The project found that:<\/p>\n

“Higher Education provision in TAFE competes in a complex and precarious market and operates under different funding arrangements from the universities”<\/p>\n

The researchers have asked a few challenging questions around the work they have done, including, for policy: Are there missing products in the mix of qualifications offered in Australia’s Tertiary Education System? How might we best facilitate a tertiary education system that can meet the needs of different stakeholders: different types of learners, employers, communities in different locations, different types of providers and lifelong learning for a highly developed knowledge economy? And: Where might higher education in vocational education sit in Australia’s tertiary education system?<\/p>\n

In relation to practice the provocation questions include one related to the smaller class sizes and closer relationships between students and teachers that are seen as a distinctive characteristic of TAFE higher education provision, but would the removal of disincentives to offering Bachelor degrees by TAFE adversely affect this market distinction?<\/p>\n

The research also found that TAFE-developed bachelor degrees offer a way to avoid the limitations of training packages. However, the more extensive development of degrees by individual TAFE institutions may re-introduce the fragmentation of offerings that CBT and training packages were introduced to avoid.<\/p>\n