Australia

Partners situated in Australia

None. However, a member of the Advisory Committee is based in Australia.

Australia in a nutshell

Australia is a country occupying a whole continent in the southern hemisphere of considerable relevance to European policy in education.

Australia has a population of 20 million according to the CIA Factbook. It is a Commonwealth country with many links to the UK - many people and ideas in education flow to and fro between the countries, and this is true also in e-learning.

It could be argued that the relevance of Australia is mainly to the larger nations of the European Union, yet since it has a states structure as well the relevance is wider, in fact to all nations large and small.

Australia has six states, plus two major mainland territories and several minor territories including islands. The states are New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia. The two major mainland territories are the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).

The population of the four largest states is as follows:

• New South Wales: 6,927 million
• Victoria: 5.2 million
• Queensland: 4.2 million
• South Australia: 1.5 million
• Western Australia: 2.1 million

All other states and territories have populations each well under .5 million, and so are relevant only to microstates - with Tasmania as perhaps the most relevant due to its island situation.

Australia education policy

Education in Australia is primarily the responsibility of states and territories.

A real ITC policy and organisational framework exists for the use of Information and Communication Technilogies in Australian Education Training. A Joint Ministerial Statement on Information and Communications Technologies in Australian Education and Training: 2008-2011 was endorsed by MCEETYA and MCVTE in June 2008.

Joint Ministerial Statement

(To follow.)

Australia education system

Generally, education in Australia follows the three-tier model which includes primary education (primary schools), followed by secondary education (secondary schools/high schools) and tertiary education (universities and/or TAFE (Technical and Further Education Colleges)).

Education is compulsory up to an age specified by legislation; this age varies from state to state but is generally 15-17, that is prior to completing secondary education. Post-compulsory education is regulated within the Australian Qualifications Framework, a unified system of national qualifications in schools, vocational education and training (TAFE) and the higher education sector (university).

The academic year in Australia varies between states and institutions, but generally runs from late January until mid-December for primary and secondary schools and TAFE colleges, and from late February until mid-November for universities.

(To follow.)

Higher education

Universities in Australia

Australia has 38 universities that are members of Universities Australia, the Australian analogue of Universities UK.

Most Australian universities developed substantial capability in distance learning in the 1980s and several have now migrated this to e-learning.

Perhaps the best known is the University of Southern Queensland.

There is a service provider called NextEd who operates globally and in particular supported the GUA.

Polytechnics in Australia

(To follow. TAFE?)

Australia's HEIs in the information society

Information society strategy

Benchmarking e-learning

Australia is one of the few countries where benchmarking e-learning has been taken seriously. Others include UK and New Zealand.

There has been interest in benchmarking in Australia on two fronts:

• a long strand of development and piloting of the ACODE scheme
• an impending pilot of eMM by around six institutions

Although the ACODE scheme is a distinct scheme, it has several similarities with the Pick&Mix style of benchmarking which has been used for some analytic purposes in Re.ViCa - and in fact Paul Bacsich was the external advisor to the ACODE scheme. There are interesting differences, including a stronger focus in ACODE on IT.

Major e-learning initiatives

Open Unviersities Australia, formerly Open Learning Australia, Australia’s national specialist distance tertiary education agency, was established by the Australian Government to ensure that the highest quality tertiary education was open to all Australians. There are no education prerequisites for entry to most undergraduate courses, no limits on numbers and in most cases no requirements to attend on-campus or residential seminars. Learners can study in any or all of the four study periods each year, commencing March, June, September or December.

Open Universities Australia is owned and operated by a consortium of seven Australian Universities.

Curtin University of Technology Griffith University Macquarie University Monash University RMIT University Swinburne University of Technology University of South Australia

References

Web sites :

Government Educational Portal

Study in Autralia : is the official Australian Government site for studying in Australia

(None yet.)

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