Australia has a new higher education qualification, with University Certificates confirmed as a continuing part of the national qualification framework.
The permanent addition of the previous vocational training-level certificate to the suite of university products is another step towards a flexible post-school system where consumers learn the skills they need from subjects and courses across the HE and voced systems.
The certificates were scheduled to end in June, but Education Minister Jason Clare’s office confirmed yesterday that State and National Education Ministers have decided they should stay – subject to performance monitoring.
UCs consist of four units from an undergraduate course and were created during COVID, to give people in lockdown something useful to do, acquiring a certified qualification in what were originally intended to be “national priority occupations.”
The courses were not originally intended to be permanent and the qualification police really struggled at the start with where they sat in the academic hierarchy, calling them “diploma certificates” for a while. The first close date was the end of 2021 followed by a 2022 sunset.
But universities and private HE providers piled in to meet market demand; there were nearly 50,000 government-funded places by the end of 2021 and with the certificates included in the Australian Qualification Framework, the revised 2025 shut-down was unlikely.
And now they are another permanent product. Regulator TEQSA was quick to announce yesterday providers that can’t accredit their own courses should talk to it. Back in 2020 TEQSA was on the pace – approving three UCs by a private college in under a week.
With UCs here to stay, the next push will be accreditation of super-short micro-credentials.
