Jason Clare announces “the next step to making going to uni quicker and cheaper.”
The Education Minister says the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC) will develop “a national credit recognition framework …. cutting the length of a degree for students who already have a TAFE qualification in the same area.”
For students with a training qualification acquired in the government’s FREE TAFE scheme, this could cut the time and cost of related degree from three years to two.
And ATEC will be able to allocate additional student places to universities that do this.
Mr Clare was speaking ahead of the start of the sitting fortnight for both houses, which will be the last opportunity before the Budget for the Senate to debate the ATEC legislation and for the House to deal with any resulting amendments the Government adopts.
Universities Australia was quick to back Mr Clare’s general idea. “A more connected tertiary system will help Australians move more easily between vocational and higher education, build skills faster and meet the workforce needs of a growing economy,” the peak HE lobby responded.
Mr Clare cited the University of Canberra and Western Sydney U, which he said save students $17,000 – $18,000 for degrees in disciplines including nursing, childcare, construction and IT. However, he did not mention the other 20 or so universities across the Commonwealth with existing credit pathways and articulation agreements with training providers – many of which have had agreements in place for decades.
In announcing ATEC could allocate undergraduate places to universities with VET acceptance schemes, Mr Clare appears to extend recommendations in the Universities Accord plan which proposed “improving guidance on credit and recognition of prior learning” as part of a plan to “create a more seamless tertiary education system.”
But he does not mention the work to accomplish this proposed by Jobs and Skills Australia. In its Tertiary Harmonisation Roadmap it proposed a national credit transfer system, to be in place this year.