Pathways: a policy study

© 1994 Dorothy Lois BennettImproving pathways between the sectors is an aspect of educational policy within Australia which has risen to high visibility in recent years. It has been an important part of Commonwealth policy on reform of both higher education and training sectors. Improved pathways are seen to assist in up-grading workers’ qualifications in the minimum time, and more cost-effectively; to assist in enabling a better balance of post-secondary education and training to be provided; to increase the status, visibility and use of TAFE middle-level credentials; and to achieve better equity in higher education provision. The economic and equity arguments are married, by asserting that a wider base will be ultimately more economical. Of equal importance is the convergence of vocational and general education as a preparation for life and work. Using the Swinburne University of Technology Pathways Project 1992-3 as a case study, this paper demonstrates that valuable models of more highly articulated curriculum and structures are possible within a pathways concept. In addition, improved credit transfer agreements and implementation strategies at institutional level are shown to materially assist TAFE students’ access to higher education courses. However, there are limitations to how far “Pathways” type approaches can succeed in implementing government policy while the sectors are encouraged to remain so polarised, and while universities have no real incentive to increase their TAFE articulating students. While they remain strictly vocational in nature, TAFE qualifications cannot achieve full recognition in a degree. A more generalist qualification, like the associate degree, would arguably be more successful in creating the convergence of general and vocational education, and greater credit transfer. Likewise, an expansion of TAFE’s mission could bring a better acceptance of TAFE as an alternative higher education pathway option