Standing Committee on Employment, Education
and Workplace Relations
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Submission 57
The UNIVERSITY of NEWCASTLE
OFFICE OF THE VICE-CHANCELLOR
5 November, 1997
Appropriate Roles of Institutes of Technical and Further Education
Summary
1. Institutes of TAFE and the Universities should collaborate
to provide educational programs. These range from the inculcation of fundamental
workplace skills, using appropriate technology, to postgraduate research
degrees likely to lead to technology innovation and theory development.
Such TAFE-University collaboration will advance Australia's understanding
of their common core of disciplinary expertise.
2. Each sector should concentrate on their areas of greatest
comparative advantage. 'Me TAFE sector should concentrate on the diploma
and advanced diploma courses inculcating fundamental workplace skills.
The University sector should concentrate on undergraduate and postgraduate
degree programs entailing greater focus on generic principles, and methods
of analysis and synthesis, conducive to the advancement of knowledge and
the production of graduates with specialised knowledge at the forefront
of their disciplines. Both sectors should therefore engage in teaching
and training for the benefit of society, and will, to a greater or lesser
Went, pursue vocational and utilitarian elements within their programs.
3. Collaboration between the sectors should be undertaken
to avoid uneconomic overlap in course programs, thereby eliminating the
need for credit transfer arrangements in relation to studies common to
the programs in each sector. Preservation of the current ownership by
one sector or the other of a particular facet of curricula should not
be driven by funding or other territorial motives.
4. Collaboration in curricula design should be undertaken
to provide a transparent location of teaching and to this end, the inculcation
of basic skills should be located where possible in the TAFE sector and
the more lateral thinking, critique and enquiry elements of the discipline
pursued in the university sector.
5- Both sectors should be encouraged to, foster and nurture
the application of new knowledge and approaches to tertiary education.
TAFE staff and students should be encouraged to exploit their likely comparative
advantage in having the contemporary industry skills required to further
develop this knowledge and skill and their application to business and
industry. University staff and students should be encouraged to undertake
more pure and applied research that may be independent of
the contemporary needs of industry. Industry patronage will be required
to support these activities in both sectors.
6. Current operation of joint facilities at the Central
Coast Campus of The University of Newcastle, Hunter Institute of Technology
and the Central Coast Community College, provides a setting in which the
above principles might be implemented. It is strongly recommended that
the commonwealth government fund the establishment and the operation of
a cross-sectoral education incubator for a period of three (3)
years to explore, develop and nurture appropriate collaboration between
the TAFE and university sectors.
Discussion
Them is considerable scope for the development of an
integrated tertiary education framework in which the TAFE and university
sectors function as partners rather than competitors. Despite progress
in respect of TAFE/University articulation arrangements and various credit
transfer schemes, the underlying position of intensive competition remains
between the sectors. Credit transfer and articulation arrangements arc
being advanced by many universities quite slowly. On the TAFE side the
arrangements are being contoured more to effect a fast-tracking to a degree
mechanism, than to creating an environment in which students moving from
the TAFE sector to the university sector might be placed in a position
to obtain a more extensive degree than had they entered university directly
from school. The current split of functions between the two sectors is
uncoordinated, wasteful and engenders much mistrust between administrators,
staff and students- It does not function in the best interests of students;
it does not encourage TAFE and the Universities to exploit for their mutual
benefit those facets of education in which they have a relative comparative
advantage; and, as a consequence does not serve the nation as well as
it should.
Some commentators appear to confuse the roles of the
TAFE and the university sectors. There is a tendency to present the relationship
in the form of a simplistic hierarchical model leading to the notion that
TAFE qualifications signal the acquisition of a low level knowledge of
material which is also the focus of university degree programs. This has
led to the pursuit of block credit transfer from TAFE diploma and
advanced diploma program into the relevant university degree studies.
This does an injustice to the nature of TAFE studies and the technology
and skills transfer they entail, and overlooks the dominating focus in
universities on critical thinking within the framework of a particular
discipline which is traditionally the focus in their degree programs.
An economic and pedagogically desirable framework in which TAFE and the
universities prosecuted those facets of tertiary education in which they
held a comparative advantage respectively, would entail:
- Elimination of overlap between their separate programs.
- Processes of collaboration and consultation between discipline leaders
from each sector to identify areas of comparative advantage.
- Collaboration over the development of curricula, and
- An exercise of mutual respect by each sector for the work of the other
The rhetoric of co-operation should be replaced by actual
collaboration and cooperation between the sectors. This could be achieved
with little effort. More cross-use of academic staff, sharing of facilities
and equipment, and sharing of ideas regarding how the two sectors might
work together to enhance and advance those disciplines which they address
in common would result.
A substantial proportion of the credit transfer and articulation
arrangements that are being negotiated is unnecessary. These arrangements
are currently pursued as a consequence of wasteful over-lap of curricula
content across the sectors. This has arisen primarily by virtue of the
relative paucity of collaboration on course development. Furthermore,
credit transfer and other articulation arrangements are pursued primarily
within a framework of fast-tracking from a TAFE diploma or advanced diploma
award to a university degree. Articulation from a university program to
a TAFE program is often perceived to be a downgrading progress. This is
an opportunity lost for a migrant from the TAFE sector to the university
to obtain a better degree by using the ex-TAFE credit transfer to free
up time to take additional subjects. It also is an opportunity lost for
a university student to progress to TAFE to acquire skills to be pursued
only in TAFE.
Perceptions regarding the relative status of TAFE awards
and university awards is the main basis underlying current articulation
negotiations. Those perceptions focus more upon the placement of each
award in the educational hierarchy, than upon the important differences
between the particular skills and knowledge imparted in each. A strongly
focussed campaign is needed to redress the naive ranking of awards within
society without reflection on the different competencies of certificate
holders, diplomates and university graduates. Often these perceptions
are nurtured by employers preferring employees with educational achievements
inappropriate to the tasks in which the employee will be engaged.
A majority of professional associations in whose respective
disciplines TAFE and the universities offer courses, bestow accreditation
and registration only on university graduates. It is their undeniable
prerogative to do so. It would appear helpful were the professional associations
to give greater encouragement to TAFE, and the universities to collaborate
more closely in respect of curricula design and to engage less in tactical
plays to preserve their respective territories. This would be facilitated
by a rethink by professional bodies about the sub-professional/professional
dichotomy.
Acquiring basic skills is an essential part of professional
education. Were the inculcation of such skills in many of the professional
disciplines - for example accounting, architecture, engineering, information
technology, law, nursing - located exclusively in TAFE, a new approach
to professional education and accreditation would emerge. It appears feasible
and highly desirable to negotiate with the professional bodies to have
such a TAFE skills component recognised as a formal part of the accreditation
process. Arguably, the inculcation of basic skill components in those
disciplines might well be better inculcated in the TAFE environment, with
its focus on extensive teaching and strong vocational orientation.
Most of the credit transfer which is sought and agreed
upon in professional programs entails exempting or giving standing in
the university programs for TAFE subjects Which address basic skills.
Such overlap would be easily avoided by having it placed in the TAFE sector
and freeing-up university degree time to pursue other matters currently
excluded primarily on the grounds of insufficient time, given the current
funding mechanism.
Such an arrangement might best be effected where the
TAFE and university programs can be pursued on the same location. Such
contiguity creates the environment in which the level of co-operation
and collaboration needed is easily achieved. To this end the framework
and fabric of the joint operation by Hunter Institute of Technology, The
University of Newcastle and the Central Coast Community College of the
Central Coast Campus at Ourimbah provides a most suitable site to function
as an incubator for the development of such a pattern of TAFE/university
collaboration- It is strongly recommended that the Commonwealth Government
fund such an incubator on the Central Coast Campus for an initial period
of three (3) years, thereby capturing a normal duration of study for both
the Hunter Institute of Technology's diploma and The University of Newcastle's
undergraduate degree awards.
In conclusion, competitive attitudes within the TAFE
and University sectors militate against the successful development of
educationally effective and economic programs, particularly so in respect
to the programs leading to professional accreditation. Each sector has
a valuable contribution to make to such programs. Contrary to 'Hilmer-related'
sentiments, the elements of competition between the -sectors is wasteful
of both physical and human resources, does not provide a transparent and
serviceable pathway by which students may move between sectors, and encourages
a concept of credit transfer between the sectors rather than a seamless
approach to tertiary education.
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