Go8 tells govt more time needed to respond to draft standards

Department defends approach to public consultation on qualifications standards. Department defends approach to public consultation on qualifications standards. The Group of Eight has joined those who will make a late submission on the Draft Qualification Standards published by DEEWR two weeks ago with a response deadline of Thursday, September 15. The deadline has passed and DEEWR has confirmed that it is granting extensions for submissions on a case-by-case basis. Last week Campus Review reported that the draft proposals had been criticised as ‘undercooked’ with hardwiring to the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) likely to lead to implementation difficulties and clumsy administration. In response to a CR query about the short timespan for responses a DEEWR spokesman said the revised AQF, endorsed by MCTEE reflected a 20-month-long consultative process undertaken by the AQFC. "Given this extensive consultation, the intent of the Draft Qualification Standards public release is to seek feedback on the development of the standards as an enforceable regulatory instrument and to ensure it reflects the intent of the AQF." He said work on the development of the standards began in May and included several meetings with the AQFC that resulted in their approval of the final draft Qualification Standards. He pointed out that the department released the draft Qualification Standards for public consultation on Thursday September 1, 2011 on its website. "The Department has already received a number of submissions and will accept late submissions on a case-by-case basis," he said. Last week Professor Greg Craven, vice-chancellor, Australian Catholic University, and chair of Universities Australia standing group on TEQSA implementation said the short response time could not possibly do justice to such an important matter. He said he would be contacting TEQSA to indicate that Universities Australia would give the matter due consideration and would not be responding within the prescribed timeframe. "I will be taking up the matter of reasonable response times on an ongoing basis," Craven said. The Go8 confirmed that it too had required an extended time to respond.