Inquiry into the Role of Institutes of TAFE
Submissions

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Submission 62

Northern Territory University

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

Preamble

Northern Territory University was established in 1989 through the merger of the Darwin Institute of Technology (formerly Darwin Community College) and the University College of the Northern Territory. From 1989-1994, NTU had an Institute of TAFE (ITAFE) as part of its structure. ITAFE was dismantled and replaced from January 1995 by a structure which incorporates vocational education and training¹ (VET) and higher education components on an equal footing, to ensure that optimal advantage may be had from this combination of activities.

There are presently nine faculties at NTU. They are:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies

Arts

Business

Education

Foundation Studies

Industrial Education and Training

Law

Science

Technology

Six faculties include both higher education and VET components, two faculties with only higher education components and one faculty with only a VET component.

Approach

Northern Territory University's strategic plan, Strategic Directions, states the University's mission as:

The University will provide education, training, research and related services locally, nationally and internationally to support and advance the social, cultural, intellectual and economic development of Australia's Northern Territory

One of the five 'strategic themes' the University focusses on in Strategic Directions is the 'full integration of higher education and vocational education and training, expanding opportunities for articulation, credit transfer and progression and promoting cross-sectoral multiple awards'.

NTU's approach is to consider tertiary education, in its ideal structure, to be a 'seamless web' with vocational education and training and higher education opportunities being characterised by pathways for students to move from one sector to the other with few if any barriers between them.

The benefits to this approach to students include:

• diminution or eradication of the need to cover subject content in higher education already learned in VET;
• savings in time in formal study;
  
• 'second chance' opportunities to gain University qualifications, especially for mature age students.

The benefits of this approach to the institution include:

• former VET students are motivated and enthusiastic and usually perform well in higher education courses;
• student numbers of cohorts in later years of degree programs can be kept higher with the entry of VET-prepared students;
• with fully developed articulation arrangements, NTU can market some of its programs as, 'open entry', since we can provide courses to match a potential student's entry behaviour.

The benefits of this approach to the region NTU services include:

• savings in physical infrastructure costs, with VET and higher education courses offered on its campuses where the majority of students attend;
• savings in administrative infrastructure with a single organisational. structure responsible for VET and higher education, with the facility to acknowledge, promote and support both VET and higher education missions, without diminishing either;
• opportunities to promote higher education to VET transfers and dual qualifications, while not yet fully exploited at NTU, are founded on the notion that skills acquisition is facilitated by a competency-based training environment. The facilities and equipment are either available already at NTU or the mechanisms to promote and supervise on-the-job training are in place, thus eliminating the need for additional infrastructure costs;
• ability to respond to meet the needs of industry and community service organisations cost-effectively, where more than one level of employee is required by industry eg in librarianship, early childhood care and education; engineering; business; science; tourism; nursing and so on;
• NTU students rarely, if ever, refer to themselves as 'going to TAFE' as is common in the other regions of Australia. They say, instead they are 'going to Uni'. This means both VET and higher education students identify with the institution which serves their region and have opportunities open to them to participate fully in the whole range of NTU activities;
• NTU having an advantage in being able to promote its courses locally and overseas as allowing students to progress from certificate level to postgraduate level study in a single institution.

There are difficulties, however, in sustaining this general approach. These include:

• lack of ability of funding source organisations to appreciate fully the integrated nature of NTU's organisational structure which, on occasion, can mean it is not easy to identify sources of funds and carry out reporting requirements for some provisions. Funding bodies sometimes feel that they are subsidising others;
• VET's growing inattention to the primacy of general education for participants in postcompulsory education, the shift to workplace training, reduction in the amount of underpinning knowledge and general education as students progress through a limited learning experience often in isolation from other students, are concerns. The focus on the development of very specifically focussed sequences of training, and the move to recognise competencies rather than completed units or modules of study may make it, potentially, more difficult to accommodate VET to higher education credit transfers;
• inequity of fee situation highlighted in common qualifications. That is, the equivalent to advanced diploma in higher education attracts HECS fees. The corresponding fee in VET is normally much lower;
• · reporting difficulties include not reflecting the institution's contribution to equity groups. The particularly relevant example to NTU is that our higher education reporting indicates 4% Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation rate at this time. This way of reporting denies acknowledgment of NTLJ's contribution, overall, because participation in VET programs, which are very relevant to the needs of indigenous Australians, is not taken into account.

Contacts
Assoc Professor Robyn Young Pro Vice-Chancellor (Higher Education)
Mr Antoine Barnaart Pro Vice-Chancellor (Vocational Education and Training)

¹ Vocational Education and Training (VET) is the term used at Northern Territory University to encompass those activities formerly described as Technical and Further Education (TAFE).

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