Education Policy in Australia

This case study provides an overview of higher education and leadership developments in Australia, including the country's diverse population, education system, and challenges faced by educational institutions.

Education Policy in Australia 0
Title: Education Policy in Australia
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Education Policy in Australia 1
Introduction
This case study provides an overview of higher education and leadership developments in
Australia. The population of Australia is more than 20 million people. One-fifth of Australians
are immigrants from Europe but mainly from Asia. More than 5 percent of Australian people are
indigenous descent. Australia is an economic diverse society. Schools are the primary channels
which need to contribute to economic and social diversity by meeting with the diverse range of
scholars with varying socioeconomic needs. Australia is known to have the good track record of
student performances when compared with international standards. However, there exist a strong
pressure to life higher education quality and enhance access.
The Australian society has positively involved with education and finds the process
challenging and critical. Higher education involves a major efforts and accountability to lift the
quality. High school leadership has been recognized as a challenging role. The year 2012 has
been remarkable in higher education of Australia with the commencement of undergraduate
university places. The universities are free to enroll the number of students on their wish. This is
based on the readiness of specific groups of study and student determination. Australia has seen a
transition from policy environment with price regulation system.
Enhancing Learning and Leadership
For most of the people, ‘Universities’ and ‘Higher Education’ are synonym terms.
University is a particular kind of educational institution that offers higher education. Besides,
these universities providing higher education to students, there is a minority of education
providers-45 out of 170 operating in 2016. There are 40 universities, 2 overseas universities, 1
specialist university and other providers are schools, institutes and colleges that provide high
education qualification. These institutes need to be registered with Tertiary Standards and
Education Quality Agency. This agency provides a report on whether the educational institutions
are meeting the criteria set by the government. The educational institute will support intellectual
inquiry and offer learning and teaching practices that is interactive with advanced knowledge.
The power of issuing certain type of qualifications is defined through advanced learning
providers.

Education Policy in Australia 2
Political, cultural and social backgrounds-The Australia comprises of 2 internal territory
and 6 states. Australia is a parliament democratic country with three government levels.
Education is the responsibility of state or territory and Australian Government is playing an
active role with relevance to funding, reporting, accountability and policy development.
Australia has been popularly known as the multicultural society. The improvisation of education
for indigenous scholars is high priority for Australian government. Approximately 15 percent of
people speak other than English as a language. Agencies need to support higher education and
develop the English language as a proficient language among the immigrant groups which do not
speak English. Most of the people are living in southeast of the nation. This is regarded as highly
urbanized society with fifty percent of population living in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
The Australia as a country is populated through small communities and has been
separated by large distances. The country has to face foremost challenges for attracting the
researchers to rural areas and encouraging them to provide appropriate support (Shaw, 2018).
The Australia has been changing substantially from past two decades. The Australia has a
diverse population and economy needs to strive for high levels of competition among the
different educational institutes. Today, parents are very well educated and demands that
educational institutes must perform well. High education institutes must plan programs and
report on a continuous basis to territory and state education. Higher education leadership has
been widely recognized as a challenging role.
The Australian as a nation has adopted the demand driven methodology and is majorly
experimenting with overall system character. This is being done for the objective of higher
education and determination of association between community and university. The unstoppable
volume of higher education and its main outcome from the approval of Bradley Review has been
given. This review provides the basis for major reform of higher education and to push scholars
holding bachelors level and improve the access, finance requirements and regulation of code of
conduct and standards and quality assurance. The Bradley review report has created the national
push towards higher education system. This involves formulation of educational system which
has offered the policy model for achieving the outcome (Hope, 2011).
The analysis of impact of higher education transformation by planning the demand side
and supply side actions has been done. There are certain key issues which provide the initial
evidence for major reform over the student numbers. Understanding the different patterns of

Education Policy in Australia 3
growth, both for overall students and educational institutions results in impact of enhanced
enrolments is required. The high level learning outcomes for the capable and education
researchers in this miscellaneous system is provided. The new reforming policy is broad
achievement of goals. Reforms from demand side and supply side have been very string.
However, aggregate patterns and kinds of institution and its significant effects are required to be
observed. This is in relation with different fields of study. The new method of enrolment through
people receives positive response from low socio-economic groups and people living in regional
and rural area.
Almost all Australian educational institutes are comprehensive and have prepared the broad
curriculum for the scholars. There are major initiatives taken for introducing the general
curriculum. In past few years, vocational training and education programs have been launched
into educational institutes. There are several states which have introduced specialist government
educational institutes. The Australian government is providing funds to twenty technical colleges
across the whole country. Few states have also introduced technical colleges for senior secondary
scholars. All the educational institutes are coeducational. Students which have intellectual or
physical disabilities receive additional educational resources like learning equipment and
teaching aids for ensuring active participation. For few students, mainstream education is not
possible and diverse range of special educational institutes has been evolving to cater with these
students. One of the strongest features of these educational institutes is to offer students with
independent living skills. Most of the educational institutes recruit international students.
The educational institutes do not follow any single curriculum and every state and territory has
determined its specific curriculum. However, there are common elements. There are national
initiatives taken for the achievement of enhanced consistency in curriculum followed across the
nation.
Within States, authorities have specified curriculum guidelines and educational institutes
have considered autonomy in determining curriculum detail and methodology of teaching.
During the years eleven and twelve, curriculum must be specified elaborately and state authority
is responsible for certifying the student achievement. In recent years, educational leaders are
evaluated on the basis of how they achieve designated goals. There are number of assessments
conducted at educational institutes for investigating the performance and each providing an
indication of students’ knowledge and key areas must be identified. The assessments are

Education Policy in Australia 4
conducted to provide the indication on number of scholars that have been part of international
studies within an educational context.
The teaching labor force is more feminized. In year 2005, 60 percent of teachers had been
female. School leaders and teachers in educational institutes are employed through a central
education system. Working conditions and salaries are standardized within every system. The
working conditions are result of compulsive bargaining system. In few states, local councils have
been responsible for employing and selecting educational leaders. In non-governmental domain,
educational institutes are autonomous and employment choices are exercised at individual level.
The labor market for educational leaders is based from state and territory.
Australia is known for having large number of professional leaders and teachers at
national and territory levels. Educational leaders are primarily focused at subject areas. The
professional bodies play a vital role in supporting the professional learning and policy
development. The major advancements have helped in raising the political profile of higher
education. The yearly assessments are reported and individual educational institutes need to
report the comparative performance. The main reference point is for educational leaders at the
territory and state level. The primarily old research universities have plans to reduce or contain
the undergraduate places. The financial concerns for development and growth have prohibited
the colleges in accomplishing the aims. Growth has a negative connection with universities sizes.
Small colleges have taken the chance for growing towards the magnitude which is reflected
justifiable in the main context of Australia.
A systematic apprehension has been evolved with demand driven funds and this may
cause few colleges to fail as there are important pattern for student choice and for different
colleges. The particular concern has been expressed as for educational colleges and schools
which are situated in rural areas and few in metro areas. The presumption is that students will
select the possible colleges based in metropolitan cities.
However, growth has been recorded higher within which vulnerable opportunities tend to
operate. There are competition signs among the different educational institutions for student
market. This occurs in major cities such as Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne where multiple
universities exist. As soon as the market leader educational institute plans to expand, there is
direct proportional effect on other universities. In year 2012, Melbourne has supported the major
expansion of educational institutes. These have successfully retained students with expanded

Education Policy in Australia 5
qualifications. There is much evidence that educational institutes which are at lower status are
struggling to achieve the benchmark. The growing universities needs to have a pool of potential
enrolments and receives the direct competition from this pool and leads to pressure for few
universities. There is also an association between domestic growth of students and overseas
students. The shortage of international students has enhanced the potentials of Australian
educational institutes for expansion of the place for national students.
Transition from institutional perspective, there are few changes to be considered in
demographic arrangements for student admissions. College enlargement has been supported
through major leaps in college admissions from past few years. Demand has been driven through
knowledge which educational institutes are able to provide the places and aftermath of
educational institute advertising and promotions drive. The modal category of enrolling students
is who cannot attend schools, but generally these students will make up one third of new
admissions in higher education.
An analysis has been performed which shows there have been significant growth in notable
educational institutes. Australian Tertiary rank for enrolments has been growing in double digits.
This account for quarterly growth and expansion cannot be posed as simply a question. High
achievers wish to pursue top most education. However, the number of applicants is more and
looking for university places. The effect for the appropriate educational outcomes has been
considered. The code of Australian system has measured the social groups balance that access
higher education groups.
Quartiles are defined through geographical measure, based on home location and post code.
Though, data is supplemented through additional information for student’s access and support by
government income. In the present period, the questions for policy against the overall
educational growth will show a faster increase. There has been clear evidence from university
efforts and recruit the students from low quartile. This is responsive to additional funding. The
loading needs to have a social balance of interest for encouraging the academic unit of
universities. The loading has been provided as additional funding source for different programs
which assist the students in higher education. In particularly, addressing of gaps must be made in

Education Policy in Australia 6
earning skills from childhood learning to education experiences. The present period provides the
question for policy making whether the growth and development is in pace and access to the
lower quartile can increase when compared with other quartiles. There is a clear report from
colleges which recruit more number of students from lower quartile range and this is in response
to the additional funds. There is a social balance in the academic institutions and it is not limited
to the central units. There is also excess of funds being provided for assisting the students and
making the big transition to high education and particularly addressing the gaps which emerge
from learning skills from schools and also past experiences.
The previous financial arrangements have permitted the enrollment degree and
universities must be able to retain the additional school and college enrollments. The authorities
have created incentive scheme objective to increase the demand. The distribution of students
places in higher education institutes move to newer arrangements which will show the extreme
range of educational disciplines. This can be specifically observed in engineering, technology
and other related disciplines which have shown regular observations. Australia has been
producing fewer numbers of graduates. This receives interest from prospective scholars
economic capacity throughout the course plan for development. For Australian authorities, there
are concerns that growth and development can be predicted earlier causing increased spending
in early years. However, from past few years, the growth has been eased.
The demonstration of student context with relevance to student demand and places supply
must work together to permit the expansion of Australian higher education patterns. The
government expansion is certainly achievable and balance target is not guaranteed much. The
prime concern is where colleges can offer education at a average required with context of low
level of student preparedness and rapid expansion. The concern has been 2 particular subthemes-
how the student’s category can easily learn which will justify the bachelor degree conferment.
Colleges can achieve results for all scholars with relevance to framework of financial resources.
The formal category ensures code of conduct and TEQSA ensures the cyclical assessment and
external monitoring of different education providers. In order to lead the assessment of education
providers resemble with national standards which will cover the organization operations and

Education Policy in Australia 7
aspect of learning and teaching in research universities. Initially, it has been proposed higher
education framework comprises of following domains-Qualification standards, research
standards, provider standards, learning standards and information standards. A provider and
qualification standard forms threshold necessities for whether a higher education institute
provider can operate or not. The higher education review board is providing the threshold code
of conduct and overall category of framework.
Conclusion
The debate is whether maximum number of people is capable of pursuing the higher
education. People who favor the higher education expansion and secondary education training
argue on employment a nature and education level that is attained within a particular society.
Most of the world economies have reached to a point where tribunal qualification is required for
effective working life. This implies, a higher proportion of people will be requiring the higher
education. The employment is continued at a high peak amongst who have degrees when
compared with unemployed who have not completed the secondary education. This is more
visible in women. Australian Universities are continuously proving that people from different
cultural backgrounds are gaining maximum from the university education. This is achievable in
educational outcomes those match with or exceed for a degree. The expansion plans pushes the
students balance towards greater support in education. The challenge is providing the requisite
support and ensures all the ability levels and provide plethora of opportunity for attainment of
potentials. The funding system will generate greater difference between universities and how
they are capable of meeting with the needs of students. Diversity can extend the greater utility of
non-academic institutions providers which do not receive public support.

Education Policy in Australia 8
References
Hope, S. (2011). A Letter to Arts Education Policy Review Readers. Arts Education Policy
Review, 112(4), pp.214-214.
Shaw, R. (2018). Examining arts education policy development through policy frameworks. Arts
Education Policy Review, pp.1-13.