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The educational implications of non-traditional delivery methods atpostgraduate level are not yet well understood. A major question is whetheradvantages of access and flexibility are accompanied by trade-offs inlearning experiences and outcomes. In this paper we address the effectivenessof delivery methods currently used in postgraduate coursework programs inAustralia. We draw heavily on a national study of flexible delivery methodsin postgraduate education, conducted in 1995. Following a nation-wide survey, we investigated the effects of deliverytechnologies on learning and teaching in seven postgraduate courses.Information was collected, mostly by taped interview, from staff andstudents, and also from course documentation. We present here a typology,based on teaching and learning characteristics, by which we found it usefulto group delivery methods. We identify and discuss four major issuesconcerning the effects of these delivery methods on learning and on teaching,under the headi ngs learner control of learning, interaction and socialexchange, teachers as supporters of student learning and feedback inteaching. As well, we report, according to the typology, the effects ofspecific technologies on teaching and learning. We conclude that on the score of encouraging intellectual independencemany non-traditional delivery methods are fairly robust – on managingcomplexity or uncertainty and encouraging a lively critical inquiry, theyfare less well. From what we have seen, the most effective strategies atpostgraduate level use integrated delivery approaches to create flexiblelearning environments with premiums on individual time management andpractical application of learning. Considerably more detailed evaluation ofthe resulting learning outcomes is needed.

Conventional political wisdom has it that educational expansion helps to reduce socioeconomic inequalities of access to education by increasing equality of educational opportunity. The counterarguments of Maximally Maintained Inequality (MMI) and Effectively Maintained Inequality (EMI), in contrast, contend that educational inequalities tend to persist despite expansion because those from more advantaged social class backgrounds are better placed to take up the new educational opportunities that expansion affords (MMI) and to secure for themselves qualitatively better kinds of education at any given level (EMI). This paper sets out to test the predictions of the MMI and EMI hypotheses against empirical data for the case of Britain where higher education expanded dramatically during the 1960s and again during the early 1990s. The results show that quantitative inequalities between social classes in the odds of higher education enrolment proved remarkably persistent for much of the period between 1960 and 1995, and began to decline only during the early 1990s, after the enrolment rate for the most advantaged social class had reached saturation point. Throughout this same 35 year period, qualitative inequalities between social classes in the odds of enrolment on more traditional and higher status degree programmes and at ‘Old’ universities remained fundamentally unchanged. In short, social class inequalities in British higher education have been both maximally and effectively maintained.

Concern about the increasing cost and questionable relevance of much overseas training, combined with the growth of home country training facilities, has in Africa raised questions about the extent to which scholarship provision has adapted to changing circumstances in recent years. It has pointed to the need for more systematic information than we now have about the pattern of scholarship provision and its relationship to training needs and job performance. At present we have a rather fragmentary basis for deciding which kinds of skills and knowledge can best be provided at home and which need to be sought elsewhere. Where overseas training seems advisable we need to know more about the kinds of training, institutions, programmes and time periods which relate to particular skill needs and how they can be integrated into national and regional programmes. As a step towards the provision of some relevant information this article examines the impact of one specific scholarship programme which has been concerned with the training of university staff for Kenya and Tanzania. The experience of this programme is used to suggest some conditions and identify some issues associated with effective overseas training. Effectiveness is examined from the standpoint of congruence between training content and occupational requirements and then in relation to features of the occupational and administrative culture which exist in the scholar's home country. Finally some suggestions are made for fruitful research areas and approaches.

This paper examines the validity of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students—short version (ASSIST; Tait et al. in Improving student learning: Improving students as learners, 1998), to be used with Portuguese undergraduate students. The ASSIST was administrated to 566 students, in order to analyse a Portuguese version of this inventory. Exploratory factor analysis (principal axis factor analysis followed by direct oblimin rotation) reproduced the three main factors that correspond to the original dimensions of the inventory (deep, surface apathetic and strategic approaches to learning). The results are consistent with the background theory on approaches to learning. Additionally, the reliability analysis revealed acceptable internal consistency indexes for the main scales and subscales. This inventory might represent a valuable research tool for the assessment of approaches to learning among Portuguese higher education students.

Policy change in Ontario higher education in the 1960s resulted in a series of structures designed to co-ordinate each of the two sectors in this binary system. Recent government initiatives may be characterized as attempts to initiate or stimulate change within the boundaries and constraints associated with a structure which has been relatively stable for twenty years. There has been some increase in regulation in the university sector through the establishment of targeted funding mechanisms, programme appraisal and approval mechanisms, and the government's legislated monopoly over degree-granting, but these changes have had little impact on the basic operations of the universities. Government initiatives in the community college sector have had some impact in terms of greater institutional differentiation, but little impact on institution stratification. The stability of the Ontario system can be attributed to the relative homogeneity of each of two clearly differentiated sectors, the limited role of the federal government in the policy arena, a structure which has deflected or rejected calls for structural change, and the failure of those who seek change to stimulate a public or political debate on higher education policy.

Over the last decade universities have been subjected to various forms of academic accountability designed to maintain or improve the quality of their teaching and learning. A shared perspective of many of these accountability processes is that universities should become skilled at creating knowledge for the improvement of teaching and learning, and at modifying their behavior to reflect this new knowledge. In short, that universities should become “learning organizations.” What are the organizational characteristics of an academic learning organization? The paper will address this question by reviewing the adaptations in organizational structure and governance reported by universities attempting to improve the quality of their teaching and learning processes.

This article introduces a model for group facilitation in the humanities based on Carl Roger’s model for group psychotherapy. Certain aspects of Carl Roger’s reflective learning strategies are reappraised and principles, specific only to psychotherapy, are introduced. Five of Rogers’s axioms are applied to the tutorial discussion model: a non-directive approach, climate-setting, facilitation, reflective listening and positive regard. The model, which has been trialed in tutorials at The University of Queensland encourages active learning, self-direction and critical thinking.

The higher education sector is increasingly reliant upon casual (‘sessional’) staff for teaching and marking purposes. While this practice has been little examined in the past, over the last few years increasing attention has been paid to the quality of marking, mainly because students and academic staff alike are becoming increasingly likely to question examples of poor practice. Hence, many universities in Australia are now attempting to introduce stricter procedures relating to marking. Despite current concerns, there is little published research on marking practices in Australian universities. This paper adds to the body of knowledge by reporting on two pieces of empirical research into the use of casual markers. A project at Charles Sturt University comprised focus groups of, respectively, students, lecturers and markers, and a survey of distance education students. Research at the University of South Australia focused on pedagogical issues relating to marking, comparing the approaches of permanent lecturing staff with those of sessional markers. The results of these projects provide a useful insight into areas of current concern to university staff and management.