Standing Committee on Employment, Education
and Workplace Relations
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Submission 80
The Australian Federation of University Women Inc (AFUW)
INQUIRY INTO THE APPROPRIATE ROLES OF INSTITUTES OF TECHNICAL AND FURTHER
EDUCATION
Terms of Reference
• the appropriate roles of institutes of technical and further education;
and
• the extent to which these roles should overlap with universities.
The AFUW is pleased to comment on these terms of reference.
The appropriate roles of institutes of technical and further education
We are generally supportive of the recent developments in institutes
of education, insofar as they serve to increase the options for post-secondary
study and qualifications, particularly for women.
However it is important to highlight several current positive features
of institutes of technical and further education. These relate to their
role in the communities they serve and are features which should not be
sacrificed in the current drive toward a greater articulation between
institute and university courses and awards. These features should be
preserved as they are important in keeping a range of options for post-secondary
learning available for women and other non-advantaged groups.
The main features of institutes of technical and further education in
the past which have been very positive for women have been their course
and curriculum flexibility, their open access for students, their regional
and/or distance education course delivery modes and the opportunities
they provided for lifelong adult learning particularly for personal development
and subject interest, as well as for accreditation and employment.
It is to be hoped that these features are not overwhelmed by courses
which are exclusively vocationally oriented and pragmatically focussed
either on future employment or advanced study. It is our view that for
many women what is important about institutes of technical and further
education at present are the opportunities they provide for "further
education" - broadly defined - as well as "technical education".
This requires institutes to retain the potential for curricula and courses
to be flexible, so that they are able to be suitably responsive to the
needs of their local communities, as well as to those of the employment
(or unemployment) market.
In addition, we think it is important for institutes to maintain their
regional location and smaller size as these are very positive features
of the current arrangements and are ones which are particularly important
in encouraging the less advantaged to access post-secondary education.
Institutes have had the potential, probably more so than universities,
to serve regional communities through their smaller size, their location
outside capital cities or very large population centres and their good
facilities for distance education. This makes them particularly "user-friendly".
If their present size and location are to be maintained then this would
continue to provide a very sensible and accessible opportunity for students
to access technical and further education, without the high emotional
and financial costs to regional students which would be necessitated through
dislocation, travel and accommodation outside their local area. There
is of course also the added problem for married women with children of
their very severely limited options.
With the current under-representation of rural and regional students
in higher education in Australia and the obvious deterrents that the cost
factors have on these students pursuing tertiary courses outside their
local area, it is important to take such human factors issues into serious
consideration. Recent experience has shown that cost, dislocation and
lack of family support are major deterrents in pursuing further studies.
It has also shown that once students leave rural and regional areas to
pursue higher education opportunities they are unlikely to return - as
the chronic shortage of many professionals in regional Australia so clearly
attests.
We therefore think the roles of institutes of technical and further education
should be examined with a much wider context/framework than just that
of cost rationalisation and employer needs. There are very important long
term, broad social, equity and community issues which should also be addressed,
particularly in relation to women and to rural and regional Australia.
The extent to which these roles should overlap with universities.
There seems to be no clear and coherent reason why there should be major
overlap between the roles of institutes of technical and further education
and the universities. Conceptually there are clearly different goals and
purposes accepted for the two systems, while pragmatically there is a
need for different foci and skills development However what should be
the case is a clear and comprehensible description of how courses in the
two systems might be articulated satisfactorily and of how more flexible
pathways across the systems might allow for greater student opportunities.
There seems to be little advantage in sacrificing the current variation
for a greater uniformity of role. In this era of student-centred learning,
differences in learning styles and greater career flexibility, there seems
to be no great advantage to students in creating excessive homogeneity
in the two systems. Indeed there is everything to be said for preserving
and enhancing the diversity. Institutes of technical and further education
have provided excellent training in their defined areas of skill, as have
universities.
What is required is a ongoing examination of how Recognition of Prior
Learning (RPL), for example, might be further extended to allow students
to move more easily across the systems or to access courses from both
systems. In this way, RPL could be used to assist students to tailor courses
more suited to their individual needs and interests and to use locally
available options. This direction might well be hastened by the likely
proliferation of Internet courses and the changes in the traditional roles
and geographical boundaries of universities.
In any role changes however, the main issue should be the clear benefits
which would ensue for students, particularly women and other disadvantaged
groups. It should certainly be the case that if changes are made they
would enhance opportunities for these groups as a matter of priority.
Submission prepared by
Dr Marion Myhill, AFUW Education Convener
Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania at Launceston
PO Box 1214
Launceston TAS 7250
November 29, 1997
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