Faculty of Education - Theses

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Subject: Australia × Subject: Evaluation × Start date: 1980 × End date: 1999 × Author: MacKinnon, Valerie J ×

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    A context-based evaluation of the Australian overseas student policy
    MacKinnon, Valerie J ( 1991)
    In this thesis, the implications of "exporting" Australian higher educational services to overseas countries are explored. Since the introduction of the Overseas Student Program (OSP) in 1985, courses have been "marketed", often quite aggressively, by Australian colleges and universities. In most cases, overseas students have responded by coming to study in Australia in existing courses. The cultural implications of the policy are evaluated using a hypothetical case - Hong Kong Registered Nurses undertaking a post-graduate Public Health Nursing course in an Australian higher education institution to prepare for work with the Vietnamese in Hong Kong's refugee camps. The evaluation is based on an application of Dunn's jurisprudential metaphor and transactional model of argument to a consideration of the contextual and cultural issues which arise from a consideration of the impact of the course. Following an examination of the relevant policies in Australia and Hong Kong as applied to three pertinent contexts, several shortcomings of the OSP are identified. Based on a study of the refugee context, comparative education issues including cross-cultural cognition, and the experiences of overseas students studying in Australia, it is concluded that an existing course would not be appropriate; students could have serious difficulties coping with a second language, and with living and studying in a foreign country. More importantly, however, it was shown that an Australian curriculum would not equip the nurses for their roles in the camps. Arguments developed from the hypothetical case were found to be generalizable to the export of other professional courses, and the relevance of many other course offerings was questioned. It was concluded that Australian institutions needed to be aware of the cultural difficulties experienced by students while studying, and the relevance of the course offerings, if their courses were to be viable in the new international climate of aggressive marketing of education overseas. Failure to do so could have far reaching implications for Australian higher education and Australia's relations with countries in the Asian region.