The Business Council of Australia (BCA) has published a report on the quality of higher education in Australia, calling for the development of a framework to guide tertiary institutions in maintaining their teaching and learning standards.

 

The paper, developed by the BCA’s Education, Skills and Innovation Taskforce,  identifies four key priorities for ensuring that higher education contributes to lifting national productivity:


  • Rewarding effective teaching and learning outcomes through:

    – the further development of performance funding arrangements
    – examining the feasibility of benchmarking the teaching and learning performance of higher education institutions
    – encouraging institutions to better recognise and reward professional development undertaken by academic teachers, including the teaching of international capabilities, and effective teaching practices for the education of students from disadvantaged backgrounds
    – encouraging institutions to extend initiatives for recognising and rewarding high-performing academic teachers.
  • Working with institutions to continue to improve the value and the relevance of what is taught through:

    – increased engagement with business on curriculum, to ensure a shared understanding of the knowledge and skills required
    – supporting the work of the Business/Higher Education Roundtable, especially in promoting best practice engagement
    – continuing to use advisory committees and course review panels
    – enabling institutions to specialise and to create national and international centres of excellence
    – greater internationalisation of the curriculum.
  • Developing a comprehensive strategy for international education, recognising that this industry is of strategic importance to business, and which includes:

    – ensuring student visa requirements and procedures compare favourably with nations such as the United States and Canada
    – providing incentives for international students to improve their English language proficiency
    – supporting greater interaction between Australian and international students.
  • Developing a demand-driven system responsive to business, industry and the community, as well as students, by:

    – supporting Skills Australia to lead annual consultations with key stakeholders on future skills requirements
    – the timely provision of information about the employment outcomes of higher education graduates.

The paper comes as the Government outlines its quality agenda, specifying the following as priorities.

  • the establishment of a new national regulatory and quality body, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), legislation for which was introduced into Parliament last week;
  • a new performance funding framework to reward universities for improved quality outcomes from 2012;
  • an ongoing $50 million program of grants and awards to support and reward excellence in university teaching; and
  • improved transparency and better information for students and prospective students through the establishment of the My University website.

The BCA paper, Lifting the Quality of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, can be accessed at www.bca.com.au