Professor Warren Bebbington

Welcome to my blog: I look forward to hearing from you and reading your comments about our University. I hope this becomes a great melting pot for intellectual ideas, views and debate and I welcome all of your contributions.

Professor Warren Bebbington

Report claiming Adelaide not a ‘university city’ is wrong

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Professor Warren Bebbington

Adelaide must invest more to earn status as a world uni city?

So says the latest paper from the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies.

What nonsense.  It’s already there.

The report uses the wrong method, and reaches the wrong conclusion.

Simply declaring Oxford and Cambridge as the model university cities without any reason makes no sense. They are extreme exceptions, 900-year- old towns virtually built around medieval communities of scholars. Even Princeton – possibly the most outstanding university town in the modern world – would score  poorly using this approach.

And the report’s comparison with Oxford and Cambridge of the percentage of university students and employees in the Adelaide community is no more helpful: Adelaide has the highest proportion of university staff and students of any city in Australia.

There is a published rating for university cities: the QS Good Student City Ranking. It places Adelaide in the top 30 student cities in the world.  QS uses factors in its ranking including affordability, quality of life, the student mix, and having at least two universities. On all these Adelaide ranks way ahead of Oxford and Cambridge. But QS gets no mention in the report.

More relevant would have been comparisons with the top university towns of the US–New Haven (home of Yale), Ithaca (Cornell), or Champagne-Urbana (University of Illinois), for instance.

And here Adelaide does well, its civic vibrancy and array of universities and cultural institutions, its proximity to beaches and wineries, its clean air and absence of traffic gridlock all superior to many of the rather isolated and insular university towns of the US.

Wherever I go abroad, universities tell me how attractive their staff and students find Adelaide. It is one reason we have not had the same drop in international student numbers other Australian cities have had.

I cannot see the value of trying to detract from Adelaide’s achievement.

 

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We need an artist’s brush, we have a butcher’s cleaver

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Professor Warren Bebbington

Published in The Australian 30/4/2013

The media is full of passionate commentary about the Commonwealth’s 2% cut to universities to fund Gonski’s Better Schools plan. This sounds significant; but let us remember that the Commonwealth is no longer the sole source of university income. Years of reducing its funding have already made government the minor shareholder in many universities.

At the University of Adelaide, government provides only 46% of our budget, and excluding research grants just 25%.  Thus for us the cut is less than 1% of budget—millions yes, but only half as bad as it sounds. And many universities are like us: for a prudent vice chancellor, the figure is less than the fund kept aside each year as a contingency.

Part of the cut will make some students pay more HECS. But remember the Lomax-Smith Review of Base Funding for universities (2011)? One of its recommendations was that students’ contributions to their education should be lifted significantly: had it been implemented—and all universities urged that it should be—far larger numbers of students than this would have been asked to pay back more of the cost of their education.
What then are we to make of the announcement?

Firstly, we should applaud the commonwealth’s attempt to implement the Better Schools plan. Gonski’s vision is a grand one—all schools across the nation would have their funding lifted to a threshold at which internationally defensible standards of educational attainment could be expected; and schools with students in a variety of disadvantaged circumstances would receive additional assistance to reach the same levels of achievement as others.

The largest problem universities have in admitting more students of low socio-economic status is that such students tend to leave school poorly prepared for university. If governments, federal and state, can properly implement Gonski —and that is a very big if—if funds intended for disadvantaged students are actually used for support and remedial programs that expressly focus on such students—then we might level the national educational playing field. We would ensure students of ability whatever their background or circumstances could enter university well prepared. Truly, that would be an impressive social reform.

And we should acknowledge that the commonwealth does have a significant financial problem with its accelerating spend on universities. The Bradley reforms led to the uncapping of enrolment numbers, and for two years now it has been open to a university to enrol as many students as it wishes and pass government the bill. The cost of funding these ever-expanding enrolments has been growing at a dangerous pace, and clearly, something had to be done to slow it down.

The trouble is, what has been announced may not help. Indeed, the danger is that some universities might now grow enrolments even more aggressively, as they struggle to meet their financial obligations. Finding even more students would inevitably mean admitting the poorly prepared: before Bradley, it was not likely for a school leaver in Australia to enter a university with an ATAR below 54.5, whereas now there are numbers accepted with scores of 40 and below. This is a worry, because research tells us students who score below 70 in the ATAR experience difficulty progressing through a university course without support.

So what was needed was a review of how the uncapped system was travelling, a readiness to consider whether it has achieved its goals, and a willingness to change if it was shown to be failing.  With careful thought, better and much less costly ways to lift participation of low SES students than simply uncapping enrolments could have been developed.  Instead, what was announced has not addressed this core issue:  the cuts make no policy sense.

On increasing HECS payments, Lomax-Smith sought equity: she wanted student contributions lifted to reflect more fairly different costs in different fields. Yet last weekend’s announcement does nothing to improve equity: on the one hand the change to upfront HECS payment removes a benefit from those most well-off, while on the other the change to the start-up scholarships removes a benefit for the least well-off. This sends a muddled message: while Lomax-Smith would have been a bitter pill for students, it would at least have brought greater fairness.

Again, the recent changes for students make no policy sense.

All in all, these cuts may have helped the government budget, but they lacked the inspiration needed to help solve Australia’s educational problems. Addressing all these required sensitivity and imagination—the deft strokes of an artist’s brush, when instead we had the dull squelch of a butcher’s cleaver.

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Lest we forget

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Professor Warren Bebbington

On the eve of ANZAC Day, we reflect on the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.

You may not be aware of the number of University of Adelaide staff, students and alumni who served in the Great War but in 1916, only two years into the 5 year campaign, the University’s Registrar described in a memo some 141 students who were already involved in active service across all Faculties, 5 staff members and 147 graduates. A further 16 held commissions in the British Army including Nobel laureate W L (Lawrence) Bragg.

It is difficult imagine what the University must have been like at the time; the juxtaposition of academic scholarship against the backdrop of war. Our archival collection includes news clippings of the day which capture the sentiment with details of special graduation ceremonies to farewell those heading to the front

Tomorrow, we honour not only those from our University community who have served but also those who continue to serve through active roles in our armed forces, reserves or through their work related to Defence in Australia.

Lest we forget.

Edward Vincent Clark, Lecturer in Electrical Engineering, University of Adelaide, 1910-43

 

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More on the uni funding cuts

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Professor Warren Bebbington

You may be interested to hear my Radio Adelaide interview on this topic and also my speech to the 6th Graduation Ceremony in Bonython Hall on Thursday 18 May.

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Uni funding cuts deep to realise Gonski vision

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Professor Warren Bebbington

The Federal Government’s announcement over the weekend about school funding, based on the Gonski Report, has hit our higher education sector with the third round of significant cuts in the past year.

But unfortunately the funding of that vision has come at the expense, in the short-term at least, of our universities.

The Government faces a significant problem with spiralling university costs thanks to the uncapping of student enrolments. The aim to  increase the number of degree-educated young people within our community, through the Bradley reforms, comes at the cost of continuous, unrestricted expansion of the Commonwealth’s higher education budget.

Quite simply, it seems the Government has had to act in the lead up to the COAG meeting later this week.  With historic school-funding proposals on the table, universities have once again felt the icy edge of further budget reductions worth around $2.3 billion to subsidise the school reforms.

An arbitrary system-wide funding cut however will not address the problem of inflating student numbers: indeed, it may force some universities to expand enrolments even more, just to meet their budget obligations.  This would mean even more admissions of ill-prepared, low-ATAR students.

The worst thing we could  do for students and the wider community would be to funnel young people into a university course that will subsequently set them up to fail.

Quite the contrary, we need to ensure our school system, and indeed our early childhood sector, have the capacity to provide a solid foundation for further study.

The Gonski vision for schools is very sound and should be applauded by all who believe in quality education for every child. The vision is noble, wise, enduring policy. And it resonates strongly in the Australian community.

Taking a longer-term view, better prepared school students will go on to become better prepared university graduates in the future.

Universities should always be in the front row arguing beside parents, teachers and employers for a stronger education system.

To be sure, for the University of Adelaide, a further $4.6M cut next year and $7.5M each year after that will require careful consideration.

But I can assure you it will not mean we seek to meet our obligations by dropping our entrance standards to enrol more students.

We have boldly chosen a path of quality over growth and these cuts must not, and will not, alter our plans.

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Adelaide aims high on global rankings

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Professor Warren Bebbington

This year, as part of the Strategic Plan, a Beacon of Research Taskforce will develop steps to ensure our research strengths – from paediatric medicine to agricultural sciences – are fully recognised in the global rankings.

This is particularly relevant as the latest Times Higher Education Reputation Rankings have just been released. And whether we agree with the different methodologies or otherwise, rankings, and their role in consumer choice, are here to stay.

Today, the Advertiser’s Sheradyn Holderhead has written an interesting summary of our plans to boost the University’s great research work and standing on the international stage.

Read more on Adelaide Now

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The Braggs opens for business today

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Professor Warren Bebbington

The Braggs Lecture Theatre

The official start to teaching commences today, and we welcome around 6,600 new first-year students to our University community.

My day began speaking briefly at the first lecture in the spacious new Lecture Theatre at our new science laboratory building, The Braggs, celebrated by the sound of 200 party-poppers being let off by the students – you can watch the video of  the introduction to the first lecture in The Braggs at  http://youtu.be/pc-ViHRb2pY

This $97 million facility, home to the Institute of Photonics and Advanced Sensing and a myriad of teaching spaces is a spectacular example of how research and learning can be integrated seamlessly. We hope that most first-year students in the sciences will benefit from its facilities.

Our next task is to restore the lawns and large open space between The Braggs and Ingarni Wadli, which has been a building site for a very long period. When finished, this will be an attractive open-air plaza for our students, opening up a vista from the steps of the Barr-Smith Library across Frome Road to the Botanical Gardens.

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Matchett’s musings on uni entrance standards

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Professor Warren Bebbington

Following yesterday’s discussion on SATAC and ATAR entrances scores in South Australia you may be interested to read Stephen Matchett’s blog on the topic in The Australian…

–wb

Bebbington sticks up for standards

The Common Room Blog | 26 February 2013| 0 Comments

A win for Warren is a victory for transparent university entry standards.

Yesterday University of Adelaide vice chancellor Warren Bebbington slammed South Australia’s higher education entry system, saying the three universities should share a standard bonus point system, instead of each administering their own.

And he called for an end to the existing arrangement, whereby the range of course entry scores is not published.

Perhaps this was Bebbington, the university admissions centre’s new chair, putting a bomb under the bureaucrats. If so he probably succeeded, all but announcing the system is run by insiders for insiders, “this results in a lack of transparency about the real scores required to get into a program, and it means that parents and students are not well informed.”

Or maybe he wanted to distinguish elite Adelaide from the competition by demanding action on entry standards and thus implying the other two institutions in the undergraduate market would take just about anybody.

If so, he failed, at least with Flinders, which noticing a flashing sign reading “trap fall in here” was quick to agree the existing arrangement must change.

When the Common Room called, DVC academic Andrew Parkin was fast and firm in endorsing Bebbington’s proposal for discussions toward a single system. He also took the opportunity to set out the strengths of Flinders entry scheme and report how scores are increasing.

In contrast, the University of South Australia took six hours to reply it had nothing to say.

Elite, that lot?

Which makes it a win for the top two. Bebbington gets reform on the agenda and Flinders demonstrates its commitment to academic standards.

Both are important, and not just in Adelaide

While rarely admited, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a vice chancellor in possession of fortune’s worth of empty seats must be in want of students, any students.

And with the feds stumping up for every undergraduate a university will enrol there is as much cash to be had as there are innovative ways of demonstrating prospective undergraduates are qualified.

This is not to deny disadvantaged kids need a leg-up into the academy, or to claim raw school scores are an immutable predictor of university performance.

And given the party line is that higher education is no longer for the intellectual elite, or even the pretty bright, universities can hardly be criticised for expanding their recruiting pools.

Except when they stick with rhetoric emphasising excellence or look like they are gaming the system by bodgying entry statistics.

Because, the community has not caught up with reality. Ordinary Australians still expect graduates, especially in the professions, they are in contact with, notably teaching and health, to be brighter than the rest of us.

And they consider schemes to inflate entry marks cons.

By standing up for transparency Bebbington builds his brand and calls others into question – which is why USA’s silence is strange.

But he also speaks up for all university applicants. Universities that game the market to secure most students clip the coin of their own credibility.

 

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Reform needed on university entrance scores

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Professor Warren Bebbington

You may hear media  reports today where I have called for an overhaul of the way bonus points are included in tertiary entrance scores, and the way those scores are made public in South Australia.

This year, I take up the role of Chair of the South Australian Tertiary Admissions Centre (SATAC), and one of my first priorities is to tackle this issue of greater transparency on university entry scores and admission criteria.

I believe that bonus points in South Australia, which are added to a student’s ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank) to gain entry to university are now out of control.

In other States, bonus points are set centrally by the admissions centre and uniformly applied to all institutions.  Yet, in South Australia, a student might get different bonus points from each university for exactly the same achievement.

The fundamental aim of bonus points is usually to make adjustments that assist students from disadvantaged backgrounds compete on a level playing field, or else to encourage students to enrol in neglected but important subjects.

In South Australia, they are being used so widely and freely it is difficult to see what objective is achieved.

Tertiary admission centres in States other than South Australia are required to publish a range of data for every academic program: the “clearly-in” ATAR, the percentage admitted below that score, even the mean ATAR.  But in South Australia, SATAC is prevented from publishing such details.

This results in a lack of transparency about the real scores required to get into a program, and it means that parents and students are not well informed.

It is not helpful to someone who wants to apply for a course to see a published cut-off score that’s 40 points higher than it really is – they would change their preference to something else, and potentially miss out on their program of choice because they didn’t have the right information.

It’s now up to the university sector in South Australia and SATAC, with government support – to make sure the system works better for the benefit of students and their families.

I would be very interested to hear your comments on this topic.

Read the report on Adelaide Now

 

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Congratulations to our Australia Day Honours recipients

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Professor Warren Bebbington

Congratulations to members of the University of Adelaide community recognised in this year’s Australia Day Honours. 

For more information, please visit the University’s news site http://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news58841.html

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