1st Global Conference
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Monday 12th February - Wednesday 14th February
2007
Sydney, Australia
Conference Programme, Abstract and Papers
Session 4A: Structures Under Pressure
Chair: Robert Kirkpatrick
Public vs Private: The Dilemma for Faculty Members in Pakistan
Atif
Khan
Lahore, Pakistan
Public sector universities in Pakistan, due to their
constrained budgets, are facing the exceedingly difficult task of acquiring
and retaining competent, research inclined and motivated faculty members.
On the other hand smaller private sector universities with deeper pockets
and a moneymaking mindset are draining intellectual capital out of
the public education system. Whereas public sector universities are
typically more research oriented with a broader horizon and more altruistic
purpose private sector universities are businesses, existing to profit
off of market demand.
The resultant impacts are as follows:
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Private institutions generally do not promote research, but rather emphasize and require of their faculty teaching assignments as that is where money-making value lies for them. Thus indigenous research and knowledge development are suffering.
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Since private universities think of students as customers they are often unwilling to penalize them for poor performance. They thus hamper intellectual growth in students.
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Public universities are decaying for the lack of qualified faculty. Student enrolment has declined, the quality of the student body is coming into question, merits and standards are going down, budgets are shrinking and a lack of infrastructure development is creating dissatisfaction in the ranks of both faculty and students. On the other side in private sector universities those who can afford are buying through their tuition money better infrastructure, better faculty and better grades.
This paper will examine in greater detail, using primary research based on in-depth interviews the magnitude of the dilemma faculty members face in terms of pursuing a research and service oriented role at low wage rates in the public sector or making money while disregarding professional ethics in the private sector. At the end recommendations will be given for both public and private sector institutions
Why Universities 'oversell what we do
least well’? Conception
of Knowledge and the Modern University
Francine
Rochford
School of Law,
La Trobe University,
Bendigo, Victoria,
Australia
The idea of knowledge as a ‘product’ is
a feature of the current conversation about higher education in Australia. This
idea is based on a conception of education as an instrument, through
which students are fashioned into employable units, or as an engine
of innovation, through which industry obtains competitive advantage.
Whereas it is clear that one role of the university is to educate employable
citizens, and to contribute to economic prosperity through research,
these goals understate the importance of universities and elevate its
economic role above other roles. Alternative conceptions of
knowledge, and the ways in which the university contributes to knowledge,
are not represented in policy discourse, which is captured by economic
conceptions of the ‘knowledge culture’, applied to the
knowledge and knowledge management needs of industry. This has self-replicating
consequences, as our conceptions of knowledge organise and regulate
the way we live and make sense of the world.
This paper will consider
the effect on the university sector of a policy regime which privileges
economic knowledge. It will consider
in particular the potential of the emergent federal policy for ‘diversity’ in
higher education providers, and its potential to foster a knowledge
culture which is not just about how information is utilised by industry. It
will consider in particular the application of Florida’s conception
of the creative economy, and the way in which attempts to foster creativity
in Florida’s terms may have the perverse effect of generating
homogeneity in the Australian university sector.
Convergent Trends in Iranian Private Higher Education
Farough
Amin Mozaffari
Shahid Beheshti University, Iran
No abstract is presently available
