Formation Continue du Supérieur

Reassessing East Asian Higher Education: A Focus on Culture

Presenter:
Rui Yang, University of Hong Kong

Date:
Monday 5th October, 1-2pm

Venue:
Barbara Falk room, Lvl 1, Elisabeth Murdoch Buidling (south/west corner). Enter via the external RHS staircase on the west side of the building.

Abstract:
Over recent decades, East Asia has made some impressive progress in higher education. The achievement becomes even more remarkable when compared with other non-Western regions. A Western-style modern higher education system has been well established throughout the region. Tertiary enrolment is moving high. With a third of the global total investment in R&D, research has also been growing rapidly. While the achievement has been widely acknowledged, assessment of its future development is open to question. To some, East Asian universities are leaping ahead to even challenge Western supremacy. To others, they will soon reach a ‘glass ceiling’. Few have been able to theorize East Asia’s development in higher education. Questions remain about the true potential of East Asia’s universities and whether they can truly break the Western hegemony. Based on the author’s intimate knowledge of East Asian societies and his longstanding professional observation, this paper attempts to reassess the future development of East Asian higher education systems by tracing their cultural roots. The assessment plays into the wider debate over whether rising powers in East Asia will overtake Western dominance in academia.

About the speaker:
Rui YANG is professor and associate dean (cross-border and international engagement) in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong. With over two and a half decades of academic career in China, Australia and Hong Kong, he has an impressive track record on research at the interface of Chinese and Western traditions in education. He has established his reputation among scholars in English and Chinese national languages in the fields of comparative and international education and Chinese higher education. His international reputation is evidenced by his extensive list of publications, research projects, invited keynote lectures in international and regional conferences, leadership in professional associations and membership in editorial boards of scholarly journals. Bridging the theoretical thrust of comparative education and the applied nature of international education, his research interests include education policy sociology, comparative and cross-cultural studies in education, international higher education, educational development in Chinese societies, and international politics in educational research.

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Who should go to university: only the select or all who want to?
The introduction of demand driven student funding challenges the deeply held instinct of many that university should be for the brightest. Protectionists argue that tertiary education standards would fall, universities wouldn’t cope with the wide level of capability and interest and that an over-educated workforce will not serve the economy.  This talk will consider the logic for, and implications of, universities being part of the general education system which all Australians access.

Presenter:
Conor King, Executive Director of the Innovative Research Universities (IRU), is a leader in policy and strategy across the higher education a sector.
IRU is a network of six comprehensive universities around Australia committed to inclusive excellence in university teaching and research. IRU membership comprises Charles Darwin University, James Cook University, Griffith University, La Trobe University, Flinders University and Murdoch University.

Conor leads the IRU’s engagement with Government, making a significant contribution to Higher Education Policy in Australia. He comments regularly on current Higher Education Issues at http://www.iru.edu.au/news/executive-director's-comment.aspxHaving served as a senior executive with the then Commonwealth Department of Human Services and Health from 1995 to 1998 he became Director of Policy and Analysis with the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee from 1998 to 2005. He went on to be Institutional Strategist to Victoria University between 2006 and 2008 and then Principal Consultant with Phillips KPA, in 2009 and 2010.

Date:
Monday 28th September, 1-2pm.

Venue:
Richard Berry-G03 (Evan Williams Theatre)

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Prospects for feedback as dialogue in higher education
Presenter:
Professor David Carless
University of Hong Kong

Students need feedback to improve their work, yet the development of effective feedback processes in higher education faces a number of challenges. In this talk, I relate my own research on the topic to some of the key debates. A main thread relates to the prospects and potential for dialogic feedback processes. How might dialogue be promoted and implemented even in large undergraduate classes? Some implications, challenges and future research directions are also sketched.

David Carless is Professor of Educational Assessment and Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) in the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong. His latest book, Excellence in University Assessment has recently been published by Routledge.

Date:
Tuesday 22nd September, 1-2pm

Venue:
FBE-206 (Seminar Room)
Business and Economics
111 Barry Street, Carlton

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