Online Education is More Flexible But Not Necessarily Cheaper

David Annand, has asked "How do we make university education more affordable and accessible?". He is a professor at Athabasca University, one of Canada's leading online institutions, but he is not just advocating for abolishing campuses.

Annand suggests face-to-face is needed for some new undergraduate students. He also points out the importance of informal social interactions for these students. However, he questions if this is really worth the cost of the campus and points out that online learners do just as well as face-to-face ones.

I suggest that while online learners do just as well academically, this is missing the point. Study is also a social experience. As an online student of Athabasca myself, I experienced a sense of loneliness. This is despite being a very experienced student, who was also on the staff of a leading Australian university at the time. But even so, online study was a less lonely experience for me than previous face to face study: just because you are on a campus, in a room full of people, doesn't result in social ties.

Athabasca's online courses had forms of group activity built in. Also was not assumed that you would somehow meet other students outside class, with ways to meet people online. 

The assumption that eliminating the campus will make courses much cheaper also needs to be challenged. According to a report for the UK DoE, only about 10% of the cost of a course at a conventional university is the campus (KPMG, 2019). A third of the cost is teaching staff and another third central student service costs. Most of the rest are overheads in running an institution. So eliminating the campus is not going to make courses from a conventional university much cheaper. Ways to provide student services, and reduce other overheads, online might be more cost effective than eliminating the campus. 

Also, even before COVID-19, at least in Australia, most students had voted with their feet and were not attending lectures. Universities campuses were already evolving to be business parks with commercial tenants and leisure centers with fee gyms, bars, and cafes, plus accommodation. The University of Canberra's 2025 plan is an example of this.

Annand points out that there is a high financial and social burden for those remote from a campus. There are also barriers due to child minding and employment. These are the areas distance education, and in its recent form, online education, were primarily developed for and have been delivering to for decades. 

Online students tend to pay about the same fees as on-campus ones, as Annand points out. It did annoy me when a student of the University of Southern Queensland, that I was paying to maintain playing fields which I had never seen, let alone played on. But this was only a small proportion of the fees. As it happens I paid slightly less in Canada, about the amount of the cost of the playing fields. ;-)

Athabasca University has no classrooms, and most staff now work off-campus, Annand points out. However, most teaching at conventional universities was done by part time and casual staff who didn't have their own offices before COVID-19, so their is little scope for savings in this way.

Athabasca University receives a subsidy from the Alberta provincial government, Annand points out, at a rate about a third that of conventional universities. However, those universities may be providing courses where costs are higher, such as medicine. The issue of the applicability of government funding models to online universities is one which has come up in Australia, most particularly at the University of New England (UNE), an institution which has been pioneering distance education for more than 50 years. UNE staff have expressed frustration that the federal funding model limits their ability to provide innovative programs. 

The Australian government did force through a change which increased the cost of less employment related degrees (ironically making some cheaper to provide courses more expensive). So there is some appetite by legislators to use product differentiation for university fees. However, if based just on campus cost, the difference in fees would be small, and the political cost of the reform may not be worth the effort.

Perhaps a better reform to import from Australia would be to provide more funding for shorter programs. In response to the pandemic, the Australian government introduced undergraduate certificates, and  increased funding for graduate certificates. These were focused on areas relevant to the emergency, particularly health, and have proved popular. Universities did previously provided some sub-degree programs, but there was no incentive for them to offer these.

Online universities may do better lobbying government for a different funding model, because they provide superior, more flexible, more vocationally relevant forms of education, rather than focusing on the costs of conventional universities.

Reference

KPMG, "Understanding costs of undergraduate provision in Higher Education, Costing study report", UK Department for Education, May 2019, Page 21. URL https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/909349/Understanding_costs_of_undergraduate_provision_in_higher_education.pdf#page=21

Standardization of Australian Higher Education is for Mugs

With the need to rapidly produce online courses due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus, there have been calls for  standardization of Australian university courses. This would make it easier for staff producing courses and students taking them. However, there is obvious reluctance for competing institutions, faculties, and even competing staff members in adjacent rooms, to standardize. Rather than some top down set of rules, I suggest training staff in online course design would be more effective. This would produce more consistency, but allow flexibility.

ps: Recently in a charity shop I found two mugs on the shelf: one branded UNSW, and the other UNE: same color, same size, so at least there is standardization of something. ;-)

UNE Bespoke Graduate Certificate

The University of New England, in regional NSW, is offering a new "Bespoke Graduate Certificate". Students can select from courses across the university to assemble their own qualification. However, UNE is not the first university to do this, and a more focused qualification may be a better option.

The UNE Bespoke Graduate Certificate looks similar to the ANU Graduate Certificate of Studies, and other universities general studies programs. These allow students to choose from courses across their institution (and between institutions).

With a general studies qualification there is a risk of ending up with a "Certificate of Nothing in Particular". The student may do the studies they want, but a prospective employer may not notice this detail. The student can instead consider undertaking a more focused qualification, and use the flexibility of including alternative courses to suit their interests. As an example, I undertook an ANU Graduate Certificate in Higher Education. After consultation with my supervisor, I substituted two courses from partner institution USQ, for two ANU courses.

My interest was in online education, and USQ was offering specialist courses in this. A bonus was that USQ offered courses outside ANU's semesters, allowing me to complete quicker. Having a qualification in education is far more useful than a general one made up of education courses.

UNE indicates their certificate can be completed in 1 year part-time. However this assumes the student undertakes two courses at a time. As a part-time student I found completing two courses at once to be very difficult. If the student is undertaking studies part-time, and particularly online, I suggest they should be encouraged to do only one course at a time. Where the institution offers three or four periods per year, the student can still complete in a reasonable time.

Bespoke Courses from the University of New England

I don't know quite what to make of "Bespoke Courses" from the University of New England (UNE). The idea seems to be to select 2, 3 or 4 units from UNE degrees to make your own certificate qualification. This is confusing, as what UNE calls "units" appear to be what I know as  "courses" (what a full time student typically does four to six of per semester). What UNE calls a "course" I know of as a "program" (such as a degree program).

UNE offers a four unit certificate for $10,800. At $2,700 for each unit this is not exactly a bargain. Athabasca University charged me about AU$1,900 per unit. UNE offers students a low interest loan with a regional bank (implying the course is not eligible for a government student loan). Also of interest is that the bank the loan is offered through what was originally the Staff Credit Union of UNE (now known as the Regional Australia Bank). The head of the UNE Business School is a member of the Bank's board. I suggest this, and any other interest UNE (and its staff), have in the bank, should be declared wherever UNE promotes the student loans.

I tried designing an "Advanced Bespoke Course". First I was prompted for a degree name, which is confusing as this is not for a degree and I don't know what the names of UNE degrees are. So I ticked from the list Computer Science, Education, and Sustainability (as these are topics of interest). I then clicked on "View Results". The page scrolled to the top where it said "1 Degrees found", which is not very informative. Scrolling down again I found "No results are found in Postgraduate" and "Undergraduate degrees: Bachelor of Computer Science". This seems a little odd: why does UNE have Education and Sustainability as categories to choose from, if it offers no units on these topics?

Curiously, while Computer Science was the only degree listed, the courses I was then offered included Management Accounting, Biology, and Applied Physics, as well as IT courses.

UNE claims "The first truly bespoke university qualification is here". However, for several years ANU has been offering "Graduate Studies Select" (GSS). With GSS students can undertake a Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma, or Masters of Studies, selecting from the courses at ANU (including my course ICT Sustainability) and also courses from affiliated institutions. 

UNE was a pioneer of distance education and lately has shown it is willing to experiment with ways to offer university education. But I suggest to make the bespoke courses a success they need to offer some suggestions for combinations of units. A "choose your ingredients" sandwich shop will have some suggested combinations ("the plowman's: tasty cheese, pickles, ham ...") , UNE could offer some combinations of units to suit particular interests ("The STEM taster: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics"). Also it would be useful if there was some vocational element to the qualifications, as more than ten thousand dollars is a lot to pay just out of interest (when you can do other on-line courses for free). In addition, they might wan to lower the price by about 40%, to make it competitive with quality on-line institutions.

Improve Student Retention in Australian On-line Higher education

Dr Cathy Stone, a Fellow at the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education, dropped in this week to talk about how student retention could be improved for on-line students. On-line courses provide access to education for students who would otherwise be excluded. However, like paper-based distance education courses which preceded them, on-line courses have a lower completion rate than face-to-face courses.

Cathy is and is undertaking research for "improving student transition, participation and success in online higher education". She has visited Open University UK (OUUK), as well as University of New England (UNE),  and other Australian on-line institutions.  I pointed out to Cathy that some of the techniques later used by OUUK were developed in Australia at UNE.

While focusing on students from specific backgrounds undertaking on-line education the same techniques for helping these students can help students more generally. Some techniques suggested in Cathy's latest bulletin are to welcome the students, post regular bulletins and follow up missing students. These and other techniques are now incorporated into training for educators, but regrettably many academics do not receive this training and fewer implement it.

Cahty is currently in Canberra and is keen to talk to educators about improving on-line education.

What Takes Ten Minutes at UNE?

The University of New England has an advertisement on this blog which says: "Get a free on-line analysis of your personality and the careers that best fit you ... It takes ten minutes to do and your report is sent to you immediately." This looks a bit of pop psychology. I am not permitted to click on it under Google's advertising rules, so can't see what the test looks like.

How Australian Universities Survive an Online World

In "Seven lessons of survival in an online world" (The Australian Higher Education Supplement, 9 April 2014), Dr. Jim Barber, former VC of UNE, notes that Georgia Institute of Technology is offering a Master of Computer Science through MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). The MOOCs are provided by Udacity at a cost of about US $7,000.

As Dr. Barber points out, this on-line Masters is much cheaper than conventional face-to-face university courses. It is also much cheaper than current on-line university courses. The online Masters I am currently enrolled in costs about $35,000. Dr. Barber attributes part of the lower cost to course fees not subsidising research at universities and the cost of buildings.

Dr. Barber claims that "academics are paid to spend about 40 per cent of their time on research" and that "funding for this work derives largely from teaching revenue". So assuming that 40% of my course fees were eliminated by not finding research, that would reduce them to about $21,000.

As I am undertaking an online course, hopefully my fees are not paying for classrooms (as I don't need them). But there are still costs in administration of the course. But that can't account for the bulk of the cost. What else might be in course costs?

There is is the cost of designing and maintaining the course. However, with a large number of students on-line the cost of course design and maintenance should not be more than $1,000 per student per year. MOOCs typically provide no tutor assistance to individual students: unless you can get another student to help (or you pay for your own tutor), then you are on your own. Partly for this reason, MOOCs typically have a completion rate of about 5%, about one tenth the rate for more conventional courses.

The low completion rate is a large hidden cost for MOOCs: they may be on tenth the cost of conventional courses, but if the completion rate is also one tenth, then MOOCs are no cheaper than conventional courses.

The cost for courses which Dr. Barber does not mention is tutoring. The courses I study and teach online at universities have human tutor to help the students. The ANU's casual tutor rates are around $100 per hour.

It would be possible to drastically lower the cost of Australian university degrees by providing them online with no human assistance and using academic staff at universities which undertake no research. However, the reputation of Australia's university sector would suffer as a result.

I agree with Dr. Barber that Australian universities need to embrace on-line courses if they are to avoid the fate of the car industry. But just as the Australian car industry found it could not compete on price with low value cars, Australian universities should avoid trying to compete on price with low quality degrees. Instead Australia should address the premium on-line and blended education market, providing a quality product for a reasonable price, from a country known for its research.

Is Torrens University Australia's First On-line Unviersity?

Professor Jim Barber, UNE Vice-Chancellor is  reported to have been advocating changes to government regulations to allow on-line universities to be established in Australia. Professor Barber announced that The University of New England will not charge on-line students a Student Services and Amenities Fee from 2014, but feels the regulations limit more changes. However, Torrens University Australia, as Australia's second private university seems to be primarly an on-line institution. An analysis of how it was able to meet the Australian university regulatory requirements could be useful for existing institutions which want to transition to on-line mode, as well as potential new universities.

Torrens University Australia was admitted to the Australian National Register of higher education providers in July 2012, as an "Australian University" and authorised to self-accredit courses.

Torrens was recognised by the South Australian parliament in the "TORRENS UNIVERSITY AUSTRALIA ACT 2013", with a campus in South Australia. The act is very short as most of the oversight of universities in Australia is now done by the Commonwealth Government. While Torrens has a campus in SA, there appear to be no requirement for the university to actually undertake administration, teaching or research at that campus, or anywhere else in Australia.

As described in their Study Assist entry, Torrens is part of Laureate International Universities, which provides "international" education online to 800,000 students. There appears to be no requirement under SA or Australian law for Torrens to employ a set number of administrative, teaching or research staff in Australia, or to conduct any of the administration, teaching or research in Australia. The SA Minister for Education's media release mentions Torres has "... plans for significant investment in higher education in Australia", but no funding amount or staffing figure is mentioned. However Torrens did advertise for a full time Associate Professor in September 2013, as well as a Lecturer in Education,  Project Management and a Learning Resources Coordinator., and a Student Administration Manager. A search of Torrens Staff on LinkedIn resulted in only eight: Vice-Chancellor, Assistant Professor - Business (Project Management), Academic Director, Lecturer - Business, Enrolment Advisor, Student Administration Manager and a Coordinator of IT Services. In comparison, LinkedIn lists 3,416 current staff for the University of Adelaide, which has 25,000 students. Torrens may need to employ only one hundredth the number of staff in Australia as a conventional university, for the same number of students.


As noted in the Explanatory Statement, the Minister for Education decided not to conduct any consultation before approving Torrens, as they did not think it restrict competition. This could be a useful precedent to cite for others wishing to set up on-line universities.

Torrens appears to have had some difficulty meeting the requirement that all Australian universities deliver both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in at least three fields, including Masters and Doctoral Degrees by Research and also do research in those fields. Torrens gave an undertaking to commence on undergraduate degree (in Commerce) and postgraduate research degrees in Management and Commerce, Health and Education, by January 2014 and undergraduate degrees in the other fields by 2015. There appears to be no separate undertaking to do research in those fields, but perhaps the Tertiary Education Quality and
Standards Agency (TEQSA) thought the research undertaken by the Masters and PHD students would be sufficient.

It may seem surprising that TEQSA would accredit a university which does not currently meet the standards. However it seems reasonable that a new institution should be given some time to work up its teaching and research programs.

Lower Fees for On-line Students at University of New England

The University of New England has announced that it will not charge on-line students a Student Services and Amenities Fee from 2014. As an on-line student myself at another Australian university I found it annoying that I was paying a fee for on-campus services which I could not use. However, I don't think that such fees should be scrapped altogether, instead the university should invest in services of benefit to on-line students and charge an appropriate fee, perhaps half that for on-campus students.

Professor Jim Barber, UNE Vice-Chancellor has proposed government change regulations to allow universities to unbundle services. He argues that on-line students are currently paying for services they don't use. However, it is not clear to me why UNE what regulations are stopping UNE further unbundle its services.

According to a media report Professor Barber wants to charge students an extra fee for optional tutorials. It is not clear from the article, but I assume this is referring to face-to-face tutorials and the Professor is still proposing to provide the on-line students with an equivalent to the tutorial on-line, for no extra charge. My experience has been that if you provide a good quality on-line course, then students don't want a face-to-face tutorial. There will be a small number of students (perhaps 10% to 20%) who need extra help, but the cost of that might be better built into the course fees.

Professor Barber  also claimed that on-line students were paying for the cost of lecture halls and this was built into the government endorsed quality standards. But there is plenty of research to show that on-line education produces results at least as good as face-to-face. It seems unlikely to me that  if UNE presents evidence of the quality of their education they cannot be penalized for not investing in classroom which are not needed.

Recently I enrolled in a North American on-line university. The fees are a few hundred dollars less per subject, than for the Australian equivalent. However, I selected the institution not based on cost, but for the relevance of the program and reputation. There have been some pleasant surprises, one being that a courier delivered my textbooks several weeks before the course was due to start. I had not realized that textbooks were included. Also the university provides an informal on-line forum for students to get to know each other, as it can be very lonely being a new student (on-line or on campus).

Remove Barriers to Australian On-line Universities

Professor Barber, Vice Chancellor of the University of New England (UNE), is reported to be suggesting changes to regulations to make it easier to set up new Australian on-line universities. Rather than create new on-line only, teaching only universities in Australia, I suggest that the barriers which separate distance/on-campus, full-time/part-time, coursework/research should be removed for all higher education. All students and universities should be funded and treated the same. A university might decide to specialize in one area, such as on-line education: there should be no special rules to prevent this and no need for special rules to encourage it. Current rules should be "flipped" so that part-time, on-line, life long, multi-institution learning, incorporating coursework and experience/research is assumed the norm. This would still allow for less common full-time, on-campus intensive programs, specializing in coursework or research.

It is not clear what Professor Barber thinks is holding up creation of an Australian on-line only university, or why UNE could not simply expand its on-line offering to satisfy the perceived demand.

UNE was a pioneer in distance education, with its "Armidale model of Distance Education", being adopted by the UK Open University (UKOU). The UKOU received very generous special funding from the UK Government to be established, but then went through the same registration process as other universities. If there are barriers to on-line unviersites in Australia, these should be removed. But the spcial access to resources which UKOU received (including special access to a BBC TV channel) should not now be needed, due to the much lower cost and ubiquity of communications technology.

Australia previously had Colleges of Advanced Education (CAEs), which were teaching only institutions, offering courses at an educational level above those of Technical and Further Education (TAFE), but below unviersites. In the mid 1990s the CAEs became new universities, or campuses of existing ones. As universities the former CAEs are required to carry out research as well as teach.

New Australian Government's Position on Online Education

The Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Abbott, then leader of the federal opposition, made an Address to Universities Australia Higher Education Conference in Canberra, 28 February 2013. He started by referring to his studies at Oxford University and his time boxing there (but did not mention Oxford has been offering on-line courses since at least 2009).  Mr Abbott expressed a wish for Australian universities to take advantage of online learning and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), however no funding or other support was proposed for this. A Coalition Online Higher Education Working Group, was formed to look at how "... online technology improve existing campus-based teaching with all the benefits of interaction, in the classroom and beyond...". In response to an e-mail request from the working group chair (Alan Tudge MP, now Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister), I prepared a responses to the online higher education topics, suggesting:

1. Online learning will be integrated into most university courses, with blended learning (on-line plus classroom), using the "flipped classroom" model being  the norm
2. Online learning is lower cost when used with large volumes of students. However, this requires a high initial investment in course design and highly trained staff. Most Australian university academics are not currently qualified to design or deliver on-line courses.
3. Global choice of online courses will be limited by accreditation requirements. There is likely to be a flood of poor quality, unaccredited courses. 
4. Online learning allows for learning while employed and in remote areas. However, being a student is still hard work and requires considerable amounts of time. 
5. Institutions will require staff to be retrained in online pedagogy and use of technology. This retraining can make use of online technology and a stepwise approach.
6. Online learning can enhance quality and standards through more detailed and frequent monitoring. However, measures to prevent cheating by students will need to be enhanced. Also teaching staff and students will require explicit training in how to communicate online.
7. The learning technology already being introduced to universities and vocational institutions can be ungraded for larger scale use. In particular, Australia is a world leader in learning management systems, by virtue of the locally developed Moodle system, which could be enhanced.
8. Current accreditation processes for domestic courses will require minor modification for online courses. International accreditation will require government or industry agreements. Work by the Australian Computer Society in accrediting global professional qualifications can serve as a model.
9.  Governments can assist Australian providers by removing barriers which prevent online courses from being undertaken by students. Government can also set an example by allowing their own staff to undertake online courses and teach in them. As an example, the online engagement courses proposed by the Department of Finance for all Australian Public Servants could be delivered online by Australian tertiary institutions.
10. Australian institutions can be encouraged to join international partnerships for online course creation.  
11. Visa restrictions which limit International students undertaking online courses should be relaxed. Currently an international student is expected to be on campus for about three quarters of a full time course. This should be reduced to one quarter.
12. Australian experience suggests that all university courses will be delivered at least in part online, with the typical student spending about 25% of their time in a face-to-face class and 75% online. Undergraduate degrees will have more face to face components, and  postgraduate courses less. This will result in a drop in Australian students on campus, but allow for millions more online from our region.  
13. With most education online, Australian and international students will be able to choose courses from anywhere in the world. Retaining a proportion of the Australian students and capturing part of the international market will require maintaining Australia's very high standards for accreditation. A national course recognition program, so students can combine courses from multiple Australian universities, would be useful to promote "Brand Australia". The Australian government can also fund Australian academics to reach out to the region.
14. Australian universities are already reconfiguring their campuses with accommodation and "learning commons" to suit the new blended learning. Campuses are being redesigned to be pleasant places to be, not just study.
15. No specific regulatory barriers exist, with online courses being covered by existing regulations on education. However, it would be useful for the Australian Government to advance bilateral and multilateral agreements on mutual recognition of educational standards. Support to professional bodies to advance standards for disciplines would also be of assistance.

Open Universities Australia

Australia has Open Universities Australia (OUA) delivering on-line courses. This is a consortium of Australian unviersites (some of which were previously CAEs). The OUA courses are delivered by the individual institutions and while the student can select from courses across several institutions, their degree is awarded by one and they have to meet the requirements of that university. OUA has introduced some short MOOC-like free open courses, but most of the on-line offerings are conventional ones in the format pioneered by UKOU.

OUA also has non-university bodies offering courses, including the Australian Computer Society (ACS). OUA offers the ACS course "Green ICT Strategies", which I designed (also run by ANU as ICT Sustainability and Athabasca University Canada as COMP 635).

Creating low cost education-only universities would in effect re-establish the CAE system. While universities promote the benefits of research informing their teaching, in practice there is little connection between the research conducted by advanced degree students and the coursework of graduate and undergraduate students. However, I suggest it would be better to reconnect research and education, rather than further separate the two.

Blend Separation of Coursework and Research

Australia has a bifurcated system, where advanced students enroll in either a coursework/professional or research degrees. The coursework/professional students are seen to be the exception, with pure research being the main product of the university. This division is enforced by government funding which pays for research degrees separately and more generously.

In my view this separation of coursework and research is harmful to the education of all students and holds back innovation. A better approach would be to have all students enroll in the same program, undertake initial coursework and the decide the mix of research and coursework. Government funding should not discourage professional masters and doctorates, as while these may have a smaller component of original research, what they do have is likely to be applied for economic and community benefit much sooner.

Assume Students Have a Life Outside University

Another useful reform to education would be to abolish the divisions between full time, part time, distance and on-campus students. Currently government and university rules favor full-time on-campus students. Universities assume a normal student is on campus and has no work or family commitments, and then makes exceptions for others. However, most students are working part time or have family commitments (or both) and can't be on campus all day, every day.

I suggest government regulations and university procedures should be flipped, so the average student is assumed to be distance, part time. The average student would be assumed not to be able to get to something at a set time on campus. Educational materials would be provided in a format suitable for distance mode, except where this is not possible.

This approach is analogous to the change in the way disabled students are catered for. In the past students were assumed to not have a disability and special arrangements would be made for those with a disability. However, most people have some disability at some time in their life and so the law now requires educational institutions to allow for this. Australian law requires educational offerings to be designed for those with a disability, except where this is not feasible. A university which simply waits for disabled students to ask for special access is acting unlawfully.

Education for Life

Another reform would be to encourage students to undertake education at multiple university and over extended periods.  At present it is possible, but difficult, to incorporate education from multiple universities. Government policies also make it difficult for students to study over extended periods. The system assumes the student will be at one university and do nothing but their degree and makes it very difficult for most potential students where this is not the case.

As an example, last year I undertook a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education at ANU. As I was interested in on-line distance teaching techniques, my supervisor agreed it would be useful to incorporate two on-line courses from University of Southern Queensland (USQ). The process of cross institutional enrollment proved prohibitively complex (on my reading of the rules it appeared impossible, as I was required to get the approval from each institution before the other). To bypass the problem enrolled as a professional studies student, bypassing the cross-institutional procedures and paying the full fee.

As an student at two institutions I was required to have two different student numbers and to pay two Student Services and Amenities fees  (one for a campus I have never seen). I was then required to pay extra for a printed transcript from one institution to present to the other to have my results credited.

An better approach would have Australian students issued with one student identifier for all higher education institutions, electronic results and an exemption from paying more than one Student Services and Amenities fee.

Another way that the realities could be recognized would be foAr institutions to allow  students to undertake further studies to build on their existing qualifications. Many Australian universities allow multiple exit points from higher degrees (Graduate Certificate, Diploma, Masters, Doctorate). But this is less common with undergraduate programs. Also articulation into a program is usually only allowed from the same university and same program.

The Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector has standards applying to institutions which allow students more flexibility. However, these standards limit the freedom of each institution and are less appropriate for universities. After completing the GCHE, I obtained the equivalent Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, so as to teach in the VET sector. Some of the features of the VET process could be applied to universities, but many could not.

Australian Higher Education is Competing with the World

Australian universities value their autonomy and freedom from government regulation. However, they need to understand they are competing in a world market, not just for international students, but increasingly for domestic students. If Australian universities do not offer students the flexibility they need, then those students can enroll in universites elsewhere.

Changes to allow for more flexibility for domestic students will also help Australian universities to compete internationally. As an example, after completing my Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, I wanted to study and research the field further. However, the choice of programs in Australia is limited and restrictive, so I am looking to study on-line overseas.