Adjunct Associate Professor Kym Fraser from Swinburne University of Technology has done an admirable job in calling out the elephant in the room with her Feature Story in Campus Morning Mail.

As the story notes, it really is unthinkable that while educators need teaching qualifications for early childhood, primary, secondary and vocational education; in higher education they do not.

While the story focuses on university academics, it applies equally across the entire higher education sector. HELI has been proposing for some time that independent higher education providers can set themselves apart from universities by ensuring that their academic staff undertake appropriate professional development to ensure they have up-to-date skills to teach in higher education.

HELI has designed its online Graduate Certificate in Higher Education Practice to fill this gap in higher education professional development.

HELI does not necessarily advocate that the federal government needs to legislate that those who teach in higher education require a teaching qualification; rather we believe a proactive approach to professional development of teaching staff in concert with a more rigorous application of Higher Education Standard 3.2.3 by TEQSA will not only elevate any institution’s academic staff profile, but also the sector as a whole.