Inquiry into the Role of Institutes of TAFE
Submissions

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Submission 95

The Secretary
House of Representatives Standing Committee on
Employment, Education and Training
R1,116 Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600

The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations hopes that the Committee will consider this submission to the Inquiry into the Appropriate Roles of Institutes of Technical and Further Education. CAPA is the peak body for Australia's 140,000 postgraduate students. Postgraduates are vitally interested in the value of university research, the costs of tuition, the quality of university education, equity of access to post-secondary education and the role of postgraduate qualifications in professional development and professional entry.

The appropriate roles of institutions of technical and further education

CAPA believes that the appropriate role for institutions of technical and further education is to provide quality vocational and adult eduction which is of a substantially different character to that provided by universities. In particular, the primary distinguishing characteristic of university education is its core relationship to basic research. Most postgraduate awards contain a substantial research component with a little over 35,000 students being classified as research only in 1997. University teaching is also intimately connected to research with university teachers being expected to carry out a substantial amount of research. Furthermore the quality of the undergraduate curricula is underpinned by the strength of a university's research endeavours.

Undertaking basic research can be expensive and time consuming. The basic research carried out in universities, though imperative to the overall innovation system, tends to have only indirect commercial application. Accordingly, the cost of this research endeavour is underwritten by substantial government funding and by the significant contribution in time and income forgone made by postgraduate students. It is unlikely that this sort of research effort could, or indeed should, be replicated within the TAFE or VET sector more broadly.

This does not mean that TAFE is not of interest to postgraduate students. An increasing number of university graduates are continuing their studies in TAFE courses indicating that TAFE is providing an educational service which is not being provided by universities. TAFE can also be an entry point into postgraduate studies at university particularly into vocationally related coursework programs and in industries with a dual vocational pathway. The advent of full fee paying regime in the postgraduate coursework area has seen the standards applied to recognition of prior learning for course entry decline while advanced standing is rarely granted. Thus while some educational barriers may have been lowered, these have been replaced by cost barriers.

Ideally then the student should:

• have maximum choice in the type of eduction they require;
• be assured of the quality and level of all courses;
• not have to learn what they already know to gain a qualification;
• gain the highest possible award for the studies they undertake; and
• be assured that the value of an award once granted will not be diminished by the later lowering of standards and quality in that course.

The extent to which the roles of TAFE and University Education should overlap

The integrity of both the TAFE and university sectors needs to be preserved to maintain the maximum amount of choice for students. Real choice can only be provided where the quality of the education is guaranteed and the cost of entering and undertaking this education is not a deterrent to low income and other equity category students. Thus TAFE should not be substantially involved in the delivery of university education nor should the reverse apply. At the same time artificial barriers between the two sectors should not increase the cost and the amount of study necessary to achieve a course award or a desired educational outcome.

The case of reverse articulation is possibly an example of students not being best served by the current arrangements. Ideally the student could have been spared some time and cost by being able to incorporate some aspects of a TAFE course into their degree program or of a university course into their TAFE program. This will lead to the attainment of the same educational outcome with less study time and cost for the student.

Much better articulation and recognition of prior learning arrangements need to be instituted. These need to be based on cooperation between TAFE and university sectors and clear national guidelines on course length and nomenclature which apply to all levels of post secondary education. The latter has become a matter of particular concern in the area of postgraduate qualifications.

With the advance of full fee-paying in the postgraduate coursework area, universities have succumbed to the temptation to classify more courses as postgraduate and to apply the term 'Masters Degree' to an array of courses of varying length. Thus a Masters degree can range from anywhere between two years of full-time research to less than one year full time equivalent. Postgraduate courses often contain units from undergraduate courses which have been repackaged. A confusing array of sub higher degree postgraduate courses has also mushroomed. Some of these articulate into higher degrees and some seem to have only tangential value either as a stand alone award or as a component of another award.

In such an environment it is not possible for the student to compare apples with apples when choosing a course. Postgraduate alumni also have concerns over the devaluing of their own awards as courses with the same name but of lesser duration, quality and entry requirements flood the employment market.

Recommendations

1. That universities remain the only bodies allowed to grant university level course awards. University awards should not be substantially composed of units provided by TAFE or other providers.

2. That a national qualifications framework be established for university level courses which prescribes course length, level and nomenclature for each course award.

3. That a national register of articulation and recognition of prior learning (RPL) arrangements be established. While articulation and RPL arrangements will of necessity be decided at the local level, national reporting and disclosure will provide more consistent and better outcomes for students.

We hope that this submission is of assistance to the committee. Please feel free to contact us should you require further information.

Robert Jansen         Mark Frankland
President                Executive and Research Officer

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