Elizabeth Santhanam,
The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

Each time a new or modified policy with regards to higher education is unveiled by the Australian Government, many university staff members in Australia (not just the policy analysts and administrators) begin to wonder, “What now? Will this change what I do and how I do my work?” Sometimes the policy apparently has little effect on teaching and learning practices, or it has a seeping effect. At other times, in particular when the policy is tied to funding, there is a scramble to comply with whatever the requirements are. One such policy that has caused visible changes to university practices in recent times is the Our Universities: Backing Australia’s Future reform package that was released in 2003 (DEST, 2005a), and an associated initiative called Learning and Teaching Performance Fund (LTPF). The LTPF will be available in 2006 and its administration is still being finalised. There are two stages in the allocation of LTPF, and Stage 1 was to determine the eligibility of institutions for the fund. “The Minister [for Education, Science and Training] is expected to announce the [education] providers who are eligible for Stage 2 of the Fund and the allocation model by the end of July” is stated under the heading 2005 Latest News - Learning and Teaching Performance Fund (DEST, 2005b).

A pilot study has revealed some recent ‘visible’ changes in the websites maintained by the higher education institutions in Australia. The webpages related to evaluation of teaching appear to be either updated recently or created recently. Are these changes making the institutions’ current practices more transparent to the public view, or is the policy resulting in more accountability within the institutions? Re-packaging or reform is at work? This paper explores the implications of these changes in teaching/learning evaluation practices, in particular documenting student evaluation survey results. One of the implications is the increased number of surveys conducted to collect student views of teaching and learning.

Keywords: higher education policy; teaching evaluation; evaluation evidence.

Notes on Contributors

Dr Elizabeth Santhanam coordinates the Evaluation of Teaching Unit in the Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, The University of Western Australia. Her research interests include issues related to the use of teaching portfolios, student feedback on teaching and staff development. She has published and presented papers in those areas.

References

DEST (2005a). Our Universities: Backing Australia's Future. Retrieved July 21 2005, from http://www.backingaustraliasfuture.gov.au/

DEST (2005b). Learning and Teaching Performance Fund. Retrieved July 21 2005, from http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/higher_education/policy_issues_reviews/key_issues/learning_teaching/learning_and_teaching_performance_fund.htm