Online Encyclopedia
Education in Australia
Education in Australia follows a three-tier model: primary, secondary and tertiary education.
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Primary education
Primary education often consists of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten education , followed by six years of school education. These are commonly referred to as "Year 1", "Year 2", and so on, up to "Year 6" or "Year 7".
Secondary education
In Australia, secondary schools are generally referred to as high schools, although the state of Victoria adopted the name secondary college in 1989. The exact length of secondary school varies from state to state, with New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania teaching years 7-12, and Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia teaching years 8-12.
Each state has laws specifying the conditions under which children no longer have to attend school. Generally, children must remain enrolled in high school until age fifteen or completion of year 10.
At the end of high schooling, students generally have an aggregate mark or rank calculated, based upon both school assessment and final exams. Selection for entry into tertiary education courses is most often based upon such an index.
This index is determined on an aggregate measurement based on school assessment tasks and a final examination. In Western Australia, students receive a tertiary entrance rank (TER) based upon their performance in the Tertiary Entrance Examinations (TEE). In New South Wales the index is the University Admissions Index, which is based upon results in the Higher School Certificate (HSC) on condition of completion of the School Certificate and years 11 and 12 of secondary education. In Victoria it is determined using the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE). In Queensland students who complete years 11 and 12 receive a Senior Certificate; eligible Senior students are awarded an Overall Position (OP). South Australian students receive a tertiary entrance rank on the basis of their Stage 2 South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) results.
Syllabi and assesment are specified and overseen by the relevant authority in each state. In Victoria this is the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), in NSW the Board of Studies, in Queensland the Queensland Studies Authority (QSA), in Western Australia the Curriculum Council, and in South Australia the Senior Secondary Assessment Board of South Australia (SSABSA).
School governance has been influenced by the work of Caldwell and Spinks. In essence the thrust of the work of these researchers and thinkers has been to enhance local self management of schools. Introduced across Victoria between 1992 and 1995, school self management dramatically enhanced the role of the principal and the school council. At the time of introduction, the changes in governance were linked with politically inspired budget cuts and the unholy wedding thus achieved has sullied the reception of self management, particularly with teacher unions.
Tertiary education
Classification of tertiary qualifications
In Australia, the classification of tertiary qualifications is governed in part by the Australian Qualfications Framework (AQF), which attempts to integrate into a single classification all levels of tertiary education (both vocational and higher education), from trade certificate s to higher doctorates. However, the primary usage of AQF is for vocational education, so the classification it provides at university-level is rather lacking in detail. Most of the details of the classification is decided upon by each university for itself, although in recent years there have been some informal moves towards standardization between them.
In Australia, higher education awards are classified as follows:
- Certificate, Diploma and Associate Degrees, which take 1-2 years to complete, and consist primarily of coursework. These are primarily offered by TAFEs and other institutions as vocational training. Universities tend mainly to award Certificates and Diplomas as adjuncts to another degree, e.g. most Australian schoolteachers have complete a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science with a Diploma of Education (DipEd). They are also awarded at the graduate level, in which case they are called Graduate Certificate or Graduate Diploma (or sometimes Postgraduate Certificate and Postgraduate Diploma), and consist of similar material to a Masters by Coursework, but do not go for as long. The distinction between Graduate and Postgraduate Certificates and Diplomas is somewhat arbitrary and dependent on the institution offering them.
- Bachelors degrees, generally the first university degree undertaken, which take 3 or 4 years to complete, and consist primarily of coursework. Bachelors degrees are normally awarded with honours to the best performing students. In some courses, honours is awarded on the basis of performance throughout the course (usually in 4yr+ courses), but normally honours consists of undertaking a year of research (like a miniature PhD or Masters by Research). If honours is undertaken as an extra year it is known as an honours degree rather than a degree with honours. Honours may be divided into First Class, Second Class (normally divided into Division I and Division II) and Third Class. This is roughly equivalent to the American classification of cum laude, summa cum laude, and magna cum laude. Individuals who do not attempt honours or who fail their honours course are awarded a degree with a grade of Pass.
- Masters degrees, which are undertaken after the completion of one or more Bachelors degrees. Masters degrees deal with a subject at a more advanced level than Bachelors degrees, and can consist either of research, coursework, or a mixture of the two.
- Doctorates, most famously Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), which are undertaken after a Honours Bachelors or Masters degree, by an original research project resulting in a thesis or dissertation. Admission to candidature for a PhD generally requires either a Bachelor's degree with good honours (First Class or Second Class Division I), or a Masters degree with a research component. In many cases a student with only a Pass Bachelor's degree can enroll in a Masters program and then transfer to a PhD. Australian PhDs do not tend to take as long as American or British ones, and consist of less coursework than most American PhDs. There are also professional doctorates which consist of advanced coursework and a substantial project in an area such as education (DEd). There is no concept of a "first-professional doctorate" like those awarded in the United States.
- Higher Doctorates, such as Doctor of Science (DSc) or Doctor of Letters (DLitt), which are awarded on the basis of a record of original research or of publications, over many years (often at least 10).
Australian Universities tend to award more named degrees than institutions in some other countries. Most Australian universities offer several different named degrees per a faculty. By contrast, at an undergraduate level at Oxford University, almost all students complete a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), even if they are studying areas such as Chemistry or Economics, whereas at most Australian institutions only students choosing to concentrate in the humanities would be awarded a B.A. However, although there is a large proliferation at the level of Bachelors and Masters, at the Doctorate and Higher Doctorate level most institutions only have four or five degrees in all, and almost all Doctorates are PhDs.
Unlike American institutions, where most medical doctors or lawyers will graduate with an M.D. or J.D., medical doctors and lawyers in Australia generally only graduate with Bachelor's degrees. In Australia, a degree of Doctor is only awarded after original research or honoris causa, although by custom medical doctors are permitted to assume that title without having completed a doctorate. In the case of medical doctors, the most common award is M.B.B.S., the double degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (this is similar to the case in Britain). The most common award for lawyers is LL.B. or BLaws (which are both abbreviations, one Latin and the other English, for Bachelor of Laws). Traditionally in Australia, medical degrees were commenced immediately after secondary education, unlike in the United States where student generally complete an undergraduate degree first before going to medical school. However, some universities are have introduced graduate entry only degrees in medicine, but these are still classified as Bachelors degrees. Law is generally a combined degree (BA/LLB, BSc/LLB, BCom/LLB, etc., depending on the other interests of the student), although some universities offer graduate entry bachelors degrees and most permit in some cases undergraduate entry to non-combined law, although often only to mature age or distance education students.
Australian Bachelor's degrees are commonly only 3 years, unlike the 4 year degrees found in the United States, although some institutions offer 4 year degrees as well. The length of the degree usually depends on the field of study, for example engineering usually takes four years while medicine takes six. Combined degrees are also available and usually add an extra year of study. Australian universities tend to have less of an emphasis on a liberal education than many universities in the U.S., which is reflected in the shorter length of Australian degrees.
Associate degrees have recently been introduced. These generally take two years to complete and could be seen as equivalent to the Associate's degree in the US and the Foundation degree in the UK.
Vocational education
The major providers of vocational education in Australia are the various state-administered Institutes of TAFE (Technical and Further Education) across the country. TAFE institutions offer Certificates I, II, III, and IV, Diplomas, and Advanced Diplomas in a wide range of vocational topics.
Universities
Like in other countries, both private and public universities can be found in Australia. Entry into private universities often depends only on a student's ability to pay the full fee amount, whereas admissions to public university in Australia are based on the prospective student's academic achievement. Domestic students are not necessarily subject to fees at a public university, but rather contribute toward their education via the HECS scheme.
It is important to note that, unlike in other countries such as the USA, public universities in Australia are more prestigious than their private counterparts. All the members of the Group of Eight (Australian Universities) are public universities.
See also
External links
- EdNA Online http://www.edna.edu.au
- Australian Government Education portal http://www.education.gov.au/
- TAFE NSW http://www.tafensw.edu.au/
- TAFE Qld http://www.tafe.net
- Senior Secondary Assessment Board of South Australia (SSABSA) http://ssabsa.sa.edu.au/
- Australian Qualification Framework http://www.aqf.edu.au