Productivity Commission calls on universities to improve teaching quality

‘What are universities if not factories for ideas?’ In a challenge to universities, the Productivity Commission wants them to ‘put quality front and centre’ in teaching and research.

The Productivity Commission wants to see improvements to patchy teaching quality in Australian universities. Picture: istock

Lecture and course materials should be made freely available for the general public to view and use, the Productivity Commission says, in a challenge to universities to “put quality front and centre’’ in teaching and research.

Commission chair Danielle Wood says government funding settings for universities “fail to reward quality’’ in teaching.

“We need to do more to ensure that every teacher is delivering at a high standard,’’ she will tell the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency in a keynote address to its annual conference in Melbourne on Wednesday.

Ms Wood says universities should make lecture and course materials publicly available.

“Letting the public see behind universities’ high walls would sharpen the incentives for quality teaching and allow students to make better decisions around what courses might match their interests,’’ she will say.

Ms Wood will argue that the publication of universities’ coursework will “assist in lifelong learning (by) giving those not looking for an accreditation access to an endless supply of learning opportunities’’.

The Productivity Commission chair will recommend that TEQSA – the universities’ quality watchdog – undertake broad quality reviews of teaching practices at a university-by-university level, as happens in Scotland.

“This would give TEQSA the power to appoint a team of staff and students to do a deep dive into their institution’s arrangements for improving student learning and engagement,’’ she will say.

Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood says universities need to lift their own productivity to help the nation’s. Photo Aaron Francis / The Australian

Ms Wood will tell TEQSA it “could be quite helpful’’ for the regulator to issue a “good practice note’’ on quality teaching, along the lines of the one it is preparing to guide the use of artificial intelligence in universities.

“Overall, our goal has to be to ensure that teaching excellence is at the heart of our universities,’’ she will tell the conference. “Not everyone has nailed the challenge of how to do online learning well.

“A sea of blank Zoom screens is not ideal for either students or teachers.’’

Ms Wood will call on TEQSA and the federal government to “address the lack of direct incentive for teachers and universities to improve teacher quality’’.

She will say the Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching data – which surveys recent graduates and their employers to gauge satisfaction with the quality of degrees – “isn’t as informative as it can be’’.

“We’re used to looking at star ratings or Google reviews when we book a hotel or a restaurant, but prospective students usually don’t see the ratings data from QILT when choosing between courses,’’ she will say. “This lack of visibility combines with other factors – a general sense that teaching holds less prestige than research, and government funding settings that fail to reward quality – to weaken the incentives for delivering the best teaching.”

Ms Wood will call for an end to the “administrative roadblocks’’ that hinder academics and researchers from consulting to business and industry.

“Long and expensive processes for grants can reduce ‘bang for buck’ and slow the research process,’’ she will tell the conference.

“Peer-reviewed grant-making processes … can skew or bias research efforts … towards more incremental research with a higher likelihood of surviving review than riskier or novel research, and towards researchers with a history of successful applications.’’

Ms Wood will tell the conference that total university research expenditure in Australia has risen five-fold since the early 1990s, but slowed in recent years. She will argue that the ramp-up in spending “has not generated the ideas boom we might have hoped’’.

“What are universities if not factories for ideas?’’ she will say.

“The good news is that our university research is top-notch on academic metrics.”