University staff sceptical about government's teaching quality proposal
24 July 1997
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has called for a careful approach by the Government to canvassing student opinion about their courses.
The Union was commenting on the announcement by the Education Minister, Senator Vanstone, during her launch of the 1997 Good Universities Guide, of new measures to improve and assure quality of higher education provision.
While sharing the Minister’s concern to ensure high-quality teaching and services to students in universities, the NTEU has warned that the Government’s planned student survey and telephone feedback mechanism needs careful formulation and stringent safeguards. NTEU General Secretary, Mr Grahame McCulloch, said, however, that the Union was willing to discuss with the Government its new proposals.
\"We are pleased to see the Government express a commitment to improving quality in higher education,\" he said. \"But the Coalition’s recent and projected severe cuts to university funding are hard to reconcile with this newly stated priority. The cuts will inevitably undermine the ability of higher education institutions to deliver excellent, relevant and accessible services and courses to students.\"
The Union queried the justification of the proposals from the point of view of cost. \"Universities already have in place both systems for obtaining feedback from students about their courses, and also mechanisms for monitoring and enhancing staff performance,\" Mr Mc Culloch pointed out. \"Is it reasonable to impose further, expensive measures over the top of these institutional processes?\" he asked.
Mr McCulloch also expressed worry about the implications for individual staff members’ rights of the planned survey and telephone \"hotline\". \"There is potential in these proposals for infringement of basic rights of staff to privacy, to security of information about them, and to redress,\" he said. \"Before NTEU agrees to any proposal, it will ensure that members’ rights will be safeguarded. Any processes for the collection and storage of data must comply with the most stringent regulation, so that a guarantee can be given to university staff that information and opinion will not be improperly gathered.
\"The Union will not agree to the introduction of any measure which fails in this respect,\" he assured members.
NTEU regarded the proposed \"teaching awards\" system as positive, but also tokenistic in that their impact on the system as a whole would be slight, according to Mr McCulloch. \"We are pleased to see the Government recognising the value of university teaching,\" he said. \"But the small number of awards, and the approach rewarding the few instead of supporting the majority through better funding and broadly-based professional development programs, shows that the Government is not really serious.\"
NTEU also commented on the results published in the 1997 Good Universities Guide.
\"The Guide reports the strong performance of regional, smaller and outer-metropolitan universities,\" Mr McCulloch pointed out. \"This supports the NTEU’s perception that these universities meet important needs in the community for relevant courses, accessibility and overall educational quality and responsiveness.
\"Big and famous do not necessarily mean best for all students,\" he said. The results show that Australia’s university system is already both diverse and excellent, offering wide opportunities for students to choose the institution and the course which best suits their needs.\"
Further information Julie Wells, National Research Officer 03 9254 1910 (bh)
Jane Nicholls, National Research Officer 03 9254 1910 (bh)