Quality body to ensure we continue to operate universities of high distinction

CAPA applauds the fourteenth recommendation of the Senate Committee
report, Universities in Crisis, that the Australian Universities Quality Agency should focus on course assessment procedures in order to guarantee the integrity of Australian university qualifications.

"It is time that a coherent and coordinated approach was employed to underwriting the quality of Australian university awards, said CAPA President John Byron today.

"There is no more straightforward measure of a university's quality that
the rigour of its assessment standards and processes, whether for coursework material or for research dissertations.

The newly formed Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) is the obvious body to monitor assessment procedures and quality assurance measures, as these matters go to the core of its mission to ensure the whole sector's reputation is above reproach.

"The entire Australian university system's reputation can only be preserved if every single institution is working hard to ensure that no talk can plausibly circulate of poor procedures or dubious passes at an Australian university," continued Mr Byron.

"Unfortunately, the Howard Government's abdication of responsibility for managing our national educational asset, combined with its shameful erosion of real funding for universities, has resulted in compromises to quality at individual institutions that do harm to the entire sector," he observed.

"Soft marking, the toleration of plagiarism, passes in exchange for the withdrawal of complaints about teaching standards and practices - none of these are rare stories, and the system-wide causes of these problems must be met with a system-wide strategy," he urged.

"This must take the form of a revival of our universities through the delivery of desperately needed funding, and the establishment of an intelligent and independent monitoring scheme such as that suggested.

"There is no more precious commodity for an institution of learning than the reputation of its quality standards: in the end, this is all it has to 'sell'‚ to potential students, and through them to employers and the community," Mr Byron continued.

"A degree or diploma constitutes a university's imprimatur, a statement
to the world that the student has attained a particular level of achievement in the prescribed field of study.

"Too often of late, universities have sold this seal of approval in the
market-place, which is a short-term strategy at best as the consequences rebound upon graduates, current students, staff members, and ultimately the public that has entrusted the institution into the care of its governing body," he explained.

"While CAPA understands that often these short-sighted compromises have been the result of desperation in light of Government intransigence, there is still an excellent case for the establishment of a watching brief over the maintenance of effective and stringent assessment processes," he concluded.