Union urges immediate action on UC 'soft-marking' enquiry

The ACT Division of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has called on the University of Canberra to immediately act on the improvement recommendations in the 'soft-marking' investigation released today.

 

The investigation by Professor Graham Webb, followed a complaint made by tutor, Lynne Minion who courageously raised her significant concerns about assessment standards in a subject in the Bachelor of Sports Media program.

 

ACT Division Secretary, Stephen Darwin said 'the investigation does identify that the same assessment standards needed to be applied across units regardless of the anticipated occupational destination of students, and this must be assured in future assessment practices in this and other UC programs.' 

 

'This clearly vindicates the nature of the original complaint and provides an important message about the critical nature of consistently applied assessment standards.' 

 

The NTEU also urges the University of Canberra to act on Professor Webb's recommendations to provide improved support for tutors, more systematic unit reviews, greater transparency across the institution about assessment standards and greater specialist support for international student cohorts.

 

'One of the most significant challenges facing Australian universities is assuring the ongoing and consistent quality of its teaching and assessment practices. This incident at the University of Canberra is a timely reminder of the responsibilities universities have more broadly to properly develop and sustain high quality assessment,' Mr Darwin said.