Tertiary education targets could impact on student migration

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Created on Monday, 12 December 2011 15:45

Written by Editorial staff

A recent release by the Australian government has called for public participation from industry stakeholders regarding the future development of university performance systems.

The minister for tertiary education Chris Evans issued a number of discussion papers for public use with the aim of gaining valuable feedback to help improve the information provided to both domestic and international students through the MyUniversity website.

Speaking on the release, Evans said that the documents would help to improve the Advancing Quality in Higher Education initiative by collating "the development of the new performance measurement instruments" with the aim of improving student outcomes across the board.

Evans asserted: "The papers consider the effectiveness of the new instruments, their ability to operate together coherently to obtain a comprehensive view of student experience and the quality of learning outcomes."

The initiative comes off the back of the announcement of a new International Education Advisory Council announced back in August that was formed to provide the federal government with advice on a number of key areas.

Chaired by Michael Chaney, the group was responsible for providing insights into long-term strategies used by the government to bolster tertiary institutions.

In particular, it looked into the possibilities afforded by rewarding universities for delivering higher education to key demographics, such as those with low socio-economic backgrounds or certain groups considered to be under-represented in this area.

As a result, the government set the target of a 40 per cent tertiary education participation rate for those between the ages of 25 and 34 years of age.

It says that the scheme is well on track - with 35 per cent of this group had obtained a bachelor degree in 2011.

One of the key factors in this development has been the participation of international students - with educational immigration visas most often used by this particular demographic.

According to senior research fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research Dr Daniel Edwards, universities may be benefiting from recent changes in the policies surrounding migration visas.

He told The Australian on December 8 that the 35 per cent participation was an aggregate figure, while the number for domestic students was closer to 26 per cent.

Edwards asserted: "The different trajectories of these two trends suggests it is not Australian government education policy that has fuelled the growth in attainment over the past decade ... [it is] more likely to be a result of migration policy."