Dozens of TAFE SA students across 23 courses given pass grades despite withdrawing from subjects

DOZENS of TAFE SA students have again been given pass grades after withdrawing from subjects, despite the public trainer being warned about the problem just a year ago.

TAFE SA is has been criticised by the Auditor General for giving pass grades to students who have withdrawn form subjects.

• National regulator found problems with every TAFE SA course reviewed
• TAFE SA warned 16 coures in danger of losing accreditation
• More than 90 TAFE SA students get pass grades despite withdrawing

DOZENS of TAFE SA students have again been given pass grades for subjects — or parts of them — from which they withdrew, despite the organisation having been warned about the problem.

The state’s spending watchdog has found there are no proper controls to prevent withdrawn students receiving both a pass grade and a fee refund.

The Auditor General found 45 student records from semester two last year with a “withdrawn” registration status and a pass grade, linked to 35 students in 23 qualifications.

The issue fuels concerns about the credibility of TAFE SA courses after a random national regulator review of 16 courses by the Australian Skills Quality Authority found none were up to scratch.

A separate Auditor General investigation, detailed in its latest annual report, found TAFE had “no detective processes to mitigate against the inappropriate entry of grades”, including those that were altered.

It concluded TAFE was updating its student information system to make it clearer and easier for lecturers to enter grades. But that would not include any system-wide restrictions to prevent inappropriate grading of withdrawn students.

It also found inadequate controls to prevent students, issued refunds from being given passes, though there were no such cases identified.

Last November The Advertiser revealed more than 90 cases of passes for withdrawn students, including some who had received 50 per cent refunds, after the Auditor General raised the problem in the 2015/16 annual report.

Opposition education spokesman John Gardner said the grading issue compounded the reputational damage done by the ASQA audit and another recent bungle over aviation maintenance training.

TAFE SA chief executive Robin Murt was adamant no student was issued a qualification without completing all the necessary subjects.

“Lecturers follow strict assessment protocols and in order to be provided a certificate for a qualification, a student needs to pass all subjects required for that qualification,” he said.

“As an additional control, program managers regularly review all student grade changes. This is done manually on an individual basis, in order to reduce risk of an error.”

A TAFE SA spokesman added that in some cases, students had withdrawn after all their assessments were completed. In others, they withdrew after being graded for one study unit in a subject that had multiple units, he said.

On the ASQA audit, Education Minister Susan Close has told Parliament the number of affected students requiring “remedial action” has been revised down from 2500 to 1700. She said some students may not have been “fully assessed on all the requirements” of a subject so “that will now take place”.

TAFE SA will respond to ASQA’s audit later this week.