CHEMP Seminar Series
CHEMP runs a regular seminar series open to staff and students to present recent research findings. The powerpoints from these seminars are provided below.
Contents
Looking for the remote control: A view from continental Europe on ‘modern’ governance dilemmas
Harry de Boer (visting Erasmus Mundus Fellow) 03 July 2008 (120KB)
In many European countries, traditionally having strong state regulation, states are facing a dilemma: on the one hand they want to enhance institutional autonomy while on the other hand they want to steer the systems to some extent as they bear overall responsibility. They are supposed to be ‘absent and present at the same time’. In this, they are looking for and experimenting with new ways of steering their higher education systems. Contractualisation seems to be one of the most favourite ‘modern’ steering tools. In his presentation Harry de Boer will briefly present three cases of states that experiment with such tools: the Netherlands, Germany and Spain. He will make some general observations as input for further discussion.
Changing Nature of the Academic Profession: preliminary findings from a national survey
Leo Goedegebuure and Jeannet van der Lee, 19 June 2008 (1.2MB)
During 2007 some 1,250 Australian academics from 21 universities (including UNE) participated in a study on the nature of the academic profession. This study is part of a major international project comprising some 20 countries and is a follow up to a similar study carried out in the mid 1990s in which Australia also participated.
Preliminary results show that Australian academics are satisfied with their jobs as academics but are critical of the management of their universities. Many Australian academics are of the opinion that working conditions in higher education have deteriorated.
The main outcomes of the Australian study will be discussed and some comparisons with the results of the 1990s study will be made. As the full international dataset still is being compiled, international comparisons are not possible yet. However, once this set has been constructed, the study will provide the opportunity to benchmark Australian academic views and experience with that of key competitor nations. Such international comparative analysis will help develop a better understanding of the uniqueness as well as the commonalities of Australian academe.
The Research Training Mission of the University: Challenges to Traditional Systems of Doctoral Education
Kay Harman, 12 June 2008 (2MB)
As conditions in labour markets in and outside academia are changing, greater emphasis is now being placed in many countries on the quality and relevance of doctoral education and training needed for acquiring, generating, integrating, transferring and using knowledge created by research. There is a growing belief of governments that the relevancy of skills learned are out of sync with the new demands of knowledge economies and non-academic labour markets. As a result, research training is being urged to address the gap more effectively between postgraduate study and the needs of widening, diverse markets. With the focus particularly on the PhD degree, a particular theme of this presentation focuses on how traditional norms and practices of doctoral research training are being challenged in a number of industrialised countries in a bid to broaden the skills and knowledge of graduates to fit with more diverse social and economic needs. With these considerations in mind, different models of doctoral training that have evolved in the UK, parts of Europe, North America and Australia are examined, particularly those that have developed innovative responses to growing labour market demands.