and Training Minister Julie Bishop.

It is named after Leslie Harold Martin, former chairman of the Australian Universities Commission and the author of the 1965 Martin commission report that prompted the establishment of colleges of advanced education.

Brendan O'Keefe | August 08, 2007
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22205422-25918,00.html

Annual guide delivers findings

STUDENTS at smaller universities were more likely to give their teachers a tick and be satisfied with their university experience, but student-staff ratios were likely to be better at a Group of Eight university, according to the latest Good Universities Guide.

The annual guide, released yesterday, draws on commonwealth data and student feedback to rate universities on a five-star system.

It is no surprise that the Go8 universities led in research grants. But the University of Wollongong, which has been edging ahead on research, replaced the research-intensive Go8 member Monash in a five-star box for "research intensity".

The guide compares universities' performance on a range of measures, including graduate employment and salaries, international enrolments, staff qualifications and cultural diversity.

This year a new category was added: access by equity groups.

On this measure, Central Queensland University, James Cook, Murdoch, Southern Cross, Tasmania, New England, and the universities of South Australia, Southern Queensland and Western Australia received five stars.

Domestic fee-paying courses ranged in price from $16,100 in the humanities to more than $200,000 in medicine.

Murdoch, Notre Dame and Southern Cross universities were the most affordable for business and management full-fee courses. Ballarat, Edith Cowan and Southern Cross had the lowest fees in computing and information technology. For engineering and technology, Ballarat, Macquarie and Murdoch had the lowest fees. Australian Catholic University, Flinders and Sunshine Coast were the most affordable in humanities and social sciences, and in sciences, ACU, ECU and Notre Dame had the lowest fees.

Universities were quick to seize on favourable findings yesterday to promote their institutions.

Bond University was among those that did the sums: it claimed it had the most five-star ratings of any university.

"The stellar performance by the private, not-for-profit Bond University in Queensland saw it receive the maximum five-star rating in an unrivalled 10 key performance indicators, including a clean sweep of the educational experience and graduate outcomes categories," it said in a statement.

It didn't mention that it only received one star on several other measures, including access by equity groups and indigenous participation.

Overall enrolments were up this year in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy. Languages had the biggest drop in enrolments in the past year, down 33.3 per cent, along with surveying, which fell 25 per cent.

Salaries were up in architecture, paralegal studies, dentistry and surveying. Graduates of medicine, dentistry, surveying and pharmacy had the best employment prospects.

Dorothy Illing | August 15, 2007
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22246469-25918,00.html

Year 12 on fast track to UniTas

STUDENTS could shave a year off their undergraduate degrees by starting university in their final year of high school under a radical plan proposed by the University of Tasmania.

The institution wants to set up shop in Tasmania's senior secondary colleges so bright students can study first-year university subjects while completing Year 12.

The proposal would mean students could start university with only two years remaining of an undergraduate degree and could fast-track an academic career to be undertaking a PhD by age 21.

The US-style college plan would also include a Year 13 for those students who wanted to ease into university by undertaking the first year in a school setting.

Secondary-school teachers would be trained by the university to teach the first-year subjects and the institution would set up centres of excellence in the state's senior secondary colleges, which now are just years 11 and 12.

The idea was sparked by government reforms, called Tasmania Tomorrow, of the state's senior secondary school system.

UniTas vice-chancellor Daryl Le Grew said the model would allow 16 and 17-year-old students to study university subjects while at school.

"We can actually design a university college system just for years 11, 12 and 13 (that) is effectively a crossover between secondary college and university," he said.

"It is very exciting and is very different to anything that is offered around the country."

He said he hoped the proposal would stimulate discussion and debate in the sector, much as the University of Melbourne's model did. The Tasmanian model would give students several options and pathways through university, and it would not just be for the elite.

"For some kids, the first year taught inside the school system would suit them better, while others, because they are really bright, can take their first year in Year 12 and move straight into second year at university," Professor Le Grew said.

He said Tasmania proposed a university certificate of education that would be the equivalent of a high school certificate.

"We have negotiated for some of our subjects to count into the score," Professor Le Grew said.

Previous academic acceleration programs had been successful and this model hoped to build on that popularity.

Professor Le Grew said many students were attracted to fast-tracking their university degrees.

"(Students think:) 'If I can do it a year ahead then I am an early bird in my professional field,"' he said.

He hoped the radical model would attract more international students by having structured pathways from senior secondary colleges straight into university.

The new model would offer built-in international exchanges meant to substitute for the gap year from which many prospective students never returned to study.

Professor Le Grew said the Tasmanian Government had given a 2009 deadline to formalise the proposal. He hoped the Tasmanian model would generate as much debate as the Melbourne model.

"The Melbourne model has been really useful in the sector. It has been a terrific stimulation and discussion point," Professor Le Grew said. "I hope this does a similar thing."

Print Milanda Rout | August 01, 2007
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22167627-13881,00.html