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| Reports from RIHE |
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| We introduce the latest research reports posted by RIHE staff and other members of our website. |
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| Title |
Third Joint Seminar by CSHE and RIHE |
| Visiting Place(s) |
Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE), University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Visiting Date(s) |
March 27-28, 2013 |
| Overview |
Summary Report by Prof. Futao Huang |
| Update |
08 Apr 2013 |
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| Name |
HUANG, Futao |
| Affiliation |
RIHE |
| Title |
Professor |
| E-mail |
futao@hiroshima-u.ac.jp |
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The third joint academic seminar, which was co-organized by the Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE), University of Melbourne, Australia and the Research Institute for Higher Education (RIHE) of Hiroshima University, Japan, was held on March 27-28, 2013 in the CSHE, the University of Melbourne. Professor Richard James, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Associate Professor Sophie Arkoudis, Acting Director of the CSHE, Professor Simon Marginson, Dr. Chi Baik, Dr. Emmaline Bexley, and several CSHE Ph.D. candidates participated in the seminar. On the Japanese side, Professor Shinichi Yamamoto, former director of RIHE, Professor at Graduate School of Higher Education Administration, J.F.Oberlin University, and from RIHE Hiroshima University, Professor Tsukasa Daizen, Professor Yumiko Hada, Professor Futao Huang, Professor Satoshi P. Watanabe, Associate Professor Masataka Murasawa and Dr. Yasumi Abe, Research Fellow of the RIHE were invited to be present.
The third seminar focused on three main topics: academic profession, internationalization of higher education and the relationship between state and higher education. On the first day sessions, Professor Yamamoto's report began with a brief analysis of the changing relationship between government and universities in Japan since the establishment of Japan's modern university in the 19th century from a historical perspective, then he concentrated on the discussion of the relationship between Japan's government and both national universities and private universities after the incorporation of national universities in 2004. He concluded his presentation by arguing the future of Japan's higher education. Professor Marginson's presentation discussed similarities and differences between the respective approaches of the United States, the Westminster countries and East Asian ('Post-Confucian') countries in the tradition of the comprehensive Sinic state, and the implications of these similarities/differences for government regulation, institutional autonomy and academic freedom. Professor James's report focused on the approach to regulation being adopted by TEQSA (The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency) and the reactions of the tertiary education sector to the new agency and it sweeping powers. He also made an analysis of the way in which TEQSA might influence the behaviors of universities and other tertiary providers, and the possible changes to the regulatory arrangements to be made in the Federal government later in 2013. Professor Huang's report examined changes in the internationalization of the academics in Japan between 1992 and 2011 through an analysis of major findings from two national surveys on changing academic profession in Japan. He focused his discussion on four international dimensions of Japan's academics at both institutional and individual levels, including: acceptance of international students, integration of international contents/perspectives into academics' teaching activities, hosting international conferences, and publication of research papers abroad. Professor Hada's report was mainly concerned with the issue of female university researchers and teachers in Japan. By using the data from the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the two similar national surveys which was exercised by the RIHE since 1992, she made an in-depth discussion of their teaching and research work and their job satisfaction in recent years in comparison with female academics in other countries. Former Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic), Professor Peter McPhee, from the University of Melbourne was specially invited to introduce the implementation and consequences of the undergraduate curriculum reform which was launched since 2008, and known as the Melbourne Model. According to him, the reform has changed not only the structure, but also several academic programs of the undergraduate study in the university. Though Associate Professor Arkoudis did not make an oral presentation due to the limit of time, her paper, entitled "Ensuring English language standards in higher education", discussed the issue of English language learning in Australian universities which will increasingly challenge universities as the sector expands and broadens participation within a demand-driven system. Her paper particularly identifies challenges facing both domestic and international students who are entering university study with varied English language ability and issues concerning quality assurance of the English language learning outcomes of their students in individual tertiary institutions. The paper also proposes a framework to guide work in this area. Professor Taizen's report is about the images and expectations of eminent persons to university and university professors in Japan. Through a discussion of major findings from a national survey which was carried out in 2009 and 2011 on Japanese eminent persons and knowledgeable workers, e.g. the medical doctor, the lawyer, the president and general manager of listed enterprise, the central government offices staff and the prefectural offices staff, he examined the image and expectation the knowledgeable workers on Japan's university and university professors, differences in the image and the expectation of the knowledgeable workers on the university professors, and differences in the images and expectations between the knowledgeable worker and university professors by several variable. In her report of the fragmentation of academic work, Dr. Bexley looked at changes to the Australian higher education landscape in recent decades, tracing the policies that have underlain the fragmentation of academic work roles, and at the way that this fragmentation is played out by tenured, contracted and sessional staff. Dr. BAIK discussed a CSHE-led national project that aims to develop a national framework and evidence-based resources to support universities in shaping a coherent agenda to raise the professionalism of higher education teaching. She presented an overview of significant trends and issues in the academic workforce and patterns in student learning, and examined the international developments in the professionalization of university teaching, as well as developments within other professions. Professor Watanabe, Associate Professor Murasawa and Dr. Abe made a joint presentation on the internal staff allocation and the changing workload of Japanese professoriate through a multilevel statistical analysis with simulations, their presentation focused on the amount of time spent by the faculty on administrative tasks and examines how their workload is influenced by the organizational scale and composition of supporting staff members as well as faculty colleagues. Their finding suggests that a mere increase of support staff would not necessarily reduce the faculty time spent on administrative or service-related tasks in Japanese universities. An increase in employment of part-time administrative assistants per se could indeed add heavier burdens on professors, due to their growing responsibilities in managing the larger scale of their organizations. Further simulation results demonstrate that the faculty workload in administrative tasks would most effectively be alleviated with the support from research assistants, provided that the same budgetary constraint is assigned to the organizational unit.
During the seminar, the participants also discussed the collaborative research activities between the CSHE and the RIHE and what next steps could be taken in future.
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