UWA reviewing course structures

The University of Western Australia is undertaking a comprehensive review of course structures across all teaching areas. The Vice-Chancellor encourages graduates to get involved in the Course Structures Review process and give them the benefit of our insights.

Professor Alan Robson
Vice-Chancellor
The University of Western Australia

Dear Prof. Robson,

I entered UWA in 1987, graduated from with a BE in Electronic Engineering and finally completed my PhD - with some challenges due to my cross-disciplinary approach - in Physics and Mechanical Engineering. In addition to Engineers Australia and IEEE, I am an associate fellow of the AIM and a graduate of the AICD Company Directors Course.

My professional work focus has shifted from electronic and systems engineering, where I primarily worked in defence, underwater acoustics and controls, to software engineering and enterprise IT (see http://systecit.com) - much of my work is in strategy, process and change management. Recently I was invited to join the Engineering Advisory Committee (EIAC) of Murdoch University; I am leading the charge to bring the Australian Software Engineering Conference to Perth for the first time in 2008, sitting on the EA ITEE Panel and the board of ICTICC.

I do not intend to address the entire course structure review instead focussing on science, mathematics and engineering:

• The wide diversity and fragmentation of courses is a problem in understanding for prospective entrants, prospective employers of graduates and contributes directly to declining course quality.
• Recommendation: Reduce the number of engineering disciplines and reintroduce common first and first/second years for all degrees.
• Recommendation: Teach subjects in their primary department or faculty of knowledge instead of the degree course. For example, reverse the shift of mathematics, physics and business courses into engineering and instead ensure they are taught, as quality and general courses, by experts in mathematics, physics and business - not by engineering specialists.
• Secondary recommendation: Adopt a common, undergraduate degree structure like Melbourne University and other world-class universities abroad - substantially the same as the Bologna Process or Melbourne Model with variation to account for local traditions.
• Issue of combined degrees missing essential elements of either or both of the component degrees, including the cohort experience of law, medicine and engineering students; fundamental, advanced and specialise units from first and final or honours years.
• Recommendation: Reshape dual degrees to be primary degrees plus secondary major or minor to ensure the primary study is at the same or higher standard than the standard degree. (Note that I believe dual degrees are great marketting for universities and graduates alike but have little value otherwise.)
• Recommendation to either: 1) Mandate core science and mathematics units across all science and engineering curricula; or 2) Create a stream that allows core and advanced science units (eg. physics, chemistry) to be taken by science and engineering majors.
• Research, postgraduate studies orientation should be an option for all advanced students who show the right aptitude and abilities. The previous recommendation on core science and mathematics units will enable this potential to be reached. (It is embarrassing to meet graduates, even more so postgraduates, who lack foundational knowledge and problem solving abilities in their notional fields of expertise or profession.)
• The creation of professional PhDs or doctorates is fraught with problems of perception and equivalence vis-a-via research and problem solving versus advanced professional standing. "Dr" versus "Mr" for prestige or public perception - some medical specialists revert to the latter. (The administration of PhDs is of personal interest since I struggled in the political rather than technical environment for my degree; others simply drop out.)

The declining intake into university computer science, engineering - especially systems and software engineering - and the quality of the graduates is of national concern. The structure and content of relevant university degrees, entry requirements and pathways into courses are important factors that have to be considered.

If I can be of further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards,
Daniel
--
Daniel M. Berinson BE PhD MIEAust MIEEE AFAIM GAICD
Managing Director, Systems and Software Architect
Systec Engineering Pty Ltd and Systec IT

daniel at systec.com.au
040 888 0278 (m)

GO3

The opening address for GO3 by Francis Logan, MLA - Minister for Energy, Resource, Industry and Enterprise - set the upbeat and positive tone for the day by announcing $1B in funding over a decade to bring fast, fibre broadband to every home in Western Australia. On top of half million dollars in support provided by the government for Interzone Games to set up a studio in Perth, Western Australia. Interzone Entertainment COO, Robert Spencer noted that Interzone are hiring - seeking recruits to staff the 300-strong complement for their Perth studio. I only attended the first day of the three day conference and expo and give my heartiest congratulations to the organisers, presenters, attendees, government and other supporters for putting on such a great event and also for their wonderful job in promoting Perth as a site for Interzone and others in the games industry.

The morning sessions had Keita Lida, Director of Content Management, APAC, giving an interesting an involving talk about Nvidias hardware GPU developments in the context of games history - he is a notable games historian - and future developments, followed by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, founder of Q Entertainment Inc, recognised as one of the top New Media Producers and Innovators by the Producers Guild of America. On the technology front, Keita Lida made a persuasive argument for the strengths of the ongoing and growing PC game market due to the continuing technology upgrades available to PCs that are deferred until the next hardware cycle in consoles like the Xbox360 and PS3. I am somewhat unconvinced by his conclusion that PC game titles are as good or superior to console games because such an argument mostly negates the reason for the tight platform integration and advanced features in consoles, including multiple cores and specialised functionality. Albeit part of his role to evangelise the energing Nvidia SLI technology that enables scaleable graphics, physics and AI performance by employing multiple graphics cards.

The talk by Tetsuya Mizuguchi was a timely followup to the Metamorphosis of Melbourne event run a short time ago by Form as part of the Creative Capital series. I was enthused about his entertaining the relationships between different modes and media in the creation of his game play, an epiphany that led to his current thought-leader role in the genre due to his sophisticated approach to multimode games, following earlier successes for SEGA like Rally Championship and the wonderfully immersive Manx TT Superbike game that physically involves the game player. It was particularly interesting to hear the relationship between the vivid colour of Kandinsky's art work, painted to Jazz and other music, the colourful and pleasurable immersion of techno rave parties and the gloriously retro Senorama as motivating elements for his fabulously fun dance game Space Channel 5 through Rez, who flies through space rhythmically destroying targets with arresting gameplay, and Lumines an addictive, hip and stylistic musical puzzler, that both combine the elements of colour, music and vibration in a visual, auditory and stimulatory feast. In terms of innovation and creativity, Tetsuya Mizuguchi's talk called Inspiration led Creativity was an inspirational case study to a rapt audience.

After lunch, John De Margheriti, CEO BigWorld and John Passfield, Pandemic Studios gave interesting talks on, respectively, the Future direction of MMOGs and Destroying all humans around the world, alluding to their refreshingly retro-alien, kill-humans, fun-take on 1950's USA and its translation into a (apparently surprisingly) successful title in Japan. The BigWorld Technology solution provides a mature middleware platform for developers of Massively Multiplayer Online Games that is fast becoming the industry standard. John De Margheriti gave some interesting advice on industry directions by citing some of the trends and market differences evident between, for instance, Western markets compared to China and India. China is a gigantic, largly online market that favours server session management for first-person, shooter-type games, having less emphasis on the quest-oriented MMOGs that dominate the USA and Europe, while India has an enormous base of lowered-powered machines that are largely used to play the computer equivalent of the national obsession leading to a 20 million strong installed base of the computer game of Cricket.

John Passfield's talk about translating Destroy All Humans! or DAH into a Japanese release. DAH is a wonderfully subversive game based on an Alien named Crypto who kills humans with his amazing array of weaponry - in particular the anal probe that causes human heads to explode so Crypto can collect the DNA remnants of his race from the human brain stem that is emitted in a gooey mess of cerebral material and fluids. The Japanese market required this to be changed to a life gem being provided for the player rather than brain parts after the same, screaming, running escape after being anally probed. The 1950s references to McCarthyism among others do not translate well across cultural lines and were changed to largely equivalent Japanese pop cultural references, for example, Godzilla, along with a full language translation, while retaining the essential features of the game unchanged. The issues with translation, a huge task involving 6000 lines of text and large amounts of character speech, are of syntax, semantics and contextual meaning - reminding me of the issues surrounding translations of word play in Douglas Hofstadter's GEB.

I got to hear Harvey Smith, studio creative director at Midway Studios-Austin, talk entitled The Imago Effect: Avatar Psychology before I had to leave. The issues of character projection from the player to the avatar, the development and meaning of the sense of self during immersive gameplay, and cultural issues affecting game and character design, point of view (i.e. first person, moving camera; text choice menus), well-defined versus undefined characterisation - formed the theme of his talk. The talk covered a broad spectrum of ideas that range from the historical development of such features as hair, mouth, noise and eye on Mr Potato, in early and current computer games in almost identical fashion. An intriguing example he used was a line to a Russian private named Vasili in Call of Duty who was told he should throw a potato down range instead of an expensive grenade, as part of scenic and character development.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to chat with Masaya Matsuura and John Passfield about project and software engineering management issues in games development. Also to engage Tetsuya Mizuguchi briefly in coversation after lunch when I had spoken with an architect about the similar confluence of creative sources that stimulate our own work in architectural and software design. There was a large contingent of students, recent graduates and game-industry hopefuls in attendance - giving hope for building the mass and scale needed to supported a proper games, serious games (eg. simulation and training) and supercomputing industries that tend to pop up together in clusters as witnessed in Brisbane and Melbourne that are already so very successful in this space. Another contact I must followup is an Asian training organisation about opportunities for collaboration between universites and companies that seek to train or employ game developers and designers, or to outsource studio work.

Metamorphosis of Melbourne

Perth is at a crossroads for making decisions for its future. The Creative Capital initiative run by Lynda Dorrington and the Form team, heartily acknowledged, has had speakers in this series including Al Gore on climate change, Charles Landry on the city, Opher Yom-Tov on the innovative approach taken by IDEO - this event has Jeff Kennett talking about Melbourne and how Perth can be transformed into an attractive, sustainable and livable city. Thanks credited to Department of Industry and Resources, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Rio Tinto WA Future Fund.

Jeff Kennett started off by saying rather modestly that his period in government ended many years ago and is largely irrelevant in the modern world. Upon election inherited a basket case with $32B in state debt the approach taken was from fundamentals - self confidence, preparation and courage to execute. Leadership and management are often underrated but were needed to lift a dispirited, run down community. The most important things are confidence, who and where we are, to be upbeat and look after our health. Pursuing money does not equate or equal quality of life.

Jeff noted that he spent a long time in opposition - not necessarily a prerequisite for good government but it couldn't be avoided - his lively and humorous bringing more laughter to the audience. In politics you have to surround yourself with good people from the private and public sectors because it is easy to lose touch with reality outside of parliament. He noted it is important to move quickly after election and in his case they made the decision to move on all fronts at once - economy, education, health, planning, building. Decisions can be misunderstood by many to provide rewards very quickly:

• Reduced number of departments from thirty down to eight.
• Removed senior public servants after first cabinet meeting - before lunch then more after lunch.
• Reduced the number of public servants by thirty thousand.
• Give hope by working on the little things, not just the big things: Major events program including the Grand Prix - borrowed from Adelaide - to signify the state is on the way back - things are happening.
  

Major projects that will have impact in 50-100 years time: The Docklands project - run down, derelict buildings to thriving will take another 20 years to complete - turning Melbourne around from looking inwards to looking out to the sea. Require from the Planning Minister that every project needs to be decided within two weeks - use power of private sector.

Cultural program: Old city architecture updated with younger city architecture in last 20 years; owners had been allowed to run down buildings; $1B capital program for museums, convention centre, library, glass dome, Federation Square - even as borrowed $1B to shrink workforce. Architectural competition for each project - all approved - trust the experts.

Better control of taxi system which was run down, dirty, poor English, lack of knowledge of major events, pink uniforms, no smoking, no eating, higher education - pink got people talking - yellow is international colour for taxis. Government generally - everything is possible - good times around you, confident to deliver positive impact. Most radical series of reforms of any government in Australia:

• New government members and parliamentary colleagues.
• Try to explain, don't give in.
• Otherwise will not be able to complete reform program.

Dramatic turnaround in 3-4 years. Property tax $100 per household to signify that we are all in this together; all junk bond status; two years later the tax came out - measure of success. Five fingers of leadership:

1. Clearly understand good - not left/right but common sense.
2. Strategy to achieve goals.
3. People to help deliver strategy.
4. Consistency of policy - commercial life, politics and own home - public pressure grew in first two years - cannot succumb.
5. Reward - demostrate to community, actually delivering results - tax off, building and cultural centre.

One example of change - bring about change very quickly. Give Perth a greater sense of purpose and activity. Comes here for work and football and thinks of Perth as missing community - what other reasons for coming to Perth? Does perth have a heart? A heart beat? I am sure it does but it is hard to find. Open, pristine, almost constipated - not being critical - don't have a vibrance of Melbourne or Sydney, or even Adelaide. Give the city of Perth a greater reason for being. There doesn't seem to be a champion for Perth - Perth City Council, State Government - need a champion and for Perth to be good at something, a point of difference. Too much interference and bureaucracy - great deal of cost and frustration. Access to river.

How many of you from Melbourne? Most of you (laughter). Geelong - Deakin moved to other side of lake - water, boardwalk of actibity, cafes and restaurants. Use water - Convention Centre is ugliest thing I've seen in years - drawing more laughter. Active sports program - major events program - architecture - form of art - sculptures. Freeway - art - gateway to Melbourne - cheese sticks. Wonderful cultural city, huge range of eateries and sporting events. Points of difference in area of education - good at gas, open pit - difference to schools over east. Colin put up water pipeline - I've been on National Water Plan since 1996. Exciting - bring country and city together - enthusiasm, will eventually happen. My mother died and could not cancel magazine subscription due to privacy act - squeezing us all together - she just can't do it (laughter). Expensive - I don't know the final cost, I don't think Clin knows either (laughter) - $3B will seem cheap in 10 years.

I don't want to say too much about Sydney but it's a backwater after 10 years of labour government. Cannot wait to do common sense thing - Perth either changes or stays the same and gets old quickly. Go to Melbourne - Grand Prix, sport, eat, drink - visit your children. Questions.

Reorganise local government from 109 Perth metro councils and 150 in state - councillors with no skills and no training? Changed in a flash - no flashing over here (laughter) - from 211 councils - sacked them all, administrators three or so - down to 72 - new government only changed on boundary so must have been pretty good. Gough Whitlam, Neville Wran were the greatest reformers. Recognise that rural coucils cover large areas but City council is too small - should include Burswood [no comment on split into Perth, Vincent and Cambridge; current Belmont and Victoria Park boundary issues]. Increasing Commonwealth Goverment infleuence and taxation - states have lots of money to cover their mistakes. In 50 years, three tiers of government might be slightly different.

Rural - health, education, cultural centres - close a school is bigger issue to small community - country feels it more. Major events program helps city more, rural feels left out - strong capital, strong state. Farmer from small town outside Mildura asked for Grand Prix - no support, no race track. Do something different? Budgetted for $6M surplus - election promises would have spent some of $1B surplus (informal from Treasury) in priority areas that needed it.

Jeff does not regrest outcome of election - would have been nice to have one more term to lock in reform. Proud to have served in office - left state with high confidence. Teach children about change - one door closes, another opens. Chairman of Beyond Blue - older people don't handle changes well and become terribly depressed when leave jobs or sacked. Work for Beyond Blue more important that anything he did in politics. Challenging and provocative talk - bottle of wine, something we do as well or better than Victoria. I like you positive thinking, Ian!

The focus on this talk and the wonderfully insightful writings of Charles Landry in The West Australian is on the physical and psychological geography of Perth city. My personal interest extends beyond these concepts and, by extension, the cultural and social life of the city - as important as they are - to the technologically creative and innovative.

It is without surprise that I read the ANZ is uninterested in divesting itself of the 34% stake it holds in E*Trade - the foundation of its online stockbroking facilities - to IWL. I suspect many would be surprised that IWL, based in Melbourne, is the owner of Sanford Securities and JDV, formerly part of Hartley Poynton, that provide the NAB and Westpac online stockbroking sites. Both of these companies were founded in Perth and, along with companies like ERG, Austal Ships, CCK Treasury, Asgard - part of the fifth pillar St Georges Bank, formerly Sealcorp and still based in Perth - are a few high profile outcomes of the terrific innovative spirit in the West.

The continued development of Bentley Technology Park, the Australian Marine Complex in Henderson and similar initiatives are essential for Perth to finally achieve the numbers of participants and scale of development required for the formation of industry clusters that are locally absent. It would be a great shame, and an enormous leap backwards, for Perth to focus its higher education on mining and related technologies - as has been suggested by some misinformed groups - since mathematics, physics, engineering and computing are fundamental to all of these endeavours and provide necessary and essential support for those industries. My fondest hope is for the primary, secondary, post-secondary and tertiary sectors to collectively pick up their socks and to concentrate on being among the best on the world in mathematics and science studies and research. The Australian Marine Complex, companies like Austal Ships and Nautronix, partnering with General Dynamics and purchased by L3 respectively, are remarkable local entities that together with Tenix, Raytheon, Thales and others should be the foundation of a world-class cluster centered on the Australian Marine Complex and other complex industries in the Kwinana area - like Gladstone, Queensland; Wollongong and Newcastle in NSW.

The sciences and the arts are largely indistinguishable to insiders who practice across accepted discipline boundaries and offend the norms accepted by outsiders. The intrinsic beauty of mathematics is much like the ethereal and haunting notes of a Bach cantata that reached to the heavens, each level of abstraction, each voice of the canon, building higher and higher in an ascending crescendo of voices. The design of engineering and computing systems, process control and instumentation are likewise deeply layered and complex arrangements composed by the practitioners in the respective fields. It would be shame to turn further inward at this juncture when the proper path is to embrace and extend or strengths across mining and resources, controls and instrumentation, defence, marine and other systems.

Rugby Foundations

For a few years I have been talking about getting back involved in rugby as a player or as a coach. Since I stopped playing team sports at university about 15 years ago I have been increasingly running for exercise, sometimes cycling and often exercising in the gym. A couple of years ago I got a personal trainer to get my fitness up to scratch and do some boxing at the same time. It worked for my fitness but not my playing confidence. I have not gone back to playing and when a ball hits the tip of my fingers, as it did at the park with dogs and wife in attendance, six weeks later it still has not healed properly.

When I was playing it took two or three weeks. As I discovered at Rugby Foundations on the weekend, my tackling confidence and ability in uncontested, kneeling scrums, for coaching technique you see, is maybe as good as than 13-14 year olds also in attendance. The memories of being twisted and wheeled in the scrum, unavoidable when playing hooker in seniors, even the humble, lower grades, came flooding back with a shock. And a day later, my shoulder and neck hurts, my groin strain has returned, muscles I had forgotten ache, yet I did run 6 km at the gym on Friday and am probably stronger than I have ever been.

The coaching of technique is far advanced over my earlier experience. I learned more about basic skills in a day with Brendan and Anthony, coaching and refereeing managers of Rugby WA, than in my entire playing days. When I played at high school and at university, we were neither taught how to tackle, ruck, maul or throw properly. Only slightly tongue in cheek, it may not have helped much because the techniques then used were not very good.

The emphasis on early-stage learning or skill, progressing through drills and finally to autonomous learning is familiar with anyone involved in teaching or coaching in other fields. In Karate, the fundamental punches and kicks are taught through Kihon, repetitive sequences are drilled in one and three-step attack-defence patterns and in longer patterns called Kata, leading to Kumite, where the individual exhibits autonomy in free fighting. Piaget's early stages of cognitive development, B.F. Skinner's precision learning and positive reinforcement, individual attainment, individualism and existentialism. The choice becomes our own and learning is an active process.

Each of the key areas covered in the foundation course was in turn demonstrated from a coaching and referee perspective. Repetition is a great way to learn and physical sports, practiced on the field, give a feeling of achievement even if only for the kinesthetic learning through repetition. As a foundation course leading onto accreditation in either or both of coaching and refereeing I throughly enjoyed myself. The camaraderie between former players and juniors was there even through the age and experience gap. Shared experience tends to draw like-minded people together in spite of other differences.

I experienced an epiphany of sorts insofar as I now consider refereeing as a possibility. Before the course I could not reconcile the thought of managing the game of rugby under pressure from players, coaches and spectators with my enjoyment of the game. Through his knowledge and enthusiasm, Anthony O'Shea has demonstrated otherwise and I have an inkling to referee, thankless job though it is.

Both coach and referee are filling management roles at different times for the same goal. The coach is in a preparatory, strategic and tactical position of shaping his players, team for each game, the season and for individual development of the players. The referee is either in the background or in the spotlight, continually under pressure to make decisions, often with limited information, and a responsibility to preserve the contest and continuity of the game under his direction, the integrity of the game of rugby in general, and the safety and well-being of the players involved.

It may be wonderful to be involved in any sport as a player or spectator but it is something special to give something back to other players, the community and the game they play in heaven.

ASWEC 2008 Perth Bid

Perth, Western Australia is a wonderful place to live and has so much to offer but sometimes the laid-back attitude starts to grate a little. Here, over east and abroad there is a tendency to overplay the small town card. So remote and so far from wherever the speaker thinks is somwehere important. The failures are accepted and the successes downplayed. A corollary of the tall-poppy syndrome, perhaps: We had better not stand up tall in case someone knocks off my flower petals. Bond winning the Americas Cup in 1984. The inglorious fall of WA Inc. at the end of the decade. In many ways, think of the positive economic and intellectual exuberance Austin, Texas and you won't be too far wide of the mark.

I have never abided by such talk (not for long, anyway) and negativity. Perth is the Australian and even the world leader in several areas of software and technology. Not to mention being the epicentre of the current mining boom. The economic opportunity that will guarantee prosperity for a generation. Supported by rapid growth in India and China it is assured that WA will continue to earn premium prices for iron ore and liquified natural gas, among other resources, being exported in staggering quantities by BHP, Rio Tinto, Woodside and attracting newcomers from mainland China into iron ore, much as Japan a generation ago, witness Mitsui as a major investor, in addition to recent homegrown startups like Fortesque.

Perth houses centres of excellence in oil and gas for Woodside and major shareholder Shell, is a centre for expertise in mining software with companies like Maptek, and mining simulation with Immersive Technologies. Clough Engineering is respected in engineering throughout the region along with a raft of other service companies. In this sector, software and IT pays second fiddle in a supporting role and as an economic multiplier and enabling technology for mining, oil and gas, resources, processing, logistics.

Less well known and hardly ackowledged is that for a significant while Perth housed the companies that built two (or three?) of the four major banks online web sites and provided their initial forays into internet stockbroking. JDV, formerly part of Hartley Poynton stockbrokers and now part of IWL, Sanford Securities an impressive startup, now also in the IWL stable, our largest funds manager Asgard, formerly Sealcorp and now part of the fifth banking pillar, St Georges Bank, along with homegrown technology for the Perth-based headoffice of BankWest, part of Bank of Scotland, and the brilliant CCK Treasury, the mixed treasure ERG, Perpetual Trustees and others on St Georges Terrace or Colin Street. Such a wealth of software riches from these companies puts paid to the notion that Perth is behind in respect of development. Quite the contrary, it appears that Perth is an Australian and world leader in several of these areas. If you are not convinced, do a little research of your own because I have other areas to discuss besides resources and finance.

Defence, ship building, telecommunications, physics, medicine, other science and engineering disciplines abound in Perth. As an exercise, you can read about the Nobel prize in medicine awarded to University of Western Australia researchers Barry Marshall and Robyn Warren for their work discovering Helicobacter Pylori. You can read about Austal Ships and their world leading trimaran ferries at over 100m length; partnership with General Dynamics for the USA next generation littoral combat ship. Raytheon and Thales, formerly ADI-Transfield, have offices here and among local companies L-3 Nautronix, until recently the last, remaining listed company standing from the second-board of the 1980s, privatised and then sold to defence conglomerate L-3; should lead to greater exposure to world markets for its amazing, unique and world-leading technologies in underwater communications and acoustic ranging.

The high probability of the square kilometre array, the world's largest radio telescope, and its associated supercomputing facility, being built in Western Australia. Gravitational wave observatory at Gingin, low phase noise sapphire clock (i.e. accurate over short time intervals), leading audio and acoustic technologies, control systems, electronics, airport weather stations, wireless communications at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute, QPSX founded by the same leaders who invented the wide-area bus and protocols used worldwide in TCP/IP and ATM networks. World-class talent, innovation and leadership in science, engineering and business.

It is time that an international IEEE conference in software engineering came to Perth. The Australian Software Engineering Conference is a joint conference of Engineers Australia and the Australian Computer Society that publishes IEEE proceedings and attracts a significant international participation as a consequence. I am passionate that ASWEC should come to Perth after spending the past twenty years in the east and I am working diligently to make this opportunity a reality. Perth and surrounds has so much to offer conference attendees in return.

Independence of Thought

The practical matter of developing independence of thought as young people take each step from childhood development, through adolescence and adulthood is fairly well understood as a process, to my mind roughly parallelling Jean Piaget's preoperational through concrete and formal operational stages of development.

Our education system is largely constructed around the pedagogical concepts of direct instruction and precision teaching derived from B.F. Skinner's ideas on educational philosophy. Skirting the controvery altogether, if at all possible is this ever-sensitive subject, the fabric of our educational institutions at all levels are strongly influenced by his teachings.

Is it contestable that most people learn well and many excel in teaching environments where the material is specifically tailored for the level and outcome?

The digression into philosophy of education in this article is a metaphor, analogy or perhaps allegory for advanced teaching, work place and life-long learning. It is generally accepted that children pass through several stages of congnitive development before achieving the ability to construct abstract thoughts.

It is not widely held that individuals actively choose to learn and accept taught outcomes even if nowadays the teachers themselves readily focus on the student-centred classroom and associated pedagogical methods. The recognition that students are active participants in learning rather than empty vessels to be be filled with knowledge edges upon the existentialist notion that the individual not only can but rather must make his own choices.

In everyday terms, primary school is the opportunity for the young pupil to be taught fundamentals, secondary school provides the maturing student the chance to learn higher-level concepts, tertiary education continues the growth path, capping off the formal educational portion for most people with the chance to collaboratively work with peers and thought leaders on advanced techniques and even the creation of new theories.

The quality of primary and secondary education has come into question in Australia quite recently and seems to have followed earlier trends in the UK and the USA. The current debate centres around two problem areas that has been perceived by politicians and the community as in need of reform. The first issue relates to the quality of teachers, the treatment of teaching as a profession including proper remuneration. The second issue is the controversy over the adoption of Outcomes Based Education (OBE) where achievement levels replace conventional teaching methods and objective assessment based on grades.

Part of the the problem is that many graduates do not have the opportunity, by reason of limited opportunity, to build on this foundational learning, whether the formal learning component extended to secondary or tertiary level at undergraduate or postgraduate levels.

While much can be done to improve the presentation and substance of undergraduate education there is much circumstantial evidence to suggest that the outcomes are positive in some subject areas if not in others. By and large, most tertiary graduates in professional areas such as law, medicine and teaching successfully transition into the workplace.

To the credit of these institutions and the employers of graduates from those institutions, there remains a broad and deep range of nonprofessional subject areas in science and arts, such as physics and anthropology, whose graduates contribute to the well-being of society, albeit many of whom take up professions and whose qualifications are highly regarded.

The undergraduate degree structure in Australian universities is based on the student selecting a range of units in science, arts or a prescribed study course, for example, medicine or law, for which core units are mandatory delections. Postgraduate degrees may follow an honours degree, or equivalent, to four years study inclusive of a research-oriented thesis.

The degree structure varies widely elsewhere but the profound experience of the leading British universities of Oxford and Cambridge where one reads for a degree, and the USA where professional studies are undertaken as postgraduate degrees after an undergraduate degree. I strain to identify advantages of these systems over the Australian one beyond the development of independence but perhaps that is enough.

It serves no purpose to pretend that undergaduate degrees, both those that are general in nature and those oriented towards professional practice, are anything more than they are. Certainly they offer great learning opportunities but the level of discourse and quality of teaching outside of the premier institutions is merely ordinary. The degree is a stepping stone to the work place, a diploma that demonstrates commitment and academic achievement.

The professions are distinguished by their traditions, codes of ethics, professional associations and standards or practice. As a rule, they offer mentoring in the workplace in the form of internships for medical graduates, articled clerk for lawyers, chartered year for accountants, or some other professional year before admission to the ranks of the profession. The lowest rank.

One of the key tenets of professional or chartered membership of professional associations is to make a commitment to continuing professional education. This should not be an onerous obligation on most individuals but rather an extension of their choice to enter the profession and part of this personal commitment to life-long learning.

ASX Corporate Governance

The nexus between professional integrity and personal ethics is fundamental to the confidence that the general public has in dealing with professionals. For example, the trust that we have in being well treated by the family doctor, solicitor or accountant. Nowhere has that trust been in question more than in the shaken confidence of the the average person in our public companies.

The measure of activity taken in reinforcement of corporate governance principles is justified for reasons of public confidence in our institutions, including the venerable Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), albeit itself a public company. The improvement in performance seen by companies that conscientiously adopt corporate social responsibility (CSR), among other principles, is a more prosaic if pragmatic reason.

On Wednesday 20 November I attended an event hosted by the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) on ASX Corporate Governance. The guest speaker was Eric Mayne, Chair ASX Corporate Governance Council among his roles at the ASX, and formerly Managing Partner at Mallesons Stephen Jaques. The room at the Hyatt Regency, Perth was the same one where I participated in the AICD Company Directors course a year ago, earning my stripes as a professional director with P-plates and a decade of experience.

Steven Cole, partner of Allens Arthur Robinson and State Councillor of AICD (WA Division), introduced the session and speaker by starting with the observation that Australia has a highly regarded system of governance and, notwithstanding a few high-profile failures like HIH, remains a nonprescriptive environment rather than adopting a legislative approach like Sarbanes-Oxley. It if ain't broke then you don't need to regulate it.

The approach is basically to comply with the principles and to disclose the relevant information or not to disclose, taking an if not, why not approach if you are not complying with a full disclosure statement in the annual report. The principles were drafted and adopted in 2003 with the intention of a review being held after three years in 2006. The objectives of the review are to remove regulatory overlap between ASX rules and Companies Act, refinement and consistency of terminology across the rules and removal of ambiguity.

The AICD has provided a blog with information and inviting feedback.

After a brief overview of the issues, the format adopted was as a fireside chat so the audience can be voyeurs of the ensuing discussion. Eric Mayne comes from a background as regulator, consultant and practitioner giving healthy view points. He began with a polite comment about the five hour flight giving him plenty of time to catch up on his reading.

The tension between the small and big ends of town. Steven Cole earlier mentioned from BHP down to West Perth mining companies. The principles have been about 30% redrafted.

Steven Cole noted that the higher level principles are easier to read however the guidance notes rate as more difficult to read and follow. Eric Mayne asked if people are happy with the level of prescription, or should we pull back from current stance. Innocent question, is it a higher workload on monitoring compliance with 10 (or 8) high level principles and 28 (or 27) guidance?

ASX has carried out three levels of review:

1. Listed Companies - From 85% compliance in the first year to 92% in the second year.
   
2. Listed Trusts - Increased level of if not, why not reporting, similar (~2% lower) but less disclosure in spirit of the principle, encouraged to increase compliance.
   
3. Encourage thinking about issues, companies to change culture themselves - not via ASX rules.

Disclosure and transparency are the cornerstones of the ASX as a market and brand. If continuous disclosure is not seen the practice is to pick up the phone and speak to the companies.

A key change is to reorient the focus from best practice to good practice, recognising there is not only one way of doing things and encouraging alternative ways, for example, exception reporting by smaller companies.

Plain English drafting and consistent terminology. P2 definition of independence clarified to relationships that affect independent status. Alignment of committee recommendations for risk and audit, remuneration and nomination committees, with independent chair and directors. Audit committee expertise becomes relevant qualifications and experience not financial experience.

P3 prohibits hedging of unvested options and disclosure to company of hedging of vested options. P7 deals with recognition and management of risk. The establishment of a risk profile, risk management policies to cover material business risks that includes financial and other material business or nonfinancial risks. CEO/CFO signoff on financial statements P7.2 and CEO signoff other material business risks P7.3.

The consultation period closes 9 Feb 2007 with revised principles commencing 1 July 2007. Feedback on regulatory burden and the cost of regulatory burden would be useful data from corporate sector.

They were considering two sets of guidelines for smaller and big ends of town, like main and secondary boards in the past. Survey of small-to-medium listed company sector shows some require assistance eg. audit but no push for separate system of principles of corporate governance.

Q. Smaller companies lots of if not, why not; third-parties do not focus on explanation, ignore adequacy and mark down, tick box mentality.

A. Structure of revised principles help - commentary guide. Cosmetic preparation may be of assistance to companies, ticked box for complied might help.

Q. Intelligent and competent directors are more important than independent directors. Crooks will still act like crooks.

A. Training on obligations, availability of legal advice. Gerry Harvey model of governance. Training more important than independence. AICD Company Directors Course.

Risk management in P7 followed by disclosure with respect to corporate social responsibility (CSR) versus future outlook. May be disclosing a competitive advantage that you currently enjoy. It is too early to impose even if 90% of corporate websites discose CSR, so what continues to happen here and internationally. Section 299A obliged to report on prospects and forecasts to enable shareholders to make informed decisions. Rule 10 remuneration - dilution or associated party transactions makes a difference to discolsure.

The relevance to companies of all sizes is fairly obvious when viewed through the prism of professional levels of expectation in practice. There is no obvious reason why the quality of work output, reporting or disclosure should be significantly different between small or large companies.

Our education system is truly lacking if the executive tier of management is incapable of preparing adequate writtern reports. The quantity of disclosure should be shaped and coloured by relevance to the organisation. It is pointless to pretend to disclose on issues of little or no relevance whatsover.

There is a saying among pilots that there are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are no old, bold pilots. The same kind of filtering process happens in every arena so that it is rare for the executive bad apple to remain in the executive barrel.

Another healthy piece of advice for smaller operators again borrowed from the pilot fraternity is that private pilots should take a professional approach to their flying just as their commercial brethren.

How far to take this analogy that I have stretched already to a tight band. The Companies Act requires that directors have a duty to exercise care and diligence, to act in good faith, honestly and for a proper purpose. The concept of professionalism among pilots is called airmanship.

Every business man, no matter how large or how small is his enterprise, should carry out his duties with the highest levels of integrity and professionalism just as a pilot, whether a humble private pilot or airline transport pilot, should carry out his duties with the highest levels of airmanship. There is no plausible reason to excuse doing otherwise.