The open education movement in Australia: the need for political leadership

This paper starts by exploring some of the most important OER initiatives in Australia, and then describes a centrally funded research project that investigates the state of play of OER in Australia. After that, the authors report on some of the preliminary findings of this research in progress, which surveyed the higher education sector and interviewed key stakeholders. The research findings revealed that there should be greater strategic leadership from government bodies and institutions to regulate the adoption of OER in Australia. According to participants, there is an urgent need for public policies to promote access and availability of OER in the higher education sector, and that these policies could encourage the growth, development and institutional adoption of open educational resources and practices across the sector in Australia