Question:
The research proposal gives an idea about the challenges and issues faced by the educational institutes of Australia across various states. This includes the school and universities of Australia across various states.
Education industry in Australia is the fourth largest export industry of Australia. This industry of Australia is mainly related to its higher education. Various courses for higher education are offered across several educational institutes in Australia (Provvidenzaet al. 2013). Overseas students make up a huge population of students in Australia. Australian government provides ample of opportunities to their students (Stromquist and Monkman 2014). The Australian government provide funds, scholarships and various opportunities to do part time jobs.
Australia have a part of world’s best organisations and instructions for the higher education and it have the strong educational infrastructure that provides better education to the students of Australia. This educational infrastructure attracts students all over the world and this industry had become one of the noteworthy attractions of the country (Lea and Nicoll 2013). The government spends a huge amount of money in the educational industry of Australia. They provide various facilities to the students and this strengthens the education industry of Australia. In today’s’ world, the universities across the world are busy preparing champions from their country so that they can attract more students to their universities and display the talents of the universities . The academic workforce of Australia provides the best education to their students, but this workforce is aging with time. This results to a future crisis of the educational workforce in Australia (Stromquist and Monkman 2014). On increase in demand of higher education, the commercial skills of the universities face various challenges. The universities are resistant to the change in their managements which results to dissatisfaction in the educational industry.
The aim of this research is to understand the education industry of Australia and its current position in the education business in the world.
The objective of this research is as follows:
Figure 1: Structure of the research
(Source: created by author)
Australia is said to have the education industry as their fourth largest export industry. This industry houses the overseas students, which accounts over 20% of the total population of the students in Australia. According to the viewpoint of Arkoudis et al.(2014), every Australian state has various universities and schools that provides ample of opportunities to the students all over the world to pursue their studies. The overseas students mainly focus on the higher education at Australia. It was estimated that in 2012, an approximate number of 150000 international students from over 160 countries pursued higher education in the state of Victoria in Australia. As per the opinion of Ball (2013), it was found that 80% of the international students who pursued their education in Australia was from Asia.
There are various benefits for the international education. This includes availing various opportunities to engage oneself in international events, improved professional connections and enhancing global perspectives. The students also get ample of opportunities in business, culture, research and various social activities. As per the viewpoint of Bhandari and Blumenthal (2013), the government of Australia spends huge sum of money to improve the education industry in Australia. They provide the students with various facilities that include scholarships, funds and opportunities to work along with their education. These opportunities help the students to have a better higher education and prepare themselves for the challenges of the world after completing their formal education.
As per the opinion of Ferguson (2012), despite these facilities, the education industry of Australia has encountered decline in rate of the growth. This had become a major concern for the Australian government as the education industry is the fourth highest export business of Australia. Various factors had caused the reduction of the rate of growth. In the viewpoint of Johnson et al. (2013), it was found that the globalisation and digital revolution had reshaped the higher education in today’s world. This had resulted in the change in landscape of the education industry. Decrease in source of income and rise in cost had intensified the challenges of education industry. Various educational institutes offer similar courses and modes of education at a lower cost than the universities of Australia. Prospective students had become consumer oriented and accordingly, they make decisions regarding their educations. The ranking of the universities also have an influence on the choice of the students.
Based on the opinion of Jung and Latchem (2012), it was found that the students in today’s world aim for those institutes where they can access to various services of education with the help of new and innovative technologies. The infrastructure of the universities must be updated with the new technologies and this requires huge investment and modification of infrastructures.
Another challenge that is faced by the Australian education industry is the challenges of workforce. As per the viewpoint of Mitchell et al. (2013), it was found that the age of a quarter of academic workforce of Australia is over 55 years, whereas only 15% of the workforce in Australia have their age beyond 55 years. It was also seen that 54% of the academic workforce have their age over 45 years compared to 38% of the workers of other jobs in Australia. This shows that a significant proportion of workforce would retire in the nearby decade thereby creating vacancies in the educational industry. The government must take steps to build new workforce structure and new models to attract students to the Australian universities. As per the opinion of Paulsen and Smart (2013), measures should be taken to replace the non-traditional models of education industry.
From the viewpoint of Pegrum et al. (2013), another challenge that is faced by the education industry of Australia is the resistant to change and build new models by the universities. The universities of Australia follow the traditional rules of “academic independence” and maintaining the purity of the mission. The leaders of the universities follow these traditions of admissions and teachings and they do not wish to change their business models. With the increase in speed of the market and competitiveness in domestic market and international market, the education industry of Australia is facing challenges (Stromquist and Monkman 2014). Introduction of new methods and business plans must replace the old one keeping the integrity of their traditional rules, would help in the growth of the education industry in Australia.
The vital challenge that is faced by the education industry of Australia is the decrease in government funding to the universities. This had resulted in searching for various ways to get the funds of the university. The fees of the universities had increased over the years because of the decrease in funds (Provvidenzaet al. 2013). The “fight for funds” by the universities had been the result of the relationship with the Australian government that do not include any political factors. According to the viewpoint of Pinheiro et al.(2012), it was seen that the increase in cost of research infrastructure had resulted the universities to develop partnership with other universities. This had brought various research terms of equal strength together across various universities, several countries and many business sectors worldwide. The infrastructures required for the higher education in Australian industries face a major setback due to the lack of funding.
As per the opinion of Provvidenza et al. (2013), it was found that maintaining the standard of competitiveness in the global market is another issue that had been caused challenges in the education industry of Australia. This challenge is combined with the increase in value of the Australian dollar, thereby making it difficult for the students to pursue their higher education in Australia. The restrictive rules of visa to Australia is another constraints that had resulted in reduction in number of application to the universities of Australia, thereby reducing the rate of growth in education industry of Australia.
Data and data collection process
Data for this research should be collected across the universities of Australia. Data for the last 10 years across the universities of various states of Australia must be collected. The data would be collected from the records of the educational institutes. One school and one university of each state of Australia should be chosen as the sample of this research. These school and universities must have overseas students studying for the past 10 years (Stromquist and Monkman 2014). The records of such institutes could be collected from the government of Australia. Students of these chosen institutes would be interviewed to gather the data for the research. The students of class 12 would be chosen for the interview from the schools while the students across various levels would be chosen randomly for the interview.
The chosen samples would be asked about various questions ranging from their family background to their educational background. A sample of 50 students would be interviewed which includes 25 students from school and 25 students from universities across variables levels of universities. Different set of questionnaire would be set for the school students and the students of universities across the states. Both qualitative and quantitative data would be collected from the chosen samples. The questionnaire would include different questions for both the school students and college students that would result in quantitative and qualitative data for the research. Primary data collected from the survey would be used in the research. The method of data collection would be completed within ten days and the survey should be done during the peak season when most of the students attend their educational institutes.
The primary data collected from the survey would be subjected to various statistical methods in order to find out the trend of the education industry over the last ten years. The methods of descriptive statistics would give the idea about the demand of the education industry for the overseas students in the last ten years. On plotting these data in the graph would also give an idea about the trend of the education industry in Australia over the last ten years. The method of descriptive statistics would also give an idea about the limitations faced by the educational institutes (Provvidenzaet al. 2013). The frequency distribution method would give a count of the issues faced by the students while coming to Australia to pursue their education. This would help to know the major issues that are faced by the students and it would give an idea about the challenges faced by the universities over the last ten years. This would also give an idea about how the educational institutes had handled the issues over the last ten years and whether they had improved the challenges or not, could be understood from the survey.
The method of forecasting would help to give an idea about the future of the education industry of Australia. This would give a clear picture about the probable challenges that could be faced by the educational institutes of Australia in the upcoming years (Robbins et al. 2013). It would also help to predict the rate of growth of education industry of Australia in the near future and prepare the solutions of the challenges beforehand.
Figure 2: Gantt chart of the research
(Source: created by author)
The outcome of the research is expected to be decrease in the growth of the rate of educational institutes in the near future. The students from overseas are expected to face major problems due to increase in fees of the universities and cost cutting by the government. They are likely to face problem regarding the infrastructure of the studies and researches. The school students who are average would be expected to give their views in favour of returning back to their country for higher education or moving to other countries. The students of universities are expected to give their views in favour of opportunities that they get while studying overseas. It is expected that the students would give their views in favour of proper handling of challenges and the educational institutes are taking measures to eradicate the challenges effectively.
Conclusion
The research proposal gives an idea about the challenges and issues faced by the educational institutes of Australia across various states. This includes the school and universities of Australia across various states. Their decrease in the rate of growth is a major concern, as the education industry is the fourth largest export industry of Australia. Various factors had affected the growth rate of the education industry in Australia. The challenges faced by the universities indirectly affect the students and they face these challenges, which prevent them from applying to educational institutes of Australia in the near future. A survey would be done to know the challenges faced by the students, which would give an idea about the challenges faced by the educational institutes of Australia. It would also give an idea about the measures taken by the universities to eradicate these challenges over the last ten years. The analysis would help to predict the future of the educational institutes of Australia.
References
Arkoudis, S., Baik, C., Bexley, E. and Doughney, L., 2014. English Language Proficiency and Employability Framework for Australian Higher Education Institutions. Centre for the Study of Higher Education.
Ball, S.J. ed., 2013. Foucault and education: Disciplines and knowledge. Routledge.
Bhandari, R. and Blumenthal, P., 2013. International students and global mobility in higher education: National trends and new directions. International Studies, 1(11), pp.316-317.
Ferguson, R., 2012. Learning analytics: drivers, developments and challenges. International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 4(5-6), pp.304-317.
Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Cummins, M., Freeman, A., Ifenthaler, D. and Vardaxis, N., 2013. Technology Outlook for Australian Tertiary Education 2013-2018: An NMC Horizon Project Regional Analysis. New Media Consortium.
Jung, I. and Latchem, C., 2012. Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Distance Education: Models, Policies and Research. Routledge.
Lea, M.R. and Nicoll, K., 2013. Distributed learning: Social and cultural approaches to practice. Routledge.
Mitchell, C., O’Reilly-Scanlon, K. and Weber, S. eds., 2013. Just who do we think we are?: Methodologies for autobiography and self-study in education. Routledge.
Paulsen, M.B. and Smart, J.C. eds., 2013. Higher education: Handbook of theory and research. Dordrecht: Springer.
Pegrum, M., Oakley, G. and Faulkner, R., 2013. Schools going mobile: A study of the adoption of mobile handheld technologies in Western Australian independent schools. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 29(1), pp.66-81.
Pinheiro, R., Benneworth, P. and Jones, G.A. eds., 2012. Universities and regional development: A critical assessment of tensions and contradictions. Routledge.
Provvidenza, C., Engebretsen, L., Tator, C., Kissick, J., McCrory, P., Sills, A. and Johnston, K.M., 2013. From consensus to action: knowledge transfer, education and influencing policy on sports concussion. British journal of sports medicine, pp.bjsports-2012.
Robbins, S., Judge, T.A., Millett, B. and Boyle, M., 2013. Organisational behaviour. Pearson Higher Education AU.
Stromquist, N.P. and Monkman, K. eds., 2014. Globalization and education: Integration and contestation across cultures. R&L Education.
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