Jan Currie

Governance and trust in higher education

The adoption of more corporate models of governance is a contemporary trend in higher education. In the early 2000s, the Australian Government legislated national governance protocols for universities, using the policy lever of financial sanctions. These more corporate‐style governance protocols followed similar changes in the UK, consistent with a historical pattern of Australia borrowing policy ‘on trust’ from its former colonial ruler. However, the Australian approach represented much tighter government regulation than in the UK. This article employs a conceptual lens of trust to analyse changing policy on governance in Australian higher education. Analysis reveals that national governance protocols contributed to a culture of mistrust across the sector, although the dynamics of trust–mistrust relationships were complex and included apparent trust ‘settlements’ between particular stakeholder groups. This analysis offers another step in nascent investigations into trust and the governance of higher education.

Privatization and competition policies for Australian universities

“Privatization” encapsulates an ideological shift towards market principles such as competition, commercialization, deregulation, efficiency and changing forms of accountability. In higher education, the privatization trend includes the full gamut from the creation of fully private institutions which operate without government financial support, to reforms in largely government-funded institutions operating in more of a quasi-market mode. This article examines privatization policies and speculates on their origins and their ramifications for universities around the world. In particular, it describes the impact of corporate managerialism (the import of management practices from the private sector) in institutions still largley under the control of governments, and focuses on examples of the particular effects of this ideological shift in three Australian universities. It argues that some traditional academic values should be preserved as important attributes of universities that enable them to operate in the public interest and maintain their role as a critical voice in society.

The impact of cultural context on the perception of work/ family balance by professional women in Singapore and Hong Kong

‘Work/family balance’ has recently come to the fore in public policy debate and academic inquiry across the industrialized world. However, this issue has been relatively under-explored in the context of Asian business and society. This paper reports the results of a qualitative, exploratory investigation of the perceptions and experiences of predominantly professional women, aged 25—45 years living in Singapore and Hong Kong. Data from focus groups were used to explore how women in these countries perceive work/family balance and the role of family, government and other support structures in managing this aspect of their lives. This study confirms that cultural context is a significant factor in how women perceive and respond to the issue of work/family balance. L’impact du contexte culturel sur la perception de l’équilibre travail/famille par des femmes exerçant des professions libérales à Singapour et Hong Kong. Hwte Hwte Thein, Siobhan Austen, Janice Currie & Erica Lewin L’équilibre “travail/famille” est depuis quelque temps au cœur du débat politique et de la recherche universitaire dans le monde industrialisé. Cependant, cette question n’a pas fait l’objet de beaucoup de recherche dans le contexte de la société et du monde des affaires asiatiques. Cet article rend compte des conclusions d’une enquête qualitative sur les perceptions et expériences de femmes d’affaires ou exerçant des professions libérales, âgées entre 24 et 45 ans, et vivant à Singapour ou à Hong Kong. Des données émanant de groupes de réflexion ont été utilisées afin d’explorer comment les femmes de ces pays perçoivent l’équilibre travail/famille, ainsi que le rôle de la famille, du gouvernement et autres structures de soutien afin de gérer cet aspect de leurs vies. Cette étude confirme que le contexte culturel est un facteur significatif de la façon dont les femmes perçoivent et répondent à cette question de l’équilibre travail/famille.

Changing accountabilities in higher education as China ‘opens up’ to globalisation

This paper focuses on changing accountability policies/practices in higher education as China rapidly ‘opens up’ to the global knowledge economy. It reports empirical findings from two case study universities, using respondents’ voices, and then raises issues for critical reflection. Increasingly prescriptive and punitive neo‐liberal accountabilities have come to prevail in Chinese higher education, although ‘new’ accountability mechanisms have not simply replaced the ‘old’ but, arguably, they have coalesced into a potentially unstable hybrid of accountability relationships. We argue the need to dislodge the hegemony of neo‐liberal accountabilities, and to continually—and critically—navigate ‘local’ needs within ‘global’ contexts, as policies evolve.

The effectiveness of assistive technologies for children with special needs: a review of research-based studies

Assistive technologies are often promoted to schools, parents and educators as tools to assist students with special needs by providing a compensatory value, to remediate learning problems and to promote personal independence. These technologies range from simple spellcheckers to more complex speech recognition systems and educational software. Many research projects have examined the effectiveness of these assistive technologies – primarily in terms of their remediation and assistive functions. This paper describes the results of a systematic search of research-based studies published in the last six years that examined the effectiveness of assistive technologies that have reading, writing, spelling and speech as their focus. After a rigorous process, 15 empirical research articles were selected based on the following criteria: empirical studies involved students who identified as having special needs; the assistive technologies had a literacy and speech focus; participants were in years K–12; and a clear skill or academic improvement was shown. Findings revealed that while some programs saw no improvement in spelling, reading or writing as a result of using the assistive technology, the majority of studies found consistently improved outcomes

The use of technology in postgraduate supervision pedagogy in two Australian universities

The supervision journey is often a bumpy one. Students and supervisors should welcome making it smoother. This study investigated how the use of information and communication technology (ICT) and a more collaborative pedagogy could improve supervision. We interviewed eight supervisors and nine students in two Australian universities to explore the current use of ICT and its integration with supervision pedagogy. Recent literature demonstrated new forms of supervision pedagogy emerging that embraced the idea of creating communities, involving greater connectedness, collaboration and more intense relationships. Not all studies found movement away from the traditional form of supervision dyads. The students and supervisors in our study used email, mobile phones, Skype and Dropbox; some used social media like Twitter. Students reported their supervisors were competent in using ICT, sometimes initiating the uptake of new technologies. Overall, they identified the need for an increased use of ICT and its integration with supervision pedagogy.

“Countability not answerability?” Accountability in Hong Kong and Singapore universities

Singapore and Hong Kong are vying to be the principal educational hub for the Asia-Pacific region and have begun to compete with Australia, Britain, Canada and the USA in providing cross-border education. Although these four Anglo-American countries still dominate cross-border education, Singapore and Hong Kong hope to make inroads into this export market and compete on the global stage. To create “world-class” universities, Singapore and Hong Kong have introduced quality assurance mechanisms, diversified funding sources, and restructured their university governance systems. This article compares the accountability measures introduced into Hong Kong and Singapore universities, and the responses of academics and administrators to these measures. The results indicate that both countries introduced greater autonomy as they augmented accountability for their universities, and the term “decentralised centralism” describes the kind of government control exerted in these Asian universities in the twenty-first century.

Religion and feminism: A consideration of cultural constraints on Sri Lankan women

There is considerable evidence that discrimination against women exists in the economic, social, and cultural spheres in patriarchal societies. The womens movement has attacked most vociferously womens lack of opportunities within the labour market and the political arena. However, if women are to be fully liberated, one of the most important struggles will have to be against the accepted values and attitudes arising from cultural and religious practices. This article analyses interviews from Sri Lankan women living in Colombo and Perth, Western Australia on womens attitudes to religious notions. The results demonstrate the impact of religious ideas and practices on the majority of women who were interviewed in 1984–1985. Except for the feminist respondents in the sample, the majority of women believed that they should carry out certain practices which subordinated them to their male partners and placed women on a lower rank than men within the community.

Globalisation’s Impact on the Professoriate in Anglo-American Universities

This study was funded by grants from the Australian Research Council and Murdoch University. I thank them and the 253 respondents who were interviewed and gave me insights into their lives as academics. The research was a team effort that included Lesley Vidovich, Anthony Welch, and Harriett Pears in Australia; and Edward Berman in the United States. I want to thank Paul Snider for research and editorial assistance.

Globalization and Universities

The media and American politicians portrayed the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon of September 11, 2001 as the act of mindless terrorists and principally masterminded by Osama bin Laden. In the same breath, analysts of the attack suggested that the terrorists involved might be located in 40 to 50 nations and in several US states. This indicates a global network. From the geographically ‘ remote’ country of Afghanistan, the alleged terrorists were able to use sophisticated technology to direct an attack on the most powerful and most technologically advanced nation in the twenty-first century. This global network of terrorists could not have existed fifty years ago. When President George W. Bush declared that this is a ‘ new war’, he identified a phenomenon that is linked with globalization. This is not a war against a nation state. Osama bin Laden does not belong to any particular nation state. His organization is global. The fight against the terrorists is going to be a global struggle.