Jason Clare yesterday celebrated dropping a cool $1.5m commissioning a new website focusing on university prep programs, which are now to be known by the snappy acronym of FFUR (Fee-Free Uni Ready).
The concept of foundation programs to prepare people who have never studied or been away from study for a protracted period is not new – but the expectations are.
Getting foundation programs right is critical to realising the vision of the Accord; with a chance of reaching the target of 80% of the Australian workforce to have a TAFE or uni qualification by 2050.
Mr Clare’s announcement about the FFUR website encourages some mathematical gymnastics; in the spirit of preparing the unwitting for Budget calculus no doubt. He noted that 25,000 students enrolled in a free bridging course last year and another 25,000 are expected to enrol this year. Which represents 0% growth, in case you were wondering, but presumably that is what we like to call ‘managed growth?’ (or more accurately managed needs). Statistics on completions and successful degree transitions are keenly awaited – presumably in the same in tray as those for fee-free TAFE.
Mr Clare did say that 2030 forecast enrolments would be 40% higher than 2023 figures and 2040 numbers should be double 2023. He just didn’t let on what the 2023 total was.
FC had to get the abacus out to determine that 2023 figures were about 21,000 ish, which makes them not a lot lower than now, despite the cash splash on promoting the new FFUR, which is probably why they didn’t feature in the press release.
Moving onto the website, it is an extensive resource, developed by researchers in collaboration with “the Department of Education, the Australian Tertiary Education Commission, known as ATEC.” There are some curiosities.
The AI section cites a 2022 study (accompanied by a Find out more button that leads to the Google search page), while a other pages quote studies from 2016 – all perfectly valid, but clearly there have been no qualms about window dressing to make FFUR appear cutting edge. Dare we note the world of academe has changed somewhat since ChatGPT launched in November '22?
This is not to say that the site isn’t built on strong foundations – clearly it is drawing on important insights from the University of Newcastle, long term leaders in this space, and others. But the task FFUR is expected to do is little short of transforming the front door of Australian HE, so a little more work dressing up the shopfront might be useful, particularly if it is going to convince sceptics.
The FFUR proposition needs to gain traction not just with educators but also CFOs and institutional strategists is another question. If universities are going to accept large numbers of FFUR grads as part of their future plans, then the Academic Board, finance department, learning support teams, marketing and others all need to be on board to make it happen.
The site also seems to suffer a shortage of male models in its photo shoots, despite considerable recent publicity over the failure of tertiary institutions to attract young men. There is a group shot of five women in the main pic and a total of 14 females and three males on the home page according to our rough count. No doubt ratios will be adjusted in time to better reflect demographic shortfalls.
These are curiosities rather than glaring issues – which will no doubt be sorted out in due course, probably by already overstretched FFUR educators in their spare time. But they do inspire questions about resourcing. At a time that we are spending $20 million trying to calm national jitters on buying fuel, is it realistic for our nation to spend only $1.5 million and ask academic leaders and bureaucrats to produce a resource critical to underpin transformational change for 80% of the nation’s future workforce?
The spend on this resource is not even a drop in the enormous bucket of cash that Treasury will have to find if it is to fund its share of doubling student participation by 2050 in the tertiary sector.
Given the high stakes, if the Government genuinely believes that HE participation is going to be transformed through inclusion, this site will need to be a precursor of a monumental campaign to grow the offerings and completions – with resourcing to effectively engage prospective students, educators, bean counters and apoplectic conservative commentators – among many others.
As the FFUR site says, additional support will also be required for at least the first six months of study to support FFUR students in the transition to degree studies for those who do make it through the foundation course.
The site is no doubt an early salvo in the FFUR campaign – but transformational change will not happen without a bulging money clip being repeatedly coaxed from the Treasurer’s wallet.