Australian academics are being squeezed from all sides, facing ever-intensifying bureaucratic expectations around research output, coupled with increased teaching commitments and mounting administrative duties. These demands are occurring in an environment where most academics are still employed under traditional arrangements whereby, notionally,…

Using the example of cross-cultural philosophy's relation to disciplinary philosophy, this article seeks to think through some of the issues relevant to diversifying philosophy as an academic discipline. Guided by James Tully's ruminations on non-domination, it attempts to make a case for a practice of philosophy which is more attuned to its…

This study examined the relationship between different views of teaching and dimensions that differentiate academic disciplines. A total of 114 academics within Greece and 127 academics from similar disciplines but other countries were compared using the Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI). Distinctions among disciplines for both groups were…

While there is a wealth of research evidencing the benefits of active-learning approaches, the extent to which these teaching practices are adopted in the sciences is not well known. The aim of this study is to establish an evidential baseline of teaching practices across a bachelor of science degree program at a large research-intensive…

This paper analyses shifts in the representation of history and physics as named organisational units on Australian university websites over the last 15 years in the context of broader questions about the production of knowledge in contemporary times. It derives from a broader project concerned with disciplinarity, changing university contexts and…

Disciplines have emerged as an alternative administrative structure to departments or schools in Australian universities. We presently investigate the pattern of discipline use and by way of case study examine a role for distributed leadership in discipline management. Over forty per cent of Australian universities currently employ disciplines,…

This qualitative case study reports on an emerging four-stage process of support for curriculum change using reflective data which highlights three perspectives: that of the Academic Developer, the Head of Program, and the Discipline Leader. The aim of the change process was to enhance employment outcomes of Creative Arts students by aligning the…

Dr Fritz Duras was the first director of a department of physical education in an Australian university. He had a significant influence on the development of the field of physical education in Australia and his legacy is honoured at each biennial ACHPER conference with the Fritz Duras memorial lecture. Recently, the Graduate School of Education at…

Describes the organization of Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. (IRT)

A study designed to provide a rational basis for establishing student teacher ratios for certain fields of study in Australian colleges is described. It analyzed student and faculty contact hours, student load, full-time-equivalent staff, class size, and academic workload and integrated them into mathematical models for the fields. (MSE)

The current funding of research in Australia's universities is examined, including the recent forces that have changed the research system and resource allocation, allocations by field, expenditures per researcher by field, and measures of and emphasis on productivity. Prospects for research in the late 1980s are discussed. (MSE)

A study in England and Australia suggests that in science and engineering, where researchers within a research unit of any size re-form themselves into smaller groups (5-12), communication is efficient and productivity optimal, with little economy of scale for larger groups. In less tightly-organized disciplines such as mathematics and social…

This article recounts the origin, in 1976, of the Women's Studies Program at the Australian National University, the lack of administrative support received by the program, and its current declining status. Stressed are the difficulties such an interdisciplinary program faces at an institution organized on traditional departmental lines. (DB)

Three papers given at a seminar on the state of the "discipline" of English are presented which form an introduction to an analysis of the activity of "teaching and researching English" as it is currently being done at Queensland University (Australia) and others. Following an introduction summarizing the background of the…

A study of research productivity among 890 Australian faculty members in 18 universities during 1985-89 found the overall average to be low but with a wide range of variation. Additional variables examined include level of research activity, subject area, institution type, gender, age, early research interest, and satisfaction with the promotion…