Back in November 2016, I posted a review of a new book about higher education in California in the 1960s. At the time it seemed relevant to Australia's own problems with growing demand for access, funding pressures and system-level reform. But the Australian tertiary system has not seen any comprehensive reform, then or since. So…
Debate quality in the university: how bad can it be?
Last month I looked at the uses and limits of academic freedom in Australia, taking the Peter Ridd affair at James Cook University as a case study. And also at how last year's French Review balanced two aspects of the work of universities: promoting free exchange as a way of exploring ideas, testing claims, exposing…
Let’s Glance: new OECD metrics on Australian tertiary spending
The 2020 edition of the OECD's Education at a Glance report landed on 8 September. In Australia it caused barely a ripple of public interest. With past editions, university sector press releases and media commentary usually appear within a few days. Typically, these highlight how low we look in the latest OECD "ranking" of tertiary…
Peter Ridd and the French Review connection
Good Riddance? Or Bad Judgments? The Peter Ridd versus James Cook University saga has been examined in two courts so far, in 2019 and 2020. Ridd's sea of troubles arose from complaints by another JCU professor (coral research centre director Terry Hughes) about his criticisms of Great Barrier Reef research. He was sanctioned in 2016…
Guest lecture notes on the 2020 higher education policy reform plan, Job Ready Graduates
Last week the University of Melbourne's Centre for Vocational and Educational Policy invited me to present on this topic to a group of 46 students, studying Education Policy and Reform. Presentation and discussion with Education Policy and Reform students. Image source: https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/game-of-thrones/ Our session was off-campus: a meeting of minds via Zoom, on a cool…
Game of Codes: will funding changes pervert the course of higher learning?
"A crime against the Humanities!" "An assault on the very Idea of a University." "A plot to STEM our CASSH-flow." "A cunning plan to muzzle critical thinking." "An ode to serfdom." "A complete and utter cluster-fluctuation." “Polymorphously perverse! But not in a good way." Fake quotes, all. Yet they convey the vibe of many early…
Australian mystery: higher education spending rose – how come no-one knows?
Old hands and policy wonks have mapped the shifts and drifts of Australian higher education policy over the last few decades. Often these are viewed in a wider comparative context. The Education at a Glance reports, published each year by the OECD, can provide this. Our most widely quoted international comparisons focus on funding. Up…
Higher education: survive the tempest, plan for more sea-change
Like a scene from Shakespeare’s Tempest, study in Australia has been swept off campus. To keep study programs afloat, staff and students alike have leapt or scrambled online. As shutdowns relax and our "tyranny of social distancing" lifts, campus life will re-animate. The shipwreck in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Act 1. (Engraving by Benjamin Smith after…
Introduction
I started writing Big Little Thought Crimes here in Melbourne in early 2020. These are personal views on public policy in higher education, and universities as institutions of higher learning. In Australia as elsewhere, universities have seen big shifts over the last 2-3 decades. Looking ahead, even bigger changes seem likely by 2030. I hope…
