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There is increasing expectation that research be communicated broadly to share knowledge across industry, professional, governmental, and public spheres. Scholarly publishers can benefit from the sharing of research beyond academia since the potential for societal impact encourages further support from both industry and governmental funders. This paper draws on qualitative in‐depth interview data from Australian‐ and Japanese‐based early career researchers (ECRs) to investigate how higher education institutions support the development of diverse communication skills needed by ECRs to effectively share their research both in academia and beyond. We found that sharing research for academic and other diverse audiences is often perceived as valued but may not always be supported. Output valuing was communicated in performance management, but there were compelling differences between the two nations, with Japanese‐based ECRs reporting a stronger expectation of research outputs for non‐academic audiences than their Australian counterparts. There were also indications that institutional support for both academic and translational outputs may change in response to nations' shifting research priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper profiles Australian universities’ website communications about sustainability initiatives, especially relating to Talloires Declaration signification and the ten recommended actions. The research involves a content study of Talloires signatories’ websites and their semiotic and signaling theory aspects across time. The source is publicly available information (time period 2014 and 2015 respectively) in context with education for sustainable development (ESD) in society and the transaction model in communication theory. It is found that some of the signatory universities in Australia exemplify a few of the Talloires ten agreed actions in their public communications, but each point is not emphasised with equal priority. The variance may be due to divergent underlying objectives; such as public communication of Talloires toward genuine benefit for the environment, or to create a strategic positioning tool to signal the university as an environmental champion within the broader society. Focusing upon secondary data from signatory university websites in Australia, the paper provides a study of higher education signification of Talloires. It assists the initial understanding of signaling theory in the public communication transactions that promote Talloires action and implementation. The findings encourage further studies of related communication issues in universities in other countries. The paper also deepens local and global understanding of perceptions of sustainability and contributes to the body of comparative literature of sustainability in higher education as a development component of strategic management of ESD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background An understanding of anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology is considered essential for graduate nurses, but many nursing students find such courses difficult and anxiety-provoking. This was contrary to the authors' experiences, so student perceptions were studied at the survey institution. Objective This paper examines nursing students' satisfaction with bioscience and nursing courses in the first two years of a Bachelor of Nursing at an Australian university, in order to suggest strategies for effective bioscience teaching. Design Quantitative data for student satisfaction, measured on the Likert scale, were collected for three bioscience and 11 nursing courses from 2010 - 2012. Mean satisfaction was compared among courses and offerings by ANOVA, with offerings nested within courses, and correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between student satisfaction and pass rate. Qualitative data were sourced from open questions, emails and forum posts and examined for recurrent themes. Results Students rated the three bioscience courses in the top four of the 14 courses. There was no relationship between satisfaction and pass rate. Qualitative responses showed satisfaction with the course content, the learning materials, the delivery style and lecturer support. Conclusion It is possible to deliver bioscience courses that are appreciated by nursing students. Four principles are suggested in this paper that may improve student satisfaction with bioscience courses and, therefore, result in more effective learning and better prepared nursing graduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The revocation of university degrees, whilst once unheard of, has been increasingly employed by Australian universities in the wake of high-profile cheating scandals. Yet, to date, there is only one reported Australian case, Re La Trobe University; Ex Parte Hazan in which a student has challenged a university's decision to revoke a degree. However, this case does not comprehensively address the legal issues surrounding decisions to revoke degrees. This paper therefore seeks to provide Australian universities with some clarity with respect to these issues, elucidating the source of the power of universities to revoke degrees, and the circumstances in which this power can be exercised. It does so through a review of English and United States case law, an analysis of accepted Australian administrative law principles, and an examination of university legislation in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Makerspaces are more than just places to make things; a makerspace is ‘a physical location where people gather to share resources and knowledge, work on projects, network, and build’. TheNMC Horizon Report: 2015 Higher Education Editionlists the time-to-adoption of makerspaces within the higher education context, as two to three years. While there is a push to include makerspaces in universities, little is known about the experience of establishing makerspaces on academic campuses. This paper provides an exploratory look at makerspaces within universities and aims to specifically address the research question: What are the experiences of Australian universities with makerspaces? A qualitative approach to data collection was undertaken by reviewing Australian university websites. Makerspaces are noted in 12 of 43 Australian universities websites (October 2015). Typically, these makerspaces employ specialist staff, contain 3D printers and laser cutters, and offer facilities to conduct coursework, personal and collaborative projects. Finally, pop-up makerspaces have been employed by some universities as an exploratory stage to gauge interest in makerspaces before implementing a permanent space. Surveying key stakeholders associated with Australian academic makerspaces is recommended as a next step. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

High quality education programs are essential for preparing the next generation of Chinese medicine (CM) practitioners. Currently, training in CM occurs within differing health and education policy contexts. There has been little analysis of the factors influencing the form and status of CM education in different regions. Such a task is important for understanding how CM is evolving internationally and predicting future workforce characteristics. This paper compares the status of CM education in Australia and Hong Kong across a range of dimensions: historical and current positions in the national higher education system, regulatory context and relationship to the health system, and public and professional legitimacy. The analysis highlights the different ways in which CM education is developing in these settings, with Hong Kong providing somewhat greater access to clinical training opportunities for CM students. However, common trends and challenges shape CM education in both regions, including marginalisation from mainstream health professions, a small but established presence in universities, and an emphasis on biomedical research. Three factors stand out as significant for the evolution of CM education in Australia and Hong Kong and may have international implications: continuing biomedical dominance, increased competition between universities, and strengthened links with mainland China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If engineers are to provide sustainable innovations for future societies, engineers should be able to think and act beyond pure technical competence. This is stressed in political and accreditation frameworks all over the world, and universities are trying to respond to this demand. However, in many cases, sustainability practices seem fragmented and there is a lack of knowledge of strategies and few clear examples of good practice. In this paper, activities to integrate sustainability in two engineering institutions, one in Denmark and one in Australia, are systematically compared to provide an understanding of different kinds of activities and their internal as well as external enablers. A conceptual framework to provide overview of education for sustainability activities and their enablers has been proposed, where activities are related to actors and resources at both university and national levels. The conceptual framework has been developed iteratively – moving back and forth trying to find a suitable structure to capture the contextual pillars of the activities in the two cases, using state-of-art within the research field of education for sustainable development to fill out potential blind spots in the case-material and, finally, continuously shaping the storylines in the two cases to provide the needed overview and understanding of the similarities and differences of the approaches. The interplay between the framework and the case-stories provides a platform for change, as the framework does not only create an overview of activities, it also points out potential routes not taken, and the case studies provide examples of activities, which can be transferred with careful consideration to the internal as well as external context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leadership is increasingly becoming a major research focus in both the corporate and higher education sector (HES). Previous studies have shown that different leadership styles play a significant role in promoting both employee wellbeing and organizational outcomes. However, at present there is a lack of clear understanding of how leadership style, employee wellbeing and organizational outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intention concurrently interact in the HES context, particularly within Australian regional university settings. A review of leadership studies literature also suggests that researchers have either focused on the relationship between a specific leadership style and wellbeing; leadership styles and organizational outcomes, or the relationship between wellbeing and organizational outcomes. However, rarely do empirical studies examine all three concurrently. More expansive and pluralist research approaches are needed if we are to better understand the contextual complexities of leadership in the current HES. For a complex organization such as a university, an effective way of examining leadership may be by applying leadership theories that examine a diverse range of leadership styles that may have both positive and negative outcomes. The Full Range of Leadership Theory (FRLT) examines transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles within a single continuum that may provide a way to concurrently examine how these differing leadership styles may impact on leadership effectiveness in the HES context. In this review paper, drawn from a current PhD study, contexts for leadership practice in HES today will be explored, then leadership studies literature more generally will be reviewed to locate amenable leadership approaches for this work. Lastly, possibilities for leadership approaches that concurrently address issues of wellbeing and outcomes will be discussed. Specifically, the FRLT will be used as a frame to examine transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership approaches within a single continuum as to identify how FRLT may differ from or concur with leadership theories and approaches understood more generally to fit within post-heroic leadership studies standpoints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst educational managers and entrepreneurs are expanding online education opportunities, at least some academics are becoming less enthusiastic about the initiative. As a result, a complex and in many ways contested working environment for academics is emerging in tertiary institutions. Some academics are showing dissatisfaction with their workload. Scholars argue that academics' job satisfaction is highly correlated with students' learning outcomes. While economists advocate the expansion of online education in the context of rising costs of university education in economics literature, the psychological states of teaching academics are overlooked in economics literature. Attitudes to academic (over-)workload are a psychological issue in tertiary education, particularly in universities globally where online education has a strong presence. This paper deals with teachers' attitude at an Australia university. This study explains the variations in academics' attitudes to (over-)workload at an Australian university. For this study we have used primary data collected from a single Australian university - University of Southern Queensland (USQ) - during the period of February-March 2014. The total population size for this study is approximately 400 (four hundred), who are distributed across the then five faculties of the university. The data are collected online. In response to our online survey invitation, 83 (eighty-three) participating academics has taken part in the survey. We have used Likert-type data, where the scale of measurement is represented by ordinal numbers. Research methods used in this study are descriptive analysis of data and inferential statistics based on probit regression. The estimated coefficients of the regression analysis show that three variables are statistically significant at the 5 per cent level. These variables are: the use of the Internet per week, the native language (English) status and the academic qualification status. However, the estimates of the marginal effect show that because of a change of native English status from zero to one, an academic is 23 per cent more likely to be strongly agreed with the statement - online teaching increases academic workload. This implies that attitudes to academic (over-)workload vary among the academics. The policy implication is that education administrators will have to give attention to the working conditions of the academics in order to expand online education successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the Public Relations Institute of Australia's introduction in 1991 of a national accreditation programme for university courses. Drawing on an analysis of previously unstudied industry archives, it identifies four themes significant for industry perspectives of education: public relations knowledge; industry expectations and experience; public relations curricula; and academic legitimacy. While university education was perceived by institute members to demonstrate the professional standing of public relations, the findings reveal divergent understandings of its role and content and identify considerable resistance to the institutionalisation of public relations knowledge. At the same time, the expansion and marketisation of higher education led to the introduction of new, vocational courses such as public relations. The significance of this study is it offers new insights into the development of Australian public relations education and the role of the professional association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In order to meet World Health Organization recommendations for breastfeeding, many women need to combine breastfeeding with return to work or study. Barriers are often encountered when returning to work or study, which can lead to premature cessation of breastfeeding. This study aimed to explore Australian women's experiences of breastfeeding at one multi-campus university. Method: This paper draws on the qualitative findings from a mixed-methods study conducted between April and November 2017. An online survey was used to explore women's experiences of breastfeeding at university. In total, 108 people participated in the survey. After the deletion of incomplete surveys, 79 staff and students survey responses were analysed. In-depth interviews were also carried out with 10 staff and students. Open text responses and in-depth interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: The analysis revealed four themes. The first theme, University as a positive and progressive environment for breastfeeding, explores staff and students' experiences of maternity leave, flexible work arrangements, and on-campus childcare, and their relationships with tutors, supervisors, managers and colleagues. The second theme, Finding private and safe spaces for breastfeeding, presents staff and students' experiences of using designated rooms, car parks, corridors, classrooms, and offices to breastfeed and express breast milk, and their experiences related to storage of breast milk. The third theme, Feeling self-conscious and unprofessional, reflects women's experiences of mixing their professional and personal lives, and feeling guilty for taking time out to breastfeed. The fourth theme, Developing resilience to judgement, captures women's realisation that breastfeeding on campus requires the development of a "thick skin" and the capacity to not be offended easily. Conclusions: Sustaining breastfeeding requires time and commitment on behalf of the mother, as well as a supportive workplace or study environment. Transforming university campuses into breastfeeding friendly environments is long overdue and requires organisational commitment to achieve genuine reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]