As colleges and universities have adopted a corporate model in recent decades, debate over the public versus private good associated with higher education has surged. The deliberations have typically been entrenched in Western notions about academia's contributions to development and scholars have framed academic capitalism dichotomously; a force…

This paper provides an analysis into the global phenomenon known as credential/qualification fraud, a $US 1 billion dollar "cottage" industry which has tainted higher education in Australia, and does not appear to be abating. The study is developed through a conceptual framework of credentialism, degree creep and screening theory, which the author…

Countless cases of plagiarism are detected across the Australian higher education sector each year. Generally speaking, policy and other responses to the issue focus on punitive, rather than on educative, measures. Recently, a subtle shift is discernable. As well as ensuring appropriate consequences for plagiarists, several universities are…

Measurable research outputs have become part of the overall research management structure within Australian universities over the past ten years. As such, policy makers and administrators alike have come to regard effective management structures and mechanisms as fundamental components of a research environment capable of generating desired…

This study explores compromises by individual academic staff, which reflect their multiple understandings of academic work. I offer a brief overview of the changing Australian tertiary sector environment and the ways in which this has had an impact on the academic role. The discussion centres around the need for investigations of academia to be…

Based on a study of research partnerships with industry across the higher education sector in three high technology fields in South Africa, the paper identifies five key tensions, the resolution of which shapes the way partnerships are facilitated and constrained in distinct institutional contexts. The paper highlights the significance of policy…

University academic staff do complex work in an increasingly demanding environment. Traditionally, universities have defined the role of academic staff according to the three domains of teaching, research, and service, with primary emphasis placed upon the teaching and research aspects and secondary emphasis upon service or administration. Recent…

Changing student expectations of higher education is an increasing challenge to the university sector. How one institution responds to those changing expectations is examined close up. While student non-completion is a feature of the contemporary higher education landscape, little analysis of the role played by higher education institutions in…

The working lives of general staff in universities have been a rather closed book until recently, having been largely ignored in both academic and non-academic literature. When discussed or referred to, general staff have been depicted in problematic ways that, in recent times, can be associated with the prevailing discourse of "corporate…

There have been many changes to the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) since its introduction in 1989. The most significant of these is possibly the reforms announced in the 2003 Federal Budget, which allow universities to increase the contributions required of students by up to 25%. This paper considers the distribution of deferred HECS…

There has been much recent debate, both in the media and in academic journals, as to the meaning of the term university. This article explores the legal meaning of the term, and the historical contingencies which have surrounded various understandings of the term. It compares the structure of the Eleemosynary Corporation--the individual colleges…

The paper examines 2 recent Australian government issues papers on higher education and research policy, indicating areas both of concern and opportunity for Australian higher education providers in theology and their research efforts. The paper then offers suggestions as to how providers of theological education might position themselves as…

This paper clusters and ranks the research performance of 36 Australian universities according to their research performance over the period of 1998-2002. Research performance is measured according to audited numbers of Ph.D. completions and publications, and research grants income (in accordance with rules established by the Department of…

Contemporary universities, serving mass higher education markets, find themselves delivering complex, broadly based projects such as student support and welfare, human resource development, and business enterprise. Established concepts of academic administration and devolved management have been overlaid by more fluid institutional structures and…

This paper discusses the higher education sector's role in a knowledge-based economy though research training, that is, doctoral education. It also examines how a Faculty of Education supports its doctoral candidates in their endeavours to become "knowledge producers". Two themes are explored: one is Australia's limited investment in education by…