In Features this morning

Anthony Weber, Robert Vanderburg, and Amy McIlwraith on how CQU empowers students to reduce academic misconduct. Plus Angela Brew previews this week’s Australasian Council for Undergraduate Research conference. Both are selections by Commissioning Editor Sally Kift for her celebrated series Needed now in learning and teaching.

plus Merlin Crossley asked ChatGPT for a blog on issues facing Australian universities (don’t use it for an O’Kane Review submission)

“the reality is that it has entered our institutions whether we like it or not. As educators, we need to work out how best to deal with it,” Stephen Colbran, Colin Beer and Michael Cowling (all CQU) write in CMM this morning.

“Tools such as ChatGPT, Google, database searches and Grammarly for example all assist with learning and assessment processes but by themselves will not be able to complete the assessment. In contrast to the suggestion that institutions should go back to high stakes invigilated assessment, an area that the academy has worked hard to move past, this allows for assessment to continue to be authentic and useful in the context of future workplaces.”

The Australian Technology Network’s budget bid proposes new Commonwealth funding, before the O’Kane Review reports

The ATN acknowledges the Universities Accord will propose changes for the medium and long term but it suggests ways HE can be better funded now (and presumably into the future).

Proposals include,

* a loading for engineering and science places in 2024, to undo the funding skew caused by the previous government’s Job Ready Graduates programme. For $1m in fixed Commonwealth funds, universities can enrol 59 engineering undergrads or 872 in society and culture (presumably due to the higher student contribution by those in the later). “The system is not set up to deliver the volume and high quality of teaching required for globally recognised qualifications,” ATN asserts.

* income assistance during student placement in national priority professions, notably in teaching, nursing and clinical psychology

* pilot including all translational research funding (for example, capital and income to support research commercialisation) in the research block grant formula

* a new funding stream for engagement with community/industry in national emergencies (such as floods and fires) and “urgencies” (for example, energy transition)

* support for spin-outs from the Trailblazer programme and a new round of it

* including clean energy and sustainable industries in the R&D Tax Incentive and extend it to mid-stages of the research pipe-line, from concept to full commercial design and development.

* whole of government approach to international education (from policy, through visas to housing for students)

The EU’s Coalition S will reduce funding channels for journals

As of end 2024 the Coalition will end financial support for “transformative journals” which publishers are meant to use to transition to immediate open access publishing, earning income from publication charges.

The deadline was set when Plan S was launched in 2018 and the coalition now states continuing funding for hybrid journals, that include free to read and pay to publish content, “would significantly increase the risk that these arrangements will become permanent.”

The Australian Skills Quality Authority commissioned a review of on-line learning, following the Covid-caused expansion

It found “many students prefer the flexibility of blended learning,” which presents providers, “with opportunities to expand their offerings and provide students with more choices across the market.

However there is a bit of a regulatory but – quality VET can be delivered on-line and, “there is no single issue or feature that is an indicator of greater or lesser risk to quality ” – which means ASQA  identifies a bunch of issues to address, four risks for students in on-line delivery and five impacting on training and assessment.

Accordingly, the agency announces it will;

* will performance monitor a sample of providers

* develop new guidance for providers to self-assure operations and improve performance

* guide its quality assessors to ensure practises “keep pace with innovation”

* support ELICOS providers as the COVID emergency all-teaching on-line provision ends

* consider risks in on-line learning in assessing a providers overall risk

The NSW Government proposes a one-year teaching diploma for graduates who want to become school teachers. Australian Catholic U, suggests “simple solutions are not always appropriate choices

The NSW proposal occurs in the lead-up to the state election and builds on the local productivity commission’s plan to address the teacher shortage.

The Commission argues the national change from a one year dip ed for graduates to an initial teacher education two-year masters in 2011, had “a negligible impact on student achievement.”

And it suggests that despite smaller enrolments in two year programmes, universities are, “the biggest beneficiaries of the transition to longer postgraduate ITE qualifications,

“the doubling of fees received by universities more than offsets the smaller number  of students enrolled in their courses.”

However ACU education and arts dean Mary Ryan warns against, “rushing graduates into classrooms,

“while postgraduate students had authentic skills and life experiences, they needed intensive training, support, and classroom experience to become effective teachers and school leaders. … We don’t want to see graduates enter the profession only to leave shortly after due to being under-prepared and feeling unsupported for what is complex work.”

ACU’s submission to a NSW Legislative Council inquiry suggested people in mid and late career stages, training to be teachers should complete a masters, but with an option for conditional accreditation and paid teaching roles after six months, while completing their course.

“Flexible MTeach degrees can help serve workforce shortages while maintaining an appropriate level of qualification.”

Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia’s budget submission calls for a “genuinely student centric approach”

ITECA’s bid includes,

* “a coherent approach to tertiary education” with “regulatory convergence of higher ed and VET regulators

* ending the fee charged on top of loans to students at private providers, “one of the greatest travesties of Australia’s highest education system”

* a whole of government approach to microcredentials, “students and employers view the utility of microcredential offerings through the prism of the knowledge they deliver and the skills they offer, not by the provider that offers them”

* student choice of provider built into new National Skills Agreements

There is much more, but the intent is summed up in the aspiration;

“government investment in tertiary education, and in higher education specifically, be reconfigured and directed towards a genuinely student centric approach that adopts a focus on student choice in learning regardless of course type, location or provider type”

“The 2023 Budget offers a milestone opportunity to deliver long-term reform for the tertiary sector in a fiscally responsible manner,” ITECA argues.