Teachers back university cap to lift standards

THE national teachers union yesterday supported proposals to limit the number of teaching students admitted to university .

160213 uni student swimming teacher

THE national teachers union yesterday supported proposals to limit the number of teaching students admitted to university amid concerns about falling standards in the profession and the quality of training provided.

Australian Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said the union strongly supported government initiatives to lift the quality of students choosing to study teaching at university, including recruiting prospective teachers from the top 30 per cent of school leavers.

But Mr Gavrielatos said this policy was in conflict with the federal government's removal of the cap on subsidised university places, which effectively allows universities to enrol as many students as they wish.

"The current policy settings for university placements are mutually exclusive. Setting a target of the top 30 per cent of the demographic while deregulating the total placements in teacher education is contradictory," he said.

"The only measures available to achieving such a goal is to set a minimum ATAR for the purpose of entering a teacher education course or to set a cap on the total number of places available based on accurate workforce planning."

The uncapping of subsidised university places has resulted in an increase in the number of students with low Australian Tertiary Admission Rank scores, below 70 or the top 30 per cent students, entering university, and the highest proportion of low-scores, below 50, is in teaching degrees.

The AEU's position is in line with a proposal circulated late last year by the Group of Eight elite universities, calling for a minimum ATAR of 70 for teaching and 60 for all university courses.

Part of the problem is the plethora of teaching courses across the nation, with about 270 undergraduate teaching courses and 140 post-graduate courses offered in 30-odd institutions, all of which qualify for federal government subsidised places.

NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli, who is considering plans to draw teachers from the top 10 per cent of school leavers, said he was concerned by the differing quality of teaching graduates from different institutions and a lack of consistency in the basics taught.

The Victorian government is also looking at measures to lift the quality of candidates for teaching degrees, and while Education Minister Martin Dixon ruled out setting ATAR cut-offs, he said the aim was to increase the number of the students with higher ATAR scores. Chair of the Australian Council of Deans of Education Brenda Cherednichenko said universities were more focused on the standard of graduates than entrants.

Kathryn Pryke, 18, who is about to embark on her course in primary education at the University of Notre Dame's Sydney campus, scored an ATAR of 80 and had no doubts about choosing teaching, or Notre Dame. "I only wanted to study there. It's very small and I thought that would suit my personality better than a big university," Ms Pryke said.

A spokesman for Higher Education Minister Chris Bowen ruled out limits on students or minimum entry scores, saying the government is committed to the demand-driven system.