Gavin Moodie

Identifying Vocational Education and Training.

Abstract This article observes that vocational education and trainings identity has been founded on four types of characteristics: epistemological, teleological, hierarchical and pragmatic. No single characteristic is found to be adequate to identify vocational education and training across jurisdictions, and across historical periods. Both Rushbrook and Stevenson seek for vocational education and training what Rushbrook calls an ‘abstracted institutional teleology’. Yet such a quest may degenerate into essentialism, and in any case is vulnerable to being made obsolete by the changes that vocational education and training is meant to be stimulating and to equip us for life. The article concludes by arguing for a definition of vocational education and training which is a compound of the four general characteristics considered.

Vocational education institutions’ role in national innovation

This article distinguishes research—the discovery of new knowledge—from innovation, which is understood to be the transformation of practice in a community or the incorporation of existing knowledge into economic activity. From a survey of roles served by vocational education institutions in a number of OECD countries the paper argues that vocational education institutions have a potentially crucial role in mediating between the creators of new knowledge—researchers and their institutions—and the users of knowledge. They are ideally placed to develop this role since innovation is a local activity and vocational education institutions are much more widely geographically dispersed than research intensive institutes. The paper concludes by posing six steps vocational education institutions should follow to establish a role in national innovation.

Integration and fragmentation of post compulsory teacher education

The boundaries between vocational and academic post compulsory education have been blurred by students combining vocational and academic studies and by students transferring increasingly between the two types of education. Institutions are also blurring the boundaries between the sectors by increasingly offering programs from two and sometimes three sectors. In contrast, teachers seem more entrenched than ever in their own sector. This article reports a project on the preparation of Australian teachers of vocational education. It examines the prospect of integrating the preparation of teachers in post compulsory education to teach in schools, vocational education institutions and higher education institutions. It argues that greater differentiation between different types of vocational teachers and vocational teacher preparation can support the development of a continuum along which it would be possible to establish points of commonality with the preparation of school and higher education teachers.

Reverse Transfer in Australia.

Abstract This article considers national Australian data on reverse transfer – the transfer of students from bachelor programs or higher to sub baccalaureate programs, institutions and sectors. It finds that previous studies have overstated the prevalence and perhaps also the significance of reverse transfer. The data are not good, but the best conclusion is that reverse transfer in Australia is from 50% less to 50% more than upward transfer, depending on the concept and measure of transfer used. Furthermore, the Australian survey data suggests that while most upward transfer students have completed their sub baccalaureate qualification before transferring, only just over a third of reverse transfer students have completed their degree: almost two-thirds of reverse transfer students are ‘drop downs’

Do tiers affect student transfer? Examining the student admission ratio

This study considers whether formally segmenting 4-year institutions by admissions selectivity affects the admission of transfer students. It develops a new measure, the student admission ratio, to compare the admission of transfer students in formally and highly segmented systems, informally and less segmented systems, and in formally unified systems. The study finds that the segmentation of systems by admissions selectivity does not adversely affect transfer admissions. The study concludes by positing that the formal structure of a system is not so important for student transfer as the processes for implementing transfer policy, and it considers the implications of this for practice.

The missing link in Australian tertiary education: short-cycle higher education

Abstract The blurring of the boundary between Australian vocational education and training and higher education is leading to a reconsideration of the current structure of Australian tertiary education. This paper starts with the main overlap of the Australian tertiary education sectors, diplomas and advanced diplomas. The ambiguous treatment of these programs and Australia’s unusually deep organisational separation of vocational education and training and higher education has made it difficult for governments to have an integrated tertiary education policy, and it has restricted vocational education and training’s role. By comparing arrangements for the highest sub baccalaureate qualifications in Aotearoa New Zealand, North America and the UK, known generically as short-cycle higher education, the paper develops some new options for Australia. The paper concludes by arguing that Australia should follow North American and UK examples and decouple the institutional and programmatic designations of the sectors to allow vocational education and training institutes to offer unambiguously higher education programs.

Regulating ‘university’ and degree‐granting authority: Changing of the guard

This paper describes the changes in the recognition of universities made or proposed in England, Australia and the USA since 2004, and posits a broad shift from the permanent designation of institutional types to the periodic recognition of qualification‐granting authority. This is associated with increased private funding and operation of universities, which in turn is associated with a shift from elite to mass higher education.

Gutenberg’s effects on universities

This article considers the effects on universities of Gutenberg’s invention of printing. It considers four major effects: the gradual displacement of Latin as the language of scholarship with vernacular languages, the expansion and eventual opening of libraries, major changes to curriculum, and major changes to pedagogy including lectures. The paper does not find that the ubiquity of books changed the role of university teachers as was proposed in the late fifteenth century. The paper also considers a fifth change: the eventual replacement of oral disputations with written examinations as the main form of assessment for admission to a degree. While this was radical, it owed little to the direct effects of printing. The paper concludes with brief observations on the implications of the earlier information revolution for understanding the effects on universities of the current information revolution.

University leadership: approaches, formation and challenges in Europe

Whitchurch, C. (2006b). Who do they think they are? The changing identities of professional administrators and managers in UK higher education. Journal of Higher Education Policy & Management, 28, 159–171. Whitchurch, C. (2008a). Beyond administration and management: Reconstructing the identities of professional staff in UK higher education. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 30, 375–386. Whitchurch, C. (2008b). Preparing managers in UK higher education: Preparing for complex futures (Final Report). London: Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. Whitchurch, C. (2008c). Shifting identities and blurring boundaries: The emergence of third space professionals in UK higher education. Higher Education Quarterly, 62, 377–396.

The Interplay Between Lifelong Learning and Vocational Education and Training

Vocational education presents a quandary for many governments. Its core purposes are to develop new and extend existing occupational skills – skills that may be applied directly in work. So the close involvement of employers and employees is central to the successful operation of vocational education. Indeed, there is no apparent reason in principle for governments to be involved in vocational education any more than in other aspects of the employment relationship. Yet the state has long regulated vocational education. England adopted the Statute of Artificers in 1563 as part of a general regulation of wages and the labour market generally (Woodward 1980) and extended its regulation of apprenticeships and other occupations in a subsequent legislation.