The Rationalisation of Higher Education in Tasmania

ii 11 II I (as we have defined it) and how it will cope with the in which students can be trained so that they can in turn Peter C Byers, II understand and bUild on existing knowledge. That cor THE RATIONALISATION 1! most severe disadvantages meanwhile, That will in Assistant to the Vice·Chancellor; and volve each in a serious examination of the kinds of pus of information and the skills which are necessary to OF HIGHER EDUCATION II issues we have considered in this paper. It will cer understand, sustain, and expand it, constitute the basis David E of adiscipline. Thebasis will change, sometimesslowly, Vice-Chancellor: tainly be necessary, we believe, for each small IN TASMANIA II sometimes rapidly. Nevertheless, at any given moment University 01 Tasmania I university to formulate publicly supportable reaSons It is possible to approach a particular aspect of man's ! which it would advance for its continued support by knowledge about himself and his world from within the government and the public, boundaries of a particular discipline. The organisation of !n February 1 980 the State Government accepted year 1 2 schooling are linked factors, the lowest par knowledge in disciplines is useful because our minds an offer from the University of Tasmania to assume Finally, we do not think that any of us should shrink cannot encompass the complete range of man's ticipation rates being found in the areas outside from examining even those actions which could lead understanding; we need to fix, around particular areas responsibility for courses given by the College of Ad Hobart. vanced Education in Southern Tasmania. The Univer to the disappearance of the university as a separate of knowledge, boundaries within which we can conduct In the metropolitan centres of the larger states, sity stated that if it were given such an opportunity, it institution (that is, either federation or integration). research, teaching and learning. universities and colleges can each limit their offerings There is, of course, a danger that these boundaries are would become a broadly-based dual-purpose institu There are circumstances when such transformations but collectively provide a very wide range of oppor assumed to be more permanent, part of "the nature of tion. The University recognised the need for flexibility could readily be accepted as best for staff, students tunities in the one city. Many universities have things", than they really are, and that they therefore im in a small state and stated: and the development of higher education itself; if, for chosen a limited role, emphasising research and example, competitive pressures decrease the pose restrictions on desirable intellectual develop ment. Butitdoesnotseem to us thatthesedangershave The University indeed welcomes the oppor scholarship, without being seen by the community as numbers of suitably qualified students so greatly that prevented the growth of the new disciplines from older tunity to evolve into a comprehensive regional failing in their duty. Over the last three decades there neither adequate resources nor achievement of the ones (for example, bio-chemistry) or of multi University new to Australia which could well be has been a substantial change in the distribution of critical mass for the student body could be assured; disciplinary activities (for example, in "schools of in a model for small universities in other parts of students between courses at various levels. the Commonwealth. Under this scheme the or if a university and a college, competing for the quiry", as in Griffith University). Indeed, an adequate Postgraduate teaching and research have expanded same students, found that their educational develop and continuing grasp of the content of "disciplines" is University would maintain its traditional essential for strong and effective multi-disciplinary and scholarly activities but a/so offer a broad range dramatically and at the same time there has been a ment was hampered by inadequate funding and that decline in sub-graduate teaching. Sub-graduate the deficiency could be overcome if they pooled their inter-disciplinary work! of courses and services more usually offered by colleges of advanced education in other courses accounted for 27% of all students in 1954 separate resources: then it would be eminently sen 2. Australian Universities Commission. Report on the Pro posal of the Government of Victoria for a Fourth Univer states. and only 10.4% in 1963. Subsequently many of sible for the institutions themselves to generate pro sity in Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo. Canberra To understand the problems behind the rationalisa these courses were phased out or up-graded to full posals for integration or federation. We claim after all, AGPS 1973. tion of higher education it is necessary to realise that degree courses in the late 1960s following the Mar to be expert in preparing our students for imaginative 3 Education, Training and Employment: Report of the tin Committee Report. and effective activity in greatly changing economic, Committee of Inquiry into Education and Training (Pro Tasmania is not at all !ike other states. The population social, industrial and political circumstances. It would fessor B. R. Williams, Chairman). Canberra, A.G.P.S. and interests of the community can be clearly iden It is perhaps ironic that the large institutions which can be strange indeed if, as a system, or as units in that 1979. tified with three major regions: the South, the North relatively easily be "comprehensive" now have no system, we were found lacking in the ability to adapt 4. Tertiary Education in Australia. Report of the Committee and the North West. The Tasmanian system of need to be, while the smaller ones in more remote on the Future of Tertiary Education in Australia to the our institutions to changes occurring here and now! parliamentary representation, based on five seven communities, are urged to be "comprehensive" but Australian Universities Commission, (Sir Leslie Martin, member electorates, contributes to this regional pat· Chairman). Melbourne, Government Printer, 1964 have to wrestle with problems of scale which inhibit NOTES AND REFERENCES. tern of interest as does the division and ownership of such diversity. In the Tasmanian experiment the 1. The definition of a "discipline" is itself a matter of some 5. Sale, Kirkpatrick Human Scale Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, New York, 1980 the media. The total population is only a little over University will be required to broaden its base and to dispute. In our view, at anyone time it is possible to 400,000. Of these about 160.000 live in greater define a set of related pieces of information and con provide some courses which in other areas may be cepts, which have been accumulated by using par Hobart, 1 00,000 in Launceston and the rest in towns found in CAEs. ticular kinds of inteUectual and practical techniques; and of less than 20,000 people or in the country. Like their mainland counterparts, vocal sectional History groups in Tasmania seek a wide range of educational To understand the latest moves to rationalise higher opportunities and would like them to be at their education it is necessary to review the history of the doorsteps. However, there are limited resources Tasmanian College of Advanced Education (TCAE). available and it is not possible forevery tertiary sector Perhaps because the University was not providing to be represented in each region in Tasmania, Thus the breadth of service needed by the community, a some tension and conflict is almost inevitable but is decision was taken in the late sixties to set upaCAE in compounded by an extraordinary jealousy between Tasmania. The potential student population was quite the North and the South, specifically between small so that the arguments for a college depended Launceston and Hobart. An equally important factor on breadth of opportunity rather than on numbers or is a sense of deprivation, freely expressed by the associated costs of the institutions involved. It representatives of the three major towns in the North might have been expected that, since more than half West. Tasmania's population lives outside Hobart, the Col lege would have been established in Launceston, the The sense of deprivation is well founded in fact. second city. However, the argument that no capital Tasmania's participation rates of 7.1 % forthe Univer city could be without a CAE prevailed and in 1 968 the sity and 6.3% for the College sector do not compare TCAEopened its doors on as!teatMt Nelsonwhich is well with the national averages of 9.5% and 10.0% almost contiguous with the University grounds. respectively. They are consistent with the low reten Subsequently the College tooksteps to develop a se tion rate to the final year of schooling - 25.4% com cond campus at Newnham in Launceston. pared with a national average of 35.3%. Decen The new College incorporated a previously existing tralisation of the population and low retention rates to School of Art, a Conservatorium of Music, and a 10 11 Teachers College. It proceeded with new (Ii) To achieve these objectives, the existing pro in the South of the State. Not only was it expected that New courses and academic structure developments in Libmrianship, Medical Technology grams of the Mt Nelson campus of the TCAE the University would lose teacher education but The courses which the University has agreed to take and Applied Sciences, Pharmacy, Social Work, and should be transferred to the University or to a there were also fears that this loss would quickly imp over include Associate Diploma (UG3), Diploma fully autonomous college of advanced educa· inge on enrolments in the Arts and Science faculties. IUG2}, Bachelor Degree and Post-graduate Diploma Environmental Design. jn addition, it developed a tion at Newnham (or as necessary, to the number of other courses, notabJy in Engineering, Ac" Hobart Technical College).

Load more