Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Workplace Relations

Inquiry into the Role of Institutes of TAFE
Submissions

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Submission 39

Swinburne University of Technology

Submission to Inquiry into the Appropriate Roles of Institutes of Technical and Further Education

Executive Summary

Swinburne believes that the nature of the roles of institutes of technical and further education and of universities is best considered within a conceptual framework which features four key trends:

• regionalisation

• convergence

• internationalisation

• industry specialisation

Governments need to take a very broad, strategic view in planning for the provision of tertiary education. The most useful perspective from which to do this in our opinion is the regional perspective. In order to provide for the requirements of the clients of the system, namely students, industry and business, governments need to be able to plan systematically for provision of tertiary education across a region.

This comprehensive planning approach should take in not only tertiary education, but systematic links should be established between tertiary institutions and secondary schools in a Region to facilitate smooth articulation between school and tertiary education as well as TAFE and university education, and the development of dual awards (in which students study for qualifications concurrently at both secondary and TAFE level, or both TAFE and university level).

It is our view that these imperatives lead to the creation of lead institutions in each region, which can be charged with the principal responsibility for co-ordinating the provision of education and training across the region and across the levels. While there are arguments for the persistence of some mono-sectoral institutions, large intersectoral institutions with campuses across a region are best placed to play this role. We present a case-study of the Eastern Region of Melbourne to show how mergers between TAFE Institutes and a university can lead to a more rational distribution of programs to meet training and education needs.

Convergence is being driven by the trend towards greater complexity in technical occupations, which in turn is driven by the increasing sophistication of technology involved in so many industries. Consequently the levels of skill required in many technical occupations are tending to become more advanced.

At the same time, the need for generic skills or key competencies has also become evident in all occupations, and therefore there is pressure for TAFE programs to become less technical and more generic. Simultaneously there is also pressure for university programs to impart more 'vocational' skills and be less generic than many have been in the past.

In the future students should as a matter of course be able to undertake a mix of university-style generalist subjects and TAFE-style specific vocational modules. In this context it will become increasingly restrictive to confine students to institutions which offer only university or only TAFE programs. And both university and TAFE programs will become less distinct than they have been in the past, and will have both generalist and vocational characteristics.

Large dual-sector institutions are ideally-placed for international operations. From an external perspective, barriers between Australia's TAFE sector and university sector are not useful. Institutions which can offer a full spectrum of programs from apprenticeships to PhDs are best able to fulfil the needs of overseas clients, be they companies or governments.

It is increasingly evident that it is no longer desirable for all existing tertiary institutions and all campuses to attempt to offer comprehensive coverage in education and training for all industries and levels. Instead of mediocre provision of facilities and services across the board, the system should be reconfigured in such a way that expertise and capital facilities are targeted to develop centres of excellence, and access to the centres of excellence is facilitate through information technology.

The nature of the tertiary system does not currently reflect these trends towards regionalisation, convergence, internationalisation and industry specialisation. Sector boundaries and the number of institutions involved in some states stand in the way. Ideally all students should have the opportunity to attend either a stand-alone TAFE institution or a multi-sector institution.

Imaginative solutions are needed to ensure that all students have the opportunity to acquire the mix of skills and knowledge they need.

1. Introduction

Swinburne is one of the institutions best placed to comment on the terms of reference of the Committee's inquiry, which concern us very directly. As an intersectoral university which runs programs in both the TAFE and higher education sectors, we have been considering the nature of the relationship between the two sectors over many years.

We believe that these issues are best considered within a conceptual framework which features four key trends:

• regionalisation
• convergence
• internationalisation
• industry specialisation

1.1 Regionalisation

For example the different regions of Melbourne each have their distinctive characteristics and communities. The educational requirements of the residents of the Eastern Region are likely to be very different from those of the Western Region. The types of industries and businesses in the two Regions are also different.

As a planning unit, a region is large enough to enable truly strategic planning, and discrete enough to be coherent. Institutions catering for a regional market can achieve critical mass and economies of scale, and relate to a discrete set of client groups.

Governments need to ensure that there is comprehensive provision of education and training across each region, comprehensive both in terms of industry needs (taking into account future requirements of both existing and new or growing industries) sectors (TAFE and higher education) and education and training levels (advanced, middle and basic in the TAFE sector, undergraduate and postgraduate in the higher education sector). This comprehensive planning approach should take in not only tertiary education, but systematic links should be established between tertiary institutions and secondary schools to facilitate inter-sectoral programs and smooth articulation between school and tertiary education.

It is our view that these imperatives lead to the creation of lead institutions in each region, which can be charged with the principal responsibility for the provision of education and training across the region and across the levels. While there are arguments for the persistence of some mono-sectoral institutions, large intersectoral institutions with campuses across a region are best placed to play this role. Accordingly in our response to the Options Paper issued by the Victorian Government's Ministerial Review of the Provision of Technical and Further Education in the Melbourne Metropolitan Area we have argued that regional planning for the Area would be enhanced by merging at least some of the stand-alone TAFE Institutes with universities.

Large institutions of critical mass with responsibility for regional provision will be well placed to:

• realign program provision to address local and regional needs, including both those of the community and industry
• undertake the necessary program rationalisations in areas of duplication
• strengthen management capacity
• rationalise corporate services
• integrate and rationalise existing information technology infrastructure to take advantage of new technological developments
• build inclusive partnerships and relationships with all stakeholders to ensure enhanced delivery of tertiary education to the region.

The importance of the regional role of higher education institutions has been recognised in the Dearing Report into higher education in the UK. Dearing commissioned a special report by Robson, Drake and Deas, who highlight the urgency of developing the skills base of regional workforces and capitalising on the innovations which can derive from university research. They report strongly held views that there could be benefits from greater local co-ordination in teaching as well as some aspects of research. They do not recommend adoption of full integration of university and TAFE-level colleges across-the-board, on the grounds that this might distort the mission of the UK TAFE-level colleges. Instead they recommend the establishment of a fund to support and encourage regional initiatives in sharing of resources and establishment of new courses with a regional focus. They also recommend that human resource development strategies should be developed by regional stakeholders which would include audits of existing provision and of gaps in provision compared with regional needs, and plans for collaboration between universities and TAFE-level colleges.

1.2 Convergence

1.2.1 Articulation and Dual Awards

There is a tendency towards convergence between higher education and vocational education which is reflected in the increasing articulation of students between the sectors in both directions, and increased development of dual awards.

Why is articulation important? From a strategic perspective, many of the demarcations in the current tertiary system are of limited value. The objective of government planning should be to make available to each student or client a comprehensive suite of tertiary educational programs which fulfils their needs and requirements. Sector boundaries have little relevance to students or educational value, and can stand in the way of this objective. Some of the requirements of the client may be met by TAFE programs or units and some by University-level programs or units, and if these components are totally unco-ordinated then inefficiency results.

Clients must be able to choose freely, and the system must have the flexibility to respond to their changing needs. Students who commence a TAFE program only to find that completing a degree would fulfil their goals better should be able to transfer to a degree program without having to repeat what they have done. Students who find that they need vocational subjects to complement the more theoretical university subjects or that they are better suited to vocationally oriented learning should not be confined to one stream if their requirements would be better met by mixing and matching from both streams.

Articulation from TAFE to university programs is one way of achieving comprehensive provision which responds to the individual student's needs, however the dual award approach fulfils the requirements of a flexible system much more than the articulation model. In dual awards programs students enrol concurrently in both a degree and a related TAFE diploma. For example Swinburne has developed a Bachelor of Arts coupled with the Diploma in Office Administration, a dual award encompassing the Bachelor of Social Sciences and three TAFE Diplomas in community studies, and a dual award in hospitality and tourism. Students are truly able to choose the combination of higher education and vocational subjects which suit them under this model.

Both the articulation model and the dual award model can be used in alliances between different institutions, but cannot be developed to their fullest extent except within one institution. Swinburne's Pathways program has been very successful in increasing articulation between the sectors: 19% of entrants to Swinburne Higher Education transfer from TAFE, as compared with the national average of 6.8%. Were this percentage to be replicated in other universities the total number of articulating students would be much higher than it currently is.

The reason behind this success is that Swinburne has invested considerable effort to modify curricula in related TAFE and higher education programs so that they are much more aligned. Consequently students can move seamlessly from a Swinburne TAFE Engineering program, for example, into a Swinburne Engineering degree.

Some alignment may be possible in the case of allied institutions, but it seems highly unlikely that independent but allied institutions could achieve the same level of success as multi-sector institutions.

A multisector institution which is committed to dual award programs can develop these much more easily than independent institutions. Dual award programs can be developed within Swinburne on the basis of Schools talking with their counterpart Schools in the cognate areas, and accredited through one integrated accreditation process. The development of dual award programs is relatively new, and it can be anticipated that as more are developed over time, and staff gain experience in running them in collaboration with their colleagues from the other sector, the Schools involved will become drawn further into a continuing dialogue across the sector boundary which can only be fruitful. This continuing dialogue and collaboration is more difficult to achieve across institutional boundaries as well as sector boundaries.

1.2.2 The Swinburne Model

The University is committed to preserving the special attributes of VET under a Divisional structure which has been designed to ensure TAFE is a strong and autonomous player in the TAFE network. The recent appointment of a Deputy Vice-Chancellor TAFE reflects the University's on-going commitment to a strong autonomous TAFE sector.

Under the devolved structure the Deputy Vice-Chancellor has considerable flexibility, within the University's Strategic Goals and Objectives and the TAFE Division's own Strategic Directions, to adopt an entrepreneurial approach and seek out opportunities to grow TAFE business.

The existing TAFE and Higher Education Divisions have their own advisory boards, which take on some of the functions exercised by a Council in an independent institution. The boards advise on matters of institutional strategy and monitor the Division's performance against strategic goals. In order to ensure accountability, the boards are advisory to the Divisional Heads, who are responsible through the Chancellery to the Swinburne Council for the performance of each Division.

1.2.3 The Need for Overlap

Convergence is being driven by the trend towards greater complexity in technical occupations, which in turn is driven by the increasing sophistication of technology involved in so many industries. Consequently the levels of skill required in many technical occupations are tending to become more advanced.

At the same time, the need for generic skills or key competencies has also become evident in all occupations, and therefore there is pressure for TAFE programs to become less technical and more generic. Simultaneously there is also pressure for university programs to impart more 'vocational' skills and be less generic than many have been in the past.

In the future students should as a matter of course be able to undertake a mix of university-style generalist subjects and TAFE-style specific vocational modules. In this context it will become increasingly restrictive to confine students to institutions which offer only university or only TAFE programs. And both university and TAFE programs will become less distinct than they have been in the past, and will have both generalist and vocational characteristics.

There are indications that the Federal Government may move towards use of tendering in the allocation of funding for university places. DEETYA is also interested in making early-year places available to institutions outside the university sector, for cost reasons. These developments are to be encouraged, and would rapidly increase the speed of convergence.

Many in the TAFE sector argue that separation between the TAFE sector and the university sector should be preserved. It is maintained that TAFE Institutes have an independent educational culture which values practicality and a 'hands on' approach, based on competency standards, as compared with the emphasis on knowledge, theory and research in higher education. While there is truth in these claims, they are complicated by the tendency within the TAFE sector itself to develop towards the more advanced levels (for example 80% of TAFE programs in the Eastern Region of Melbourne are at the middle levels and above). Many TAFE Institutes across the country have developed Advanced Diplomas which entail three years of study and are coming close to filling the same educational niche as degrees, historically considered to the preserve of universities. Indeed TAFE Institutes in South Australia have been given the right to mount degree courses.

The lines of separation are blurred further as a result of the existence of universities such as Swinburne, which have evolved from Institutes of Technology. These universities themselves have a tradition of practical, applied education. While the curricula of the higher education divisions at Swinburne have been comprehensively reworked since the attainment of university status in 1992 in order to provide more advanced learning, we have remained true to our tradition and retained a profile centred around applied and vocational fields in the sciences, engineering, business, social sciences and the performing arts. Swinburne has been a pioneer in the development of Industry-Based Learning (IBL) or Co-operative Education, in which students spend a year working in industry before returning for the final year of the course (Swinburne's Professor Murray Gillin is currently President of the World Association for Co-operative Education). A period of IBL is compulsory in many courses and available in most. Swinburne is planning to achieve greater integration between the IBL and coursework components of our courses.

While distinctions remain between Vocational Education and Training (VET) and higher education, both can happily coexist in an intersectoral institution. There is no need to segregate them between institutions. Swinburne's divisional structure has been carefully designed to preserve the special qualities of VET while at the same time allowing the development of synergies between the sectors. Intersectoral institutions are well-placed to contribute to increasing the economic competitiveness of their regions. They can be a 'one-stop shop' for all the training and education needs of the industries in a region, and for their research and consultancy needs too.

One way of recognising and preserving the special qualities of VET education while still ensuring that multi-sector education is freely available to all might be to reconfigure the tertiary sector in metropolitan regions so that there is one multi-sector institution and one stand-alone TAFE Institute in each region. This would be easier to achieve in some states than in others. In rural regions the case for consolidated multi-sector campuses along the lines of Coffs Harbour or Centralian College (see below) is strong.

The distinctive nature of university education rests to a large degree on the pervasive influence of research. Before the abolition of the so-called binary system of higher education, degree courses were offered both by universities and by the colleges of advanced education and institutes of technology. There was considerable overlap between the sectors. The main distinction between the two was the fact that only universities were funded to undertake research, and consequently research was a major part of the profile of the universities, but not the colleges and institutes. On the abolition of the binary system, the colleges and institutes became universities or were merged with universities, and set about developing a research culture, with some success.

This research culture is a crucial factor behind the distinctive nature of all university education. At undergraduate level, the fact that students are exposed to the thinking of teachers who are engaged in research which is extending the frontiers of knowledge leads to a completely different experience. University teachers are participating in this extension of knowledge, and consequently are likely to have a more advanced perspective than college teachers who are not.

It is not crucial, however, that undergraduates are exposed to this research culture at the outset of their university experience. For the first year or two, they need to be inducted into the knowledge base and thought modes of their fields. This makes it feasible for the early years of undergraduate education to be undertaken outside the universities (see below). Consequently there could well be more overlap between university education and TAFE education.

However if degrees are to retain their meaning, it is essential that the later years of a degree course should be taught in a university, and that all universities should conduct research.

To summarise this section, continued convergence should be encouraged within a regional planning framework allowing for comprehensive provision of basic, middle, advanced and higher education level programs, and a continued distinction between degree-granting universities and non-degree-granting colleges and institutes.

1.3 Internationalism

Internationalisation and global competition present industry with major challenges and the need to become high performance organisations. A key strategy for industry is to increase competitiveness through developing the skills of staff and acquiring staff with awareness of the international dimension. This skill development is a major focus of Swinburne's TAFE Division. In addition, tertiary institutions need to compete internationally in order to strengthen their positions and to have at their disposal sufficient resources to provide high quality services to students.

In achieving its internationalisation goals, Swinburne places highest priority on developing the dual-sector strengths which our Higher Education and TAFE divisions bring to the institution. Swinburne aims to offer the full spectrum of educational services to overseas clients. In 1996 there were approximately 1100 international students in Swinburne higher education courses, with a further 900 studying Certificate, Diploma and ELICOS courses in the TAFE Division.

In addition, Swinburne is able to deliver a complete range of programs off-shore to overseas clients, or Australian companies operating overseas, from both TAFE and higher education sectors as required. In Vietnam, for example, Swinburne has been delivering a Graduate Certificate in Business Administration with some success to employees of major multinational companies. However it has become clear from discussion with these companies that the Graduate Certificate, a higher education qualification, is pitched at too high a level for many employees in a developing country such as Vietnam. Therefore Swinburne is investigating developing packages for companies in which their employees could be given entry-level training in office administration and English at TAFE level, and then be able to follow a pathway on to higher education where appropriate.

1.4 Industry Specialisation

It is increasingly evident that it is no longer desirable for all existing tertiary institutions and all campuses to attempt to offer comprehensive coverage in education and training for all industries and levels. Instead of mediocre provision of facilities and services across the board, the system should be reconfigured in such a way that expertise and capital facilities are targeted to develop centres of excellence, and access to the centres of excellence is facilitate through information technology. Governments cannot afford to make heavy investments in capital equipment in areas such as engineering and science at a large number of small competing institutions. The arguments for concentration are very strong.

Particular campuses of large regional institutions can be given the task for providing regional centres of expertise and capital equipment for particular industries.

2. The Eastern Region of Melbourne: A Case Study

2.1 Overview

We would like to present briefly the current situation in the Eastern Region of Melbourne as a case study of how a regional approach to planning for the provision of tertiary education could lead to better outcomes for all stakeholders.

Starting with universities, Swinburne is located at Hawthorn and at Lilydale, in the Outer East. A number of other universities are situated on the boundaries of the Region, including the University of Melbourne and RMIT on the outskirts of the City Centre, a campus of Deakin University at Burwood and Monash University in the South-East. Swinburne also has a campus at Prahran, with both higher education and TAFE Schools.

While there is overlap between the program profiles of Melbourne and Monash, on the one hand, and RMIT and Swinburne, on the other, there are no opportunities for addressing these through amalgamations. The higher education sector as a whole has been through a period of somewhat painful mergers which has led to all of these institutions emerging as large and viable organisations. However there is scope for rationalisation of particular programs between the existing institutions, particularly in areas of high cost and low demand such as languages, and Swinburne is currently pursuing these.

There is also scope for rationalising TAFE provision through merging the three institutions currently serving the Region: Swinburne, Box Hill Institute of TAFE and Eastern Institute of TAFE. Victorian TAFE Institutions have attained high levels of efficiency in recent years, but are small compared with their New South Wales counterparts. Further efficiencies would be gained through amalgamations, which would also result in a more comprehensive spectrum of programs being made available to students throughout the Region.

2.2 Comparison of Profiles

A considerable degree of duplication between Swinburne's TAFE Division, Box Hill and Eastern is revealed when the program profiles of all three of the TAFE providers in the Region are compared. These profiles are summarised in Table 1.

Table 1

All 3 Institutions	Swinburne	Box Hill	Eastern
Business Engineering Information Technology Creative and Performing Arts Hospitality Language and Literacy Community and Health Services Child Care Real Estate Electrical Electronics	Applied Sciences Cleaner Production Fire Technology Disaster Management Nursing	Applied Sciences Automotive Building Plumbing Cabinet Making Civil Engineering Fashion Floristry Hairdressing Travel and Tourism	Automotive Horticulture Nursery Flower Growing Firefighting

More detailed analysis of the profiles of the three institutions has been undertaken according to the criteria used in TAFE planning, the provision of Student Contact Hours (SCHrs) of training to industry sectors. This analysis reveals that:

• the three institutions are duplicating coverage of a significant number of industry sectors: 81% of combined recurrent SCHrs are dedicated to just six industry sectors

• extensive duplication exists between both type and level of training programs

• there is a training gap of 7% between employment opportunities and SCHrs delivered in the Eastern Region

• each of the three institutions have committed significant resources not only to the same industry sectors, but to some industry sectors where there is no projected employment growth

• there are disparities between the current level of provision in a number of industry sectors and projected employment levels

• advanced level programs represent 69% of the three institution's combined profile whilst basic level programs only account for 18%

The institution which would result from a three-way merger of Swinburne, Box Hill and Eastern would be well placed to incorporate industry specialisation on its main campuses. In broad terms the TAFE profile of the merged institution could be depicted as follows:

Table 2

Institutions	Main Campuses	Industry Specialisation
Merged:	Prahran	Community and Health Services; and Arts
Box Hill	Hawthorn	Business Services; and Science
Eastern	Box Hill	Electrical Electronics; and Engineering
Swinburne	Wantirna	Information Technology
	Healesville	Koorie
	Lilydale	Tourism and Hospitality

If only Swinburne and Eastern were merged, the resulting institution would still be a strong one, with a broad range of programs and industry specialisations, and an alliance with the remaining stand-alone TAFE provider:

Table 3

Institutions	Main Campuses	Industry Specialisation
Merged:	Prahran	Community and Health Services; and Arts
Eastern	Hawthorn	Business Services; Engineering; and Science
Swinburne	Wantirna	Information Technology
	Healesville	Indigenous studies
	Lilydale	Tourism and Hospitality
Metro Alliance: Box Hill Institute

3. Towards the Future

The adoption of a regional approach to tertiary education planning and the creation of large regional institutions would facilitate a fundamental reconfiguration of the university and TAFE sectors.

Stand-alone TAFE institutes have considered the possibility of building on their current diplomas by adding a third full-fee-paying year, or two, completion of which would qualify the student for a degree. This would promote articulation even more than other models through actually increasing the number of higher education places available, yet the total cost to the student would, under current funding systems, be limited. Multi-sector institutions could also use this approach where they have insufficient higher education places available within the institution to accommodate students wishing to articulate from TAFE.

It would be possible to go further still and adopt this split model more systematically. The multi-sector institutions could enrol first-and second-year students at TAFE level in many or all of their programs, thus reducing the cost of the early years both to the student and to governments. Those students who wished to continue on and complete a degree could then do so paying full or part fees, and those with no need to continue on could exit with a TAFE diploma. Thus many more students would have the opportunity to experience both the vocational approach of TAFE teaching and the more theoretical higher education approach.

Adoption of this approach could lead to a more rational distribution of both TAFE and higher education opportunities across regions. TAFE provision, as referred to above, could be rationalised to match the distribution of training needs across a Region. Higher education provision could be distributed across a Region also, to more closely match student demand.

The Eastern Region is the prime catchment area for university students in Melbourne. Yet historically there has been very little provision of higher education places in the Region itself. Consequently, for decades, university students have travelled out of the Region into the inner metropolitan areas each day and then back again at night.

This imbalance between demand and provision has started to be addressed through the establishment of Swinburne's campus in the Outer Eastern Region which is over 40 kilometres from the City Centre. If Swinburne merged with both Box Hill Institute and Eastern Institute it would be possible to build a system in which students in the Eastern Region could choose between three campuses close to home offering both vocational education and training programs and higher education qualifications right across the region. They would still have the option of travelling in to the inner-city universities if they so wished – these institutions would not aspire to a regional role.

It must be remembered too that the current review of TAFE provision in Melbourne is taking place at a time when higher education is also the subject of a national review. The outcome of the higher education review is unknown at this stage, but it is known that a number of radically different options for funding higher education are under consideration, which could free up the current centrally-planned allocation of higher education places. If, for example, the Federal Government put provision of higher education places out to tender, there would be further opportunities to shift places closer to the regional origin of the students and the enterprises in which they will be employed.

Another option which should be considered is to rationalise the current illogical situation in which legislative power over higher education resides with State Governments, but funding emanates from the Commonwealth Government, which consequently dominates regulation of the higher education sector. To complicate matters further, State Governments have legislative authority over the TAFE sector, and provide most of the funding. Yet the Commonwealth Government, conscious of the need to co-ordinate the TAFE sectors in the various states, established the Australian National Training Authority, which directs a separate stream of funding directly to TAFE Institutes. It is difficult to envisage how proper integrated planning of the provision of tertiary education to regions could occur with such an unsystematic split of responsibilities and lack of co-ordination between the two tiers of government.

It is time once again to give consideration to an exchange of responsibilities between the States and the Commonwealth.

Many advantages would ensue for regions outside the metropolitan areas from rationalising the sector boundaries. There are many regions which are situated far from any university, but where there are either TAFE Institutes or large secondary colleges. If the sector boundaries were reconfigured many opportunities would be opened up whereby students could undertake tertiary studies at large, multi-sector centres. An example already exists in the form of the campus at Coffs Harbour in New South Wales, where students can enrol in a senior secondary college, TAFE programs, and articulate into degrees which run under the auspices of Southern Cross University. Swinburne has been associated with Centralian College, a tri-sectoral college in Alice Springs, which delivered the broad-based Associate Degree developed by Swinburne in Social Science. Centralian offers senior secondary studies, is one of the two largest TAFE providers in the Northern Territory, and now delivers a Bachelor of Business and a Bachelor of Fine Arts under the auspices of the Northern Territory University.

While such arrangements are possible under existing legislative and funding arrangements, they would be facilitated by an exchange of responsibilities between governments.

The Swinburne Associate Degree in Social Science model facilitates the adoption of a staged approach to the transition from secondary to university study, particularly in regional areas where there is low participation in university study. The Associate Degree can be taught in senior secondary colleges or TAFE Institutes. The curriculum is not based on competency standards as with TAFE Diplomas, and so is more compatible with university-level degree courses. It provides development of generic skills which employers find valuable, but is not so specifically vocational as the traditional TAFE Diplomas.

At the end of the two-year course, students have the option of leaving with the Associate Degree qualification, or alternatively articulating into a Bachelor of Arts at a University (with up to 1.5 years credit) or a Bachelor of Business (with more limited credit). Under this "2+2" system, students are presented with more choices. They do not have to commit themselves to three or four years of full-time university study from the outset. They can "try their hand" at university study with a limited commitment of two years, and then decide whether to proceed or not. If the Associate Degree is taught at a senior secondary college, students are easily able to embark on a "2+2+2" program, starting with a two-year VCE, proceeding to the Associate Degree, and then articulating into a degree course at a university if appropriate. For further information about the Associate Degree in Social Science see the evaluation report (Elliott 1997).

The conceptual basis for a 2+2 tertiary system lies in the fact that the trend of convergence is strongest in the early years of an undergraduate course, which overlap greatly with the advanced level of TAFE courses (the influence of research-capable teachers is more important in later years of degree courses). Articulation is easily arranged between TAFE diplomas and corresponding university degrees in professional subjects such as engineering. The Associate Degree in Social Science allows the 2+2 model to be extended across-the-board to humanities, social sciences and business fields.

There are strong arguments for adopting the staged approach across the board, as follows.

• As we have seen it allows much greater flexibility for the students.

• In addition, Dobson, Sharma and Haydon (1995) have shown that the most successful university students are those who have previous experience of higher education. Accordingly we would predict significantly greater retention rates in years 3 and 4 of the degree programs for students who had completed an associate degree.

• The greater differentiation between the two undergraduate stages would enable a very beneficial focus on development of generic skills in the first stage, followed by an increased focus on the development of professional knowledge and skills in the second stage. This would meet the expectations of employers better than the current system where generic skills are often not sufficiently developed.

• Since TAFE institutes and secondary colleges are located throughout Australia, including regional areas, the offering of the first two years of the associate degree programs through institutes and colleges will enhance access and equity. Students would not need to move from their regional cities to undertake the associate degree programs. This should enhance regional economies.

• Governments would be able to expand the number of places in the higher education system to meet future increases in demand at low cost, through the use of existing capital resources and low-cost delivery systems.

Wallace, Tomlinson and Sharma (1997) have presented a proposal to the West Review of Higher Education Financing and Policy outlining an approach to funding a "2+2" system.

4. Conclusion

The relationship between the VET and higher education sectors is clearly a very fluid one. In the past the nature of their roles, and of the education they provide, has been relatively distinct. VET institutions concentrated on apprenticeships, shorter courses up to the two-year diploma level, and were strongly oriented towards practical, 'hands-on' training. Universities offered more advanced study, with longer three and four-year degree courses, oriented more towards theory and generalist study of science and the humanities.

These distinctions were never absolute – the universities have always been strong in 'vocational' education for the professions, such as medicine and law – but they have become even less distinct as both sectors converge towards a mixed model in which all students need to acquire both generic and vocational skills and knowledge, and equip themselves for life-long learning.

The nature of the tertiary system does not currently reflect these trends. Imaginative solutions are needed to ensure that all students have the opportunity to acquire the mix of skills and knowledge they need.

References

Dobson, I., Sharma, R., Haydon, T., 1995, Evaluation of the Relative Performance of Commencing Undergraduate Students at Australian Universities, Australian Credit Transfer Agency. (AVCC Report)

Elliott, M, Evaluation of the Associate Degree in Social Science, Pilot Project Final Report, 1995 (presented to DEETYA).

Robson, B, Drake, K, Deas, I, Higher Education and Regions, 1997, Report 9 of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education ('Dearing Report').

Wallace, J., Tomlinson, M., Sharma, R, Higher Education Funding: A Better Way. (Available on West Review Web site).

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