{"id":41059,"date":"2017-10-25T13:04:14","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T20:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=41059"},"modified":"2017-10-25T13:06:18","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T20:06:18","slug":"performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Performance funding is not the way to improve university teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nA week after the Nick Xenophon Team\u00a0called for a new review<\/a>\u00a0of higher education, the\u00a0Productivity Commission has provided one<\/a>, of sorts. The report, titled \u201cShifting the Dial\u201d, covers higher education as well as health care, schools, cities, government and energy. It is part of much broader\u00a0five-year productivity review<\/a>\u00a0and covers topics from recent policy debate on higher education.<\/p>\n

Research vs teaching<\/strong><\/h4>\n

A core issue in the commission\u2019s analysis is that universities put too much emphasis on research rather than teaching.<\/p>\n

This issue has deep roots in university history. University students were (and are) expected to be much more\u00a0self-directed<\/a>\u00a0than school students. Partly as a result, the academic workforce did not make university teaching into a profession. They did not require training before starting university teaching careers, and did not set clear standards that all teaching academics had to meet. Until the 1990s, there were few government or market pressures to improve.<\/p>\n

By contrast, university research did turn into a profession. A research qualification, usually a PhD,\u00a0became the norm<\/a>\u00a0for career academics, attracting people with a strong interest in research.\u00a0Peer review<\/a>\u00a0of academic work was used to uphold quality standards. The government reinforced internal university culture by awarding research funding based on\u00a0quality<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0performance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The imbalance between teaching and research has been\u00a0recognised as a problem for decades<\/a>. Numerous national policy initiatives have aimed to improve teaching, with many more university-level changes.<\/p>\n

These changes contributed to slow but steady\u00a0improvement in student satisfaction with teaching<\/a>. There is certainly still room to do better. However, I doubt that the commission\u2019s proposals would add constructively to the policies already in place.<\/p>\n

Universities already have performance incentives<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Like\u00a0the government<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0opposition<\/a>, the commission sees merit in government performance funding that rewards or penalises universities according to student outcomes. They believe it would help shift attention from research to student interests in teaching and graduate employment.<\/p>\n

The commission overlooks how much university incentives have already changed. The\u00a0old system of near-guaranteed student funding<\/a>, regardless of performance, is long gone. If students are dissatisfied with their university, they can leave. In a highly competitive market, some universities cannot easily replace them. Last year,\u00a0more than 60,000 people applied<\/a>\u00a0for university based on a previous incomplete higher education course.<\/p>\n

Universities know that graduate employment is an issue. Enrolment growth has been\u00a0greatest in health-related courses<\/a>, which have the best employment outcomes<\/a>.\u00a0Employability programs<\/a>, especially\u00a0work-integrated learning<\/a>, are expanding.<\/p>\n

Universities with weak reputations attract fewer new students. Although overall\u00a0domestic student numbers are growing slowly<\/a>, that conceals how some universities are increasing their student intakes, while others are in decline. For universities, there are already penalties and rewards for failure and success. Bureaucratic performance schemes would struggle to enhance these existing incentives.<\/p>\n

Performance is hard to calculate<\/strong><\/h4>\n

As the commission acknowledges, reliable measures of university performance are hard to calculate. However, there is a deeper problem than how to conduct the statistical analysis: when students have many different goals and needs, and universities have many different missions and objectives, what counts as good performance is not always clear.<\/p>\n

Attrition, one area of university performance discussed in the report, is a good example. Some students leave university because they are not satisfied with the institution, or because they should never have been admitted. These are negative reasons. Students also leave because they change their mind about their course or career, because work or family need to take priority, or because they have already learned what they need to know. These are neutral or positive reasons.<\/p>\n

In enrolling some students, universities will know about their above-average risk of not completing. Students should be informed of these risks, and the Commission has an interesting section about consumer law protections for students who may have been misled.<\/p>\n

But where the university\u2019s mission includes widening access to higher education, we should not penalise them for creating opportunities. Nor should we give universities an additional incentive to pressure students to stay, when it is in their best interests to go.<\/p>\n

Separating teaching and research funding could be bad for students<\/strong><\/h4>\n

One reason universities might not achieve good student outcomes is that they do not spend enough money on teaching. The commission is concerned about teaching revenues being spent on research, especially as the \u201cteaching-research nexus\u201d, a claimed mutually beneficial relationship between the two main university activities, has been\u00a0hard to prove. <\/a><\/p>\n

A\u00a0university cost study<\/a>\u00a0commissioned by the government, and used to justify its now-blocked \u201cefficiency dividend\u201d funding cuts, estimated universities spent 85% of their student and Commonwealth contribution revenue on teaching in 2015. Presumably, much of the remaining 15% was spent on research.<\/p>\n

The commission would prefer funding rates based on teaching costs only, which would also adapt the funding system to their proposal for teaching-only universities. They support offsetting funding policies for research. However, completely separating teaching and research funding could work against, rather than for, students.<\/p>\n

A teaching \u201cprofit\u201d that can be spent on research is an incentive for universities to be responsive to student interests. Students are now more likely to get into their\u00a0first-preference field of education and university<\/a>. This is because most previous controls on student numbers by field and university were lifted, leaving universities free to respond to student demand, and with a market pressure to do so.<\/p>\n

On a break-even teaching funding regime with entirely separate research funding, the incentives would have been different. The\u00a0major research universities<\/a>\u00a0would have chased the new research money rather than,\u00a0as most of them did<\/a>, new students. Fewer students would have attended their first-preference university.<\/p>\n

The commission\u2019s broad belief that universities can improve the student experience is right. But they miss how much has already happened, along with the current system\u2019s strengths. More than ever, universities have an incentive to respond to student interests, and the flexibility to do so. We should not distract them with policy changes that could easily make things worse.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong>Andrew Norton is Program Director, Higher Education at the Grattan Institute<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A week after the Nick Xenophon Team\u00a0called for a new review\u00a0of higher education, the\u00a0Productivity Commission has provided one, of sorts. The report, titled \u201cShifting the Dial\u201d, covers higher education as well as health care, schools, cities, government and energy. It is part of much broader\u00a0five-year productivity review\u00a0and covers topics from recent policy debate on higher […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":41061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[136944],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-41059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-performance-funding"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPerformance funding is not the way to improve university teaching - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Performance funding is not the way to improve university teaching - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A week after the Nick Xenophon Team\u00a0called for a new review\u00a0of higher education, the\u00a0Productivity Commission has provided one, of sorts. The report, titled \u201cShifting the Dial\u201d, covers higher education as well as health care, schools, cities, government and energy. It is part of much broader\u00a0five-year productivity review\u00a0and covers topics from recent policy debate on higher […]\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-25T20:04:14+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-10-25T20:06:18+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/money_5measures.jpg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"680\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"453\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"headline\":\"Performance funding is not the way to improve university teaching\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-25T20:04:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-10-25T20:06:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1018,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/money_5measures.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"performance funding\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Higher Education\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\\\/\",\"name\":\"Performance funding is not the way to improve university teaching - World leading higher education information and services\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/money_5measures.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-25T20:04:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-10-25T20:06:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/money_5measures.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/10\\\/money_5measures.jpg\",\"width\":680,\"height\":453},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Performance funding is not the way to improve university teaching\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\",\"name\":\"World leading higher education information and services\",\"description\":\"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\",\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kevin\"},\"description\":\"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/author\\\/kevin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Performance funding is not the way to improve university teaching - World leading higher education information and services","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/world.edu\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Performance funding is not the way to improve university teaching - World leading higher education information and services","og_description":"A week after the Nick Xenophon Team\u00a0called for a new review\u00a0of higher education, the\u00a0Productivity Commission has provided one, of sorts. The report, titled \u201cShifting the Dial\u201d, covers higher education as well as health care, schools, cities, government and energy. It is part of much broader\u00a0five-year productivity review\u00a0and covers topics from recent policy debate on higher […]","og_url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\/","og_site_name":"World leading higher education information and services","article_published_time":"2017-10-25T20:04:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-10-25T20:06:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":680,"height":453,"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/money_5measures.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kevin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kevin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\/"},"author":{"name":"Kevin","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"headline":"Performance funding is not the way to improve university teaching","datePublished":"2017-10-25T20:04:14+00:00","dateModified":"2017-10-25T20:06:18+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\/"},"wordCount":1018,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/money_5measures.jpg","keywords":["performance funding"],"articleSection":["Higher Education"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\/","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\/","name":"Performance funding is not the way to improve university teaching - World leading higher education information and services","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/money_5measures.jpg","datePublished":"2017-10-25T20:04:14+00:00","dateModified":"2017-10-25T20:06:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/world.edu\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/money_5measures.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/money_5measures.jpg","width":680,"height":453},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/performance-funding-not-way-improve-university-teaching\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/world.edu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Performance funding is not the way to improve university teaching"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/","name":"World leading higher education information and services","description":"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee","name":"Kevin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kevin"},"description":"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.","sameAs":["https:\/\/world.edu"],"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/author\/kevin\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41059"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=41059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}