Amid this global landscape for education and policy, this paper focuses on the subject of teacher quality through the lens of teacher education reform and one particular Australian policy initiative: The "Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education" (LANTITE). Introduced by the federal Australian government in 2016 as a…

Mass media provides a public space for its readers to enter the discussion on education, as they consume and interpret key messages, which are often shaped by key educational policies. With a suite of recent teacher education reform measures in Australia aimed at solving the "problem" with teacher quality, a conceptual map for conducting…

Transnational migration, especially the growth of forced migration is unsettling the literature on widening access to university education. Equity definitions and understandings that frame social inclusion have presumed stable domestic populations within nations and targeted redressing historic internal social inequalities. Refugees and people…

The low Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranks (ATARs) of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) students are routinely highlighted in the media and in reviews of ITE, with the perception that such students will be unable to become effective teachers. As part of the NSW Government's "Great Teaching, Inspired Learning" (GTIL) Framework, minimum…

Institutional accreditation is an important factor for U.S. institutions in determining if credit or degrees from another institution will be accepted. However, accreditation as we understand it does not often exist outside the United States. This 60-Second Survey, in partnership with the Association of International Credential Evaluators (AICE)…

This article investigates the consequences of an expansion of domestic university places in Australia after 2009 for inequalities in access to tertiary education. I focused on how different individual-level socioeconomic factors were influencing not only the likelihood of continuing education at the tertiary level but also a type of institution…

The recent period can only be seen as one of rapid and substantial churn as UK governments have attempted to widen participation, strengthen the national system of innovation and control the direct public costs of higher education. Very similar issues have dominated the debate in Australia. This paper compares the current position of two higher…

Universities are required to adopt "fair" student admission practices, yet understandings of fairness in student selection are contested. This paper uses an analysis of the admission policies of Australia's public universities to critically examine the use and application of notions of fairness. A further analysis of enrolment data is…

The Government welcomes the Higher Education Standards Panel's report on how the admissions policies and processes of higher education providers can be made clearer, easier to access and more useful, to inform the choices and decisions of prospective students and their families. The Panel's recommendations provide a comprehensive and well thought…

The history of universities in the twentieth century is, at least from the perspective of growth, a massive success. Australian higher education is no exception. Prior to the Second World War, Australia had six universities and approximately 10,500 students. Now there are in excess of one million students attending 39 institutions. In each phase…

Academic standards and performance outcomes are a major focus of the current Cycle 2 Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) audits. AUQA has clearly stated that universities will need to provide "evidence of setting, maintaining, and reviewing institutional academic standards and outcomes" (2010, p. 27). To do this, universities…

School choice is most commonly considered in the context of private/public schooling and access to university. University entry remains a key element in family decision-making about which school they would like their children to attend. Debates about school choice are most commonly framed in relation to marketisation and the relative popularity of…

This paper argues that an elitist concept regarding foreign language study and absolute criteria for such study have made foreign language study insensitive to the needs of an increasingly larger proportion of the student population in New South Wales, including even the most able students. In discussing this viewpoint, the paper examines: (1) the…

Examines the politics of policymaking within the context of Australian university entrance policy. Argues that policy making is more concerned with the social construction of policy problems than with their resolution. Stories of university entrance were absorbed within the government's reform agenda via participative processes restricted to…

Seventy-five Australian higher education institutions were surveyed to determine their policies and practices with regard to students with Technical and Further Education (TAFE) qualifications who might apply for transfer from TAFE to higher education. Forty-four of the 49 questionnaires returned were considered usable. It was found that many…