Australian Universities: A conversation about public good highlights contemporary challenges facing Australian universities and offers new ideas for expanding public good.
More than 20 experts take up the debate about our public universities: who they are for; what their mission is (or should be); what strong higher education policy entails; and how to cultivate a robust and constructive relationship between government and Australian universities. Issues covered include:
How to change a culture of exclusion to ensure all are welcome in universities, especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students as well as those from low socio-economic backgrounds. How "educational disadvantage" in Australia often begins in school and is still the major barrier to full university participation. The reality that funding for research and major infrastructure requires significant additional funds from non-government sources (e.g. international student fees). A lack of policy recognition that international university students increase Australias social, cultural and economic capital. Pathways to making policy decisions wide-ranging, consultative, inclusive and inspired rather than politically partisan and ideologically driven. The impact of COVID-19 on universities, and particularly how the pandemic and governmental responses exacerbated extant and emerging issues.
Australian Universities rekindles a much-needed conversation about the vital role of public universities in our society, arguing for initiatives informed by the realities of university life and offering a way forward for government, communities, students and public universities together to advance public good.
Starting the conversation Julia Horne and Matthew A.M. Thomas
Part 1: Reimagining Australian universities
1. The One Sydney, Many People story Lisa Jackson Pulver with Peta
Greenfield
2. One million livelihoods: granting social citizenship to Australian
university students Susan Goodwin and Ariadne Vromen
3. Why are Australian universities so large? Glyn Davis
4. Reform for what purposes? Higher education enrolment in Taiwan and
implications for Australia Ren-Hao Xu
Part 2: Reconsidering students
5. When do we answer the call for cultural change? Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander students and higher education Jennifer Barrett, Lisa Jackson
Pulver, Peta Greenfield and Michelle Dickson
6. Beyond access and affordability: young people talk about university
participation Samantha McMahon and Valerie Harwood
7. International students in Australia since the early 1900s Julia Horne
8. International students: during, before and after Gaby Ramia
Part 3: Rethinking structures
9. Who should pay for university? Eight logics of higher education funding in
Australia Gareth Bryant
10. Fees and HECS and the politics of access to university Gwilym Croucher
11. The Job-ready Graduates Package and what it means for students Tim Payne
12. Twenty years of research in Australias universities and implications for
the future Alan Pettigrew
Part 4: Revisiting the public good
13. Let us have more scientists, and more humanists Michael A. Goodman
14. Building a university culture fit for purpose Tim Soutphommasane and
Stephanie Wood
15. Teaching and learning at Australian universities in uncertain times
Matthew A.M. Thomas, John Iromea, Remy Low, Victoria Rawlings, and Susan
Banki
16. Universities, their publics, and climate change Tamson Pietsch
Continuing the conversation Julia Horne and Matthew A.M. Thomas
Julia Horne is Professor of History at the University of Sydney. She works on the history and politics of Australian higher education, and her publications include Sydney: The Making of a Public University (Miegunyah Press, 2012, co-authored with Geoffrey Sherington) and Preserving the Past: The University of Sydney and the Unified National System of Higher Education 198796 (Melbourne University Publishing, 2017, co-authored with Stephen Garton).
Matthew A.M. Thomas is a Senior Lecturer in Comparative Education and Sociology of Education at the University of Sydney. His research examines educational policies, pedagogical practices, and teacher and higher education. Most recently, Matthew is the co-editor of Examining Teach for All (Routledge, 2021) and the Handbook of Theory in Comparative and International Education (Bloomsbury, 2021).
