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15 March 2010
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New Release | NZHA Conference
The Australian Learning and Teaching Council Academic Teaching Standards project gets under way this year, with History as one of its chosen disciplines. Geography and history will be the key demonstration disciplines in arts, humanities and social sciences for developing learning and teaching academic standards at bachelor level. Australian Learning and Teaching Council Discipline Scholar for arts, humanities and social sciences, Professor Iain Hay said the recommendation that geography and history be approached to participate was a major outcome from the National Learning and Teaching Academic Standards forum in Melbourne in early February. Late last year the Australian Government commissioned the ALTC to lead the Learning and Teaching Academic Standards project to inform the new regulatory environment taking shape with the establishment of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA). TEQSA will regulate the sector against agreed standards for higher education. The LTAS project involves ALTC Discipline Scholars working with disciplines to define threshold learning outcomes for majors and degree programs. Discipline scholars are driving the project which is led by Professor Christine Ewan. The February forum brought discipline leaders together with representatives from industry, professional and accreditation bodies in a spirit of cooperation to work on this project of national significance. Key figures representing arts, humanities and social sciences from across Australia recommended history and geography as the demonstration disciplines. This endorsed an earlier recommendation from the Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. Last week the Presidents of the Australian Historical Association and the Institute of Australian Geographers each confirmed their discipline’s participation. Professor Hay will work with academic communities, professional bodies and employers and with reference to existing national and international measures to support discipline communities as they define academic standards within the traditions of collegiality, peer review, pre-eminence of disciplines and academic autonomy. Small discipline reference groups for history and geography are being formed to work to provide advice on the direction and implementation of the project, draft and review project-related material, and facilitate and support engagement with key discipline group stakeholders. Panel sessions are also being arranged at the Australian Historical Association Conference in Perth in July and the joint Institute of Australian Geographers/New Zealand Geographical Conference in New Zealand also in July where it is intended to circulate draft learning outcomes for comment. Learning and teaching standards are just one of five axes to the Federal government’s likely new standards framework for higher education, the others being: Research standards: Excellence in Research in Australia (ERA) Provider standards: National protocols and Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Qualification standards: Australian Qualifications Framework Price includes
If you have paid your AHA affliliate membership for 2010, could you please check that the details on your entry on the Affiliates Page is correct. The URL is: http://www.theaha.org.au/members/affiliates.htm. If changes are required, please contact Carolyn Brewer.
University of Waikato 23–25 November 2011 
Page constructed by Carolyn Brewer Last modified by Carolyn Brewer 12 March 2010 1045 URL: http://www.theaha.org.au/newsletters/2010/newsletter5.htm |
