Regulation and Governance in Australia: Implications for Knowledge Work

Abstract

This chapter considers the implications of our study in relation to the forms of regulation and governance that impact on teaching and research activities of universities and schools. As we noted in earlier chapters, this has been a period of escalation of particular kinds of accountability mechanisms, and these have taken particularly strong and centralised forms in Australia. Here we discuss the somewhat different forms and rationales of the developments in relation to universities (particularly emphasising research performance assessment and reporting) and to schools (the establishment of ACARA , testing programs, public comparison). We argue in this chapter that the escalating accountability mechanisms have reached a counter-productive tipping point in terms of costs and effects on knowledge work. We argue too that the Australian governance preference for centralised, uniform and ‘one-size-fits-all’ criteria has distorting effects on different fields of knowledge such as those we studied in this book. Finally we note that one theme evident in the interviews of those working on the ground in schools and universities has been that the oversight and accountability processes have tipped too far away from expert or specialist judgement of the disciplines or subjects they are holding accountable.