Australian Higher Education - Report Example

Running Head: ADULT, VOCATIONAL AND HIGHER EDUCATION Adult, vocational and higher education Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Adult, vocational and higher education Introduction Learning is a term that refers to a process that makes use of the human brain, as it is the main driving force that compels learning to take place. The process of learning is known as education. When an individual is learning, the modal model or rather the cognitive processes that are involved in learning refer to the structure that the human memory exists in, how it inputs, processes and outputs information. Before an individual can succeed in higher education, they will have to pass through some ups and downs just like any project that they tackle. This paper is going to look at the issues concerning the adults the 21st century, higher and vocational education in Australia. The paper aims at looking at the apparent challenges that are affecting educational institutions since they have brought about threats in the process of learning. Accordingly, this paper will come up with some ways that can help these institutions to respond positively to globalization challenges having the student’s best interest. Challenges affecting adult, vocational and higher education In Australia adult, vocational and higher education has been exposed to international and local problems. One of the problems is the lack of funds for funding proper technology in these colleges and universities, which is needed for the success of the educational system. Funding technology in higher educational institutions is an important step towards providing constant and up to date technological materials and technological training services to students. Technology helps institutions to create challenging and new options for enriching the learning and in development and improvement of the curriculum. With the help of computer software and hardware, staff professional development grants and computer training, it is possible that higher institutions, will be able to have up to date information in this era of technology. Although today it is easy to obtain the software and hardware required in these institutions in Australia because there are many vendors operating the same, financing the acquisition of these materials is the big problem (Australian Social Trends, 2008). Australia has a shortage of qualified personnel staff that is able to multi task and performs in different capacities to be able to meet adequately the high demand of labor in the country. The institutions of learning in the country require that the concepts needed be taught within the teacher’s professional goals. This has not been the case in Australia because of lack of enough and experienced teachers. The teachers are not enriching enough in the delivery of knowledge to the students. Teachers should use their knowledge that they have had over time. Because of lack of enough and experienced teachers therefore, the principles that have been on use in many institutions of learning have gone down (Moran, L. and Rumble, 2004). In any education institutions, research projects carried out by the students should be financed so as to give accurate information on data collected. Lack of this will bring about ambiguity in the research conducted since the results formulated at times do not tally with the research projected. Australia’s government has not been supporting these projects financially which has led to acquisition of low education standards on the student’s side. The experience of students is affected in-depth thus when they face the outside world they are challenged greatly. Universities in Australia have been founded on national strategies fro research and innovations in the country. Because of the diversity of communities in Australia, there is need for a systematic process of teachers so as to cater for all the groups within the country. This has not been the case because the teacher’s perspective on the principles of learning is not the major concern when it comes to learning and teaching a diverse class (Moran and Rumble, 2004). There is much enthusiasm in the use of modern technology in a class setting. This will help the teacher and the students to think beyond their normal levels of thought. The culturally diverse students will be brought to a common level of understanding when they are engaged in the use of computers and projectors in teaching. The class will be unanimously active and interactive. This will help to eradicate the ideas of individual thoughts that normally go in contour with lack of diversity in the institutional setting. Because of the lack of these resources, Australian higher education still lacks the quality that it has to meet for it to be competitive technologically. Globalization of education Globalization can be defined in several ways, and from different perspectives. It can be defined as the broadening and deepening of international flows of trade, finance and information in a one, incorporated global market. It could also be describe as the increasing linkages between the world’s people. Globalization can also be defined as the transformation of the world into a global village, as borders disappear, distances shrink, and time shortens (Moran and Rumble, 2004). Globalization has several positive, innovative and dynamic aspects, all related to the increased market access, increased access to capital, and increased access to technology and information which have led to greater income and employment opportunities for the highbred individuals. While it presents positive transformations to many nations, it has also brought new challenges ranging from economic, industrial, social, political, religious for those who obtain jobs. On the other hand, globalization can be seen to have negative meaning. Those who are against globalization say that it weakens the sovereignty of a country because the international institutions will take over the duties, functions and the powers of the individual countries (Moran and Rumble, 2004). Globalization causes conflicts which are inherited from earlier times and also creates inequalities in the exchanges taking place, which impair the life and development progression of people and the marginalized groups significantly. Open learning systems have been encouraged in many countries and as such students are in a better position of acquiring their education from anywhere. With this kind of system in place, the students have increased their mobility rates in search of better learning institutions from developed countries. In our current world, more students have gone for international universities to guarantee their education in well known institutions. Labor force patterns in the world have changed and demands for individuals with degrees. This has therefore calls for globalization to be exercised in Australia so as to keep a brace with technology. A closer look at the shortcoming of globalization strongly suggests that students and teachers have experienced some challenging times have had underlying negative results which has seen the failure of governance, either in at the national level or at global level. Setting of a framework of rules and practices that limits the trend of globalization in education is the initial and crucial step in controlling educational globalization. With the increased number of students in Universities in Australia for instance, several challenges of globalization have come up and they include poor or no performance at all, minimal competition, qualified personnel are lacking, remote and local areas lack in expansion, research lacks fund for support, and subjects fields for students has been narrowed among other challenges (Moran and Rumble, 2004). The research sources which have proven that these challenges of globalization really have strong consequences on the educational sector indicate that major challenges which are often experienced in any higher learning institution will include identified are; spreading the gains of globalization to developing countries and all segments of a society in the developed nations, addressing new issues and rules presented by globalization, and shaping a new international economic system (Australian Social Trends, 2008). This indicates the urgent need to regulate the educational changes that are coming up as a result of globalization as they are likely to spread negative impacts to other aspects of human life. With the knowledge diversity and international universities expansion uncertainties today, many learning centers in the country are now competing to be ranked best which has resulted in a bidding process to institute the best. For instance, in the world Harvard University is ranked best. World Journals that deal with Academic Rankings support use of subjects done or field of study to be the best and supplement it with overall categories accordingly. A description of the threat of migration by citizens looking for employment opportunities is eminent in an economy facing globalization problems. This has a direct impact on education. Higher educational managers, teachers, and students lack necessary resources to bid and become the most competitive globally since learning environments have had conflicting tendencies. Australia has fully engaged in overseas selling of its education since many of their citizens lack the interest of learning due to their involvement in money matters. Many people in the world migrate to Australia in search of higher education due to its vibrancy and good quality of education (Australian Social Trends, 2008). Globalization on the negative point of view has also led to erosion of culture of the various countries in the world. The countries have to leave out their cultures and adopt the western cultures, for example the African countries may they adopt the culture of the Western countries. This therefore follows that there would be same culture through out the whole world which may not be good. Diversification of culture is what is encouraged. Higher education serves as the avenue through which students from various regions and states meet. It is therefore important that an environment of unity should be supported so that students can develop ways of living with each other (Australian Social Trends, 2008). Globalization can be negative in its meaning in that it will give a way in which the rich will exploit the poor, for example the developed countries may come up with policies which may be of beneficial to them and be to the disadvantage of the developing countries. The developed countries have more power as compared to the developing countries and therefore they may take advantage of this situation to undermine the developing countries in their decision making. For globalization to achieve the competitive edge in Australia, it is important that all students regardless of their origins should be given equal opportunities to study. This will make the differences between the poor and the rich to reduce. Globalization can also be seen in a negative way in that it may encourage negative competition between the various countries in the world. Education internalization has formed an environment that is crisis driven thus is confusing and contradicting to most individuals. Managers of higher education institutes have been given a hard task of discovering ways of dealing with challenges found in global higher education systems. On the other hand, the higher education institute needs to devise a way that is going to work compliantly with students, staff, and society in general to resolve the challenges. Governments come in handy here. The policy makers put together policies that pertain and govern higher education organizations. Policies put together should be safe, correct, and comfortable to the studying environment and should put into consideration the welfare of both the local and international students in the country. Facilities in different organizations should be equally distributed to all students in the campus. Language barriers should be done away with since they bring about discrimination issues in the campus which in turn affects the performance of the organization and students (Moran and Rumble, 2004). Globalization can also be said to have contributed greatly in the good governance in the institutions in the various countries. This comes as a result of the countries coming together to formulate polices that would be used across all the nations in the world so as to reduce the political influence on the running and management of the affairs of these institutions. Positivism is anticipated as a result of internationalization proponents of education which has posed great challenges though the process has really eroded and destroyed cultural values in the country (Australian Social Trends, 2008). Foreign students have been exposed to multiculturalism which is to their advantage since they have the knowledge and experience in problem solving of diverse nature. Inability to make adjustments in the cultural aspect like new environment for learning and socialization has been a major challenge for internationalization on the international students in the country. Foreign students also experience feelings like having homesick problems, financial constraints as they have to vend for money to support their study programs, language barriers, and lack of friends due to poor methods of interaction in the university (Barcan, 1993). Those who support globalization in education also argues that globalization has led to the exchange of ideas between countries may be through the development of technology. The issue of globalization in education has seen the creation of jobs for the fresh graduates. This is mainly because industries will be developed in various countries by other foreign firms since there would be free movement of goods and services from one country to another, this will boost the economy of the country thus improving the facilities and creating resources to be used in funding higher education. Psychological aspects have also contributed to challenges facing the international students. Waterloo University conducted a research on international students indicated that those students who did not have friends who were Malay suffered high stress levels. To those timid and quiet students, this has poised to be a big problem since they were not given a chance to establish relations with other students in the campus environment. The isolated individuals could not develop their interaction skills hence they were not diverse in dealing with practical issues of life (Australian Social Trends, 2008). To achieve these outcomes global and national actions need to be taken. Each nation should put in place suitable economic and social policies needed to capture global opportunities trade, capital flows and migration, and to protect people against the vulnerabilities that globalization brings along. Efforts to avoid financial instability and human cost should be put into force both nationally and globally. This will aid in avoiding civil conflict, unemployment, erosion of native cultural values and crime in general. Information and communication technology includes the technological gadgets prologue used for communication as they give the same form of information. ICT has positively impacted the education system through new delivery methods of education to the international community. Market economy means that markets have increased in number has influenced economies of the market worldwide and is another globalization factor. Markets need to be provided with goods not produced locally. The impact of these market economies to education is the augmentation of higher education commercialization and training of local and international students. Imports and export of educational services and programs as a result of trade barriers removal has also been impacted by the market economies. Recommendations To achieve a competitive edge in higher education in Australia, global and national actions need to be taken. Efforts to avoid financial instability and human cost should be put into force both nationally and globally. This will aid in avoiding civil conflict, unemployment, erosion of native cultural values and crime in general, which will in turn enable students to obtain knowledge in higher institutions freely and securely. The government of Australia needs to participate in an important role in development of freedom of an individual. The higher education board should propose the States to provide the role of a good environment in which the individual can flourish in academics. This is done through making the individuals have a sense of belonging and therefore participate in contribution of freedom in their minds and to the public in general. Since individuals operate within a set on institutions which the state is confined in, the management should propose that the State needs to set up these institutions so that they provide the necessary conditions for an individual to think freely. Institutions operate as a champion of freedoms for its citizens and provide services to the individuals. It has also been noted that when individuals, in this case the students are taught the habits of mind they are in a position to direct this kind of knowledge to the different ways and forge other new directions. This therefore implies that the students should embrace the free system of learning so that they can be able to freely mingle with other people when they will have pursued their careers. This is also important in higher education for it brings both unity and excelling in academics. The society has also been seen to be fast becoming a “learning society”, this therefore means that the students should posses the habits of mind. Because of this, the Australian government requires devising reforms that deal with the problems existing in their higher educational system. These reforms include centralization versus decentralization where the management of institutions will not be in a central place but in various regions. Another reform within the system of higher education is focus in quality. The government of Australia focuses on developing few higher institutions but those which provide quality education. The management style is also another reform which the government of Australia is working on. Higher education process of learning is very important both to the students and the workforce. This is because it enables the students to be able to meet the expectations of the rapidly changing world. For this reason, the government should allow institutions to perform in their capacity fully. Australian government and regulatory will be charged the responsibility of making sure that primary funding of higher educational institutions are not defaulted at any point. If these institutions succeed in doing all this, they will be able to see to the smooth running through monitoring and evaluation in higher institutions. References: Australian Council for Educational Research. Camberwell, VIC, Australia. Retrieved from: http://acer.edu.au/ausse/index.html Australian Qualifications Framework. Retrieved from: www.aqf.edu.au/Overseas/Internationalstudents/tabid/200/Default.aspx "Australian Social Trends". Australian Bureau of Statistics website. Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved 6 June 2008 from: www.abs.gov.au Barcan, A. (1993). Sociological theory and educational reality: education and society in Australia. Sydney: UNSW Press. Education Resources Information Center. Retrieved from: www.eric.ed.gov Living in Australia. Retrieved from: www.immi.gov.au/living-in -australia/everyday-life/education/ National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education. Retrieved from: http://www.equity101.info/content/equity101-surveys Moran, L. and Rumble, G. (2004). Perspective in Distance Education: Teacher Education through Open and Distance learning. Melbourne: COL. Review of Australian Higher Education. Retrieved from: http://www.deewr.go.au/HigherEducation/Review/Pages/default.aspx Smith, L. (1980). The Aboriginal Population of Australia. Canberra: Australia National University Press. The EU agency which supports education and training in countries surrounding the EU. Retrieved from: www.etf.europa.eu/web.nsf?Open Read More