Outcomes-based metrics and research measurement in Australian higher education

This chapter explores how four decades of neoliberalist policies have transformed a historically erudite and collegial culture within Australian universities into a mass-delivery mechanism for education and research outputs. It examines the pervasiveness of New Public Management accounting and auditing in academic performance measurement. We find that academic performance in Australian universities has become increasingly characterized by a managerial audit culture

The neoliberal reality of higher education in Australia: How accountingisation is corporatising knowledge

Purpose: As accounting academics, we know that performance measurement is well-trodden ground in the literature. Yet rarely have we turned our gaze inwards to examine the performance controls we are subject to in our own everyday working life. Over the last 40 years, the rise of the New Public Management paradigm and neoliberalism has intensified changes in the way universities, disciplines and individual academics justify the quality of their work. In this article, we explore the impact of accountingisation on our field and the Australian public sector higher education sector. Design/methodology: The perceptions of accounting academics in Australia’s 37 business faculties and schools were collected via an online survey. Also, used were a document analysis of annual reports, internal reports, strategy documents, and other confidential material. Findings: The changes have included the use of corporate and individual research metrics aimed at increasing institutional status, brand reputation and revenue generation. These changes have transformed business schools and universities into commercial enterprises and commoditised education. What our analysis demonstrates is the apparent relationship between various government agendas, the commercialisation of universities and the distortion of the research activities by individual academics. For increased profits and efficiencies, individual scholars have paid the highest price. Research implications: If the accounting discipline is to be sustainable in the long-term, business schools in Australia must reconfigure their performance measurement systems. Originality/value: To date, research on ‘accountingisation’ has previously been primarily conducted in the health and social services sectors. This research raises rarely heard voices to expose the actual social and human costs of accountingisation in Australia’s higher education sector

Public universities and impacts of COVID-19 in Australia: Risk disclosures and organisational change

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the COVID-19 pandemic risk disclosures in a sample of annual reports of Australian public universities. These universities rely heavily on fee-paying onshore overseas students. Analysing these risk disclosures is essential to understanding the COVID-19 crisis and the implications for organisational change. Design/methodology/approach: Document analysis and content analysis of the 2019 annual reports of all Victorian public universities were undertaken to identify the disclosure of COVID-19 risk impacts. Applying Laughlin's Habermasian insights of change, the study explores the pathways of change adopted by universities to overcome the risk impacts. However, financial risk disclosures about income from this source were virtually non-existent. Findings: Any risk associated with COVID-19 disclosed was minimal in a qualitative, neutral and constant format. The quality of disclosures was low. Media statements, however, pointed to significant income loss and suggested a strategy of substantial cost-cutting, including employee redundancies, which we identified as morphostatic changes of universities to overcome the risk impacts. Research limitations/implications: The study reveals the risk associated with sector's aggressive growth strategy, jeopardising their financial viability and quality of teaching and research. Practical implications: The findings provide insights to the Australian higher education sector. The low quality of external risk disclosures of these universities suggests an urgent need for transformation. Originality/value: Australian public universities play a crucial role in society. This role will be diminished by a failure to disclose and manage significant risks adequately

On the resilience of Australian public universities: Why our institutions may fail unless vice-chancellors rethink broken commercial business models

COVID-19-related public health measures have severely impacted the Australian higher education system (AHES). This paper examines the resilience of the AHES, particularly its past reliance on onshore international students to generate revenue that cross-subsidises operational and research expenses. By our measure, ten universities are at risk of financial default. With a different approach on the part of the Government and university leadership, surplus monies could have contributed to building a more resilient AHES. Our findings correct widely held misconceptions about the state of the AHES and aim to provide valuable learnings to individual universities and the sector more broadly

Exclusion and enrollment of participants in the Health and Environmental Exposure Research study.

<p>Exclusion and enrollment of participants in the Health and Environmental Exposure Research study.</p

<i>ttm-1</i> Encodes CDF Transporters That Excrete Zinc from Intestinal Cells of <i>C. elegans</i> and Act in a Parallel Negative Feedback Circuit That Promotes Homeostasis

<div><p>Zinc is an essential metal involved in a wide range of biological processes, and aberrant zinc metabolism is implicated in human diseases. The gastrointestinal tract of animals is a critical site of zinc metabolism that is responsible for dietary zinc uptake and distribution to the body. However, the role of the gastrointestinal tract in zinc excretion remains unclear. Zinc transporters are key regulators of zinc metabolism that mediate the movement of zinc ions across membranes. Here, we identified a comprehensive list of 14 predicted Cation Diffusion Facilitator (CDF) family zinc transporters in <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i> and demonstrated that zinc is excreted from intestinal cells by one of these CDF proteins, TTM-1B. The <i>ttm-1</i> locus encodes two transcripts, <i>ttm-1a</i> and <i>ttm-1b</i>, that use different transcription start sites. <i>ttm-1b</i> expression was induced by high levels of zinc specifically in intestinal cells, whereas <i>ttm-1a</i> was not induced by zinc. TTM-1B was localized to the apical plasma membrane of intestinal cells, and analyses of loss-of-function mutant animals indicated that TTM-1B promotes zinc excretion into the intestinal lumen. Zinc excretion mediated by TTM-1B contributes to zinc detoxification. These observations indicate that <i>ttm-1</i> is a component of a negative feedback circuit, since high levels of cytoplasmic zinc increase <i>ttm-1b</i> transcript levels and TTM-1B protein functions to reduce the level of cytoplasmic zinc. We showed that TTM-1 isoforms function in tandem with CDF-2, which is also induced by high levels of cytoplasmic zinc and reduces cytoplasmic zinc levels by sequestering zinc in lysosome-related organelles. These findings define a parallel negative feedback circuit that promotes zinc homeostasis and advance the understanding of the physiological roles of the gastrointestinal tract in zinc metabolism in animals.</p></div

Cadmium exposure and endometrial cancer risk: A large midwestern U.S. population-based case-control study

<div><p>Estrogen-mimicking chemicals, such as cadmium, may be associated with increased susceptibility to hormone-dependent cancers, though supporting data are sparse, particularly for endometrial cancer. The Health and Environmental Exposure Research (HEER) study worked with the Arkansas Central Cancer Registry, Iowa Cancer Registry and Missouri Cancer Registry to obtain names of women diagnosed with endometrial cancer who were willing to be contacted for participation in our case control study. Voter registration lists from Iowa and Missouri were used to randomly select similarly aged women as represented in the case population. Participants were interviewed by telephone to obtain information on known or suspected endometrial risk factors. Urine kits were sent to participants for home collection and returned for analysis. Our case-control study consisted of 631 incident cases of endometrial cancer diagnosed from January 2010 to October 2012 and 879 age-matched population-based controls, ages 18–81 years (mean age 65 years). We quantified cadmium amounts in urine and standardized these values through creatinine adjustment. Using data from all survey completers, we developed a multivariable model for endometrial cancer. Creatinine-adjusted cadmium concentration was added to this model. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for endometrial cancer were calculated. After multivariable adjustment, higher creatinine-adjusted cadmium exposure was associated with a statistically significant increase of endometrial cancer risk (OR: 1.22; 95% CI: 1.03–1.44). Our results provide evidence that cadmium may increase the risk of endometrial cancer, possibly through estrogenic effects.</p></div

Exclusion and enrollment of participants in the Health and Environmental Exposure Research study.

<p>Exclusion and enrollment of participants in the Health and Environmental Exposure Research study.</p

Characteristics of endometrial cancer cases and population-based controls^*.

<p>Characteristics of endometrial cancer cases and population-based controls^{<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0179360#t001fn001" target="_blank">*</a>}.</p

NATC-1 protein is expressed in many cells and tissues and localizes to the cytoplasm.

<p>We generated transgenic <i>natc-1(am138)</i> animals expressing NATC-1::GFP fusion protein driven by the <i>natc-1</i> promoter (WU1449). Confocal fluorescent microscope images of live animals are shown with head on the left and tail on the right. Green represents NATC-1::GFP fusion proteins, except for puncta in intestinal cells visible in panels A, C and D that reflect autofluorescent gut granules. (A) An image of an entire worm. NATC-1::GFP signal is visible in many cells and tissues throughout the animal, and the uniform staining pattern suggests cytoplasmic localization. (B–E) Higher magnification images display fluorescence in the pharynx (P>), sheath cells (SC>), intestinal cells (I*), distal tip cell (DTC>), vulva (V*) and body wall muscle (BWM>). Scale bar is 25 µm for all images.</p