Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemPostgraduate education and the challenges of the future( 1999)In 1957 a committee appointed by the Australian Government to investigate how the universities could serve the 'best interests of the nation' (the Murray Committee) criticised their poor research and postgraduate effort, decrying the weakness of honours and postgraduate research schools. (Committee on Australian Universities, 1957, p 42). In the four decades since the Murray report, postgraduate education in Australia has expanded both vertically - in size, and horizontally - in scope. In 1997, over 120,000 students were enrolled in postgraduate courses and they comprised over 20 per cent of all higher education students in Australia. These students have many options available to them when they set out to choose a postgraduate course, an institution and a mode of study. This dramatic change in postgraduate education has taken place within the context of ongoing debate about higher education that is occurring both within and outside its institutions. At the end of the twentieth century the terms of this debate are widening to incorporate the emergence of new external forces associated with economic and social globalisation and technological development. Accordingly, new questions are emerging about how higher education should respond in order to survive and prosper in the next century. Until now, little has been written about the ways in which postgraduate education contributes to the roles and functions of higher education in Australia. Nor have its roles and functions within either the higher education sector or the broader society been the subject of much discussion. Thus, there appears to be only a limited understanding of the ways in which it might contribute to the response of the higher education system to emerging challenges. The aim of this study is to enhance this understanding and ultimately contribute to the debate on higher education by identifying the roles and functions of postgraduate education, the strength and nature of the forces which shape them and by assessing the possible and likely directions of future change. The study brings together into a comprehensive document material which has never before been collated and analysed in this form. This material covers four dimensions of postgraduate education: its current scope and dimensions in Australia; evolutionary forces in its history and development; demand for and participation in postgraduate education in Australia; and the differences in postgraduate education in diverse national and international settings. Investigations incorporate a variety of approaches. Historical material is analysed; national and cross-national data are compared; previous research is re-examined and synthesised; and trends are identified and analysed.