Academics do not need formal qualifications to teach, unlike their colleagues in TAFE and schools – and a landmark report has stopped short of suggesting they be required to do so.
In a major policy first, the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC) has released a comprehensive paper on teaching quality and how to enhance it by Deakin U expert Liz Johnson. It advises that academics should be required to have qualifications – but only if universities want them to.
Professor Johnson argues the change from elite to mass Higher Education and expectations that graduates are job ready impose expectations on providers. But while student diversity brings richness into learning, she says it also places more pressure on teaching teams.
The challenge is urgent. “It is arguable that the lack of confidence in the sector and the loss of social license is at least in part attributable to a lack of visible commitment to quality teaching – building trust through valuing and recognising quality teaching as core to our commitment to students is vital,” Professor Johnson writes.
And she warns, “universities remain anomalous in comparison to all other educational sectors in not requiring some form of mandated teacher accreditation and ongoing professional learning and this should be addressed."
However, instead of suggesting that teaching qualifications be mandated to bring universities in line with every other educational jurisdiction, Professor Johnson sets out how ATEC and regulator TEQSA can assist institutions to “build capability.”
Professor Johnson accordingly provides a comprehensive governance guide for regulators to set and impose teaching standards and creates an action plan for institutions, while acknowledging their autonomy.
“Requirements for professional learning will be a cultural shift for most higher education institutions. It should be introduced as a positive step for individual teachers and a productive investment for the institution,” she asserts.
But what she does not do is recommend making formal teaching qualifications mandatory for academics. Thus, she proposes amending HE Standard 3.2.3 (teaching capability) to require, “qualifications or demonstrated experience in contemporary HE teaching, continuous professional learning.”
Professor Johnson acknowledges, that some institutions teach graduate certificates in HE and some require them for on-going jobs, but “most academic roles and supporting roles for teaching do not require professional learning to teach or to lead teaching. Notably little training or professional learning is provided to sessional teaching staff and contributing industry and research experts.”
But she does not want the hope for more qualified teachers to be ignored, proposing amending HESF 6.2.2, “to include explicit monitoring of teaching qualifications.”
For overall assessment of teaching quality, she proposes ATEC assessment through mission based compacts and TEQSA re-registration. Institutions must devise their own carrots to encourage staff to lift their teaching skills, the system will focus on the stick.