Succeeding beyond your Doctorate: the importance of identity, industry awareness and decisive action

Students are drawn to doctorates for both the intellectual journey and the aspirational destination. However, many contemporary doctoral students and graduates are feeling like battlers, in that victory does not assure a career. In this context, the weapons of choice are a clear vision, identity and strategic choices. The aim of this chapter is to inform students, their supervisors and university executive leaders how to achieve heightened graduate employability. As such, it has been written for four audiences: (a) PhD students, who want academic careers, and (b) those who want careers beyond universities; (c) PhD supervisors; and (d) university executive leaders. The key takeaways are practical recommendations for each of these four groups. The content is informed by an Australian national research study into postgraduate student experience, which included 319 postgraduate students as research participants. The first chapter author was one of two principal researchers leading the study, and the second chapter author was the project manager and researcher. The authors have added their reflections and personal experiences as supervisor and PhD student respectively

What’s hot & what’s not in the strategic plans of Australia’s universities

In recent years, the Australian Government has removed the national Office for Learning and Teaching and is steering budget cuts to universities, coupled with forecasted increases to student fees. In this context, universities are encouraged to identify and articulate distinctive identities and unique value propositions. This paper aligns with the Conference Theme of Governance and Policy. The key question addressed in this paper is – what are the common and unique learning and teaching goals and plans of Australia’s universities. The strategic plans, as the key governance documents, of 40 universities were thematically analysed according to the ten educational change trends identified by the 2017 Horizon Report: Higher Education Edition. This paper argues that most of the universities address the majority of the themes, with the most variation occurring in regard to whether or not universities are unbundling, micro-credentialing and applying artificial intelligence and other app-like interfaces. Furthermore, universities are differentiating themselves in regard to whether their strategic plans extend beyond aspirational propositions to specific strategies and key performance indicators addressing challenges, approaches, outcomes and impact. The key contribution of this paper to the literature is a Higher Education Governance Framework with definitions, examples directly from universities’ strategic plans and recommendations

Is technology enabling or disabling for diverse learners studying online?

Two ways in which 21st century higher education is substantially different are in the prevalence of online learning and increased student diversity, including students with disabling conditions. This chapter poses the question - Have online technologies levelled the playing field for students with disabling conditions or has the growing complexity of technology meant that more students have been shutout of education? This chapter argues that there are both metaphorical snakes and ladders at the intersection of technology and disability in the context of higher education. In other words, there are current forces that propel students with disabling conditions forward and there are slippery slopes that see students falling downwards and sometimes right out of the education system. The main contribution of this chapter to the literature is a Framework of Enabling and Disabling Effects of Technology for Diverse Learners Studying Online