Economic rationalism: serving tertiary business education needs? The Australian case
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09684880410548744 |
| Published date | 01 September 2004 |
| Date | 01 September 2004 |
| Pages | 120-127 |
| Author | Ewa Maria Richter,Ernest Alan Buttery |
| Subject Matter | Education |
Economic rationalism:
serving tertiary business
education needs? The
Australian case
Ewa Maria Richter and
Ernest Alan Buttery
The authors
Ewa Maria Richter is a Professor and Ernest Alan Buttery is a
Lecturer, both at the University of Western Sydney, Australia.
Keywords
Economic development, Business studies, Universities,
Multinational companies, Globalization
Abstract
Economic rationalism is a major driver of the education system in
many parts of the world. In the scramble to facilitate economic
rationalism, the education needs required at national level to
keep nations, like Australia, competitive into the twenty-first
century have not been fully considered. Such countries have
ignored the needs of education for the first-tier requirements of
global organisations. First-tier decision making is that aspect of
centralized decision making activities, usually in highly
developed countries, undertaken by those who can direct and
control organizations, confining the rest of the world to lower
levels of activity and income. Income, status, authority and
consumption patterns radiate out from this tier along a declining
curve. Neglecting the needs of the first tier has relegated
education users to a follower, second- or third-tier position. This
paper considers this three-tier system and how it relates to the
Australian context that aspires to a first-tier position.
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Introduction
Decision makers within the Anglo cluster[1]
tertiary education sector have accepted the market
mechanism as the best allocator of scarce
resources. In the American context, for example,
market values have fused with the traditional ideas
of the university to the extent that US policy is
being subjected to critical assessment (Cooper,
2002), and in the UK, Barnett (1990, p. 25)
highlighted the emphasis on “value-for-money,
accountability, planning, efficiency, good
management, resource allocation, unit costs,
performance indicators and selectivity”, where the
state turned to “maximizing its investment in
higher education”. Having scrambled to facilitate
economic rationalism in pursuit of fulfilment of
their public role, Australian universities had
undergone their first major wave of reorganization
in response to the Dawkins Review – The Higher
Education: a Policy Discussion Paper, circulated
in December 1987 by the Hon. J.S. Dawkins, the
then Minister for Employment, Education and
Training. It was, at the time, the most far-reaching
higher education document ever considered by an
Australian Government. It transformed the
structure, funding, employment conditions and
access and equity values of higher education. A
second wave is currently underway as universities
seem further to seek to reform their endeavour to
build a strategic architecture that is capable of
meeting the structural deficiencies of the
Australian economy. Good management practice
would dictate that periodically sectoral
performance be reviewed to identify whether the
higher education sector meets stakeholder
objectives.
Economic rationalism and its
implication
Economic rationalism draws on neoclassical
economic theory and considers that the
unregulated capitalist economy can singularly be
assumed to maintain the equilibrium between
supply and demand. Stiglitz (1993, p. 31)
summarises the ingredients of neoclassical
economic theory which are three: rational, self-
interested consumers; rational, profit-maximising
firms; and competitive markets with price taking
behaviour. Accordingly, its inherent vitality lies in
the private sector, and as a system it is purported to
be self-correcting. For economic rationalists, the
sacrosanct value is greater efficiency, which in turn
is achieved by unlocking key market forces,
especially increasing competition. Government
intervention is deeply frowned on. It is considered
Quality Assurance in Education
Volume 12 · Number 3 · 2004 · pp.120-127
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited · ISSN 0968-4883
DOI 10.1108/09684880410548744
120
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