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Soft approach for CSU
Innovative program looks beyond ATAR scores.
W
e’re often told that soft skills such as empathy,
collaboration and communication will be key to the
future workforce, but they haven’t been considered
much in university admission requirements.
Now one university is changing all of that.
Charles Sturt is launching an early entry program that will “look
beyond test scores” to realise school and non-school leavers’
potential to thrive both at university and in life. Called Advantage,
the program hopes to attract students with an ambition to “create
a world worth living in”.
Students admitted to the program will undertake their
studies as well as being supported to develop soft skills in areas
like resilience, collaboration, communication, empathy and
emotional intelligence.
To be admitted, students must demonstrate these soft skills and
provide a reference. If successful, they will then be able to secure a
place in September before ATAR results are released.
Risk report
TEQSA says Australia’s higher
education sector now ‘safer’
for students.
T
he inaugural report into the risk
factor of Australia’s higher education
sector has just been released, with
the overwhelming majority of providers
posing a low to moderate risk to students.
The Tertiary Education and Quality
Standards Agency (TEQSA) grouped
The university’s deputy vice-chancellor (students) Jenny Roberts
said, “the Charles Sturt Advantage allows us to recognise the
whole student when assessing an application. When students
apply through the Charles Sturt Advantage, their commitment,
empathy, resilience and commitment to making this world one
worth living in will be taken into consideration.”
The Advantage program is already gaining traction among
Year 12 students, with Sandie McKoy, a careers adviser at Catholic
College in Wodonga, Victoria, saying that 20 students from the
college are applying this year.
“This is a great opportunity for students to showcase their
ability to problem solve and overcome obstacles as well as to
demonstrate how resilient they are,” she said.
“We have a lot of service and volunteering built into our
curriculum so our students are readily equipped with these skills.
“Sometimes, however, they don’t realise they possess these skills
until they have the opportunity to reflect and develop them further.”
Roberts is excited about the program and its potential to develop
“emotionally intelligent and driven students” who will be assets to
society in the future.
“Charles Sturt University is committed to these types of students,”
she said. “If you’re coming to university in later life, we’ll also look at
your work experience.
“Charles Sturt Advantage will enable us to receive a group of
emotionally intelligent and driven students who will embody the
values of Charles Sturt and who will be great assets to our campus
communities in the years to come.”
Students have until the end of August to apply for the program. ■
providers into three categories for the
report: for-profit providers, not-for-profit
providers (including technical and further
education providers) and universities.
TEQSA employed “formal, systematic
risk assessments” for the macro report with
the aim to help “protect the reputation of
the sector”.
The report looked at two key areas:
risk to students and risk to financial
position. Risk to students considers
student completion rates, graduate
satisfaction levels, attrition rates and
graduate destinations. It also considers
student-to-staff ratios, casual academic
staffing levels and the number of senior
academic leaders. Risk to financial position
looks at factors including a provider’s
liquidity, operating cash flow, year-on-year
in commencements (EFTSL) and debt
service coverage.
TEQSA considers the increasing
casualisation of academic staff to be a key
threat to students’ risk.
“Low teaching staff levels and high levels
of academic casualisation … pose risks to
the quality of higher education delivery
and … student growth, experience and
outcomes. Moreover, low ratios of senior
academic leaders for each broad field
of education also pose risks to quality in
higher education and could negatively
impact on learning outcomes for students,”
the report said.
Importantly, since 2016, risk to students
in the Australian education sector has been
trending downwards. In 2017, a substantial
27.3 per cent of providers were identified
as posing a high risk to students. In 2018,
that figure plunged to 13.8 per cent.
Improvements in this area are attributed
to increased engagement with high risk
providers in 2017 and “positive changes at
the provider level”.
However, the report highlighted an
upward trend in providers with a low to
moderate risk to financial position, with
7.3 per cent of providers falling into that
category. At the same time, the percentage
of providers with a low risk to financial
position has been trending downwards
since 2016, creating a cause for concern.
This increased risk to financial position
within the higher education sector
was blamed on more tenuous financial
viability in the not-for-profit sector
and lower financial sustainability in the
for‑profit sector. ■
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