There may be a perception among academic staff that professional staff are remote from academic activities (Wallace and Marchant, 2011), however, recent research demonstrates that professional staff, across a range of roles and seniority levels, are interested and engaged in supporting positive student learning outcomes (Graham, 2012, 2013a,…

This paper examines the effectiveness of a programme of weekly meetings between sessional staff and the unit coordinator of a large first-year class at an Australian university. Interviews with sessional staff indicate that, in addition to training and targeted professional development initiatives, management initiatives that promote engagement…

This paper examines the impact of the minerals boom to date on the demand for higher education in Central Queensland, and the sustainability of higher education providers in high economic growth environments. Several datasets were used to examine changes in the demand for higher education among specific student groups within the region, the…

This paper scrutinises the escalating salaries of US college and university presidents (vice-chancellors, or rectors, as they might be known in other parts of the world). Some research suggests that presidential pay is largely correlated with factors that have little or nothing to do with performance and may, therefore, overstate the benefit that…

Disciplines have emerged as an alternative administrative structure to departments or schools in Australian universities. We presently investigate the pattern of discipline use and by way of case study examine a role for distributed leadership in discipline management. Over forty per cent of Australian universities currently employ disciplines,…

Higher education is viewed as part of the national agenda in transforming Malaysia into a high-income nation. This has resulted in a sky-rocketing number of graduates in Malaysia's recent history. Industry relies on higher education as the source of skilled employees, and it is important for industry to attract and retain talented employees…

Despite much research into doctoral education over the past two decades, theorising the field remains challenging. Recently, identity has been taken up as a conceptualising frame. Views of identity vary but often privilege the reproductive features of society, downplaying how individuals can be intentional in pursuing their desires--with the…

Globalisation has brought increasing diversity in student populations and therefore the potential for different sorts of knowledges to enter the academy. At the same time there is heightened surveillance brought about in response to the pressures of global competition, including increasing standardisation, marketisation and performativity…

In line with China's massive leap forward in higher education since the late 1990s and its ambitious bid for world-class universities within decades, doctoral education has been strongly, and arguable strategically, promoted by the Chinese government. During the past four decades, China quickly established a national system of academic degrees and…

"Internationalisation" has become the new buzzword for universities around the world, with jointly offered degrees as well as smaller-scale exchanges for students. Despite this rapid expansion of international campuses and programmes, and the increasing acceptance and encouragement of international experiences for [post]graduate students, little…

Use of the Australian research assessment exercise, Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) to influence the policy and practice of research education in Australia will undoubtedly have many consequences, some of them unintended and potentially deleterious. ERA is a retrospective measure of research quality; research education is prospective.…

Successive waves of neoliberal reforms to higher education have taken their toll on the academy. This paper uses the zombie metaphor to discuss the causes and consequences of organisational change on Australian academics as a background to exploring zombiefication as a form of passive resistance and survival. The paper uses the literature and…

This paper paints the philosophical and ethical backdrop to some of the issues raised in "Australian Universities' Review" vol. 53, no. 2. It links academic performance pay; the measurement of research output; and the astonishing pay levels of vice chancellors to the present global financial crisis. These are explained as part of a general malaise…

Intellectual property rights have various facets. The best-known one is copyright, enabling the owner to legally utilise intellectual materials. However, there is a separate set of legal entitlements, termed moral intellectual property rights. The purpose of these is to prevent false attribution, damage to an author's reputation and some forms of…

Australian universities will lose a substantial proportion of their staff through retirement over the next decade. A recent study has indicated that attrition of academic staff that are not at the end of their career may exacerbate the problem. To assist in developing appropriate retention strategies, this article examines the ways in which early…