Here’s what you need to know from the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency’s conference

by CLAIRE FIELD

Highlights:

* George Megalogenis talking about how Australia’s migration and ageing population patterns could potentially lead us to a Trump/Brexit-like split between the well-educated, multicultural, globally focussed cities in southeast Australia and the older, less-well educated and whiter regional areas (and some cities)

* Jamil Salmi, from Diego Portales University Chile, who provided excellent insights into how Industry 4.0 is changing the world of work and the disruption it’s bringing to higher education.

Key regulatory issues discussed:

* English language standards and the need for more systematic monitoring of students;

* Ongoing issue of contract cheating;

* Changes to improve the timeliness of TEQSA’s work including the opportunity to streamline the audit process for some providers; and

* Providers being encouraged to engage their own independent course reviewers.

Two other things that stood out:

* Minister Tehan spoke and the government remains more bullish than I am on international student numbers from India.

* Craig Robertson from TAFE Directors Australia shared the view that the decline in VET enrolments is not due to a decline in funding but rather to industry designed training products (where the focus is on reducing the wage costs of their workforce).

Finally, if you work in the higher education sector make sure you check out this week’s episode of the What now? What next? podcast. Conor King from the IRU and Luke Sheehy from the ATN discuss what’s happening in the sector and where it might be headed.

Claire Field is the host of the ‘What now? What next? Insights into Australia’s tertiary education sector’ podcast.