Overview of Unit Delivery

The overall objective of the unit is to enhance your capacity for, and practice of, leadership and management in higher education and other organisational contexts.

The unit is organised in such a way as to enable you to learn through a combination of independent reading, collaborative discussion and written assignments. All teaching and learning activities are accessed and managed through the online unit, accessed via iLearn at https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/login/MQ/.

To complete the Unit requirements satisfactorily you must have regular and reliable access to the internet.

On-campus sessions may be held if we have enough students (at least 6) who can attend. Alternatively, we can arrange meeting times on campus and/or via Skype, iLearn Chat or other communication tools for external students. We will discuss this further online during Weeks 1 and 2.

Work requirements

The Unit has been designed as a 4 postgraduate credit point unit. Activities (including reading) and assessment tasks have been designed to ensure that an average student can meet the Unit learning outcomes within 150 hours of independent and online collaborative work over a 15 week teaching session (13 teaching and 2 non-teaching weeks) . This means you should expect to spend at least 10 hours per week on your study in order to meet the requirements of the Unit.

As postgraduate scholars, students bring to the Unit a vast and diverse range of previous knowledge and experience. We regard this as a major resource in the development of your individual and collective understanding of the concepts addressed in the Unit.

To satisfactorily complete each of the modules for this unit you are expected to:

• read a number of specified articles/chapters/documents, plus additional reading that you seek out independently;

• complete the specified Learning Activities for each Module, including participation in online discussions and collaboration - Learning Activities are an integral part of your learning in this unit because it is through these that you engage with the content; and

• submit each of the assignments on or before the due date.

Independent study is an important aspect of the unit, as this develops scholarship and depth of understanding.  Other learning activities in the unit (discussions and wiki collaboration) are designed to model the collaborative and collegial processes by which many of the objectives of higher education institutions are met. It is important, therefore, that you confidently and courageously:

• share your current knowledge and experience with others in the group;

• allow your current thinking to be subject to constructive critical analysis and debate;

• contribute to discussion of the key concepts and ideas found in the literature and in the taken-for-granted notions held by you and others in the group; and

• use these discussions as a way of further developing your individual and collective understanding of the key concepts and ideas in the Unit.

To reflect the importance of this aspect of your learning, the extent and quality of your involvement in, and contributions to, the Learning Activities associated with each module will be assessed as part of the overall assessment strategy in this unit (see Assessment Tasks link at left).

Readings and Resources

The governance, management and organisation of higher education is highly political. Historically it has been, and continues to be, a site of contestation between its many stakeholder groups. Such struggles over territory are often based on a combination of ideology, economics and culture.

In Australia, with legislative and funding responsibilities divided between Commonwealth and State jurisdictions (although with the balance now very much shifted towards the Commonwealth, as we shall see), the higher education sector is regularly reviewed, investigated and reported upon by both State and Federal Governments (and by Oppositions). Therefore, unlike many other areas of study in higher education, when we consider the study of its governance, structure and organisation, we find much source material in Parliamentary or departmental reviews, reports, discussion papers, policy statements and/or legislation, as well as in scholarly books and articles. The pace of change in the sector means that there is no single textbook that covers all the content of the unit - we therefore draw on a number of texts and journal articles for the scholarly and theoretical perspectives we need.

Core and recommended readings for each module are listed within the iLearn modules themselves, as well as in the overall Reading List. Core readings and many of the recommended readings will be made available either via direct link (if publicly available), via the Library's eReserve or in some cases in hard copy in the Library's physical Reserve section .

Changes made to the unit in 2014

Following feedback from students and reflection on content, curriculum, the iLearn environment (new in 2012) and some iLearn tools I trialled in my 2012 and 2013 units, I have made a number of changes to EDCN843 (formerly known as ACES843) in 2014. Some changes improve clarity of instructions and tasks while others aim to maintain and extend the authenticity of assessment in the unit by modelling the collaborative and collegial processes by which a number of projects are advanced in higher education (working parties, committees, task forces, project teams etc).

Learning Activity 2 (LA2) has been slightly modified to take account of higher student numbers in this year's offering. Specifications for Assignment 1, which follows on from LA2, have been revised to focus reflection on the sectoral level of analysis, and more explicit scaffolding is provided in the wiki tool to support student unfamiliar with this environment.

The choice of journal articles for review in Assignment 2 has been changed and updated. This assignment has also shifted in perspective to focus on the institutional level of analysis rather than the sectoral level (which is dealt with in Assignment 1).

Assignment 3 specifications have not changed substantively, although the areas of focus have been updated. This assignment is in any case highly individualised, as students are encouraged to choose a topic of immediate interest and relevance to their work situation.

The reading list has been updated.

Studying the Organisation, Governance and Structure of Higher Education

This unit introduces conceptual frameworks for the governance, structure and organisation of higher education, and examines higher education systems and practices in Australia at the sectoral and institutional levels. It provides an opportunity to examine higher education legislative, policy and regulatory frameworks using a range of analytical approaches aimed at integrating organisation theory and students' own experience in, and reflection on, their institutions.

The learning activities and assessment tasks provide you with the opportunity, individually and collectively, to explore, analyse and evaluate practices, policies, leadership and management within higher education institutions and the higher education sector in Australia.

The unit aims to develop your awareness and understanding of the complexity of higher education organisation, structure and governance at sectoral and institutional levels. The modules encourage you to build and apply analytical, critical and strategic thinking capabilities to a range of problems and issues facing the higher education sector and higher education institutions.

In 2014, the political and economic context provides an interesting setting for questions about the future of Higher Education. The new Government's policy directions for Higher Education are unclear, although we have seen strong indicators of changes to funding arrangements, in particular, the demand driven system (uncapping of Commonwealth Supported Places - CSPs). Over the course of the unit, we will consider the current and future impact of the Government's expected and/or emerging policy directions, global financial trends, new educational delivery modes and higher education business models, and how the higher education sector and individual institutions might respond.

Modules

The Unit is composed of five compulsory modules of work, designed to provide you with the opportunity to achieve the Unit Learning Outcomes and develop the Graduate Capabilities through exploration of higher education organisation, structure and governance from a range of perspectives. The modules encourage you to build analytical, critical and strategic thinking capabilities and apply them to a range of problems and issues facing the higher education sector and higher education institutions. The introductory module is followed by three in which we consider HE at three levels of analysis: sectoral, institutional and organisational unit, and a final integrating module in which we explore strategic responses to the various challenges HE leaders and managers face in the short to medium term.

As we shall see, the governance, structure and organisation of higher education at both sectoral and institutional levels have been undergoing, and are likely to continue to undergo, rapid and substantive change. In Australia, we have recently moved into a new environment of demand-based funding. Evidence of the impact of this funding scheme is now emerging, and a review commissioned by the new Government is due to report in late February 2014. The rapid pace of change means that the relative emphasis between and within the modules in this unit may shift during the course of the teaching session as developments take place in the sector or as students' interests as a class determine.

The modules are also highly interrelated, with many overlaps in content, so we often revisit some in the light of our learning in others as we progress though the unit. This is an essential process for integrating the knowledge gained from studying different aspects of higher education as a dynamic and politically contested field.

Unit Schedule

The following table is the schedule of dates for learning activities, assessment tasks and modules over the 13 teaching weeks of Session 1 (3 March - 13 June).  Note that the mid-session break is 12-27 April inclusive (coinciding this year with both Easter and Anzac Day public holidays).