News & Views item - June 2006

 

 

Ms Bishop Institutes a Review. (June 13, 2006)

    For the Winter issue of the journal Looking Forward, published by South Australian Liberal MP Andrew Southcott, the Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop, contributes a five-pager "The Future of International Education will Challenge" in which she emphasises, "Education is a powerful tool for improving governance, strengthening the delivery of basic services and enhancing regional security".

 

Was the omission of "good" immediately following "Education" a Freudian slip? Who knows.

 

One of the matters which is currently vying for Ms Bishop's attention is whether or not Australia should embrace the Bologna Process -- an EU agreement to harmonise higher education across Europe; the idea being to establish easily recognisable and comparable degrees based around a two-cycle system of studies, starting with a bachelor degree and moving on to a masters.

 

There is no indication in her article as to what stage her deliberation have reached.

 

The minister concludes:

I will undertake a review of the impediments to international education for Australian students. The review will examine current support for, and obstacles to, Australian student mobility internationally, and recommend strategies to increase the number of Australians studying overseas. The review will encompass both the higher education and vocational and technical education sectors, and will consider, amongst other things, the value industry places on any international study experience potential employees might have.

 

This initiative is an element in the Government’s strategy to increase the numbers of Australians studying overseas, which also includes scholarships for Australians, and support for exchange programmes. The final report outcomes will inform a working group to be set up to implement recommendations and pilot new approaches to enhance Australian student mobility overseas.

 

It is vital for our education sector to become more engaged in the international context as the benefits are too important to ignore.

It is unfortunate that just as over the past decade her predecessors in the federal education portfolio have addressed the problems of the quality of Australian higher education by doing little more than reorganizing the chairs on the deck, Ms Bishop does little to reverse the oppression served up to the sector.

 

Unless a marked upgrade in the quality of our universities is undertaken, and internationally seen to be successful, Australia's share of the best overseas students will diminish as will its ability to retain or attract back the best of our own.