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I’ ll give you an example of our own business where we’ re a very digital business and so when we’ re looking for people to come and help us in our digital offerings to students, we’ d love to have people who have a little bit of psychology and a bit of computer science and maybe some maths and even some consumer behaviour. But there are very few universities who would offer a degree that covers that wide a spectrum.
Increasingly, employers are looking for people who are adaptable, who are able to move quickly between different types of functions, who can anticipate how the world is going to change in a different way, and so the opportunity for them to be undertaking, to have some of their employees take single units, is a really good thing for them.
And of course, they can then use this for very targeted training and development activities on their own front, anyway, and be clear about the outcomes that they’ re seeking when they’ re looking to fund their staff members to do these things.
It’ s noted that units may be credited towards a degree. Why is this a maybe? Is it because some people wouldn’ t do enough subjects in the same discipline to qualify for a degree? Well, yes. For example, if somebody took a couple of subjects in sociology and a couple in computer science and a couple in ancient history and a couple in other things, they may well be able to get all of those credited towards a master of arts, but if they were looking to turn that into a master of computer science or a master of social work, then some of those subjects just wouldn’ t be able to count for that degree.
For the most part, these are fully AQF compliant and accredited subjects, and so long as they are in line with the discipline that somebody’ s seeking a postgraduate degree in, then they will be able to get credit for them, but probably not for all if they’ re looking at taking a very broad range of subjects. enrolling people into full degree programs, but only into single units, which they could then cultivate and build into a degree over time. Today, roughly 60 per cent of our students aren’ t enrolled in the degree program and undergraduate at all. They’ re just enrolled in single units, and that offers enormous flexibility for students who need different things out of education.
We’ re expecting that this will be a very different market to the students who want a full postgraduate program, and we’ re expecting it to be a big market. For example, there might be someone in a marketing department who doesn’ t want to undertake a full MBA but really would love to have better experience in terms of financial statement analysis, in order to make them eligible for senior management roles. This offers them the opportunity to do one or two subjects and build their skills in those sorts of discrete areas.
Have you had any feedback from employers regarding people who’ ve undertaken single units? Well, employers are really excited about this prospect because one of the things that we’ re noticing is that there are emerging job families for today’ s digital economy, for example, that require people to have skills across a range of different areas that traditionally universities haven’ t been able to offer in the one degree.
Do people have to do subjects with the same university to qualify for a degree, or can they dip in and out of different institutions? No, that’ s one of the beautiful things about Open Universities Australia’ s model – people can take subjects from a range of institutions and put them together towards a degree.
That’ s been the case for us in the undergraduate space for quite some time, and we see the same model happening in postgraduate. I may seek to be taking, for example, an MBA from one institution, but then I’ ve got the opportunity to take subjects from a range of universities and they will count towards that MBA.
Is there anything else that you’ d like to add about this new offering? Well, I think the important thing is that students who believe learning is part of their future, that it’ s an important part of getting better in their current job or making them eligible for other jobs down the track, then this is a good way to try before they buy the whole program. It may be that some students will see this as an opportunity just to trial whether they want to get into that particular area and make a career change in that way.
This offers a great deal of flexibility, it offers a great pathway into postgraduate study, and for those who just want to take a couple of subjects to make themselves better at their job, or even just to be a more interesting person at a dinner party, then this is a beautiful way to study. ■
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