Archive for October 2009

The Australian Qualifications Framework Council has recently produced a paper, Strengthening the AQF: An Architecture for Australia’s Qualifications, that identifies specific ways to strengthen the higher education framework by streamlining qualifications and standardizing program length.  The paper identifies 15 types of qualifications and describes their level of complexity, goals, skills, and application.  The qualifications included are Certificates I-IV; the Diploma and Advanced Diploma; Associates, Bachelor, Masters, and Doctoral degrees; and Graduate Certificates and Diplomas.

The fifteen different qualification types are broken down into 10 different levels.  Excitingly, the Council identifies a standard duration for each of these qualifications, which may or may not correspond to current conventions and have sparked some controversy.   The Council also suggests that some certificate programs and diplomas may need to be restructured to focus on the outcome of employment versus education and not both.

This new framework would be monitored by The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency in the hopes of curtailing widespread infractions that encompass the current system.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26205312-25192,00.html

Architecture PDF

Australia’s Monash University is exploring different routes to university entrance, especially to encourage students from diverse backgrounds and those with low income.  They have suggested the idea of transition colleges as a way of preparing students with low Victoria Certificate of Education grades and giving them another chance to upgrade their skills before being assessed for their Equivalent National Tertiary Entrance Rank (ENTER) scores.  Currently, ENTER scores represent the main route to university entrance, and the transitional system would work alongside it, to give students the opportunity to improve the skills they learned in secondary school and increase their opportunities to be admitted and succeed in university.

Melbourne University, a local rival university, is also currently exploring the ideas of alternative entrance requirements because they recognize that standardized testing may be inadvertently unfair to students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The Federal Government has charged universities with increasing their enrollment of students from poorer backgrounds at least 20% in the next ten years.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/monash-considers-selection-overhaul-20091008-gp2i.html