Inquiry into the Role of Institutes of TAFE
Submissions

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Submission 24

EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY

Perth, Western Australia

SUBMISSION TO THE INQUIRY INTO THE APPROPRIATE ROLES OF INSTITUTES OF TECHNICAL AND FURTHER EDUCATION

Universities and Institutes of Technical and Further Education have distinctly different, though complementary, missions and should remain separate. In this context, TAFE should not offer degree or associate degree courses and universities should not offer TAFE level courses unless legislated to do so.

The bridge between the sectors should be via articulation of courses which provides for transfer of students in both directions. Two or three tier awards should be co-operatively developed, with the early stages normally provided by TAFE and the final stages by universities. Each tier of such awards would have its own coherent structure and integrity, and be designed for a particular vocational purpose. Edith Cowan University's joint developments with the Advanced Manufacturing Technologies Centre for the provision of three tiered awards in Applied and Analytical Chemistry and in Food Studies are examples of such courses. The design of TAFE courses specifically for advanced standing in university awards is inappropriate and should be discouraged.

Other opportunities for extending links between universities and TAFE include:

(i) Exploiting the advantages of co-location, eg.

Developments of links at Bunbury, Midland and Joondalup campuses.

(ii) Joint marketing of courses

The joint marketing of packages of courses, particularly to international students, has mutual benefits.

(iii) Co-operation on fee-paying courses and services, eg.

The Maritime Education and Research Alliance jointly developed by South Metro-politan College of TAFE, the University of Western Australia and Edith Cowan University.

It is appropriate to make reference to the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) and to indicate concerns arising from attempts to incorporate both sectors within the same framework.

This University, in common with others, uses a wide range of awards not included in the framework. One example is the associate degree. The exclusion of associate degrees from the AQF led the WA Department of Education Services to refuse registration, which prevented these courses being advertised overseas. Such restriction was clearly inappropriate.

Connections between qualifications in the TAFE sector are difficult to extend to university courses and the suggestion of a continuum between courses offered by TAFE and those offered by universities devalues awards in both sectors. Vertical integration of awards is simply not appropriate in some fields and therefore separate qualification frameworks are proposed. Provision for articulation between the frameworks is important but separation of them acknowledges the distinctive role of each sector.

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