The University of Canberra wants to become an institution for “tradies”, unveiling plans to shave off a year from study for people with certain TAFE qualifications after successive government reviews called for better pathways between vocational education and university.
The university’s vice chancellor, former Labor leader Bill Shorten, said the change meant people with selected existing diplomas could save up to $12,000 on the cost of some bachelor degrees.
Plumber Maric Wichman, 27, left school and enrolled in a bachelor of security studies but dropped out after two weeks.Credit: James Brickwood
“We’re going to look at people with TAFE qualifications, and we are going to treat their qualifications with parity of esteem,” Shorten said.
“[The University of Canberra] is happy to be a tradies university.”
Sydney plumber Maric Wichman, 27, said he finds his job fulfilling, but would like the option of a shorter university degree to retrain because it could give him career options in the construction industry.
“My body is not going to keep up until I’m 60 years old,” he said.
When Wichman left school, he enrolled in a bachelor of security studies but quit after two weeks. He became a labourer on construction sites before eventually securing a plumbing apprenticeship and setting up his own business, Wichman Plumbing Co, on the Northern Beaches.
“Everyone gets pushed into university. Even the careers advisers at school promote uni and not the trades,” he said.
That experience was mirrored in last year’s Universities Accord review which outlined the yawning chasm between vocational education providers and universities, with credit transfer dubbed inconsistent and a barrier to further study.
Another review by Jobs and Skills Australia’s commissioner Barney Glover earlier this year also called for easier pathways.
Glover will chair a Tertiary System Advisory Council, creating a road map to “identify the next steps” to ease movement for students between TAFE and university for the federal government, which Education Minister Jason Clare in August said would reduce artificial barriers and help “crack the code of credit transfer”.
While all that is under way, the University of Canberra has already allowed students with diplomas across certain fields including project management, nursing and early childhood education. Currently, those students are all graduates of Canberra’s Institute of Technology, but the institution plans to expand the scheme.
Other institutions offer credit for existing study, but students must typically apply. Shorten said, at the University of Canberra, the process will be done at “scale and speed”.
Lower fees for students means less revenue for universities, but Glover applauded the University of Canberra’s move and said, as chair of the government’s advisory body, he would examine levers to get more people into university.
“Yes, we have been trying to do this for a long time and for a range of reasons, the complexities, the relations between Commonwealth and states, we haven’t made as much progress as we’ve like,” he said.
“Right now, there’s a strong appetite for change.”
Glover also said part of reducing segregation between universities and other training providers was bringing about cultural change by shifting perceptions of vocational education.
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