Decreasing attrition while increasing diversity: connections and contradictions in transforming marginalisation in an Australian contemporary university

This chapter uses the current focus on universities’ efforts to decrease student attrition as a lens to explore the connections and contradictions faced by those same universities as they increase diversity and aspire to transform marginalisation. The chapter draws on statistical data relating to Australian university students generally and to Central Queensland University (CQU) students specifically to illustrate some of the challenges and opportunities faced by universities as they bring their own institutional strategies into alignment at the macro level with government socioeconomic policy and at the micro level with the individual goals and aspirations of students and other stakeholders. Findings presented in the chapter support the argument that CQU specifically and the Australian higher education sector more broadly have contributed to maximising the educational outcomes, and hence to transforming the marginalisation, of some minority groups, such as students from non-English speaking backgrounds and some residents of regional communities. On the other hand, relatively high attrition rates remain the norm for other groups, such as Indigenous students, those from isolated areas and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and for some groups not generally associated with minorities. For these groups, and for universities striving to increase their diversity by including such groups in their student cohorts, the groups’ marginalisation remains untransformed

Guest editors' introduction to special theme issue [of Studies in Learning, Evaluation, Innovation and Development]: Retention, recruitment and placement

Guest editors’ introduction to special theme issue [of Studies in Learning, Evaluation, Innovation and development]: Retention, recruitment and placement

Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b, leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W' boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe

Pathways to lifelong learning: transforming capitalist transactions into collaborative journeys

Using the principles of systems thinking (Gharajedaghi, 1999; Senge, 1990), the authors propose that three concepts are pivotal pathways to achieving a society of lifelong learners: the centrality of learning relationships; the design of systematic learning; and the tools used for learning. The authors examine the barriers in these pathways

Reconceptualising the instructional design model for the knowledge society

Higher education in the new millennium faces several major challenges. Along with an increased demand for a tertiary educated workforce, both the state and the student are demanding that the cost of this education be minimised. We are also faced with a demand for flexible learning from an increasingly mature age, part-time and off-campus student population. Elsewhere (Somasundaram, Bowser & Danaher, 2006), the authors have proposed three concepts as pivotal to achieving a society of lifelong learners: learning relationships; systematic learning; and learning resources and tools. Here we elaborate our conceptualisation and possible applications of systematic learning in promoting the concerns and interests of the contemporary knowledge society. Applying the principles of systems thinking (Gharajedaghi, 1999; Senge, 1990), the authors synthesise a process model of systematic learning taken from instructional design (e.g., Dick, Carey & Carey, 2005; Shambaugh & Magliaro, 2006). The synthesis adds two important elements not included in most theoretical instructional design models: accreditation and maintenance. An economic analysis of the synthesised model illuminates the constraints on transforming our higher education system caused by the scarcity of particular resources. A comparative case study of two methods of learning and achieving accreditation in accountancy simultaneously tests and illustrates the model. The authors contend that these resources need not be scarce and suggest how these bottlenecks can be disbanded. The paper elaborates on the solutions proposed by this analysis, which suggests answers to some of the challenges facing the transformation of higher education and the global knowledge society in the 21st century

Promoting strategic scholarship in university teaching and learning: researching student attrition and retention at an Australian 'new generation' university

The approach to teaching and learning advocated in this paper is centred on the notion of ‘strategic scholarship’ (Danaher, 2004; Danaher, Harreveld, Luck & Nouwens, 2004). On the one hand, this notion eschews an ‘ivory tower’ construction of research disconnected from the lived experiences and practical concerns of individuals and groups. On the other hand, this notion resists the promotion of an anti-intellectual agenda that favours untheorised practice that fails to engage with the deeply embedded educational, political and sociocultural inequities confronting the world today. From this perspective, strategic scholarship can be seen as a crucial partner of ‘evidence-based practice’ (Centre for Evidence Based Social Services, n.d.) in assisting universities to be(come) potentially transformative ‘learning organisations’ (Farago & Skyrme, 1995). It is also a powerful counternarrative to the ‘research/teaching’ binary that causes many conscientious university teachers to believe that teaching remains less highly valued than research in universities. We illustrate this argument through a discussion of current constructions of student attrition and retention at an Australian ‘new generation’ university. Some of those constructions seek simple solutions to complex and diverse issues, such as the array of links among curriculum, pedagogy and assessment on the one hand and students’ (dis)engagements with a course or program on the other. The dilemmas attendant on developing a model of student attrition that addresses the distinctive characteristics of the university being discussed encapsulate the challenges and opportunities of promoting strategic scholarship in relation to this central concern of university teaching and learning. In particular, we explore those challenges and opportunities by means of three organising questions: • Which forms of evidence are available to stakeholders in student attrition and retention and how are they linked with practice? • Which concepts and research questions are helpful in understanding and engaging with student attrition and retention? • How can the evidence and the research findings be transformed into strategic scholarship around student attrition and retention? These research questions can be expressed also in terms of strategic issues confronting contemporary universities, ‘new generation’ and otherwise: • How do we engage our communities? • How do we scope and clarify our areas of inquiry? • How do we promote research, scholarship and evidence-based practice? On the basis of our responses to these questions and issues, we posit the empirical, methodological and theoretical benefits of a strategically scholarly approach to university teaching and learning. References Centre for Evidence Based Social Services. (n.d.). What is evidence-based practice? Exeter, UK: Author. Retrieved August 3, 2004, from: http://www.ex.ac.uk/cebss/evidence_based_practice.html Danaher, P. A. (2004, 2004, July 30). Research and professional practice. Invited paper presented at the librarians’ professional forum, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, Qld. Danaher, P. A., Harreveld, R. E., Luck, J. T., & Nouwens, F. (2004, August). Strategic scholarship, evidence-based practice and Central Queensland University as a learning organisation: The Learning, Evaluation, Innovation and Development Centre’s response to the Central Queensland University review of strategic direction, academic and administrative structures and staffing profile. Rockhampton, Qld: Learning, Evaluation, Innovation and Development Centre, Division of Teaching and Learning Services, Central Queensland University. Farago, J., & Skyrme, D. J. (1995). The learning organization. Retrieved August 3, 2004, from: http: http://www.skyrme.com/insights/3lrnorg.htm

Gate-keeping into the Knowledge Society: have we got it right?

[Abstract]: University admission is generally a competitive process, with more applicants seeking entry to programs than places available. The undergraduate selection process typically requires the processing of large numbers of students, and the process needs to be transparent and efficient. Usually admission is primarily, if not solely, based on grades, obtained at school and/or in an external exam. Existing studies indicate that admission grades, while the strongest predictor currently available, are at best able to predict approximately 40% of the subsequent university grades (Adelman, 1999). This paper reports on the correlation between the grades used for admission and their subsequent university grades for approximately 7000 students admitted between 2003 and 2005 to a particular Queensland university in Australia. The paper reports that there are significant differences in the correlation between these grades and subsequent university performance across disciplines. Engineering and the physical sciences, for example, have a higher correlation than the social sciences. In addition, Queensland’s school certificate provides supplementary measures of five generic skills. The paper also examines the value of these measures in predicting university performance. University graduates are arguably the lynch-pins of a knowledge society. Selection methods must be good predictors of success at university and also continuation in careers that deliver optimum benefits for both the individual and the society that subsidised their study. The paper concludes that, while purely grades based admission is transparent and efficient for a university, it may not be particularly fair or effective

The student departure puzzle: do some faculties and programs have answers?

Interactive session exploring student attrition and variation within CQU

Stories as perspectives and interests: approaches and issues in conceptualising student attrition and retention at Central Queensland University

This paper draws on the principles of textual and thematic analysis (Rowan, 2001) to examine a selection of statements about student attrition and retention at Central Queensland University, gleaned from an intensive, semi-structured conversation conducted by the authors in January 2005, focused on thematically clustered reflections arising from their research into the topic to date. Stories, understood as perspectives and interests, are found to be highly informative about learning from change in terms of these significant university issues