Tertiary Education in Australia - Future Directions

Future Directions

The Australian Federal Government which was voted out of office in 2007 (Liberal/National Coalition) and the then Federal Opposition (Labor Party) which is now in government both signaled that the ‘one size fits all’ approach to universities, which emerged from the Dawkins’ reforms, is nearing an end. Universities are being encouraged to find their own niches. The difficulty with this is that the undergraduate and postgraduate programs which prove to be financially lucrative (i.e., profitable) in terms of sustaining the core business of a university are limited (Medicine, Law, Business, Economics and Commerce), and there is a tendency for all universities to pursue high profile areas, rather than invest in high cost areas which have national economic significance (engineering and science). As at April 2007, none of the Australian universities had taken steps for significant cost cutting in administration and rationalization of duplicated services and facilities.

Of the current universities, only the University of Melbourne signaled a change in direction in terms of its education. Again, this is based upon increasing income rather than through cost reductions through modern management principles. The so-called ‘Melbourne Model’ was due for implementation in 2008. The objective was to pursue an American-style educational program composed of generic undergraduate degrees which had no professional recognition in Australia, and then follow these with professional postgraduate degrees which do have professional recognition (e.g., Law or Engineering). This strategy would enable the University to by-pass the current Federal Government restrictions on fee-paying undergraduate places by effectively reclassifying former undergraduate programs as a combination of generic undergraduate and professional graduate programs. In its website The University of Melbourne claims that this will provide a broader educational model in line with the so-called Bologna Process Model of education applied in Europe. Opponents claim that identical educational outcomes could be achieved by a five year undergraduate program without the introduction of full-fees. Others claim that the model is more American than European, noting that the 3-year Bologna-style Bachelor degree is focused rather than generalist. The guidelines for a portable European qualification in professional psychology requires 3 years of focused psychology prior to 2 years of advanced specialized psychology. The new Melbourne University Bachelor does not allow for such specialization. It is designed to mimic the American College level Bachelor which is completed with one major and one minor consequent to general education modules.

None of the other G8 universities have signaled any intention to make any fundamental changes to the way in which they function, although some have indicated interest in the Melbourne Model of fee paying education.

Given the positions of both the Federal Government and Federal Opposition, it is clear that universities will change over the coming years. The data from the Melbourne Institute Study (particularly the research output data which the study derived from Government DEST figures and Thomson ISI) highlights the fact that a number of the current universities have insufficient capacity in their chosen disciplines to achieve threshold performance at an international level.