A fixation with comparisons
Hit numbers that followed the Government’s launch of the MySchool website have no doubt contributed to Education Minister Julia Gillard’s announcement that a broadly similar site will be established for universities. (Julia Gillard, 2010)
The Minister said the new MyUniversity website would be operating by 2012.
The Minister glowingly announced: ‘MyUniversity will provide a robust, consolidated and transparent source of information about all of Australia’s 39 universities. Information will be provided in an easily accessible form for students and parents.’
‘MyUniversity will also allow universities to learn from the success of their colleagues and inform the community about the quality of teaching at our universities.’
All this frenetic activity to draw university learning into consolidated Canberra administration and government control may appear wonderfully innovative but ask the following questions of current university operations.
All universities have already established sophisticated, highly professional online and information services.
Is there some hint in the government’s action that universities are not already competently and diligently providing publically accessible information for all university stakeholders?
The government has stated that current enrolment decisions are made on the grounds of ‘hearsay, inference from entry requirements or the perceived prestige of universities.’
Doubtless the Group of Eight universities will be concerned to hear their long standing and outstanding record of tertiary achievement is so perceived by a government fixated with student measurement and information accessibility.
Does the Minister actually believe universities don't engage in best-practice discussions to improve their operations?
The government will base its MyUniversity criteria on the quality of teaching and learning outcomes, a clear indication that quantitative criteria will form the main substance of the new website – as with the MySchool site – to drive enrolment decision making.
Education by numbers and learning by government management and control was the comment made by some lecturers and university personnel to describe the government’s proposed initiative.
The Minister conveniently forgot to mention that universities have been instructed that their funding allocations will be controlled and overseen by their responses to student satisfaction surveys and questions relating to measures of graduate skills and graduate outcomes.
How could universities control such post-graduate personal and professional development outcomes which rely on numerous conditioners set by the workplace and general business or professional environment over which universities have no control and limited ability to influence?
The Rudd Government is keen to encourage greater university patronage as another requirement of funding which relies on institutions achieving enrolment growth targets for more students.
How do such narrow measures of community access and academe success equate with institutions which seek stronger research-orientated structures to attract international students – notably doctoral or post-doctoral candidates – and hence compete with world’s best practice overseas tertiary institutions?
MyUniversity is shaping as a cynical, inadequate exercise in funding management and government control which may provide quality measurement but which fails to answer resourcing issues of the higher education sector.
Stable, long term funding would provide forward financial security for the many institutions that have grabbed international student enrolments as a financial funding source to sustain their operations.
As the media has portrayed such marketability is subject to extreme variability when social issues of international student safety are concerned.
How many politicians have visited India to reassure the subcontinent’s students that it’s safe to study in this country?
With the tertiary sector now Australia’s fourth largest source of international foreign exchange no wonder university leaders are concerned.
Members of the public should not worry however.
Expect the Education Minister to shortly announce a plethora of My websites leading into the 2010 election starting with MyTAFE, MyAccounting and MyLanguage.
If the number of international students attending soft option courses continues to diminish anticipate the Minister to soon launch MyHair and MyCooking to authenticate VET course competencies and institutional reliability.
Website hits from prospective overseas students will go through the roof.
Educationalists from more respected global institutions will simply scratch their heads in wonderment at such fawning practices to seek international student enrolments.
A transcript of the announcement by The Hon Julia Gillard, 3 March 2010 that the Government plans to launch a My University website from 2012 can be read on the following site: http://www.deewr.gov.au/Ministers/Gillard/Media/Releases/Pages/Article_100303_153420.aspx
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