The 1988-89 Budget provides more detail on the Commonwealth's intentions for higher education as outlined in the Green and White Papers. This article focuses on one consequence of the Budget: the decline in operating grants per student in the period 1989 to 1991. Not all the data on expenditure and enrolments necessary for precise estimates are…

Commonwealth funding formulae have caused Australian universities to become obsessed with maximising external research funding. Considerable pressure is applied to faculties, departments and scholars to apply for funding, and relative success in attracting it is given excessive weight in evaluating research performance. This may be productive in…

Taking up a theme raised by Stuart Cunningham in a recent issue of the "AUR"--that the innovations of Australia's humanities, creative arts, and social sciences are not getting the recognition that they deserve from the nation's government--this paper, dealing only with the social sciences, offers a cautionary note. If the social sciences are to…

International students in Australia are not usually identified with protest. However, a cohort of such students at one university campus was prepared to undertake robust public protest over alleged academic mistreatment in 2006/2007, eschewing conventional internal mechanisms for the resolution of such problems. Subsequent developments revealed…

One of the issues facing universities operating in a range of market situations and contexts is that of plagiarism. Different universities have taken different approaches in dealing with this issue. In an Australian university context, this issue is of particular concern, given the large numbers of overseas students studying in Australia, and…

University rankings are having a profound effect on both higher education systems and individual universities. In this paper we outline these effects, discuss the desirable characteristics of a good ranking methodology and document existing practice, with an emphasis on the two main international rankings (Shanghai Jiao Tong and THES-QS). We take…

With particular regard to gender, this paper considers the rise and fall of EEO in Australian universities over the last 30 years. The paper argues that EEO, a product of social liberalism, had barely been introduced before it became a casualty of the Dawkins reforms and the transformation of the university. Corporatisation resulted in top-down…

Focusing on the developmental needs of early career postdoctoral fellows--the lifeblood of an internationally competitive research-intensive university--this paper suggests an inextricably linked, two pronged approach to improving research performance at Australian universities. The first is to reconceptualise post-PhD research pathways and in…

The commodification of research in the social sciences sees a focus on "inputs" rather than "outputs" and an emphasis on the "science" rather than the "social". The empirical prevails at the expense of the critical, with lessening interest in, and support for, knowledge designed to interrogate orthodoxy. Increasingly, scholars have to operate in a…

There is little doubt that the modern university is far different to that of the early 90s and the work of academics has changed considerably over this time driven by the efficiency and accountability agenda. In taking stock of the changes, it needs to be recognised that often the cry for efficiency and accountability has been used as a mechanism…

In 2003/4, 13 Australian universities took part in a follow-up survey of occupational stress following an earlier one conducted in 2000. More than 6000 staff participated at each time, of whom 969 (stayers) participated at both times. This paper presents the cross-sectional data obtained on both occasions as well as the longitudinal data provided…

The Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) has been advanced as having many desirable properties. These have been discussed largely from the theoretical perspective, and with the individual rather than the family as the reference point. This paper explores whether HECS is working the way it was intended. Is it having undesirable or…

University discipline is an important object of legislative and administrative action in the higher education sector. There have been two waves of concern with university discipline in the post-war period, especially in respect of students: first, in the period of post-war university expansion; second, in the period of commercialisation post-1988.…

Universities are required by legislation to provide annual staff unit record files to the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST). Most universities seem to undertake this task with appropriate diligence. This paper examines the latest staff aggregated data set released by DEST (2005 data), in order to compare average salaries paid by…

There's a received view of the troubles of academia which lays the blame on a new corporate culture of soulless managerialism. Geoff Sharrock isn't convinced. He argues that critical scholars are often ill-placed to be able to understand their own predicament. And many of the problems of the sector lie in its incapacity to adjust to the changed…