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Australian academics not biggest fans of teaching
The Australian higher education system is not in crisis, but boy has it got problems a new report finds.
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The Australian higher education system is not in crisis, but boy has it got problems a new report finds.
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The Dawkins reform has tried to blur the distinction between teaching only higher institutions and the research intensive universities with dubious results and confused institutions that tried to develop research capacities with little positive outcomes. 20 years on, this report suggest the use of teaching only higher institutions, as if this is a new initiative when we have gone a full circle in 20 years
Did the author of the report ask why Australian academics prefer research to teaching in their survey? Could it be that teaching workloads have escalated to the point where the average academic is working 70 to 90 hours a week during semester, and that so-called ‘long summer break’, and the winter break, are increasingly being taken up with teaching-related activities? Even the most dedicated teachers find it difficult to cope as their health declines and their ability to do their jobs well also declines, sapping morale. The report fails to mention that the ‘long summer break’ is also the only time most academics can take their holidays, like other working Australians, even though it’s also true that their ‘holiday’ is the only time they can find to do research.
What also of the increasing number of Australian Universities without those long breaks because they teach three semesters, and which report even more extreme workloads? Which Universities did the report have in mind?
I would also challenge the assertion that HE in Australia is being funded adequately for teaching. Universities are coping with student load only because of huge amounts of unpaid staff overtime. As for casualisation of teaching, that can only get worse as the new demand-driven model injects even more uncertainty into the system, demanding even more flexibility around staffing numbers.