Ideas for the Accord
The recent op-ed in The Australian from Universities Accord chair Prof. Mary O’Kane gives a neat summary of the state of the Australian higher education sector. But there’s a problem.
“We’ve heard brilliant analyses of what is wrong and impressive examples of good practice, but a lot less about the opportunities and challenges of the medium and far future and the targets and system settings needed to address them. These issues are not easy and we have to deliver our final report by December – we need all the bright ideas we can get!”
Taking up the challenge, here are three ideas for the Accord.
Education: more, and better
Challenge: how to get more people to obtain higher skill levels to meet the jobs of the future (and present) without breaking the bank. There is a well-recognised need for a greater proportion of the population to obtain a higher education but limited appetite to grow the total cost of the system.
Opportunity: create a mechanism by which providers are incentivised to deliver learning outcomes more efficiently. Providers could be funded to make greater margin per students for shorter programs - they would face a trade-off between longer programs (higher student load) and higher per-student resource. The aim is to help students to achieve qualifications in the quickest possible time - with the lowest debt burden and optimising time in employment post-graduation - and thereby reducing the cost-per-student across the whole system enabling more students to be educated for the same total resource. Investigation of the volume of study actually required for good outcomes, particularly at the undergraduate level, could be used to subvert the present incentive to make programs as long as possible.
2. The right outcomes everywhere
Challenge: how to ensure that communities across Australia have access to high quality education and training opportunities, particularly where the quasi-market fails to sustain institutions. Regional universities and campuses have starkly different economic models: if we want to serve all Australian communities then we need a new way of thinking about how to make provision sustainable.
Opportunity: empower regional community stakeholders to define and commission the education and training (and broader institutional footprint) which best suits their specific contexts. Providers, TAFEs and universities alone or in combination, would then bid to deliver the services through contracts which take account of the need to cover costs for otherwise sub-scale provision. Using a regional development lens, and not trying to apply a one-size-fits-all funding model, should mean that communities are better served and regional campuses become financially sustainable. Ultimately, the additional investment would be spent in the regions and form part of the broader economic and social contribution of these institutions. Delivering more graduates in the regions should also help to bridge the huge gulf in educational prospects between region and city.
3. Empowering the future academic
Challenge: how to ensure that the country’s academics have the best possible career options fit for the future, and that Australia’s higher education system is a magnet for global talent. Meaningful teaching careers, research and hybrid roles all need to be explored with a view to fairness and sustainability for both individuals and institutions, and taking into account the changing nature of the profession and expectations of higher education. There is a further need to position Australia as the place to build an academic career which attracts, and retains, talent from overseas.
Opportunity: commission research and engagement on the needs of the future academic workforce and how academics can be supported through secure and sustainable career paths. A national conversation would avoid the dynamics of local bargaining and enable the exploration of ideas for reform agnostic to specific institutional conditions. This approach also enables interrogation of the relative attractiveness of Australia versus other destinations so that the sector and its institutions can take action to attract the best academics. As a very human profession, we need to pay close attention to the needs and motivations of individuals to ensure that policy levers are used to deliver the intended results.
I’m going to be sceptical that the Accord will meet its full ambitions (see the failed major review of tertiary education in England) but the dialogic process exploring ideas for the sector should make 2023 an interesting year!