Parallel problematisations

A cross-cultural exploration of higher education enrolment policies in Australia and Taiwan

Sponsored by the SSESW Comparative and International Education (CoInEd) Research Group

In this presentation, Dr Leo Ren-Hao Xu (pictured) will examine the conceptualisations of the enrolment problems in Australia’s Bradley Review and Taiwan’s Conditional Standards. He will also share how Carol Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to be”, informed by Michel Foucault’s problematisation, and Lesley Bartlett and Frances Vavrus’s Comparative Case Study can be used to better understand how the unique historical-political discourses underpinned the representations of enrolment problems in Australia and Taiwan.

Bartlett and Vavrus’s study encompasses 40 in-depth interviews with policymakers, union officers, and university executives, as well as a comprehensive analysis of archival sources. This presentation will highlight the power dynamics, historical-political entanglements, and complex governing apparatuses that shape higher education enrolment policies in Australia and Taiwan.

Dr Xu recently completed his PhD at Sydney School of Education and Social Work, and will begin his new role as a lecturer in Higher Education at the Graduate School of Education, the University of Western Australia in July 2023. He has a background as a public servant in the Department of Education of Taipei City, and was a visiting fellow at Sciences Po in 2022. His research focuses on comparative education and higher education, and can be found in the Journal of Education Policy, Higher Education Policy, and Australian Universities (Sydney University Press, 2022). He tweets at @Leo_RenHao.