The Australian Research Quality Framework: A live experiment in capturing the social, economic, environmental, and cultural returns of publicly funded research

Copyright @ 2008 Wiley Periodicals Inc. This is the accepted version of the following article: Donovan, C. (2008), The Australian Research Quality Framework: A live experiment in capturing the social, economic, environmental, and cultural returns of publicly funded research. New Directions for Evaluation, 2008: 47–60, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ev.260/abstract.The author regards development of Australia's ill-fated Research Quality Framework (RQF) as a “live experiment” in determining the most appropriate approach to evaluating the extra-academic returns, or “impact,” of a nation's publicly funded research. The RQF was at the forefront of an international movement toward richer qualitative, contextual approaches that aimed to gauge the wider economic, social, environmental, and cultural benefits of research. Its construction and implementation sent mixed messages and created confusion about what impact is, and how it is best measured, to the extent that this bold live experiment did not come to fruition

A study of the impacts of variable factors on built environment graduates’ prospects

This paper investigates the impacts of variable factors, such as practical experience and factors related to study style, on employment outcomes and patterns of built environment graduates in Australia. This paper also compares the employment prospects of different built environment sub-disciplines, including Architecture, Construction, Real Estate and Urban Planning and Regional Studies. Practical experience and the possibility of work with final year employers after graduation were found to have a statistically significant impact on the employment outcomes for graduates of built environment and all of its sub-disciplines. However, degree level and type of university attended were not found to have a statistically significant impact. Attendance type and employment mode in the final year of study had a statistically significant impact on the employment patterns for graduates of built environment and all of its sub-disciplines. The graduates who studied part-time and worked full-time in their final year of study were more likely to secure full-time jobs after graduation. The findings of this paper can be used by built environment graduates to identify the variable factors which they can change in order to enhance their employment prospects

Improving the professional knowledge base for education: Using knowledge management (KM) and Web 2.0 tools

Improving education systems is an elusive goal. Despite considerable investment, international studies such as the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) project and the McKinsey Report How the world’s best performing schools come out on top indicate that improving teacher quality is more important than increased financial investment. Both reports challenge governments, academics and practitioners to adopt new ways of sharing and building knowledge. This paper makes the case for national education systems to adopt tried and tested knowledge management and web 2.0 tools used by other sectors and highlights the neglected potential of teacher educators as agents for improvement

Educational Provision for Refugee Youth in Australia: Left to Chance?

This paper investigates how education bureaucracies in Australia are using languages of categorisation and promoting community partnerships to construct and govern the refugee subject. We use a framework of governmentality to analyse education policies and statements emerging from two levels of government - Commonwealth and State. Drawing on web-based materials, policy statements and accounts of parliamentary debates, the paper documents the ways in which refugee education continues to be subsumed within broader education policies and programmes concerned with social justice, multiculturalism, and English language provision. Such categorisations are premised on an undifferentiated ethnoscape that ignores the significantly different learning needs and sociocultural adjustments faced by refugee students compared with migrants and international students. At the same time, educational programmes of inclusion that are concerned with utilising community organisations to deliver services and enhance their participation, point to the emergence of 'government through community partnerships'; a mode of governance increasingly associated with advanced liberal societies

Becoming an academic for the twenty-first century : What will count as teaching quality in higher education

This article explores quality in university teaching using a 'futures' perspective. In a recent article by Blass and colleagues, a number of scenarios were developed to explore the type of higher education workforce that might be needed within the UK by 2035. In discussion of these scenarios-leading knowledge creation, responsive knowledge creation, regional conglomerates, no government funding and total government funding-the team were mindful of how these scenarios would impact on academic work and the workforce needed to undertake different and perhaps a more differentiated set of work roles, responsibilities and ways of working. However, the issue of what counts as quality within these possible scenarios was not considered. In this article the definitions and differentiation of teacher and teaching quality are explored. Recent trends in Australian and English higher education policy in relation to teaching quality are also discussed. Teaching quality is then considered in relation to the underlying values and assumptions that might operate within each of these scenarios about teaching. The authors then speculate on the impact this would have on what might count as quality in teaching in 2020, and what academics may have to face within each of these scenarios in relation to their work roles, ways of working and opportunities for career progression. In conclusion, the authors suggest that the concept of 'teaching' in higher education may need to be radically reconsidered to match the needs of students whatever scenario may develop in higher education.Peer reviewe