Driving Innovation, Fairness and Excellence in Australian Higher Education Review

Driving Innovation, Fairness and Excellence in Australian Higher Education Review

Victorian TAFE Association

Submission

July 2016

Contents

1. Introduction ...... 3

2. A Holistic Inquiry...... 3

3. Facilitating and Enabling the Growth of Student Numbers ...... 4

4. Uncapping Sub-Bachelor degrees ...... 4

5. Innovation Diffusion and TAFE ...... 5

6. Underrepresenting TAFE in Higher Education...... 5

7. Unique Student Cohorts...... 6

8. The role of TAFE in Postgraduate Education ...... 6

9. Nomenclature ...... 7

1. Introduction

The Victorian TAFE Association is the peak body for Victoria’s public providers of Vocational Education and Training (VET), including 12 TAFE Institutes, four Victorian dual-sector Universities, and an Associate member, AMES.

The Victorian TAFE Association welcomes this opportunity to respond to the Driving

Innovation, Fairness and Excellence in Higher Education review.

The VTA would like to endorse the submission made by its sister organisation, TAFE Directors Australia (TDA). All of VTA’s TAFE and dual sector University members are also members of TDA. However, the governance and operational leadership model of Victoria’s TAFE Higher Education and VET provision differs markedly from the models in other states, so it is incumbent upon the VTA to provide comment on a number of matters, including:

i. The need to review the entire tertiary education sector

ii. Facilitating and enabling the growth of student numbers iii. Sub-bachelor degrees

iv. Innovation diffusion and TAFE

v. Underrepresentation of TAFE in Higher Education vi. Student Cohorts

vii. Recognition of TAFE’s role in postgraduate course delivery

viii. Nomenclature

2. A Holistic Inquiry

The inquiry as currently struck focuses on the Higher Education sector. While there is some reference to Higher Education in TAFE within the consultation paper, it is scant, with much of the focus placed on Universities.

The VTA considers that a review that is focused in such a manner lacks the ability to appreciate the interconnectedness and diversity of the tertiary education sector, of which Higher Education is just one part. The 2011 Australian Census records that almost 475,000

Australians attended a TAFE Institute. The current review, focused as it is on Higher Education and Universities more specifically, misses this very large cohort of Australian citizens and workers, and the important role of TAFE Higher Education providers and the TAFE sector more broadly in tertiary education and the Australian economy. The recommendations that arise through this review will therefore be made lacking the totality of information necessary to ensure the achievement of innovation, fairness or excellence in its broadest and most beneficial sense.

The VTA therefore considers that the scope of this review should be expanded to enable an analysis of the tertiary education sector in its totality. This would enable a thorough and complete understanding of Australian tertiary education provision; a determination of the important role played by TAFE Higher Education providers and VET; consideration of the interactions between each of the players; and a greater appreciation of the role of each in advancing learning and teaching and research and research training. In short, such a review would provide the scope to understand the tertiary education sector in toto and provide the means to achieve lasting innovation, fairness and excellence.

3. Facilitating and Enabling the Growth of Student Numbers

The VTA considers that funding for Commonwealth Supported Places (CSP) should be extended and made available to TAFE Higher Education providers/TAFE Higher Education students to equalise the cost of tertiary education across the tertiary sector. Current conditions create a price disadvantage for domestic students, who then avoid non-University Higher Education providers (HEPs) to choose a potentially inappropriate course of study in a (subsidised) Higher Education institution. The distortionary effect resulting from this policy setting has seen the opportunities to expand TAFE student numbers (both at the Higher Education and VET level) limited to growth in international enrolments, and local students choosing an educational pathway on the basis of funding availability rather than appropriateness for their employment or learning goal. This problem is compounded by the FEE-HELP/VET FEE HELP programs, which impose access requirements and levy an administrative loan fee of 25 per cent and 20 per cent respectively on TAFE Higher Education and Vocational Education students that is not imposed on University students. These distortions contribute to the low level of students undertaking Bachelor level courses

in non-University public HEPs (TAFE HEPs), affecting the TAFE sector’s opportunities for growth and its ability to service the communities and diverse and the non-traditional student cohorts it serves well (see below).

VTA members who are registered HEPs are subject to rigorous TEQSA registration and accreditation requirements and are measured against the same threshold standards faced by Universities. As a consequence Higher Education courses delivered by non-University HEPs, (such as TAFE Higher Education providers) can be confidently assessed equivalent in quality to courses offered by the Universities. The VTA therefore considers it logical that CSP subsidies be extended to TAFE HEPs at the same funding rate available to Universities. Further, to fully ensure parity in policy settings, the VTA considers that the additional administrative loan fees imposed upon FEE-HELP/VET FEE HELP students should be scrapped, creating consistency between these and Higher Education HELP (HECS) programs.

4. Uncapping Sub-Bachelor degrees

The consultation paper outlines proposals for the uncapping of Sub-Bachelor places at the Universities. The TAFEs could not compete with University courses that benefit from CSP subsidies, and the effect would be to decimate Sub-Bachelor delivery at the TAFEs.

The VTA considers that any proposal to uncap Sub-Bachelor programs should occur only if the recommendations outlined above regarding CSP (where funding would be provided to TAFE HEPs at the same rate available to Universities) are implemented, thereby placing the TAFE HEPs and the University sector on a fairer and equal policy platform. In the event that the Commonwealth enables Universities to offer CSP places for Sub-Bachelor degrees, then similarly, such CSP subsidies should be made available at the same rate for Sub-Bachelors offered by the TAFE HEPs.

The band of VET qualifications at AQF 5/6 (Diplomas and Advanced Diplomas) are designed (by industry) to recognise an important tier of knowledge and skill acumen in the Australian workforce. These qualifications open doors to employment. Where possible, TAFEs and

Universities have undertaken mapping exercises that offer pathways from VET to Higher

Education, generating a second value proposition for these qualifications for students.

It is important for students and for the coherence of the tertiary education system that these pathways are preserved. However, it is equally important that the vocational outcome of these VET qualifications is preserved through VET curriculum design and VET teaching pedagogy.

In contrast, CSP funded Sub-Bachelor programs exist only as pathways into or out of Higher Education: they are neither designed nor endorsed by industry (through the Australian Industry and Skills Committee, for example).

5. Innovation Diffusion and TAFE

OECD data shows that just 3.5 per cent of large Australian firms collaborate with Universities and public research institutions. The figure for SMEs is similarly low, with only 4.1 per cent involved in collaboration.1 Australia is among the lower performers on this measure, which represents losses in economic performance and prosperity.

By contrast, the TAFE sector is renowned for its strong industry links and networks, with industry-based learning and applied and translational research (putting research into practice at a practical level and in industry settings) a major sectoral strength. TAFE is a diffuser, a medium for knowledge transfer to students through training, to employers and industry. TAFE is also an inventor in its own right, and provides insights and fresh eyes to the application of knowledge to solve industry problems and offer practical solutions. These characteristics and industry links represent an opportunity for innovation diffusion, for links that can be leveraged and help improve Australia’s ranking on innovation and collaboration.

The VTA considers that the potential to leverage and fully engage the TAFE sector within the national research and innovation system warrants exploration. In many respects this exploration is connected to the points raised above, with the important role of TAFE HEPs and the VET sector to innovation likely to be better understood and captured in a review that considers and analyses the operation of the tertiary education sector in its totality.

6. Underrepresenting TAFE in Higher Education

Official figures show that the lion’s share of Bachelor programs is delivered by the traditional Universities. The VTA considers that these figures underrepresent and underestimate the important role of TAFE in Higher Education delivery. Many TAFEs hold partnerships and have developed agreements with Universities that create pathways between institutions, or that enable University students to undertake a degree that carries the University seal but is delivered (at least in part) by a TAFE. These cases are especially true in regional settings. Official figures fail to capture this kind of arrangement, meaning that the true role of TAFE in Higher Education provision is diluted and poorly understood.

The VTA considers that data capture should be recast to enable this important role to be better understood. This better understanding would reinforce the point made above regarding the interconnected nature of the tertiary education system and the need for a review not of Higher Education but of the tertiary education sector as a whole.

1 OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2013

7. Unique Student Cohorts

Data show that approximately 20 per cent of students who attend University come from regional and remote Australia.2 Proximity and convenience to an educational institution is often a leading factor in student decisions regarding further study. Therefore the presence of educational institutions within the regions is a key contributing factor to the participation of this under-represented cohort within the tertiary education sector.

The TAFE sector plays a special and prominent role in regional Victoria in its provision of education and training for regional Victorian citizens and communities. Further, though their partnerships with Universities, Victoria’s TAFEs provide pathways to students who would otherwise be bereft of opportunities and the ability to continue on to Higher Education.

The TAFE Higher Education and Vocational Education student cohort includes far higher numbers of students from non-traditional backgrounds than most Universities. These include those from non-English speaking backgrounds (representing about 18 per cent compared with approximately 4 per cent for Universities’),3 low socio-economic status and mature age students. TAFE HEPs and VET training provide an avenue for the attainment of education and skills to these cohorts. Without the conduit provided by TAFEs, these special cohorts would likely be disenfranchised. This role needs to be considered and recognised in any review of the tertiary education system.

The VTA considers that the review should analyse the important role of the TAFE sector and TAFE HEPs in providing educational opportunities to underrepresented communities. This would include consideration of how this role could be expanded, including (but not limited to) fostering and facilitating greater links between the Universities and the TAFE HEPs and the VET sector in the provision of tertiary education.

8. The role of TAFE in Postgraduate Education

The consultation paper includes a large section on postgraduate education and its increasingly important role in Higher Education and the innovation system. The discussion is centred on the role of the Universities in providing said education. However, there is no reference to the role of TAFE HEPs in postgraduate education, many of which provide qualifications at the masters level. There is also a range of VET and Higher Education qualifications offered at AQF 8 (Graduate Certificates and Graduate Diplomas) and indeed an increasing number of Higher Education students are undertaking (lower AQF level) VET studies after they graduate to complement or supplement their academic learning. A fuller understanding of postgraduate education can therefore only be gained by first

acknowledging this point.

The consultation paper notes the inconsistency of subsidies for postgraduate coursework training places, with the focus on the inconsistencies in the Higher Education (University sector). As noted above, the TAFE HEPs lack access to Commonwealth Supported Places,

including in its postgraduate offerings, meaning that this inconsistency is far larger than

2 Selected Higher Education Statistics – 2014 Student Data, Commonwealth Department of Education and Training.

3Australian vocational education and training statistics: Government-funded students and courses

2015, NVCVER and Selected Higher Education Statistics – 2014 Student Data, Commonwealth

Department of Education and Training.

outlined in the consultation paper. The impact of this inconsistency is therefore larger than suggested and appreciates considerably when the administrative charges accompanying the loan programs available to TAFE Higher Education students are factored in.

9. Nomenclature

The VTA considers that the review should give consideration to issues of nomenclature. The TAFE sector faces a disadvantage born of their title/naming. The impacts are often acute in international markets, where the term TAFE has little currency and is not easily recognised.

Some education providers have opted to address this through the use of novel

terminologies, but these are generally considered second-best options: the fact remains that neither TAFE nor these newer appellations carry the prestige or gravitas of the term

‘University’.

In previous years it has been suggested that the current Higher Education provider categories be reviewed and new terminologies be developed that address the problems faced by public non-University HEPs but that still protect the prestige of the term ‘University’. An example is ‘University College’. The VTA considers that the review should explore these and other options to address the disadvantage imposed by the current provider categories.