Evaluating the management and delivery of stem education outreach programs by Australian universities

In recent years there has been a growing concern that the goal of “science education for all” is not being met. Increasingly, education systems are failing to attract students to science, to the extent that schools are often blamed for deterring students from pursuing secondary and tertiary science education (EU, 2007; Osborne & Dillon, 2008; Royal Society, 2010; DEST, 2003; Tytler, 2007). While students seem disinterested in schools science education, a developing avenue of research directs attention to the role of informal Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education and, in particular to the untapped potential of universities’ outreach programs in filling the gap (Eastwell and Renie, 2002; EU, 2010). To date, most research regarding universities’ outreach programs has been limited to investigating the implications of specific programs. So far there has been a lack in comprehensive research regarding university-led STEM outreach as a form of informal education. This study put forward the aim to study the Australian universities’ outreach landscape in regard to the scope, management and delivery of STEM outreach.The objectives are to (a) develop a comprehensive model for characterizing the main factors affecting university-led STEM outreach management and delivery to school students; (b) develop a set of performance indicators for measuring each of the factors; (c) apply the model to evaluate the performance of nine universities in the state of Victoria, Australia; and (d) draw recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of STEM outreach delivered by Australian universities.Data was collected by using on-line survey questionnaires, interviews and documents analysis through mixed methods. An evaluation model was developed consisting of 14 performance indicators grouped into five factors. The results of the model’s application indicate that the programs rely mainly on self-initiated leverages. The STEM outreach is over-dependent on voluntary, unorganized and, un-conceptualized bottom-up initiatives, thus rendering the programs to being highly fragile and unsustainable. The evaluation results draw attention to particular inhibitors. These include (a) universities’ isolation and lack of governmental support; (b) the programs’ disintegration within their universities’ frameworks; (c) lack of goals for directing the programs’ delivery; (d) compromising the students’ needs and their free choice by addressing the schools as clients, rather than the students; and, (d) the negative implications of conceptualizing outreach as a marketing exercise. Overall, universities do not make use of their potential to make a difference in the lives of young students by opening new opportunities for acquiring STEM education. A set of nine recommendations were developed for enhancing the effectiveness of the programs’ operations.