University Restructuring and Teaching Quality

The pursuit of quality of teaching and learning has become an increasingly important goal of higher education in recent decades, as academic staff numbers and public funding have lagged behind the growth in student numbers. This transformation has been qualitative as well as quantitative: academic staff are teaching more students from more diverse backgrounds, and using a greater variety of teaching methods. As with other industries, productivity growth has also been associated with labour flexibility and work intensification strategies, including increased numerical and functional flexibility such as workforce casualisation and offshore teaching. This study provides evidence of the link between the work context and teaching outcomes based on a survey of academic staff in two universities, one in Australia and one in New Zealand. Our findings indicate that class size is a critical influence on the effectiveness of teaching and that the current policy emphasis on 'quality' assurance has been accompanied by a pervasive deterioration in quality of teaching and learning outcomes. If academic staff are to retain some autonomy over their own work and a commitment to student-centred teaching, they need to develop strategies appropriate to this context - a process to which collective bargaining can contribute significantly.

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