Work and working – Page 8 – Music for Deckchairs

Whatever

Kate Bowles May 31, 2011 0 Comments

Musing on the news today that the Australian government has decided to scrap its distracting journal ranking scheme and look for other ways to tally up research quality outcomes across the sector, I found a colleague wandering the corridor and asked her what she thought. She works in a highly specialised research field, and has a strong commitment to research training right across the disciplines. This was her reaction: “Whatever.” And I think despite understandable levels of anger and frustration at…

Change management, Higher education

Blue skies, nothing but blue skies

Kate Bowles May 9, 2011 0 Comments

Last week we were all invited to a meeting to engage in “blue sky thinking” in relation to the future positioning of the university, and our Faculty in particular. While this made some colleagues testy, for all sorts of reasons, I thought it was potentially worth a try—although also ambitious to imagine that a largish group of people who don’t get many opportunities to meet and talk would be able to come up with big ideas that are both achieveable…

Being an academic, Change management, Higher education

Letting ourselves go?

Kate Bowles April 30, 2011 0 Comments

A Canadian study of health issues affecting early career academics suggests that they may be sacrificing physical exercise in order to try to secure an inside lane position on the cinder track that leads to tenure. The study hints that if they’re doing this, they’re “letting themselves go”, and the point is touchingly made with an illustration of a bulging (male) waistline. Remedies include taking part in a charity fun run or “park[ing] your car far away to get a little…

Casualisation of work, Change management, Higher education, Risk

Online learning in the iron triangle

Kate Bowles April 28, 2011 0 Comments

We’re hearing from every direction that online learning is going to be the solution to the coming bricks and mortar shortage. This week, Swinburne DVC(A) Shirley Leitch writes that: If we are to meet the target of 40 per cent of 25 to 34 year olds holding a bachelor degree by 2025, we need to move beyond bricks and mortar to learner-centred solutions. I’m not so sure that these two things are simple opposites. My daughter is at the stage…

Change management, Edtech and online learning, Higher education, Student engagement

Bursting point

Kate Bowles April 24, 2011 0 Comments

There’s a conversation building about whether we’re wise to look at higher education through the lens of the economy, given that nothing much looks good through the bottom of that dirty glass. Markets achieve extraordinary results using the levers and pulleys of scarcity, rivalry and desire, but this volatility doesn’t always help the big public institutions that deliver other kinds of social and cultural benefits, like education. So we half-protect these familiar institutions of public life from the market in…

Being an academic, Casualisation of work, Risk, Student engagement

Universities are not very agile

Kate Bowles April 7, 2011 0 Comments

I’ve been in conversation with a number of colleagues about whether or not academics are “resistant to change”. This claim was included quite casually in a document written to explain to external stakeholders the kinds of characteristics they would expect to see in a university community. Students are experimental, technical staff are skilled, and academics are … resistant to change. Obviously, at one level this is just annoying.

Being an academic, Change management, Risk