by Professor Don Markwell, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education), University of Western Australia, and Warden-elect of Rhodes House, Oxford

In recent years there has been in universities and colleges in many parts of the world a renewed focus on improving the quality of the student learning experience, both undergraduate and postgraduate. One driver of this has been the realisation – more widely expressed than acted on - that one of crucial determinants of the social and economic vitality of countries in the “global knowledge economy” of the 21^st century will be how well educated their people are.

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This renewed focus in many countries on the quality of university education has included emphasis on improving the quality of teaching, and increased emphasis on student evaluations and other (imperfect) indicators of the quality of teaching and learning. In Australia, this has been encouraged by government through the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (previously the Carrick Institute) and the Learning and Teaching Performance Fund. Unfortunately, of course, Australian governments have neither adequately funded the highest quality education nor enabled universities to gain the necessary funding in other ways – while governments in many other countries have been more actively encouraging the development of world-class institutions in world-class systems of higher education.

The renewed emphasis on the quality of student learning has been reflected in many countries in the review and reform of curriculum and course structures. Many of these reforms encourage the kind of intellectual breadth that it is increasing recognised is needed by graduates in our complex, rapidly changing and ‘globalised’ world. Curriculum reform is evident in, for example, the US, UK, China, Japan, Singapore, Brunei and elsewhere. In Australia, many universities have ‘pressed the refresh button’ on their course structures and the elements of their course offerings, or are currently reviewing their degrees. The University of Western Australia, after a two-year consultative review, has decided to work towards a ‘Future Framework’ of simpler and broader undergraduate degrees leading into professional postgraduate degrees, with focus in undergraduate degrees on breadth, research and communication skills, and community service.

Another element of the international movement towards improving the student learning experience has been renewed focus on the educational importance of out-of-classroom or extra-curricular activities, and also on how much residential colleges can contribute to student learning. Most of the world’s leading universities are essentially residential, at least at the undergraduate level. Many of them, along with other universities in several countries, are placing renewed emphasis on their residential colleges. Colleges can provide better than any other environment that immersive educational experience in which genuine student engagement, both curricular and extra-curricular, is most readily possible. If you want to see evidence of the resurgence of residential colleges in recent years, you might want to visit the website of collegiateway.org.

The colleges of the University of Western Australia have been actively engaging with the wider University in a variety of ways which promise to enrich further the educational quality of college life, increase the number of students who can benefit from college life, and strengthen the contribution which the colleges make to the University generally. This partnership of colleges and wider University has involved access for the colleges to some sources of University funds, and is reflected in the University’s operational priorities plan for 2009-13.

Two pieces of research underscore the importance of this. Research quoted in the Bradley report shows that Australian students rate their university experience less highly than British, US and Canadian students. While adverse Australian staff:student ratios are undoubtedly a significant reason for this, it is also in my view likely that one reason is the much greater emphasis in the UK, US and Canada on residential experience, including colleges. The recent research by the ACER, analysing AUSSE data, strongly suggests that Australian university students in residential colleges are more engaged and more satisfied than those who are not.

One of the major emphases of the Bradley report, rightly taken up by the federal government, is increased emphasis on equity and access, including targets for significant increase in the number of students from low socio-economic status backgrounds enrolling and graduating. College have an important role to play in this, including – but not only – through enabling students from regional and remote areas to study at the best university for them, providing a welcoming and supportive environment for Indigenous students, and providing scholarship support for students.

Strengthening our colleges requires, as well as university and government support, the further development of educational philanthropy in Australia. It is interesting that one of the most significant acts of educational philanthropy in history, the bequest by Cecil Rhodes which created the Rhodes scholarships, was specifically directed to enabling students of outstanding intellect and character from many countries to gain the benefits of collegiate education in Oxford. Rhodes’s will referred explicitly to the benefits of students being in college, and his scholarships make it possible.

Despite the current economic difficulties, I believe there is much long-term potential for the further growth of philanthropic support for Australian residential colleges, and it is worth our colleges’ while to work now on the friend-raising that must precede fund-raising.

Whether it is improving the quality of the student learning experience, enhancing equity and access, or enabling Australia to have world-class universities in a world-class university system, the case for colleges is very strong. I hope that college leaders will work to make this case even stronger, and to make the case strongly – including through increasing their engagement with leaders of universities and governments, and with individuals, companies, and foundations with the capacity to help make high-quality collegiate education available in Australia to more and more students, who will greatly benefit from it.