Regional universities benefit country areas

2010

Australian regional universities operate at the intersection of multiple and conflicting discourses, seeking to engage potentially disenfranchised learners outside the metropolis yet possessing less cultural and financial capital than their metropolitan counterparts. So too with faculties of education in such universities, which fulfil a crucial role in preparing future teachers while being positioned at a distance from 'pure' research, thereby highlighting their somewhat ambiguous legitimacy. Many of these competing discourses are evident in the final report of the Bradley Review of Australian higher education (Commonwealth of Australia, 2008), which contains some useful ideas for regional universities to consider but devalues the vital part played by cultural, geographical and physical place in framing those universities' interactions with their local communities. This article explores three sites of pressure and possibility in helping to futureproof faculties of educa...

1997

Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 2018

This paper explores the implementation of a Bachelor of Education program in regional South Australia. Using a case study approach, this paper describes the site of implementation, with attention paid to the challenges regional locations experience in attracting and retaining suitably qualified staff. It will explore the program model and consider the challenges and opportunities associated with the implementation and sustainability. At the individual level, it has provided students with an additional study option that negates the costs and stresses of relocation. At an organisational and community level, there is benefit for local schools as the provision of students and future professionals, who already have demonstrated commitment to the region, may assist in reducing staff turnover. The model presented could be adapted to similar locations, and while it is not a panacea to address regional teaching staff shortages, it offers another educational model that can help alleviate the issue.

The Strategies of Australia’s Universities, 2020

Australia’s public universities are robust institutions that play a crucial role in strengthening the economic and social fabric of the country. They have a Grand Bargain with the state in which they are provided with base funding to educate students to participate in the growing knowledge economy. They also have a civic role to advance knowledge and understanding and to shape the debate on crucial issues like climate change. Because these roles require more money than is provided from government sources, the universities have adopted a commercial mindset. To guide this mindset, they each produce and publish an organisation-level strategy. We argue that these strategies are incomplete and often incoherent.

Since the beginning of 2005, a new university presence in a South Australian regional city has given expanded opportunities for higher education to residents of that region. This study investigates the impact of this new venture on the students and their city, and the wider connections developed. Data are drawn from a student online survey, student, staff and stakeholder focus groups. This is the first stage of a longitudinal study planned to track the first cohort through their study programs (in business, nursing and social work) and subsequent employment. http://www.ala.asn.au/conf/2006/papers/refereed%20papers/Adult%20Learning%20Australia%20Conference2006%20J%20Watkinson_S16_.pdf

1988

The Australian Educational …, 2008

In 2005 a South Australian university inaugurated a new provision of higher education programs in a regional city. Previously, would-be university students in the area had only the options of off-campus study, moving away from home to become internal students, or not pursuing university studies at all. The initiative provided the opportunity to study the effects of the new university presence on its students, university staff and the wider community, and at the same time to learn much that would enable continuous improvement of the methods used in offering these programs. This article reports on the results from focus groups of students and staff, and a survey of the first cohort of students, part of the first stage of a longitudinal study. A combination of effort and collaboration has contributed to meeting community educational needs and aspirations. Researchers from the Centre for Regional Engagement (CRE), University of South Australia (UniSA), gained CRE funding support to investigate the impact of UniSA's •71

National Centre for Vocational Education Research, 2012

Mixed-sector tertiary education institutions are still only small in number and remain relatively under-researched. This project examines universities that offer a small amount of vocational education and training (VET) and private providers that offer both VET and higher education, building on previous research examining TAFEs that offer higher education. This research suggests that mixed-sector and dual-sector providers are likely to become more important but they face specific challenges in the quality of their provision. While the sharp distinctions between VET and higher education are giving way to a more differentiated single tertiary education sector this is resulting in a more stratified and hierarchical structure as university providers become the ‘comparator’. This report suggests: that mixed-sector provision more broadly can be supported through more streamlined regulation of the sectors; that tertiary education be structured so that differences between sectors and instit...

Higher Education, 2000

During 2002, the Australian Education Minister conducted a year-long review of tertiary education under the title Higher Education at the Crossroads. The policy statement arising from that review was released on 13 May 2003. It incorporates a combination of new financial incentives on students and universities, potential expansion of full-fee places, and increased intrusion into university priority setting.

Education in rural Australia, 2022

Across Australia, students at regional, rural and remote high schools are considerably less likely to go to university than their metropolitan counterparts. One of the ways in which universities try to help to bridge this gap is to organise visits to such schools, with the purpose of familiarising students with the idea of university and encouraging them to consider going on to university after school. These visits range in purpose, from direct marketing to a genuine effort to widen access to university more generally. The key purpose of university visits is not always made explicit to the schools or the students, leading to a mismatch between university intentions and school and student expectations. Recent research with regional high schools in South Australia, using a mixed-methods approach, reveals the impact of this mismatch, with university visits being regarded by students and schools as, at best, disappointing and, at worst, as nothing more than marketing exercises and hence to be treated with suspicion. These research findings are discussed, and recommendations made for ways in which university visits may be more effectively geared towards meeting the needs of students, schools and parents. This paper recommends that universities work more closely with regional schools, parents and communities more broadly, with a greater emphasis on providing useful, practical information about what 'going to university' entails. We argue that, through this, more regional students may consider university as a viable post-school option.