NMIT’s higher education seamless, but at times needs separation: AUQA

Northern Melbourne Institute of Technology is breaking new ground with its single seamless delivery of courses from VET certificates to bachelors degrees, according to the institute’s recent Australian Universities Quality Audit. But the institute at times struggles with that seamlessness when the two competing cultures of VET and higher education refuse to sit neatly together. “It appears at times that NMIT is attempting to ‘fit’ higher education into a VET mould, assuming that higher education tasks and policies can legitimately be reinterpreted into a TAFE framework,” the AUQA report says. A major challenge is for NMIT to move from “the compliance-driven approach to quality assurance (derived from operating in a VET context over many years) to a continuous improvement approach to the quality management of higher education”. “The audit panel was of the opinion that VET is both a strength and a weakness to the institute in this respect.” It’s an observation CEO Brian MacDonald concedes has more than an element of truth to it, but says the division of the two distinct sectors will lessen over time. “The harshness of those two competing forces will weaken and blur over time as the higher education component gets bigger,” MacDonald said. What he doesn’t agree with is AUQA’s comments that, at times, the institute needs to stand back and view its policies and processes from both a higher education and a VET perspective and “then develop a process that can better service both sectors”. “In cases where integration does not work and processes need to be identifiably separate, NMIT must appreciate this legitimate separation between higher education and VET activities,” the report says. Not right, argues MacDonald. “Fundamental to our position is the structure of NMIT where we are trying to have a seamless set of dual-sector programs running. That is our strategic plan. AUQA commended that, but at the same time say certain higher education practices should have a separate policy or structure.” At present, higher education, with 242 students, accounts for only 1 per cent of the institute’s students – but 6.4 per cent of its budget. Nationally, only 10 TAFE institutes offer higher education courses. NMIT was a pioneer, having been the first TAFE institute to gain accreditation to deliver higher education in Victoria in 2004. AUQA says there is a tangible air of pride in the institute’s philosophy of seamless delivery among staff and board members, but there is a lack of understanding as to how this will be achieved. “Many of those interviewed had trouble in describing the higher education brand beyond its being defined as a vocational approach,” the report said. NMIT’s board was described by AUQA as reactive rather than proactive in the development of the institute’s higher education profile. In its first recommendation, AUQA said the board needed to be more fully engaged with the higher education activities of the institute and should oversee the development of a strategic plan, along with relevant KPIs to monitor progress. The institute’s higher education academic committee was also found to be lacking on several fronts. “The committee had not undertaken any self-assessment, had not developed a higher education strategic plan nor action work plan, and had no KPI or other framework that it monitors in overseeing the development of higher education, relying on ad hoc reports from faculties. This ad hoc approach means the committee had not considered major strategic issues such as the present student profile or the costs of delivery, and how long a course is given in a start-up phase before it is not considered viable to run.” Overall, MacDonald said he was pleased with the report, which he had found helpful and practical. An action plan had been put it place and all six affirmations and nine recommendations will have been addressed by March next year. He said several, such as the development of a promotions policy for academic staff, had already been addressed.