Federal review suggests “simplification and rebalancing” of higher education provider categories
Australia’s universities must do world-class research in at least 30 per cent of the disciplines they teach, with this rising to 50 per cent over the next decade, a federal higher education review has recommended.
The review raises concerns about the definition of research and overall lack of quality standards for research conducted at tertiary institutes.
It says research must lead to “the creation of new knowledge and original creative endeavour”, and that quality should be judged by measures that include peer review and citation analysis.
It also recommends “simplification and rebalancing of the current categories of higher education providers”, reducing the number from six to four.
The federal review of Australia’s higher education provider category standards was commissioned by education minister Dan Tehan in October 2018 to identify potential reforms to the tertiary education system. It was led by Peter Coaldrake, a former vice-chancellor of Queensland University of Technology.
The final report, published on 15 October, makes 10 recommendations. These include: a new provider category called an Institute of Higher Education; a threshold benchmark for quality and quantity of research; changed regulations to allow for ‘greenfield universities’; and introduction of requirements for industry engagement, civic leadership and community engagement for universities.
The review recommends that “research is, and should remain, a defining feature of what it means to be a university in Australia” and that a “threshold benchmark of quality and quantity of research should be included in the Higher Education Provider Category Standards”.
“There is a great diversity in the quality and quantity of research outputs by Australian universities,” the review says.
“Although the requirement for universities to undertake both teaching and research is set out in the provider category standards, there are currently no definitions for the quality and quantity of research required.”
It says that “on narrowest interpretation”, a provider could achieve university status and demonstrate the required research requirement by “delivering a single undergraduate and postgraduate course [and] undertaking a single research project in each of the three required fields of education in a given year”.
“This possibility is concerning as such a level of research at an ‘Australian University’ would not meet any meaningful or reasonable threshold for research performance,” the review says.
It also suggests that while universities will “continue to predominate higher education enrolments, much of the jobs and skills growth over the coming years will occur in areas spanning university, broader higher and professional education, and the vocational sector”.
“A key driver for this review has been to ensure that the provider category standards remain fit for purpose against Australia’s evolving higher education landscape,” it says.
“This is important given that Australia’s model for categorising higher education has remained fundamentally unchanged for almost 20 years, and over this period the higher education system has experienced significant change.”