ENG417: Sustainability of Higher Education in Australia Report

This report delves into the Australian higher education system, examining the impact of admission attempts and policy measures. It investigates the sustainability implications of lower entry standards within the engineering and information technology professions. The report begins by exploring the history of attempts to regulate entry standards to professional university degrees in Australia and their subsequent effects. It then compares these measures with policies enacted in other countries, assessing their potential applicability to the engineering and information technology fields in Australia. Finally, the report assesses the sustainability implications of lower entry standards from the perspective of either civil, chemical, electrical, mechanical, or structural engineering, or information technology. The report references various sources to support its arguments and provides a comprehensive analysis of the topic.

Running head: HIGHER EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA
HIGHER EDUCATION IN AUSTRALIA
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Attempts for Admission and Impact..........................................................................................2
Comparison of Policy measures with other countries................................................................5
Sustainability implications of lower entry standards.................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................12

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Attempts for Admission and Impact
Pursuing of higher education in Australia, can be both done in government as well as
private institutions, which provide education to the domestic people carrying out a livelihood
in the specific regions of Australia. Provider of higher education specifically refers to a body
that has been established and recognized by the law prevailing within the Australian
government, the state as well as the department of education (Norton, Cherastidtham and
Mackey, 2016). Departments related to employment as well as workplace relations are
included within the lot. There exists near about 43 universities in the whole of Australia.
These consist of the inclusion of 40 public universities, two of the international universities
and one private university consisting of specific specialties.
The model of the Australian universities have been modeled under the British system,
hence, the learning is comparatively a bit difficult, however there is an existence of other
intermediary options referring to the preparatory steps, which exists. The initial year is
prevalently similar to the freshman year, which is very much research oriented (Woelert and
Yates, 2015). Moreover, it generally sets the research-ready standards throughout the entire
experience related to learning as a part of evaluation related to the student performances
within the field of academics. The variety of universities relying within the regions of
Australia have been ranked as the 4th destination for PhD students after the likes of US, UK as
well as France.

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(Figure-1: Australian University admissions)
(Source- Woelert and Yates, 2015)
In Australia, the lying universities are very much self-accrediting as institutions along
with each of the university is in possession of having its own establishment legislation
(Harvey, Burnheim and Brett, 2016). All of these universities are well received with a wide
majority of the funding, which they receive is entirely from the Australian Government
related to the Higher Education Support Act 2003. The universities established under the
Australian National University, the Australian Film as well as the Australian Television and
Radio school are related to the Commonwealth legislation (Johnson et al., 2016).
To pursue with education in the regions of Australia, there is an existence of a wide
range of requirements, which need to be met in order to get through with the entry standards
of the Australian institutions.
In some of the cases, it is needed by the Australian institutions to provide with the
specific results of the test related to the English language, which has been taken by the

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specific students individually (Brett, 2016). The most primes objective, which is needed to be
met by the institution is that the skill required in English language can be very much different
from the specific skill, which is particularly related to the visa application of the student
hoping to pursue the education (Bretag et al., 2019). The visa information of the student
should be properly checked by both the department of Home Affairs, along with the website
information of the Australian institution.
The requirements specific for the Australian institutions, which is considered to be the
primary requirement to be met in order to study in varied regions of Australia (Lim, 2018).
All of these criteria have different requirements for the specific entry, hence the course of
related information is to be read properly and carefully within the website of the specific
institution and incase of any queries or issues, to be contacted to the Australian institution
respectively.
(Figure-1: Australian Growth related to Education)
(Source- Lim, 2018)

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Some of the general guidelines related to the requirements for entry into the specific
Australian organization is mentioned in detail along with the criteria, which needs to get
fulfilled (Baik, Naylor and Arkoudis, 2015),
i) The related requirement for the English Language have been dependent upon a
variety of criteria from institution to institution. This specific requirement is
completely based upon the specific level of English language, which is desired by
an individual student to study.
ii) The requirements for the entry get differentiated between schools completely
dependent upon the state or the specific territory that the student will be studying
within. The performance within the field of academic as well as that of the student
ability are the aspects considered during the process of application related to the
procedure for admission.
iii) Considered within most of the cases, there exists no specific entrance
examinations prevailing within the VET related institutions. However, some of the
referred courses might have the existence of the pre-requisite depending upon the
specific subjects or might be the experience related requirements for the work.
iv) To have a proper entry into specific Australian organizations regarding the
undergraduate courses, there is a dire need to be in possession of the Australian
Senior Secondary Certificate of Education, or equivalents to such existing
overseas. Some of the existing undergraduate courses might also have the
inclusion of some of the mentioned pre-requisites related to the mentioned
subjects.
v) The satisfactory of the completion of at one of the degree belonging to the
undergraduate level, the specific student belonging to that institution may take up

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the ability to research or might be relevant to the experience of the work when
taking into consideration.
The visa belonging to that of the student needs to be dependent upon the chosen course of the
study related to the choice of the student. The requirement related to the visa of the student,
which needs to be accompanied with the visa are (Harvey, Szalkowicz and Luckman, 2017),
i) The issue of an electronic Confirmation of Enrolment certificate.
ii) Meeting with the genuine Temporary Entrant related requirement.
iii) Proper as well as sufficient funds particularly for the airfares, course fees as well
as the inclusion living costs.
iv) Proficiency of the English Language.
v) Meeting with the objectives related to health and character requirements.
vi) Acceptable Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC).
Australia is in the possession of the system of health cover related to the international
students commonly referred to as the Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) (De Wit,
2017). This will help the student for the payment of the medical as well as the hospital bills
when they are living within the regions of Australia.
Comparison of Policy measures with other countries
After an individual student has made the decision to study abroad, and aspires to
become an international student, the foremost step that needs to be taken for that particular
student is to research along with that of applying into that desired university (Altbach,
Reisberg and Rumbley, 2019). However, there is no waiting for that student, and being
patient sitting at home is not the option to get selected into an university. For this to happen,
the candidate needs to start searching for the related information related to the specific

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desired degree, which lies to the fact of having higher chances of getting into the university,
which is looked up by the student (Ali et al., 2016).
However, dropping applications to the European countries like UK, Germany,
Sweden or France or maybe in China as well is not that difficult as a student might think. The
individual students to stand a chance in getting admitted to other universities located at other
parts of the world other than Australia has to necessarily pay attention to the related details
along with that of the related documents to be specifically required for the student to get
through (Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, Shavelson and Kuhn, 2015).
The Universities or Institutions located at other parts of the country have placed
forward some of the policy measure, which needs to get abided by the student in order to
move forward with the admission procedure (Jindal-Snape and Rienties, 2016). The below
mentioned measures are the primary ones, which the candidates need to follow for an open
chance into the universities,
i) Keeping their options open- even if the student has the basic aim to get through
into the premise of a selected university of one’s choice, the smart objective is that
the student must keep their options open by applying into at least three of the
related universities where the desired degree of the student is being taught.
ii) Being Realistic as well as informed- to have a daily proper check upon the
requirements related to the academics to have a clear idea about the probability of
being selected into the institution. When not having a clear idea about the
requirements, the student might directly have the option to contact the university
where the adviser from that particular university will explain the necessary steps
to be undertaken. However, most of the times all of these requirements are present
there on the webpage of that particular college. The student just needs to look up

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on that website and stay up-to-date with the related information, which is
necessary.
iii) Discovering the process of applying- usually, the student can apply through the
particular website of that university directly and make a submission of all the
necessary documents, which has been desired by the college or university.
Referring to some of the countries, the application can be made through a specific
platform, which has been provided by that university for an easier method as well
as the present the student with a greater possibility to make an application to other
existing universities as well (Paulsen, 2018). Some of these referred websites also
includes the additional feature of having a choice between the pursuing degrees
particularly for those students having a clear idea about the future of the study. On
the other hand, the websites provide full support to the student applying for the
degree.
iv) Paying attention to minute details- when a student applies into more than one
university through various of the existing websites as well as portals, the student
must make sure of the order, which needs to be maintained by that individual in
regard to the order of preferences of universities by that student.
Some of the countries have generic requirements as well as rules for the international students
(Blessinger and Anchan, 2015). If the student is a European and applies from a European
country as well, the procedure of application is much more likely to be easier and faster
having an even faster reply that a non- European student.
In the UK, most of the universities will accept the application of the student through
the UCAS system in relation to the bachelor degree and if that same individual applied for a
postgraduate degree, the student can either submit the documents with the help of the

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university owned website or through the existing UKPASS system (Pashby and de Oliveira
Andreotti, 2016).
In the regions of Italy, Spain, Germany or Portugal, the student needs to go through a
pre-application procedure as well as have a check upon the eligibility criteria in relation to
the prior studies (Manning, 2017). Mainly, the student needs to receive a similar response
either from the side of the embassy or the international office belonging to that of the
university consisting of the probability information related to the admission information.
However, most of the EEA countries consists of an requirement of having an entrance
examination being conducted, which might be a written test (Becker et al., 2017). The test
shall be conducted in relation to the study of choice, having an additionally passed audition or
in such case, a portfolio.
In Switzerland, the certificates relating to the distance education, night school or the
part-time high schools are generally not recognized or accepted by the Swiss universities.
This specifically means that the particular student will have to pass the Swiss equivalent in
reference to the international baccalaureate commonly known as, maturity examination
(Hüther and Krücken, 2018).
For students who contain the prime objective of studying in the United States, shall
have a general recommendation of starting with the searching procedure for at least of two
years times with an intention to apply for that degree within that specific university.
China on the other hand, has set a standard age limit when it comes down to the
related fact of applying for specific degrees in the respective universities. The standard age
limit set for the students are 30 years of age for the Bachelor’s degree and being over an age
of 40 to pursue with the Master’s degree as well as that of the PhD (Figueiró and Raufflet,

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2015). The age limit set by the universities teaching in varied regions of China has been done
to maintain the age limit for the people passing out as well.
Sustainability implications of lower entry standards
Within the field of Engineering, the incorporation of sustainability into the related
products, processes as well as that of the technology systems along with that of the services
generally refer to the means of integration. All of these integration specifically refer to the
environmental, economic as well as the social factors working within the evaluation of the
existing designs. However, the concepts related to the field of engineering relate to the
sustainability towards the simple abstract of converting the various related concepts within
the quantitative tools meant for design as well as the performance metrics related to the
application design within the field of engineering (Wilkins and Huisman, 2015). This seems
challenge in relation to the sustainability of the lower standards of entry into the engineering
referred to the international universities.
Sustainable implications had been developed in the year of 1992 by the person named
Gro Harlem Brundtland, who was the former Prime Minister of Norway and Chair of the
Brundtland Commission, in the conference of United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development (Jensen et al., 2016). The Brundtland Commission placed as a definition of
the Sustainable implications related to the lower entry standards of the engineering students.
According to the United Nations, the concept of Sustainable implications strongly
provides with a helping hand of towards the economic as well as the social development
within the particular people having to cope with the lower standards and getting benefitted
from the implications set by the institutions situated in the foreign land providing degrees of
Engineering. However, relating to the similar time, the underlining importance of the
providing protection to the international students coming over to other countries to pursue

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educations is largely dependent upon the protection of these particular students (Czerniawski,
Guberman and MacPhail, 2017). Intergenerational solidarity has been prevalently acting as
one of the major factors contributing towards the brining down of the basic standards needed
to bring down the entry standards within these institutions for the international students
pursuing a degree in engineering.
There is the existence of a number of factors for the student to choose international
stops as a prime point for their pursuing of degree in the international institutions. The
internationalization of higher education has been undergoing a rapid change apart from the
challenges, which again alters the procedure abiding to which the higher educations has been
prevalently conceptualized. The foreign countries along with that of the individuals opting for
higher education staying all over the world are adapting newer policies as well as procedures
to attract more of the international students. The rationale for as well as the approaches
towards the internationalization showcases variety by institution as well as country.
Traditionally, the motivations for internationalization are completely dependent upon the
academics as well as the rationales abiding by the academics.
Turkey is widely connected with the history of sending its students to international
institutions for pursuing their higher education. However, like many of the other existing
countries, Turkey has stepped a bit up with the efforts to recruiting of international students
within the recent years. Related to this upward trend continued until the recent years.
However, the fluctuations related to the number of international students related to the
data of the recent years the difference in the number of students opting for the education in
the domestic life.
Engineers residing within the 21st century will require the need of design related to the
energy efficiency, mass efficiency as well as the low environmental emissions. Both of short