Assessment tasks are submitted via iLearn in a manner appropriate to the task. More detailed specifications for individual assessment tasks are included in the iLearn unit, including the procedure for consulting with the Unit Convenor about your major assessment task topic and approach.

Assignment 1 consists of a blog post that will be posted through a blog-style discussion forum, with comments enabled so that students can respond and share ideas as part of Learning Activity 1 (you won't be able to see others' posts until you have posted your own Assignment 1).

Assignment 2 consists of independent research resulting in database entries on regulation and quality assessment mechanisms in higher education. The database tool in iLearn will be used for this purpose, with comments enabled so that you can add responses as part of Learning Activity 2.

Assignment 3 is to be submitted as a Word or rtf file via the Assignment tool in iLearn.

Learning Activities use various online collaborative tools such as forums (discussion or blog format) and workshops for peer feedback and discussion.

Assignments will be marked on the criteria of knowledge, application and presentation, using rubrics based on the unit's grading standards, which are in turn aligned with the Macquarie University Grade Descriptors. The rubrics will be available via the iLearn unit.

Learning Activities will be marked on the criteria of active contribution that furthers your own and others' learning through discussion, questioning and reflecting on unit content and curriculum. They will be peer-assessed with moderation by the Unit Convenor.

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.

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 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

Regulation, quality and performance in higher education are highly politicised. Historically, Higher Education (and universities in particualr) have been, and continue to be, sites of contestation between 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 regulation, performance and quality, 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.

The unit consists of five modules as follows:

Module 1: Introduction, unit overview and some useful frameworks.

Module 2: Current legislative, regulatory and reporting mechanisms in Australian Higher Education; quality and performance metrics.

Module 3: Contemporary challenges for higher education sectors and institutions.

Module 4: Leading and managing quality - quality enhancement and organisational learning.

Module 5: Future focus - application of learning to institutional settings.

The Unit Schedule over the 15 weeks of Session 2 (13 teaching weeks and a two-week mid-session break) is set out below.

This unit has been revamped and refocused, with a change of name from Governance, Organisation and Structure of Higher Education to Quality, Performance and Regulation in Higher Education. This reflects a changing approach to viewing organisation and structure as deriving from historical norms to now being responsive to legislative and regulatory frameworks. Governance has similarly shifted, being more explicitly referenced to the regulatory environment and increasingly working to externally-imposed standards and quality assessment processes. Much of the material used in the former incarnation of the unit remains relevant and is included in the unit notes, but this has been expanded to include discussion of quality and performance issues in relation to specific areas of activity.

The revamped unit is more focused on operations at the sectoral and institutional levels than the previous version, which included a substantial section on the historical international antecedents of contemporary universities. This topic is now covered in a new unit (EDUC869), which you will complete as a required unit in the Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, and which you are strongly encouraged to complete as an elective if you are enrolled in the HE Specialisation of the MEd.

Quality and performance processes and metrics are examined in more detail in the new version of the unit, but a similar process of exploring the contemporary issues is followed to that in the previous version: the building of knowledge through a combination of independent reading and scholarship with collaboration and sharing of ideas and experience, and the demonstration of learning through assessment tasks that encourage integration of theory and application in "real-life" scenarios and situations. There is considerable room for negotiation with regard to major assignment topic, so that students, in consultation with the Unit Convenor, can tailor their work on this assignment for immediate application in their workplace if they desire to do so.

Reading lists have been updated to reflect the inclusion of the new focus on quality and performance assessment, and students are expected to add to the core readings with their own literature searches and exploration of the regulatory and reporting requirements for higher education in Australia and elsewhere.