Student and Teaching Staff Trends in Selected Australian Universities Part 2 Frank P. Larkins

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1 Australian Higher Education Policy Analysis Student and Teaching Staff Trends in Selected Australian Universities Part 2 Australian Universities with coursework enrolments between 25,000 and 40,000 students in 2010 have been examined for their staffing responses. There are eleven universities in this group and their average student number growth over the period since was 55 per cent and the average EFTSL growth 41%. These universities responded with an average FTE staff growth (+casuals) of only 24%. Wollongong, Newcastle and Macquarie, all NSW universities, had the largest increases in student numbers. Increases ranged from 116% for Wollongong to 33% for the University of Western Sydney. All the eleven universities, with the exception of Deakin, increase the proportion of student enrolled part time in 2010 compared with. Macquarie increased its casual staff numbers by more than threefold (302%), Deakin (105%) and Latrobe (71%), while Edith Cowan ( 37%) and Western Sydney ( 1%) actually decreased their casual staff numbers during the period. Macquarie and Deakin were also the leading universities in increasing their full and fractional time non research academic staff. Wollongong was the university that was the least responsive to its very substantial increase in coursework students with student growth exceeding staff growth by more than 60 percent. Charles Sturt was the only university over the period that did not record deterioration in its student to staff ratio when casuals were included. Latrobe had the lowest 2010 student to staff ratio and Edith Cowan the highest among the eleven universities examined. Western Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong and Edith Cowan recorded the worst deteriorations in student to staff ratios during the 10 time period. Introduction Australian universities have grown substantially in student numbers and in Effective Full Time Student Load (EFTSL) in the period from to The average increase in numbers for all the universities has been 73 percent, while the increase in EFTSL has been 54 per cent. In a previous article (1) the academic staffing responses of nine universities with more than 40,000 enrolled coursework students in 2010 were examined highlighting that universities have responded in different way to the increased student load. In this article the academic staffing responses of eleven universities with between 25,000 and 40,000 enrolled coursework student numbers in 2010 were examined. The data used have been sourced from DEEWR student and staff files (2) a. In recent times there has been much discussion of the changing staffing profiles in universities, including the role of casual staff, because of the uncertainties surrounding overseas student demand and such government policies as the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative and the uncapped undergraduate student centred approach for commencing students to select their university of choice. The quality of the learning experience for students is much influenced by the staffing levels in a university. a On occasions concerns are expressed about the accuracy of data submitted by universities, especially with respect to the categorisation of staff. While the DEEWR statistics are the publicly available data, it is wise to use them with some caution.

2 Student Enrolment and 2010 The and 2010 data for the eleven Australian Universities with coursework student numbers in the range 25,000 to 40,000 are shown in appendix 1 in terms of enrolment numbers and EFTSL values. Coursework students are defined as all enrolled students excluding Doctorates by Research and Masters by Research students. The universities are listed according to total student number enrolments in The student number data are also presented in figure 1 and the 2010 figures with the percentage increases from in Table 1. Student numbers more reliably reflects the workload demands on staff than EFTSL values although both have been considered in this analysis. New South Wales is the location of the majority of these mid sized universities with six institutions; Victoria has two, and Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland one institution each. The average increase in coursework numbers for these universities during the period examined was 55 per cent compared with 73 per cent for the whole system. Wollongong more than doubled its coursework numbers (a 116.3% increase), followed by Newcastle (81.4% increase) and Macquarie (78.8% increase). The universities of Charles Sturt (34.8%) and Western Sydney (33.0%) had the smallest increases. If EFTSL values are used the same trends are observed (see appendix 1 and figure 2). Deakin has the largest 2010 student enrolments for this suite of universities (37,412 coursework students) and the University of Southern Queensland the smallest with 25,156 coursework students. Figure 1. Coursework Student Enrolments for and 2010 for Australian Universities with between 25,000 and 40,000 students Source: DEEWR, Selected higher education student statistics reports (2). Table 1. Coursework Student Enrolment Numbers for 2010 and the percentage increase over for Selected Universities Deakin UWS C.Sturt Macq USA UTS N castle Latrobe E.Cowan W gong USQ 37,412 37,049 37,196 35,205 34,763 33,470 31,454 30,584 26,960 25,662 25, % 33.0% 34.8% 78.8% 45.5% 44.9% 81.4% 59.2% 46.5% 116.3% 66.0% The trend in student EFTSL may also be compared with the trend in student numbers for the period. If all the enrolled students in a chosen year were full time then the ratio of EFTSL to numbers would be 1.0. If on average all the students were halftime (0.5 EFTSL equivalents) then the ratio would be 2

3 0.5. This ratio for the years and 2010 is presented in table 2 along with the change from to Table 2. Ratio of Coursework Student EFTSL to Student Numbers and the change in the ratio from to 2010 Ratio Deakin UWS C.Sturt Macq USA UTS N castle Latrobe E.Cowan W gong USQ Diff With the exception of Deakin, all the universities have on average decreased the proportion of students that are near full time in 2010 compared with ; i.e. the EFTSL values have decreased relative to the student number values. Southern Queensland had a 2010 student profile where on average the load was equivalent to all students being near half time enrolees. The average is only indicative of the profile mean and does not provide insight into the detailed distribution. Among these universities Latrobe had the highest proportion of near full time students in Western Sydney had the largest proportional increase in part time students, but still maintained a performance (0.75) that was above the system wide national performance of 0.72 for The increase in part time enrolments does have significant consequences for the costs and efficiency of managing the higher education system. Teaching Only and Teaching and Research Staffing and 2010 Full and fractional time (FFT) teaching only (TO) and teaching and research (T&R) staff supported by casuals are responsible for non research academic courses. This issue on a system wide basis has been discussed in an earlier article (3). The FTE data for full and fractional time (FFT) staff only, for casual staff only and for all staff are given in appendix 2 along with the percentage changes from to Research only (RO) staff are an important part of the academic staff profile in all universities, but they are not predominantly central to the preparation and delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate coursework programs in most universities. They are therefore not the focus of the present analysis. The percentage changes in staff on an FTE basis are given in figure 2 with casuals (green line) and without casuals (red line). The student EFTSL percentage change data are also included (blue line). The universities are shown in increasing order of their percentage increase in EFTSL coursework enrolments from Charles Sturt, with the smallest EFTSL increase, to Wollongong with the largest EFTSL increase. With the exceptions of Charles Sturt, all the universities have increased their total staff including casuals (green line) on a percentage basis by less than their coursework student enrolments (blue line). Consequently, the student to staff ratios have increased for all these universities. When the green line is above the red line percentage growth in casual staff FTE exceeds the percentage growth in FFT staff during the period. This is the case for eight of the universities examined. The exceptions are the universities of South Australia (USA), Edith Cowan and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) where the reverse is the case. For these universities the percentage growth in the FTE of FFT staff exceeds the percentage growth in casual staff. Macquarie had a more than threefold increase in casual staff during the period (302%) followed by Deakin (105%) and Latrobe (71%). Edith Cowan actually decreased casual staff by 37% and the University of Western Sydney by one percent (Appendix 2, column 7). 3

4 Figure 2. age from to 2010 in Coursework Student Load (EFTSL) and FTE Staff with and without casuals included. Source: DEEWR, Selected higher education student and staff statistics reports. Comparison of Student and Staff Growth to 2010 The percentage increase in EFTSL student enrolments is compared with the EFT percentage increase in academic staff for the period under review for each of the universities. That is, the differences between the student values (blue line in figure 2) and the staffing values (red and green lines in figure 2) are plotted in figure 3. The universities presented in figure 3 are ranked according to the increased differences between student and staff growth considering both FTE staff employed as FFT or as casuals (green line). A zero value means that the student and staffing percentage increases over the period were the same. The more the positive values deviate from zero the greater is the percentage increase in student enrolments compared with staff increases. A negative value means that the percentage staff increase was greater than the percentage student increase. Only in such cases would the student to staff ratio (SSR) have decreased over the period. Charles Sturt is the only university in this category, but only when casuals are included. In all other instances the values are positive meaning that a deterioration has occurred in the relationship between staff growth and student growth. The impact of employing casuals is most evident by the large difference in the red and green lines in figure 3, especially for Macquarie, Deakin and LaTrobe as discussed previously. Wollongong is the university that has been least responsive to its very substantial growth in coursework students. Student growth exceeds FFT FTE staff growth by 69 per cent with the employment of casuals only reducing the discrepancy by a few per cent to 63 per cent. LaTrobe, UWS, Newcastle, and Edith Cowan all report student growth that is more than 30 per cent greater than the academic staff growth. For universities with more than 40,000 coursework student enrolment only Sydney and Curtin universities were in this range (1). 4

5 Figure 3. The difference between coursework EFTSL student percentage increases and FTE staff percentage increases for the period to 2010 with and without casuals included. Source: DEEWR, Selected higher education student statistics reports. Another way to appraise the teaching environment is to consider the SSR values. These 2010 ratios for the universities are presented in table 3 on the basis of student EFTSUs to either the FTE staff without or with casuals included. The universities are ranked according to the most favourable SSRs for 2010 including casuals. Table 3. Student to Staff Ratios using Coursework Student EFTSL and staff FTE with and without FTE casuals included for 2010 and the change from. SSR LaTrobe USQ W gong UTS Deakin N castle USA Macq C.Sturt UWS E.Cowan No casuals With casuals Even though LaTrobe s student growth was 31 per cent greater than its academic staff growth it had the best SSR among this suite of universities at 18.4 with casuals and 25.8 without. Edith Cowan had the poorest SSR at 28.3 with casuals and 37.0 without. That university along with Western Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong recorded the worst deterioration in SSRs during the period. Conclusion There are wide variations in the histories and curriculum structures of the suite of universities considered here and these histories account for at least some of the differing responses to staffing that have occurred during the last decade. Uncertainties relating to international student demands and the impact of an uncapped domestic student centred demand approach to their choice of university have resulted in Universities adopting conservative continuing academic teaching staff employment policies. The availability of new information technology platforms to aid student learning is also an important cost factor and consideration as universities that are experiencing financial constraints decide on the appropriate staffing levels to meet the needs of coursework students. 5

6 Frank Larkins is Professor Emeritus in the School of Chemistry at the University of Melbourne. His current interests are in research, education and energy policy developments. He has recently published a book entitled Australian Higher Education Research Policies and Performance (MUP 2011). Previous articles published by Professor Larkins via the L.H. Martin website may be found at References 1. Larkins 2011, s_mar2012.pdf 2. Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relation, me.aspx 3. Larkins, F., 2011a, blog/2011/10/65 academic staffing trends at what cost to teaching and learning excellence. 26 October. 6

7 Appendix 1. Coursework Student Number and EFTSL Data for Selected Universities for and University coursework numbers 2010 coursework numbers to 2010 Numbers Deakin 24,912 37,412 12, % UWS 27,860 37,049 9, % Charles Sturt 27, , % Macquarie 19,686 35,205 15, % USA 23,887 34,763 10, % UTS 23,094 33,470 10, % Newcastle 17,344 31,454 14, % Latrobe 19,207 30,584 11, % Edith Cowan 18,408 26,960 8, % Wollongong 11,862 25,662 13, % USQ 15,150 25,156 10, % Subtotal 228, , , % All Unis 658,111 1,136, , % % of All Unis 34.8% 31.2% University coursework EFTSL 2010 coursework EFTSL to 2010 EFTSL Deakin 17,121 26,771 9, % UWS 23,953 27,790 3, % Charles Sturt 18,210 20,962 2, % Macquarie 15,071 25,371 10, % USA 19,076 24,276 5, % UTS 17,611 23,700 6, % Newcastle 14,016 22,523 8, % Latrobe 15,986 24,078 8, % Edith Cowan 13,658 17,769 4, Wollongong 9,988 19,640 9, USQ 9,351 12,969 3, % Subtotal 174, ,849 71, % All Unis 528, , , % % of All Unis 32.9% 29.9% *Selected Universities had between 25,000 and 40,000 enrolled coursework students in Source: DEEWR, Selected higher education student statistics reports. Appendix 2. Teaching Only and Teaching and Research Staff FTE in Selected Universities for and University FFT FFT 2010 Casuals Casuals 2010 FFT + Cas FFT+Cas 2010 FTE Deakin , UWS ,205 1, Charles Sturt Macquarie , USA , UTS , Newcastle Latrobe ,096 1, Edith Cowan Wollongong USQ Subtotal 6,856 7, ,165 2, ,010 10, All Unis 23,988 28, ,743 9, ,725 37, Source: DEEWR, Selected higher education staff statistics report Numbers