industry & research campusreview . com . au
There is a solid argument that undergraduate degrees are all of a given standard .
Levelling the playing field
Does it really matter where a job applicant studied ?
By Jim Mienczakowski and Greg Whateley
Perhaps , just as questions about age , gender preferences and politics have been made redundant ( even illegal ), job applicants should no longer be required to name where they studied and recruitment processes should have institutions ’ names redacted from all applicants ’ listed qualifications .
There is merit in such an approach . Doing so might level the playing field a bit and do better justice to those who have reached the required academic standards , as opposed to privileging any particular institution ’ s named qualifications .
Insanity ? Perhaps , but we take the view that our present rankings focus unnecessarily disadvantages the majority of Australian graduates . And as a result , the achievements and potential of Australians from diverse backgrounds who have achieved an academic award are being undervalued .
CHANGE TO DELIVERY COVID-19 or not , the academic world is certainly being forced to confront relevance-driven and budgetary-minded change . The delivery of on-campus lessons is simply not as cost-effective as some newer technological solutions .
It has been reported that The University of Sydney plans to adopt a 17-week semester , reducing its semesters to 12 weeks of academic content . Its rationale is that good academic results are still achievable even with this contraction .
Take out the padding of one or two independent student study weeks , midsemester breaks , roughly two revision weeks and other mandated non-teaching events during each academic semester , and most Australian universities could equally reduce their semesters from around 22 weeks ’ duration to 17 , or even fewer .
Now , in a three-year University of Sydney degree , only 1.38 years will actually involve the delivery of content . That isn ’ t so different to what already happens with course delivery elsewhere .
And with the increasing use of podcasting , digital classes and Zoom approaches seen as agile , more cost-effective , and expedient delivery mechanisms , it begs the question : How much academic content and learning will take place face-to-face on campuses in the future ?
LEARNER ENGAGEMENT IS IMPERATIVE
Surely it has to be in the quality of the teaching and learning interactions that the impact is made , not where and when students received their course content .
That ’ s what the QILT 2021 outcomes allude to . Undergraduate degrees , after all , are not representative of the pointy end of knowledge creation . Rather , they are the first step towards building foundational knowledge and are , by and large , representative of entry-level standards .
So , do undergraduates in prestige institutions actually get taught by the gun researchers and the various leading intellectual colossuses ? Most usually not . Highly research-active faculty tend to have other obligations and priorities . Those faculty still building their research profiles are similarly often torn between the demands of achieving research-active identities and juggling the requirements to also teach .
Solid , accredited , benchmarked , non-research focused providers of undergraduate degrees rely upon valueadding by remediating any student learning deficits and taking their students through to successful degree completion .
Their business models depend upon them being reliably supportive and effective in teaching and learning . Providers are required to meet the same exacting standards as every other university operating in the land – aside from pursuing academic research , that is .
Their faculty are just as qualified as those elsewhere and , thanks to TEQSA , students can be assured that learning and teaching standards will be maintained .
STANDARDS ARE KEY When were you last asked on an application form or in a job interview : “ At which centre did you take your driving test ?” or “ Where did you learn to drive ?” Probably never . If you gained an Australian driving licence , you will be deemed to have met the required standards . Similarly , if you ’ ve achieved a TAFE diploma , which institution you studied in may never be an issue of question for prospective employers .
There is a solid argument that undergraduate degrees are all of a given standard as mandated by TEQSA . Yet there is not one established set of metrics to empirically determine why qualifications and learner outcomes from institution A might be superior to those from institution B .
Given that the on-campus learning experience is changing , most undergraduate level teaching is reiterative and standards-based . Additionally , it is not ( consistently ) delivered by the leading academics of any institution ; undergraduate students are not axiomatically served differently or better by studying in researchintensive or research-engaged institutions .
With non-research focused private providers achieving consistently higher QILT outcomes than some of our most prestigious universities in the 2021 assessments , there is a case for looking more closely at the role they and the lowerranked universities play in value adding and creating competent and successful undergraduates to ( hopefully ) join our national workforce . ■
Emeritus Professor Jim Mienczakowski is a higher education consultant and Emeritus Professor Greg Whateley is deputy vice chancellor at Group Colleges Australia .
22