A Research On Faculty Development In Australian Universities

With the proceeding of mass higher education, faculty development is becoming an important agenda of higher education in different countries. During the ear of mass higher education, the higher education expands more quickly and the function and orientation of universities become more diverse; the number of students registered with universities also increase significantly with a varied source of population; accordingly as academic profession, the number of teachers in universities increased by playing more different academic roles. On the other hand, with the background of knowledge society, globalization and marketization, the competition between universities for reputation and resources becomes more and more fierce and research output is the core of the competition. Thus research output also becomes the evaluation criterion for universities and faculties. In such situation, more resources in universities will be allocated to academic research and the balance between teaching and research which are the core functions of academic profession is broken among university teachers either as whole or individuallyThe thesis from the perspective of academic profession by analyzing its characteristics and core functions and also based on Earnest Boyer’s theory of multiple forms of scholarship for academic profession, uses the research methods of data analysis, case analysis and interview on the site to make a research on the faculty development in Australian universities and tries to explore the pattern of faculty development in the era of mass higher education.The history of faculty development in Australian universities has experienced the periods from the focus on academic research to the development of multiple forms of scholarship.In terms of the organizations for faculty development, a system of of different levels of government, professional associations and universities is set up to support and implement the policy of faculty development, especially putting the emphasis on scholarship of teaching for academic profession. Also, in different types of universities, reforms on the policies of academic employment, promotion and teaching awards are carried out to recognize the different forms of scholarships. Besides, efficient faculty development programs aiming at different groups of faculties are designed and put into practice in the universities with more focus on the scholarship of teaching.The policy, system and programs of faculty development in Australian universities fully reflect the characteristics of academic profession. By exploring the practice of the faculty development, it can be found that the Australian universities not only pay attention to developing the faculties’ academic research capabilities, but also emphasize the scholarship of teaching and cultivation of teaching abilities, reward excellent teaching, highlight the importance of teaching in the universities and thus try to realize the unity of teaching and research for faculties as academic profession.But on the other hand, there also exist some issues in the practice of faculty development in Australian universities. First there are some contradictions between self –identity of academic profession and establishment of the culture of promoting and recognizing the scholarship of teaching; then the strategic orientation of universities and support from the management level affect the efficiency of the faculty development; also, as the most important organization to support faculty development, the faculty development centers in universities still lack stability and this will bring some impacts on the sustainability of faculty development. Besides, with the background of mass higher education and marketization, there exists large number of sessional teachers employed by universities and paid by hourly rate of teaching and these teachers almost have no opportunities for career development and promotion though there are some specially designed faculty development programs for them.The practice and reforms of faculty development in Australian universities bring significant enlightenment to faculty development in our country in the era of mass higher education. The philosophy of pursuing unity between professional teaching and academic research embodied in faculty development and the policies and measures of faculty development by promoting the scholarship of teaching all provide valuable reference to the faculty development in our universities. Finally, the issues of faculty development in Australian university also give us some inspiration.