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POLICY & REFORM
What do you think led to this perception among people like Taj that university is a waste of time? Taj talks about [ this idea that ] it’ s no longer important what you know, it’ s what you do with what you know.
Universities were established because that was how you acquired knowledge. You went to a university, you learned from skilled and experienced academics, experts in the field, and they helped you acquire the knowledge you needed to progress in life. That’ s still the model, but these days there are many different ways you can acquire knowledge. So how should a university adapt to meet those challenges? How are universities helping students change the way they learn, and change the way they apply their knowledge? We are at a university education conference today that’ s discussing that issue, amongst others.
If you start to dig into the McKell report, there are some quite alarming statistics about the fact that, whilst you [ we may like to ] think we’ ve moved on from the idea that your postcode can predetermine your future, the report shows such predetermination is still largely the case. The report has analysed data sets and come up with the index of educational opportunity. Surprise, surprise – it’ s still those electorates that are in the low to average socioeconomic areas, that are less advantaged across a whole range of different criteria.
The Peter Shergold committee [ the Higher Education Standards Panel ] also recently released a report that looked at issues around admissions to university. Whilst we’ ve done a good job in Australia of widening access for people from disadvantaged backgrounds – the Bradley reforms did a lot of that, along with the targets that were set through that process – the issue now is that if you come from a less-advantaged family background, you’ re going to find the admissions process to university pretty intimidating.
If you don’ t have a good start in university because you haven’ t worked through the admissions process, you’ re not on a path to succeed through university. So we’ re seeing these scenes repeated.
If you were, say, in Taj’ s position, would you have gone to uni or would you have seen it as a waste of time? I went to uni at a time that was pre-internet, so the way you acquired knowledge was you had to go and sit in a library for three or four years, or you had to go and have experts teach you.
I still believe strongly that there’ s an important place for university. They need to think much more, though, about their customers. [ But ] this is the inherent tension within a university because we know they focus rightly on their research – that’ s a critical part of what they do – but they rely on undergraduate funding to drive their business. They don’ t focus enough, and they would admit this, on the learner. So how do you make the learner the focus of their business?
On the flipside of Taj’ s philosophy are the many young people who go to uni simply because it’ s seen as the norm. Many of those students end up dropping out or being under-satisfied with their qualification. How do we help students plan for university better? There are a number of things. We need to help think about the skills that students need; they don’ t always leave school with skills they need to succeed in university. Some schools do a good job of this, but many of them don’ t. They focus a lot on the curriculum content, but not enough on so-called 21st century, or general capability skills; those are what you’ re going to need to succeed.
Most undergraduate courses have a component of group work, for example, and if you don’ t know how to collaborate because it hasn’ t been part of your high schooling then you’ re going to have a hard time learning how to work in a group and have a hard conversation with any members [ who are not performing ]. All of those life and social skills are important. There is also a need for an understanding of which insights you need as an undergraduate student about your own personal learning style. How do you learn as an individual? We’ re all different. How do I learn? How should my learning progress? What are the challenges in the way based on how I learn? Again, if there isn’ t enough of that in school then students will struggle.
The second thing I’ d say is that there’ s a massive opportunity for data. Every time a student hits the button on a computer when they’ re in the learning management system, that’ s a piece of data that can be analysed. How long do the students spend on task? How long do the students spend before they disengage and turned off? When did the student last flunk a weekly test? What sort of background does this particular student come from; are they on a path to fail before they even get going?
So, finding ways to bring together all this data and then allowing institutions to figure out how to intervene early could provide a business opportunity and a mission opportunity for universities. Universities want to attract and retain students through to completion. We still lose 15 per cent in first-year. We lose a whole lot more before graduation. That has a business impact, it has a societal impact, and it has a personal impact on each of those students.
It’ s not to say that some students won’ t find another good path in life. University’ s not for everyone. But there’ s a lot more the sector acknowledges it could be doing to provide engaging and compelling education.
There seems to be a growing consensus that the role of careers guidance in schools needs re-imagining. Taj argues that a lot of careers counsellors should be asking students about their hopes and aspirations, rather than solely about how to get a job. What are your thoughts on that? That’ s true. I love the famous Ken Robinson TED Talk. He tells a story about a guy who wanted to be a fireman and his [ teacher ] said:‘ You can’ t be a fireman, you need to be a teacher or an engineer.’ The student went on to become a fireman and one day while attending a car crash, he saved the teacher who had given him this advice. This young man told Robinson:‘ I hope he thinks better of me [ and my aspirations ] now.’
Robinson wrote a book called The Element that is all about finding your own personal element.
It’ s hard to generalise, we’ ve got nine and a half thousand schools in Australia, many of them do a great job in helping students identify their strengths and have different ways of doing that. But there are many schools that just focus on delivering the curriculum and don’ t spend enough time on helping students discover their passion in life and what they do well. With the kids who might be seen as troublemakers, [ schools need to be asking ] why are they acting up, and what that’ s telling us about the people they are and maybe what their skills and strengths and opportunities might be in life. The thought that you lose people like that because the system just destroys them is pretty disappointing. ■
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