campusreview.com.au
ON CAMPUS
Baby steps
An Australian first for a regional college
as it transitions into a university.
By Kate Prendergast
A
Seventh-day Adventist higher education provider in Lake
Macquarie, New South Wales, has become Australia’s first
“university college”.
Founded over a century ago, the Avondale College of Higher
Education had its new category status approved by the federal
government’s Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency
(TEQSA) in August. It’s a double ‘first’ too, being the first to
qualify for a change of category since the national regulator was
established in 2011.
“It’s a huge step,” said Professor Ray Roennfeldt, Avondale’s
vice‑chancellor and president, speaking to the Lakes Mail
newspaper. “We’re delighted for the college, but primarily for
our students.”
Avondale’s graduation address will be presented later this year by
Emeritus Professor Kwong Lee Dow, a former vice-chancellor of
the University of Melbourne, who said the landmark achievement
brought “welcome diversity within our national university system”.
The category was engineered to be a temporary one, however,
designating a trial phase in a college’s evolution to a fully fledged
university. Avondale’s journey will be guided by “God’s faithful
leading”, Roennfeldt said.
God works in mysterious ways, however, as the journey has
been a long one for Avondale: it lodged its first application for
university status in 1994. Despite encouraging signals from the
panel, the then NSW minister for education knocked it back, asking
that the higher education provider look to increase its research
activity before applying again.
Avondale worked on the recommendations, and pitched
afresh in 2006. “The expert panel’s response indicated a need for
significant research development, a conclusion reinforced soon
afterwards by the Commonwealth Department of Education’s
publication of indicative research benchmarks for higher education
providers,” Avondale’s website humbly reports.
Significant self-development followed, with the college
matching its research output per staff to the Australian university
average, expanding its higher degrees by research program and
bringing in academics of distinguished merit. In 2013, Avondale
negotiated a relationship with mentoring partner Charles
Sturt University, where each agreed to recognise the other’s
academic programs.
Twenty-five years after it began its university aspirations,
Avondale is closer than it’s ever been.
To qualify as a university college, it met the following criteria, as
outlined by the Higher Education Standards Framework:
∞ Plans to meet all the requirements for an ‘Australian University’
category within five years
∞ Delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in at least
three fields of study and higher degree by research courses in at
least one of those fields
∞ Research that leads to the creation of new knowledge and
original creative endeavour
∞ Scholarship that informs teaching and learning in all fields in
which courses are offered
∞ Commitment to the systematic advancement and dissemination
of knowledge
∞ Engagement with local and regional communities and a
commitment to social responsibility
∞ Processes for quality assurance and the maintenance of
academic standards and academic integrity
Roennfeldt is confident Avondale is well on track to become
a university by 2024. If successful, a name change will
be considered.
“The big thing for our students is, they get an award with
university in its name,” Roennfeldt told the region’s newspaper.
“And it’s a lot easier to advertise overseas with ‘university’
in the title.” ■
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