Graduate Careers Australia survey report
Graduate Careers Australia released its annual survey data on graduate employment for 2011. (Summary of report here) Around 168,000 graduates participated in the survey, which extended to four months beyond graduation. Key finds are as below:
- 76.6 per cent of the 2010 National Class found work by May 2011 – almost identical to the previous year (76.2 per cent);
- In context: 85.2 per cent of graduates found full-time employment within four months of graduating in 2008;
- Evidence that impact of GFC is lingering;
- Median starting salary for graduates aged less than 25 increased by almost $1,000 to $50,000 p.a. Engineering bucked the trend, with graduates earning on average around $65,000;
- Mining Engineering graduates were found to be the most successful group of students to find full-time employment after graduating (98.2 per cent). This was followed by Medicine (98 per cent) and Pharmacy (97.3 per cent). About 85 per cent of Geology graduates found work within four months of graduating;
- Women were more likely to find full-time work (76.8 per cent) than men (76.1 per cent) after graduating;
- One in five graduates goes onto further studies.
Mining Engineers are the clear winners here. One can go further and propose that the 2 per cent not gainfully employed are either doing their gap year or pursuing further studies. Still, it remains a challenge to get students interested in a career in mining and more work needs to be done by myself and others to demonstrate the intensely awesome experiences (my boss’ term) they have on our programs, and in industry.
Murdoch’s new VC aims high
In this article, The Australian reporter Bernard Lane chats to Murdoch’s new VC, Richard Higgot about Murdoch’s direction next year. In summary, Higgot is looking to “slim down the curriculum” in order to boost research, and by default the central coffers. He also feels that the University needs to revert back to its core research strengths.
On the Education Management side of things Higgot wants to institute a flatter organisational structure, like one he successfully implemented at Warwick University, by reducing the size of Murdoch’s executive leadership team. It is suggested that Pro-vice chancellors will be left out.
Canberra Merger Canned
The plan to merge the University of Canberra and Canberra Institute of Technology appear to have been flushed south, along with UC’s alternative plan for a polytechnic. The Australian article speaks of a “confidential brief” sent to the two education provides, proposing “a new type of tertiary institution,” neither higher education nor VET, but would instead “produce a new range of course offerings which are not competency based but competency influenced.” While awaiting the outcome of the ACT’s decision, it looks more likely that instead of a merger or the UC’s polytechnic, it’s going to become some sort of joint-venture ensuring neither institute poaches into their educational space, i.e. higher education and VET.
The Lomax-Smith base funding review
Further to the plethora of articles about the Lomax-Smith HE Base Funding Review, I found this article of interest on The Conversation website, titled Fairness of Higher Education Base Funding Review’s fee policy questioned. The article is based largely on the opinion of Grattan Institute’s HE program director, Andrew Norton, believes that the review’s dismissal of any argument supporting the current government practice of varying the level of support across disciplines as “the single weakest aspect of the report.”
What the review proposes is that all students should contribute 40% towards their total education debt, regardless of discipline or skills shortage associated with that discipline, e.g. mining engineering. The review asserts that program costs are not a motivating factor when prospective students select their higher education course – which reminded me of a Christopher Hitchen’s quote, “That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” Under current arrangements, Engineering and Survey students contribute approximately $8,050 towards their placement annually. If the 40% contribution recommendation is to be taken up by Government, then these students will have to pay $9,613.20, an increase of around $1,500 per year.
- Changes in charges to students if their contributions (Grattan Institute 2011)
In this article, Norton suggests that a range of “rational arguments” could support the continuation of differential subsidies. He bases the argument around:
1). How much the student is charged for their course;
2). How much public good their subsequent work involved; and,
3). How much they’re likely to earn performing it.
For example, one might argue that based on the likely earnings and public good of a teacher, that their University fees be supported by the continuation of differential subsides. That sounds fair enough, as it is well known teachers are under-paid, over-worked and have to put up with brats like me for eight hours a day – sounds less like a profession and more like a sentence. On the other hand, what about the more contentious professions such as Mining Engineering (MEs), whose social good is celebrated by the Milton Friedman types on the right, but lamented by the Planet Ark’ers on the left: The Australian Liberal Party thinks they’re great while the Greens are probably planning a final solution for ME’s as we speak.
Norton’s argument has merit, but using his yardstick appears ladden in subjective reasoning and by dint does not seem practical in my mind – although the tone in which he sets seems reasonable.
TAFE in the spot light
The Productivity Commission’s recently released report on the VET sector has cast serious doubt as to the current modelling under which TAFE’s operate. Several reports discuss the paper:
VET not delivering: Productivity Commission
The Productivity Commission, in its freshly pressed report, has slammed the VET sector, saying that “state based VET systems are failing across the board, from quality control to competition rates,” and that they are failing to communicate training options to students well enough. The report’s major findings are listed below:
- Only around 40 per cent of VET students are studying a Certificate III and above.
- Close to 2/3 of those in Certification III drop out.
- Among graduates of the Certificate III, “a signification proportion” already have a matching qualification.
- Victoria leads the way in expanding a deregulated system, which means opening the market to private providers, which has resulted in enrolments 40 per cent higher than 2008. NSW, Queensland and South Australia are looking into adopting a similar system.
- The report endorses the COAG Reform Council’s finding that qualification targets are unrealistic with the allotted 1.75 billion over 5 years from 2012.
The Commission began venting its frustration with the VET sector in May 2011, when it slammed the industry for allowing up to 40 per cent of TAFE teaching staff to train and assess students without proper credentials, namely the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. The Commission warned back then that this situation could impact efforts to easy the current skills shortage. The Commission also reported that the industry was experiencing severe teaching shortages in numeracy and literacy, and subjects linked to the resources and mining sector.
Background articles can be found below:
Untrained TAFE staff block Julia Gillard’s education push
Report downgrades VET teachers
Skills shortage stoush: can the trainers train?
Student Assessment re-think
It seems that higher education providers are re-thinking how they measure key-performance indicators.
Course Experience Questionnaire showing its age
A discussion paper on reviewing the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ), has questioned its validity in light of a new survey, called the University Experience Survey (UES). The CEQ is a survey for new graduates while the UES is for first-year students. A key proposal here is that the two surveys be made uniform to better understand the student experience. The article proposes that, “to be relevant to the MyUniversities website and inform student study choices, the CEQ would potentially have to extend its reporting of results down to the level of field of education and focus more on surveying students than graduates.
Uni performance assessment must include discipline content
The next re-think lies in how the Universities access themselves. According to the article, the government is planning to introduce a modified version of the US Collegiate Learning Assessment Test (CLA) in its new model of “performance reporting,” to be published on MyUniversity from 2012. According to the CLA website:
CLA Assessment Services provide a means for measuring an institution’s contribution to the development of key higher order competencies, including the effects of changes to curriculum and pedagogy. To gauge summative performance authentically, the CLA presents realistic problems that require students to analyze complex materials and determine the relevance to the task and credibility. Students’ written responses to the tasks are evaluated to assess their abilities to think critically, reason analytically, solve problems and communicate clearly and cogently. Scores are aggregated to the institutional level to provide a signal to the institution about how their students as a whole are performing.
The Education sector is generally concerned by the proposed cost of the CLA test, and that it would have to be phased-in by discipline. A discussion paper from the former Department of Education and Work Place Relations acknowledges sector concerns.
New program to drive links with (manufacturing) industry
In the latest issue (vol. 21, p.6) of Campus Review it tells of the Industrial Transformation Research Program that is set to advance $249 million in funding for engineering cadets, industry training for PhD students and research hubs to boost competition and innovation in Australia’s manufacturing sector. According to Innovation Minister Kim Carr, the program is designed to encourage cooperation between university and industry. More than 1,000 engineering cadets (from materials science, nanotechnology, communications, chemical engineering and biotechnology) will be provided over the next four years under the plan. The money will also pay for industry doctorial and post-doctorial research centres for up to 600 researches each year.
This is great for them. They’ve been feeling a bit ignored of late, and a bit unhappy by their lot. You see, while the manufacturing industry is in decline in Australia, the mining industry is moving from strength to strength. The mining industry’s relationship with the manufacturing unions is a bit like that of North and South Korea…. the Mining industry being the South, plodding along and doing well. Manufacturing feels a bit ignored and falling behind, so from time to time makes noise, tries to poke sticks at the mining industry and blames everyone else for their woes. They’ve even started up a campaign, poking fun at the Mining PR campaign, This is Our Story, with their own copyright infringed versions, This the real story. While the Manufacturing Union is punching in the dark and not really sure on who they should direct their anger on, I did find them somewhat humours, but totally ill-informed… they should be spending their money on more important initiatives, such as the Industrial Transformation Research Program.
