What’s hot & what’s not in the strategic plans of Australia’s universities

What’s hot & what’s not in the strategic plans of Australia’s universities

In recent years, the Australian Government has removed the national Office for Learning and Teaching and is steering budget cuts to universities, coupled with forecasted increases to student fees. In this context, universities are encouraged to identify and articulate distinctive identities and unique value propositions. This paper aligns with the Conference Theme of Governance and Policy. The key question addressed in this paper is – what are the common and unique learning and teaching goals and plans of Australia’s universities. The strategic plans, as the key governance documents, of 40 universities were thematically analysed according to the ten educational change trends identified by the 2017 Horizon Report: Higher Education Edition. This paper argues that most of the universities address the majority of the themes, with the most variation occurring in regard to whether or not universities are unbundling, micro-credentialing and applying artificial intelligence and other app-like interfaces. Furthermore, universities are differentiating themselves in regard to whether their strategic plans extend beyond aspirational propositions to specific strategies and key performance indicators addressing challenges, approaches, outcomes and impact. The key contribution of this paper to the literature is a Higher Education Governance Framework with definitions, examples directly from universities’ strategic plans and recommendations.

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