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Australia
Context
Australia is a large country geographically, though its population is only just over 20 million. It has a federal system of government with six states and two territories. Most universities are established under state acts of parliament, though the majority of government funding for universities comes from the federal government. While education is a constitutional responsibility retained by the nation’s six states at the time of the federation in 1901, the Australian Government has greater access to the resources needed to fund the higher education system. Higher education policy is thus mainly enacted by central government and is primarily the responsibility of the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (DIISRTE).
University system
Australia has 39 fully accredited universities, the oldest established in the 1850s on the British model, and the newest established over the past 10 years. Of these, 37 are public institutions, two private. There are also five further institutions with university in their title. In the THE rankings for 2014, Australia had five universities in the top 100, bettered only by the USA, Britain and Germany.
However, according to Norton (2013), although universities educate most higher education
students, they are a ‘minority of higher education providers in Australia – 44 of the 173 operating in late 2012.’ The ‘majority’ (i.e. 129) are the non-university higher education providers (NUHEPs), mainly private, which are a diverse group of schools, colleges and other institutions, mainly teaching-only and therefore very few offering postgraduate degrees, and often in vocational fields,
sometimes linked to professional bodies or religious affiliations. However, as pointed out by Norton (2013), the practical and policy trend is towards greater blurring of vocational and higher education, and the public sector vocational education providers (Technical and Further Education providers (TAFEs)) are adding degrees to their programmes.
Universities in Australia have grouped themselves into various alliances:
the Group of Eight (Go8) research-intensive universities;
the Australian Technology Network (ATN) of five universities, originally Institutes of Technology, gaining university status in the late 1980s/early 1990s;
the seven Innovative Research Universities (IRU) mostly established in the 1960s/1970s as multi-disciplinary universities;
the six universities located in and committed to Australia’s regional areas, and brought together in the Regional Universities Network (RUN), which was established in 2011.
Recent numbers of postgraduate students by home/overseas, postgraduate ‘coursework’ (labelled PG ‘other’ in the table) and postgraduate research and by broad subject area are shown in Table 7.
Nat/
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Table 7: Postgraduate numbers by broad subject area 2013
(OECD Statistics database; data extracted 20 March 2014, OECD library)
As in Europe, proportions of postgraduate ‘coursework’ and postgraduate research students vary depending on the subject, with numbers of research students high in sciences, engineering and health. There are about twice as many domestic (Australian) as overseas postgraduates in total; for research postgraduates, approximately two thirds are domestic compared to one third overseas.
Comparing Australia with some of the other countries included in this study, it has around six times as many postgraduates as Norway, over half as many as the UK and approximately one tenth as many as the US.
Demand-driven funding system
In 2009 the Australian Government announced the removal of the ‘cap’ or limit on the number of undergraduate students that universities could enrol. Before this, universities were allocated a quota of student numbers with guaranteed funding through the Commonwealth Grants Scheme. The removal of the cap led to a significant increase in applications and a growth in the number of students of low socio-economic status (SES) background participating in higher education (at undergraduate level).
According to Norton (2013) 2012 was ‘a year of policy change’. It was also the first year of the new
‘demand-driven’ funding system for undergraduate university places in public universities when previous restrictions on student numbers were lifted, and universities became free to offer as many places in each course as they chose.
In their ‘Review of the Demand-Driven Funding System’, Kemp and Norton (2014a) endorsed the system, concluding that ‘there is no persuasive case for returning to the “capped” system and that the demand-driven system should be retained, expanded and improved’. In an article for THE they claim: ‘we found it was meeting its key aims of increasing participation in higher education, especially for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and responding to skills needs in the economy’ (Kemp and Norton 2014b). They also recommended opening up the demand-driven system to all types of higher education provider, including private colleges and vocational education providers.
Recent reforms
The recently elected government in Australia (sworn in in September 2013) has decided on a further reform of the higher education system, with the result that, according to several of our
commentators, the system is experiencing ‘considerable turbulence’. Part of the reform involves shifting a greater proportion of the funding of higher education from the state onto students and
62 student debt, by introducing fee de-regulation, and by giving universities the freedom to set their own fees at whatever level they want. These changes have aroused considerable controversy: ‘a future of limitless fees, education for the privileged, and heavy student debts has been poorly received by a society brought up on low-cost public education and the ideal of social egalitarianism’
(Miller 2014). In addition to tuition fee de-regulation the government has decided to provide state funding to private organisations, including professional colleges and vocational institutions.
Funding of higher education
Higher education in Australia has historically been generously supported by public funding, though this has gradually reduced over the years. The majority of the funding has been provided by the government, although as Table 8 shows, international student fees (and full fees for domestic students) have played an increasingly important role in university funding. Government funding takes the form of:
direct grants primarily for teaching (the Commonwealth Grants Scheme);
student loans (income contingent) taken out by students but paid to the HE institutions on students’ behalf (through a range of different versions of the Higher Education Loan Program (HELP));
student income support payments (such as the Australian Postgraduate Awards);
direct research grants.
Table 8 below provides an overview of public funding sources.
Table 8: Overview of public funding sources for higher education (Norton, 2013) Currently public spending on higher education is in four streams:
direct grants (primarily for teaching);
student loans, paid to institutions on behalf of students;
student income support payments;
direct grants for research.
63 Table 9 below provides a summary of public subsidies for higher education, distributed among the four income streams, excluding some one-off capital grants, funding for short-term programmes and
‘legacy’ superannuation costs (Norton, 2013).
Table 9: Overview of public higher education subsidies 2011-2012 (Norton, 2013)
Australia introduced an income-contingent student loan scheme in 1989, a year before the UK. The original loan scheme was known as the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS); this has developed into the Higher Education Contribution Scheme – Higher Education Loan Programme (HECS-HELP) which provides loans for students with a ‘Commonwealth Supported Place’ (i.e. directly funded by the state). Although mainly intended to support undergraduates, HELP is also available to postgraduates on some ‘strategic’ courses (Hillman, 2014b).
There is also a scheme, FEE-HELP which provides support to Australian students without Commonwealth Supported Places and who are therefore required to pay full fees. FEE-HELP is available to postgraduate students at privately funded NUHEPs approved by the Australian Government and to non-research postgraduate students at public universities. Hackett (2014)
64 emphasises the difference from the UK system pointing out that ‘FEE-HELP in Australia ensures that virtually all students can access a fee loan that is repaid after graduation. Given the relatively low level of loan subsidy, they are able to offer a lifetime loan allocation (around $100,000) giving everyone maximum flexibility and choice to enable them to up-skill and re-train in support of a diverse and rapidly evolving job market’ (p. 3). However FEE-HELP cannot be used for additional study costs such as accommodation or study materials (textbooks etc). For 2014, the FEE-HELP limit is $120,002 for students undertaking medicine, dentistry and veterinary science courses (as defined in the Higher Education Support Act 2003), and $96,000 for all other students. The higher FEE-HELP limit only applies to courses that lead to initial registration to practise in those fields. The lower limit will apply to any further study undertaken beyond the requisite level for initial registration. The HELP limit is a lifetime limit and is the total amount available to eligible students under both the FEE-HELP and VET FEE-FEE-HELP loan schemes.
Quality
Postgraduate courses are offered by universities and increasingly by private colleges, although some fields such as medicine and architecture are only offered by universities. They include:
Graduate certificates (6-12 months) or
Graduate diplomas (one to two years full time)
Both graduate certificates and diplomas (AQF level 8) are vocational qualifications and require a bachelors degree for entry;
Masters degrees (one to two years full time) AQF level 9
Masters degree by coursework: this involves coursework, project work and some research;
Masters degree by research: at least two thirds research, including a substantial thesis or research project;
Masters (extended) work-based project. Entry requires professional qualification and/or extensive professional experience;
Doctorate AQF level 10
Research doctorate or professional doctorate.
According to a projection by the Group of Eight (Hare, 2014) ‘demand for postgraduate places is likely to double over the next 16 years as waves of bachelors graduates seek to gain competitive advantage in the workplace’. According to this analysis ‘the Go8 estimates domestic demand for higher education of 344,000 students by 2020 and 563,000 by 2030. Postgraduate enrolments are anticipated to rise greatest and fastest’.
As may be seen from Figure 6, enrolment shares in higher education have been affected by the growth in postgraduate study, particularly at masters level, which is said to be ‘more vocational than undergraduate study’ (Norton 2013). This probably reflects students upgrading their professional qualifications.
65 Figure 6: Enrolment share by level of study, 1980-2010 (Norton 2013)
Enrolment numbers in research degrees have grown steadily over the past 30 years or so (see Figure 7). According to Norton (2013), Australia now produces 6,400 PhD graduates a year, and almost 1,500 graduates with masters by research qualifications. However, the greatest growth has been in masters degrees by coursework, where numbers grew from 21,125 in 2006 to 28,605 in 2011 (Gale and Parker 2013).
Figure 7: Enrolment numbers in research degrees, 1979-2011 (Norton 2013) Masters degrees
As mentioned above there are two types of masters degree, masters by coursework (with at least two thirds coursework) and masters by research (with at least two thirds research). The masters by
66 coursework is a full fee-paying programme, while the masters by research has all tuition fees
covered by the government for domestic students. Entry to a masters degree by coursework
requires a bachelors degree (for some subjects with Honours). Entry to a masters degree by research requires a bachelors degree (Honours) or a masters preliminary year. However, the revised
Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF, 2013) now requires all masters (level 9) programmes to include some research (though the extent is not specifically identified). Until recently entry to the doctorate required a research masters; however with the growth in numbers seeking doctoral qualification there has been a steady increase in the number of candidates who are seeking entry into a PhD programme following a coursework masters. This leads to two questions: first, is research a defining feature of a masters degree and second, how well can a coursework masters prepare candidates for subsequent PhD study (in terms of ‘research preparedness’)?
Doctorates
Australia did not start awarding PhDs until the 1940s when the University of Melbourne awarded the first Australian PhD in 1946. However, the numbers have increased rapidly over the past 60 years or so (see Table 10).
Year Number of PhDs awarded in Australia
1950 8
1960 97
1970 584
1980 836
1990 1,367
2000 3,247
2010 6,053
Table 10: Number of PhDs awarded by year (Go8, 2013)
According to the Go8 (Go8, 2013) ‘over the period 2000 to 2010 alone, the total number of doctoral enrolments at Australian universities grew by 68% from 27,966 to 47,066; and the number of completions increased from 3,793 to 6,053 per year’. Although completion rates remain a challenge, this increase demonstrates the progress achieved as a result of the changes in doctoral education over the period.
The past 20 years or so have witnessed many of the challenges for PhD education as seen by other countries. These include concern about completion times and rates, questions about the relevance of the PhD for wider employment and about its quality, and the awareness that the PhD is no longer principally an apprenticeship leading to an academic career. One Australian response to these challenges was the development of the professional doctorate, in particular in fields such as education, health, psychology and business, and Australia has led the way in terms of innovative approaches and thinking about the professional doctorate. However, this has also been controversial (e.g. Evans et al 2008) and the PhD remains the main doctorate awarded in Australia.
Doctorates are awarded by all universities, though numbers of PhD candidates vary widely, and there is some concern over the capacity of the smallest and newest universities to provide an adequate research environment and critical mass and faculty for successful PhD programmes.
The normal entry requirement for the PhD has been an honours first class (H1) or upper second class (H2A), although this varies by subject. However, over recent years the requirement for most PhD
67 programmes has increased and we were told that most students entering the PhD programme will now have a research masters.
Quality assurance and guidelines
All Australia’s universities are members of the body Universities Australia. Although they were originally the responsibility of the states (see above), the balance between state and federal
responsibility has shifted significantly over the past 20 years. Until 2007, Australian universities were self-accrediting; the change of government in that year led to establishment of a Higher Education Standards Panel to oversee accreditation and provide independent advice to the minister and then in 2012, the new regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), replaced state higher education bodies and took on responsibility for registration of higher education providers and accreditation of courses. However, universities have the right to accredit their own courses within the framework established by government regulation, and subject to five-yearly re-registration by TEQSA. ‘University’ is a regulated term in Australia, and since 2012 TEQSA has regulated which institutions can operate as universities according to Commonwealth Provider Category Standards.
The Australian quality assurance regime has been criticised for being ‘heavy handed’ but with another recent change in government, there are signs that a lighter touch will be introduced (Burnett, 2014).
Another body with influence over the quality and standards of research degrees in Australia is the Council of Deans and Directors of Graduate Schools (DDOGS) which, for example, has recently published ‘Graduate Research Good Practice Principles’, outlining similar aspects of good practice doctoral education and training as are included in Chapter B11 of the UK’s Quality Code (QAA, 2012).
Integration of doctoral candidates in the research environment
As in the UK, the results of the 2012 Postgraduate Research Experience Questionnaire in Australia (Graduate Careers Australia, 2013) show relatively low levels of student agreement with the scaled statements on ‘Intellectual Climate’. The Australian statements are:
The department provided opportunities for social contact with other postgraduate students (74.7% agreement in 2012)
A good seminar program for postgraduate students was provided (67.2% agreement in 2012)
I was integrated into the department’s community (63.7% agreement in 2012)
The department provided opportunities for me to become involved in the broader research culture (64% agreement in 2012)
The research ambience in the department or faculty stimulated my work (58.3% agreement in 2012)
As noted in the Postgraduate Research Experience 2012 report, although all seven scales in the survey have shown an upward trend in student agreement between 1999 and 2012, research graduates agree least with the statements included in the Intellectual Climate Scale, elements of the experience that are ‘intended to help students integrate their work into the broader research community’.
68 Access
Gale and Parker (2013) trace Australia’s long historical commitment to widening participation in higher education to its early days with the establishment of the first university in the mid-1800s. This enabled Australians to undertake university study in their own country rather than travelling to Britain (or, rarely, other countries). Since that time, there have been a number of reforms aiming to widen participation by students of low socio-economic background, and, increasingly, those of indigenous backgrounds.
Following the Bradley Review in 2008, the Australian Government announced two targets in its
‘Transforming Australia’s Higher Education System’, Australian Government (2009):
by 2020, 20% of undergraduates should come from low SES background;
by 2025 40% of 25-34 year olds should hold a bachelors degree (or higher) (the figure was 36.8% in 2012).
In its vision, the government reaffirmed ‘the importance of opportunity for all, especially those from groups under-represented in higher education’ and ‘access to university based on merit, not ability to pay’ (p.8).
At the time (2009), 16.1% of undergraduates, and 10.5% of postgraduate students were from low SES backgrounds (Gale and Parker, 2013). In order to meet the targets, each public university has a low SES enrolment target, with financial rewards if the target is met (Norton, 2013).
Gale and Tranter (2011) suggest that ‘periods of expansion to the Australian higher education system have always been accompanied by distributive notions of social justice: in this case, equal opportunity to access and participate in higher education. To some extent, the need to redress the disadvantages experienced by some Australians has provided a rationale for expansionary periods’
(p.41). They go on to quote Julia Gillard, then Minister of Education, who stated in 2008:
‘A nation that thinks of itself as essentially egalitarian can’t sit idly by while those from disadvantaged backgrounds are denied the life opportunities that come from higher education - things like higher incomes, career progression, intellectual fulfilment and self-knowledge.’
Although several interviewees commented on the commitment to providing greater opportunities for students of low socio-economic background, particular those of Aboriginal background, researchers such as Devlin (2013) caution against a so-called ‘deficit’ model18, and call for an approach that requires universities to provide both the opportunities and the support necessary to maximising success in higher education by these groups.
The Australian Tertiary Admission Ranks (ATAR) scores, which determine entry to higher education, retain a strong correlation with SES, such that Gale (2012) suggests that ‘the ATAR is more indicative of socio-economic status than it is of a student’s academic potential’. There have been moves to increase ATAR scores of students of low SES in order to increase opportunities for university access, though this has been controversial.
18 According to Devlin, ‘Current policy research in Australian higher education appears to support a student deficit model conception in relation to students from low socio-economic status’, implying either as she states ‘students are the problem’ or ‘institutions are the problem’.
69 As mentioned above, there is a distinction between postgraduate coursework and postgraduate research. For postgraduate coursework students are required to pay fees (which differ by subject), and often use the loan scheme to enable them to fund their study. This means that fair access is complicated for postgraduate coursework.
For postgraduate research there is no tuition fee requirement (for domestic students, although fees for international students are high), and students who have been selected for a research degree, and gained one of the research degree places allocated to the university, do not pay a fee. Universities have quotas for research students; our interviews indicated that scholarships for full time doctoral study are very competitive, and we were told that self-funding for postgraduate research is very rare. A 2.1 honours is required for entry to the doctorate. We were told that supply and demand for places is balanced so that applicants with the required qualification will be able to gain a place for
For postgraduate research there is no tuition fee requirement (for domestic students, although fees for international students are high), and students who have been selected for a research degree, and gained one of the research degree places allocated to the university, do not pay a fee. Universities have quotas for research students; our interviews indicated that scholarships for full time doctoral study are very competitive, and we were told that self-funding for postgraduate research is very rare. A 2.1 honours is required for entry to the doctorate. We were told that supply and demand for places is balanced so that applicants with the required qualification will be able to gain a place for