Suchergebnisse

What does discussion of higher education issues tell us about fundamental societal questions? Merit appears to underpin the major issues in higher education at the moment. Yet an inspection of these issues suggests that this is really about larger tensions that we may wish to avoid, such as the role of experts in a democracy, specifically their degree of professional autonomy in setting content and performance standards. A new unifying purpose for higher education—articulate judgement—may allow us to address these societal issues more clearly and the role of higher education more publicly and directly. Fundamentally, we must decide what role we want for the academic professions and how we place articulate judgement in their endeavor. Do we have the moral confidence in our enterprise to assert a capacity and a responsibility for independent, informed, deliberative, and humane judgment and for the capacity to elicit the same in our students?

This paper describes a process of policy formation through the parliamentary committee system. The nature of a Victorian investigatory committee and its function as a medium for public consultation regarding complex social and ethical issues is explored. The Public Inquiry into 'Options for Dying with Dignity' is discussed as a case study. The Inquiry led to benchmark Australian legislation through the Medical Treatment Act 1988, as well as promoting significant changes in terminal palliative care.

An analysis of television programs telecast during peak viewing hours in Melbourne over one week uncovered the pattern of representation of family life. This version of family life was then compared with official statistics of the Australian population and families to highlight the discrepancies between reality and the mediated world of television.Several clear trends were observed. Programs were male‐dominated, middle‐aged biased, white Anglo‐Saxon and largely middle‐class oriented. Considerable discrepancy was apparent between family structures in the real world and the media world of family types. Further, analysis of marital relationships, sexual division of labour, ageing, and an evaluation of values reinforces a traditional conservative aura. It is considered that the dominant program formulae fail to recognise new social realities, and that orthodox family stereotypes could be affecting decisions made by policy makers.