Knowledge Economy and Higher Education

26 August 2002

Knowledge Economy and Higher Education

Professor Lauchlan Chipman, an Australian tertiary reform analyst and scholar will visit New Zealand from 27 August - 1 September as a guest of the Education Forum to discuss the knowledge economy, higher education and the market.

Professor Chipman, who delivered the 2001 Annual John Bonython Lecture on behalf of Australia's Centre for Independent Studies, will discuss the implications of the knowledge economy for education. He says the trend towards near universal higher education requires a massive increase in investment in education, particularly higher education. However he rejects the suggestion that the investment has to come from government. He argues that one option to cope with growing student numbers is to open higher education to for-profit commercially driven universities.

According to Professor Chipman, knowledge-intensive goods have been falling in price for more than a decade and this trend can only accelerate as a result of globalisation. He notes that globalisation has contributed to the vertical disintegration of higher education, including the growth of many new organisations with specialised functions.

Professor Chipman is founder and principal of Lauchlan Chipman and Associates, a higher education and management consultancy. He is a former Vice Chancellor of Central Queensland University, and an Emeritus Professor of the University of Wollongong. As a past chair of the Australian National Council on Open and Distance Education and a member of the Commonwealth Government's Committee to Review Higher Education Policy, he has written extensively on the knowledge wave and the benefits of a potential relationship between the education and private sectors.

During his visit to New Zealand, Professor Chipman will be speaking at a range of education sector events in Wellington and Auckland. A key feature of his visit will be an address in Wellington on 28 August 2002.

For information on the visit contact:
Norman LaRocque
Education Forum
Phone: (04) 499 0790
Email: info@educationforum.org.nz

For media appointments or to attend the lecture contact:
Rick Marshall
Awaroa Partners
Phone (04) 471 8206
Email: rmarshall@awaroa.com

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