Assessing Student Learning Outcomes: the AHELO Feasibility Study
27 July 2011, by Dr Sarah Richardson and Assoc. Prof. Hamish Coates
Is it possible to undertake an international assessment of final-year students’ capacity to use, apply and act on the knowledge and reasoning they have gained from their degrees? Is it possible to assess these outcomes in an efficient and internationally comparable way? Can policymakers, institutional leaders, faculty and students be convinced that the assessment of higher education learning outcomes as an essential checkpoint in the educational process? These questions lie at the core of the OECD’s Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) Feasibility Study.
Universities Cross-Subsidised Research Activities by up to $2.7 billion in 2008
27 July 2011, by Professor Emeritus Frank Larkins
Universities spent a higher proportion of their outlays on research in 2008 than in 2002 with a declining proportion of the total being funded from identifiable external income sources. For 2008 research expenditure represented 36% of all university outlays with 40% of this expenditure ($2.7 billion) cross-subsidised from non-primary research sources, principally the Commonwealth Grant Scheme and Student Fee Income.
Mixing it up: what’s driving mixed sector provision and is it a good thing?
26 July 2011, by Dr Nick Fredman
Nick Fredman discusses the background to the currently increasing trend for public universities, private colleges and TAFEs to offer a mix of both VET and higher education and examines whether this trend is part of the solution for building a better post-school education system.