Economies of Scale in Higher Education

Recently (October 1 st ), the new requirements for Higher Education Registration and Accreditation, based on the National Protocols, came into force in NSW. Pedagogically these new registration and accreditation requirements are focussed on student protection and learner centred continuous improvement, and so are informed by the spirit of equity of access and opportunity that grounds the National Protocols.

The picture that emerges from the registration criteria and requirements in the National Guidelines reveals an almost Platonic vision of an ideal Higher Education institution. The Guidelines provide an abstract vision of the perfect university: governance structures that shield academic decisions from the pure profit motive; student support services and facilities that ensure the opportunity for success; and resources and a staffing profile that guarantee educational quality.

However it is also clear that the model for this abstraction is located firmly in the here and now - the present state of Australian public universities.

Now this is perfectly understandable: ask most people to describe Higher Education and the natural instinct is to describe a university. But is this really the best model we can utilize for envisioning the future development of the sector? Does the abstraction produced by the university model incorporate enough flexibility to allow for the innovations currently characterising the development of the sector? In particular, does the university model, itself by and large the product of an elite education system based in the Middle ages, provide the best framework in which to develop flexible learning and e.learning options, or the provision of lifelong professional development opportunities that more and more characterizes the postgraduate sector? In regards to this last point, does the traditional university, long criticised (perhaps unfairly) as an ivory tower disconnected from the wider community, really provide either the opportunities or model for continuous professional development in fields as diverse as law and psychotherapy?

Furthermore, do the students who require these services really want or expect the same levels or kind of service and support as provided by a major university? The model advocated by the public university system is firmly predicated upon the requirements to provide for an overwhelming proportion of their enrolments being school leaver undergraduates, a small percentage of whom will develop specialist interests in a particular research area in which they enrol in postgraduate study. The irony of this model is that the original foundation of the university system in mediaeval Europe was to provide professional development opportunities for the law and clergy; the contemporary university concentrates its interests on the development of increasingly esoteric research foci that appear increasingly removed from practical application.

Perhaps the most surprising factor around the adoption of the Australian public sector universities as the best model of practice in higher education is based on a consideration of the present state of the universities themselves. Frankly, the Howard years were not good to the public universities; but even more damaging has been the traumatic shift from an elite education system aimed at providing a large pool of professionals, to a mass education system aimed at providing a cleverer country. During my own career at University I have seen classes of 18 - 20 over 2 hours get cut back to classes of 30 over 1 hour - and the semester go from 14 to 12 weeks. And these cuts for financial savings surely result, in the views of many academics, in a significant loss of quality. What is interesting in light of a discussion about the current Registration and Accreditation requirements, is that these cuts have had to take place in the largest and most established institutions in the country.

In the light of these questions one is forced to ask whether the requirements for higher education are equitable or even desirable, based as they are on a system in crisis. Are the economies of scale required by large public universities the economies of scale to apply broadly across the sector? Are the provisions for a large mass of undergraduate students necessary for all providers of higher education?

The situation of the higher education sector has suggested to others than myself the need for a wide scale review, most notably that headed by Prof. Bradley. One area I would suggest that should be subject to intense scrutiny is the definition of a university as a very specific type of institution. The university serves a crucial and perhaps central role within Higher Education, but it does not encompass or necessarily epitomize Higher Education. The University as an institution functions to provide opportunities for knowledge acquisition and research in a broad field of disciplines: although individual universities may excel in particular disciplines, they all cover many disciplines in their ambit. It is this broad multidisciplinary coverage that enables the university to service a mass audience of tertiary/higher education students, but there are also other types of institution that serve different functions within the sector. Specialist postgraduate institutes, for example, play a vital role in contributing to a specific body of knowledge or discipline through research activities, while other institutes serve an ongoing need for specialized, professional development; often both roles are fulfilled by single specialist institutes.

It is particularly these smaller ‘boutique' education institutes, that serve a mature aged, professional cohort, and specialize in a particular discipline, or even modality within a discipline, that are most affected by the standardization of the university as the Higher Education institution. Apart from catering to a specific specialist audience and providing specialist skills and knowledge, these institutions are often required to provide their educational services and delivery with a degree of flexibility unachievable at universities. They are forced to innovate, while the university still bases itself on the lecture –tutorial pattern it has engaged since the Middle Ages. And yet to survive in the present climate, these institutions are being forced to demonstrate levels of student support and administrative structures comparable to universities with tens of thousands of undergraduate enrolments and institutional frameworks and infrastructure that have been established for decades, and in one or two cases, centuries.

In the present situation within which Australia finds itself, a chronically under-skilled workforce and major mass education institutions under quality eroding pressures, do we want to encourage the development of smaller scale specialist institutions that service specific professional areas, and deliver to their students flexibly; or do we want to encourage the further formation of large- scale multi-disciplinary, mass education institutions that continue to deliver to their undergraduate students with a moribund pedagogy?

The goals of higher education in Australia include:

•  advancing knowledge and understanding

•  enabling individuals to learn throughout their lives (for personal growth and fulfilment, for effective participation in the workforce and for constructive contributions to society)

•  meeting the demands of the labour market through quality education

•  equipping the community with social, cultural and international knowledge, skills and attitudes to improve the quality of life for all citizens

•  contributing to a democratic, equitable and civilised society

•  contributing to an improved national economy through high levels of skills, knowledge and research, including collaborative research with business, industry and government.

Are these goals achieved by forcing innovative small scale providers to adopt the practices and governance of the major public institutions – or might these institutions actually be achieving these goals in despite of the behemoths of the sector?

 

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