EDITORIAL

Welcome to the new look AEJNE. We hope that you find the makeover a pleasant experience. My thanks to Tom Lawson for his web design services.

This edition of the journal is my last as editor, and heralds a number of changes. My co-editor John Stevens at Southern Cross University will be taking up the reigns and overseeing the first edition for next year. You can contact John at jstevens@scu.edu.au

As the end of this century approaches one thing can be said with certainty about higher education - things will not remain the same. Developments in the information technologies mean that potentially every university in the world will be able to offer courses to any potential student in the world. The globalisation of education is a growing reality. Universities now must learn about becoming consumer centered and will need to demonstrate value for money in an increasingly competitive environment.

Undergraduate pre-registration programs will be protected from these forces by way of their association with local registering / licensing bodies. The post graduate marketplace though is a different story.

One regrettable consequence of this type of competition will be the "devaluing" of post graduate coursework programs through reductions in their length. While as a student I might be pleased to be able to complete a masters program in two years instead of three the question must be asked as to whether the graduate of such a program is comparable to one from a longer program. Not that length has anything to do with quality. However both employers and consumers need to be focussed on issues of learning outcomes as much as they might be about the nomenclature of the award. 

Volume 3 - No. 1