Structures in tertiary education and training: akaleidoscope or merelyfragments?
Research readings
Edited by
Francesca Beddie
Laura O’Connor
Penelope Curtin
About the research
Structures in tertiary education and training: a kaleidoscope or merely fragments? Research readings
Editors: Francesca Beddie, Laura O’Connor and Penelope Curtin
In June 2010 the Standing Council on Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment (SCOTESE) adopted a new set of national research priorities in tertiary education and training for the period 2011 to 2013. One of these pointed to the need to better understand structures in the system by examining the impact of policy, funding and market frameworks on the provision of education and training. Since very few researchers have investigated these issues, the National Centre for Vocational Education research (NCVER) decided to commission essays on various aspects of the topic. We hoped to throw light on the structures in the evolving tertiary education system and to take forward debate about the current wave of reform.
The authors and four discussants came together with other leaders in the system in November 2012 to talk about the essays. Given the complexity of these issues, it is quite difficult to distilthe discussions into a few simple messages. Nevertheless, some of the key points were:
- A common understanding of the dynamics of the system is not easy to reach. We are still not all talking about the same thing when we refer to tertiary education.
- There is little support for a single integrated tertiary education sector. If there is a consensus it is that variety within the sector is a good thing.
- While the language of markets has been adopted in the reform effort, we need to be clear we are talking about a very unusual market, both in terms of its ‘product’ and its ‘customers’. In fact, there is a dispute over who is the customer of the vocational education and training (VET) system — the individual student or the employers who ultimately employ those that the system educates and trains.
- Even within the sectors, there is not always consensus on definitions. This is notably the case when discussing the meaning of ‘vocation’ and the shape of competency-based training.
- To establish the underpinnings and value of each part of the system, we need greater clarity about the purpose of public funding, as well as a clear alignment between funding regimes and policy objectives. The issue is who should pay for what.
- Many pillars of the system can be strengthened. How institutions are governed, and how the workforce is organised and the system regulated require further thought. The extent of institutional autonomy is a key element.
While this exercise could never determine the ideal structures for tertiary education and training, it has been invaluable in teasing out the complexity of tertiary education. It also makes clear there is no simple ‘market design’that would meet all the objectives of the various elements of Australia’s tertiary education system.
Tom Karmel
Managing Director, NCVER
Contents
Contributors
Overview — Francesca Beddie
How educational matters influence structures in the system
The public good — Sharon Bell
What makes education ‘vocational’ in an integrated tertiary sector —
Steven Hodge
The future of the tertiary sector workforce: a kaleidoscope of
possibilities? — Michele Simons
Discussion: How educational matters influence structures in thesystem — Kwong Lee Dow
Who controls the system?
Education as an industry, andasaproduct — John Quiggin
The drivers of industry involvement in VET reform — Richard Jenkins &
Ian Curry
Innovation and industry best practice: why industry skills councils are
critical — Robert Dalitz and Di Dibley
Discussion: Who controls the system? — Robin Shreeve
Governance of the system in a competitive environment
How do providers respond to changes in structures in a period of reform? —
Kerry Brown
Mismatched gears — how federal arrangements hinder the integration of
the tertiary education sector — John Ross
A precipitate proposal — aparticipant’s view of structural discussions in
post-secondary education — Adrian Marron
The strategic impact of industrialrelations among tertiary education
providers — Damian Oliver
Discussion: Governance of thesystem in a competitive environment — Jonathan Pincus
Interactions with thesystem
Student choice between VET anduniversity — Yijuan Chen and
Juergen Meinecke
What role does price play in student behaviour? — Michael Coelli
Regulating for learning in the tertiary education system —
Valerie Braithwaite and Sue Fergusson
Discussion: Interactions with thesystem — Jeff Borland
NVETR Program funding
Contributors
Editors
Ms Francesca Beddie is a consultant and former General Manager, Research, at the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), with a strong interest in the intersection of research and public policy. She has previously been employed as a diplomat, with postings in Indonesia, Russia and Germany. From 1995 to 1998 she was a senior officer in the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), where she headed the agency’s policy development and public affairs areas. Francesca has also worked as a policy and media consultant and trainer, historian and editor. From 2002 to 2004, Francesca was the executive director of Adult Learning Australia. She has served on the ABC Advisory Council and on the Australian Press Council and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Ms Penelope Curtin is a freelance editor and writer who has worked on NCVER publications for the past 25 years. She has previously been an arts administrator and a bookshop proprietor.
Ms Laura O’Connormanages and coordinates research projects at NCVER, where she has worked for over five years. Of the many different projects in which she has been involved, Laura is particularly interested in the impact of structural reforms on the student experience and understanding the various pathways which exist within the education system.
Other contributors
Professor Sharon Bell is Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Charles Darwin University, a Professorial Fellow at the LH Martin Institute and Emeritus Professor at the University of Wollongong. She was Co-convenor of Universities Australia Executive Women (previously Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee Senior Women’s Colloquium), 2005—08. Sharon holds a PhD from the University of Sydney in the discipline of anthropology. She has worked with international agencies such as the World Bank, the Sri Lankan University Grants Commission and AusAID on institutional capacity-building projects. She is currently a recipient of an Australian Research Council Grant on Women in the Scientific Research Workforce.
Professor Jeff Borland teaches in the Department of Economics at the University of Melbourne and was head of the department from 2003 to 2006. He has previously held positions at the Centre for Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University, the University of Iowa and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1997 he was awarded the Australian Academy of Social Sciences Medal for Excellence in Scholarship in the Social Sciences, and in 2002 was made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.Jeff’s main research interests are the operation of labour markets in Australia, program and policy evaluation and design, Australian economic history, and the economics of sport.
Professor Valerie Braithwaite works in the Regulatory Institutions Network at the Australian National University. A psychologist by training, her work advances the importance of understanding the ways by which individuals interpret regulatory interventions and how they come to exercise defiance, at times undermining the best of regulatory intentions. Some of Valerie’s recent regulatory work includes the books Defiance in taxation and governance and Regulating aged care(with John Braithwaite and ToniMakkai).
Professor Kerry Brown is Director of the Research Centre for Tourism, Leisure and Work at Southern Cross University and holds the Mulpha Chair in Tourism Asset Management.She holds a PhD in industrial relations from Griffith University and was awarded an Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management Research Fellowship (for the period 2009—14).Kerry is interested in the relationships, policies and practiceswhich exist between the public, private and non-profit sectors, particularly in the area of education and development.
Dr Yijuan Chen is a lecturer in the Research School of Economics at the Australian National University. Yijuan received his PhD degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009. His research is focused on evaluating public disclosure policies in the health care and education sectors and in applied work in labour economics and health economics.
Dr Michael Coelli is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of Melbourne.Michaelhas conducted research in the economics of education and labour economics area for the past tenyears. His research focuses on the determinants of education attainment (tuition fees, family background, labour market experiences etc.) and on the outcomes of education (higher wages, employment opportunities, job satisfaction etc.) for both mature-age students and traditional students.
Mr Ian Curry is the National Coordinator of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) skills, training and apprenticeship policies.He represents the AMWU or the Australian Council of Trade Unionson a range of state and national vocational education and training (VET) advisory and regulatory bodies and is the Deputy Chair of Manufacturing Skills Australia and Chair of the National Apprenticeship Program Steering Committee.Ian’s involvement in skills and workforce development reform stems back to the structural efficiency and award restructuring processes of the late 1980s and early 1990s and he maintains his keen interest in the role of VET as it relates to the world of work.
Dr Robert Dalitz is a data analyst at Universities Australia. Before this he was an Adjunct Fellow at the University of Western Sydney. Robert has experience examining the structure and dynamics of the education and training system and its relationship to innovation and economic development. His research interests include the relationship between skills and innovation, sectoral dynamics and technological innovation.His background is in analysing systems of innovation and competence building, using case studies and statistical data.
Ms Di Dibley is a consultant for AgriFood Skills Australia who has expertise in policy and program development.Di is an environmental lawyer with a long history of work in environmental policy and advocacy. This includes work on sustainable agriculture and natural resource management.She has previously been employed as National Policy Director, Environment and Energy, for the Australian Industry Group, and National Policy Director for Greening Australia. In addition, she has been a member of the NSW Ministerial Advisory Council on Environmental Education and on the Australian Centre for Environmental Law Advisory Board of the Australian National University.
Ms Sue Fergusson joined NCVER as General Manager, Research in July 2012.Sue has led major policy development, data quality and reporting activities across the Queensland VET system. She has both managed and conducted data analysis and applied research into aspects of the labour market, to support policy and planning within the sector. Sue has a wealth of experience in public finance and strategic planning, having held senior roles within Queensland Treasury, including four years as Director of the Education and Innovation Branch.
Dr Steven Hodge has worked in the area of vocational education and training for 20 years, starting with a role in a group training organisation and working in diverse roles as a program designer, trainer and manager of a registered training organisation. He is currently a senior lecturer and course coordinator in the School of Education and Arts at the University of Ballarat.Steven is a member of the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association executive and the Australian Association for Research in Education executive, as well as the Australian Council of Deans of Education Vocational Education Group. His research interests include competency-based training, occupational knowledge and the philosophy of vocational education.
Mr Richard Jenkins has been a consultant for 13 years, specialising in the development and review of training packages. Before this, Richard was the National Manager of Training Policy for the Australian Industry Group, previously known as the Metal Trades Industry Association (MTIA). In this role he had both training and industrial relations responsibilities, especially for the Metal Industry Award classification structure. From 1988 to 1991 Richard was the National Executive Officer for the National Metal and Engineering Training and Career Development Project, which is a predecessor organisation of Manufacturing Skills Australia.
Professor Kwong Lee Dow, AO, has worked at the University of Melbourne since 1973. During this time he has had a variety of roles, including Dean of Education, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor. He has held appointments as Chair of the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, member of the national Higher Education Council, Chair of a national Review of Teaching and Teacher Education andDeputy Chair of Teaching Australia. Kwong was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia in 2012. His recent work has focused on the connections between universities and TAFE (technical and further education) institutes, particularly in regional communities.
Mr Adrian Marron is the Chief Executive Officer of the Canberra Institute of Technology, the public provider in the Australian Capital Territory. Adrian has wide-ranging work experience, which includes director/CEO positions in TAFE institutes in three jurisdictions, as well as drilling for oil in the North Sea in the 1970s and working in a brewery in Papua New Guinea. He is a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators, a board member of TAFE Directors Australia, a member of the TAFESA Board, a member of the Defence Industry Skills Taskforce and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management.
Dr Juergen Meinecke is a lecturer in the Research School of Economics at the Australian National University. Juergen received his PhD degree in economics from the University of California, LosAngeles in 2008. His research is focused onstructural estimation, dynamic programming,
non-parametric estimation and partial identification. Juergen has also done applied work in labour economics and health economics.
Dr Damian Oliver is a Leading Research Analyst at the Workplace Research Centre in the University of Sydney.He was awarded a PhD in industrial relations from Griffith University in 2007. Following postdoctoral research at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany, Damian spent three years at NCVERin Adelaide. Damian is interested in examining the links between education, training and work; in particular, the apprenticeship and traineeship models of skills development, the intersection of workforce development strategies and industrial relations issues, and the transition from education toemployment.
Professor Jonathan Pincus is Visiting Professor of Economics and member of the Institute for Mineral and Energy Resources at Adelaide University, and an independent economic researcher. He is president of the SA Branch of the Economic Society and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He has been listed in Who’s Who in Economics since 1986 and holds a PhD from Stanford University in Economics. In addition, from 2002 through 2007, he was Principal Adviser Research at the Productivity Commission. Jonathan’s research interests include the economic history of Australian infrastructure and public economics.
Professor John Quiggin is a Federation Fellow in Economics and Political Science at the University of Queensland. He is prominent both as a research economist and as a commentator on Australian economic policy and is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.John has produced over 1000 publications in fields including environmental economics, risk analysis, production economics and the theory of economic growth.He has also written on policy topics, including microeconomic reform, privatisation and education policy.
Mr John Ross is a higher education journalist with The Australian. He reports across the range of tertiary education issues, specialising in VET policy and international education. He has won journalism awards from the National Press Club, Universities Australia, the International Education Association, the Migration Institute and the Council of Deans of Education. John joined The Australian in mid-2010 after working for several years with Campus Review. Prior to that he had spent many years as a media officer with New South Wales government agencies, including the Department of Education and Training, and freelancing for publications including The Sydney Morning Herald and The Good Weekend.
Mr Robin Shreeve began his role of Chief Executive Officer with the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency (formerly Skills Australia) in October 2009 and is based in Sydney. Robin was previously the Chief Executive Officer of the City of Westminster College, London. This college provides vocationally orientated education and training to over 7000 students across 300 courses. He has a distinguished history within the tertiary sector including Deputy Director-General, Technical and Further Education and Community Education, NSW Department of Education and Training.
Associate Professor Michele Simons is President of the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association. She is also the Program Director for the Bachelor of Education (Adult, Vocational and Workplace Learning) at the University of South Australia.Michele completed her PhD in 2002 and holds qualifications in adult education and human services from the University of South Australia. She has had extensive experience in designing and conducting research studies which focus on learning in the workplace; apprenticeships and traineeships; workforce and career training and development, particularly for VET teachers and trainers; and building the capability of staff in the sector.
Overview
Francesca Beddie
The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) advises ministers represented on the Standing Council on Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment (SCOTESE) on the research priorities that guide NCVER’s research program and frame research activities across the broader tertiary education and training community. One of the priorities identified in 2010 was the need to understand structures in the tertiary education and training system, by examining the impact of policy, funding and market frameworks. This book of readings addresses this topic.