Swinburne University of Technology - Melbourne Australia

Agency audit raises higher education bar

Story by Julian Cribb

Measuring the quality of something as complex as a university is not easy, and in Australia the responsibility falls to the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) - an independent, publicly funded body with the unenviable task of assessing how good our universities really are - as well as its own lights and by the standards required by government.

But AUQA is not just about making academia feel good (or bad) about itself, or simply confirming to governments that the public's money is being well spent. It is also, says AUQA executive director Dr David Woodhouse, an international warranty of the quality of Australia's tertiary education system.

"Every advanced nation has a body that measures the quality of its higher education sector," Dr Woodhouse says. "As one of the world's leading exporters of education, Australia needs to be able to demonstrate it has nothing to hide - and that the quality of what we offer is at least as good as that of other countries, if not better."

Reports of the shortcomings - as well as successes - of Australian tertiary institutions often appear in the international as well as the local media, he says. "Our ultimate sanction is that all our comments, favourable and critical, are there on the web for everyone to see - and universities have to respond to them and be judged by the public accordingly."

Set up by Federal and state governments, but governed by an independent board that includes employer representatives, AUQA has been around since 2000. It audits the performance of all universities every five years, ensuring they comply with national standards for tertiary education, and helps them to put in place the right mechanisms to monitor and improve quality. Its watchword is transparency.

"To be honest, the average university probably feels that quality auditing is a necessary evil," Dr Woodhouse explains. "But the smart ones undoubtedly view it as an opportunity and a means to lift their game."

Universities are judged not against one another, but according to their own standards and goals spelt out in their strategic documents, and according to the requirements of their charter or the state legislation under which they exist. They are also assessed against Commonwealth protocols set down for higher education. This approach allows diversity to flourish in the system, he says.

Audits, which take place every five years, involve a panel (which includes industry and employer representatives as well as academics) that reviews how the individual university has performed according to its own monitoring processes. The panel visits as many campuses as possible including, increasingly, overseas campuses. And then it quizzes the university administrators, teaching and research staff, students, employers, research partners and graduates - a cross-section of the 'university community'. This provides valuable and often uninhibited feedback on how the institution is travelling.

AUQA subjects itself to independent and international scrutiny to be sure it is abreast of global standards. It is a simple check to ensure that, when it comes to measuring educational quality, Australia is as good and as credible as the best.

AUQA is auditing 14 institutions this year and will tackle another 20 next year.

More information:  www.auqa.edu.au

Swinburne's score sheet

Audited by AUQA in July 2008, Swinburne University of Technology was commended by AUQA in the latest audit for its vision, its 'real-life' approach to learning, the zeal of its staff, its international programs and its success in building its profile as a research university.

At the time of the audit, the university was offering 290 undergraduate and postgraduate courses. It had 12,714 full-time equivalent (FTE) students, of whom nearly a third were from overseas. The university had 650 full-time teaching and research staff and 556 non-academic staff.

The audit report said that in recent years Swinburne had introduced many changes to establish its differentiated position within the higher education sector and to build on its particular strengths in education and research. "In doing so, it has redefined its future direction. AUQA commends the university for this, for the clarity with which it has articulated its future direction, and for the success it has achieved in many of its initiatives," the report stated.

Singled out was Swinburne's Professional Learning Model (PLM), which gives students real-world industry work experience both in Australia and overseas. "AUQA commends the rigour and thoroughness of the efforts of the university in establishing and embedding this system-wide initiative," it said.

"Industry-based learning placements are greatly appreciated by students and have very positive learning and employment outcomes. Swinburne acknowledges the need to strengthen the support offered to hosts and students during their placements, and steps have been taken to address this."

AUQA also praised Swinburne staff for their commitment and enthusiasm for real-world learning, which it saw as contributing significantly to the quality of teaching.

On the international front the audit noted rapid progress in developing the campus in Sarawak, Malaysia, as a major platform for the university's internationalisation goals and also noted with approval its collaboration with the Northeastern University (US) and its education-abroad activities, which help students to move between countries during their courses, as part of the Swinburne 'global experience'. The report urges Swinburne to accelerate the growth of its worldwide activities.

The 2008 audit is seen as a measure of the university's commitment to quality tertiary education irrespective of where a campus is located. The 2003 audit questioned whether a degree offered by Swinburne overseas could equate with a degree offered in Australia. This has been dispelled with the 2008 audit citing Swinburne Sarawak's clear quality assurance processes that ensure its degrees are on par with the high international standards expected in Australia.

The satisfaction of Swinburne graduates with their education was among the most notable findings of the new audit: "On readily available comparative outcome indicators for Australian universities, Swinburne stands out for its high levels of graduate satisfaction. Swinburne graduates consistently rate the university 'highly' for generic skill development, good teaching and overall satisfaction, in comparison to the sector. Student satisfaction with units and teaching is also high."

Swinburne's image as a research university has grown since the last audit following its reorganisation into six faculties, the embedding of research in each of them and development of its R&D focus, the report said. It cautioned about the need to maintain balance between research activity and high-quality teaching.

Other highlights of the audit were AUQA's commendation of:

• the vision and leadership of its senior managers;
• Swinburne's use of enhanced quality-management systems;
• improvements to course approval systems and the strong role of external advisers; and
• Swinburne's efforts to assist socially disadvantaged students.

AUQA also advised Swinburne to introduce a more comprehensive system of course advice for students, to provide more mechanisms for staff to share good practices, to put in place a comprehensive plan to advise students and future employers more fully about PLM, to develop student engagement strategies and to explore the scope to offer TAFE-style courses in Sarawak.

Swinburne Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young says that although the audit is an enormous amount of work "it is immensely valuable".

"Having an external body come in and scrutinise you makes you take a really hard, critical look at what you do - and whether you are delivering what you say you will," Professor Young says.

The audit's strong endorsement of both the university's PLM and its international activities were highly gratifying, he says. "In PLM we have developed a form of education designed for the busy professional of the 21st century - and the audit gave that a big tick.

"We are also very serious about being a truly international university, with all the challenges that implies. So we are most pleased that AUQA has found us to be doing a really good job."

Swinburne has set out to be different, Professor Young says. "We've deliberately tried to position ourselves where others aren't, and to be very focused. In looking at what we do, AUQA is confirming we have managed to carve out a unique and compelling form of both education and research for our time."