Abstract
In May 2016, the Australian Government announced that the funding to be saved from closing the Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT), a branch of the federal Department of Education and Training, would not be redirected to a new National Institute for Learning and Teaching (Milbourne, 2015) as had been promised by (then) Education Minister Christopher Pyne in 2015. This decision has significant ramifications, not only for the quality and competitiveness of Australian higher education, but also for the inevitable long-term impact that withdrawal of strategic investment for systemic change and innovation will have on the nation’s third largest export earner (Universities Australia, 2016). This Invited Feature republishes a statement from Professor Sally Kift, President of the Australian Learning and Teaching Fellows (ALTF) and one of the Editors of Student Success, and is representative of the national reaction to the closure of the Office. It highlights the significant role the OLT and its predecessor bodies (the Carrick Institute and the Australian Learning and Teaching Council [ALTC]) have played, both symbolically and financially, in enabling collaboration and developing and disseminating sector-wide innovation and good practice in tertiary learning and teaching.
Highlights
Tertiary education is facing a multitude of challenges
Australian universities have benefited from almost two decades of national support and funding for innovation and excellence in learning and teaching via the national Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) and its predecessors, the Carrick Institute and the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC)
Professor Carol Nicoll, previously CEO of the ALTC, reminded us earlier this year that: Reforms by Brendan Nelson in 2003 included funding for a new entity that would be independent from the federal Education Department and administer enough funding to act as a real incentive for universities to focus on teaching and learning
Summary
Tertiary education is facing a multitude of challenges. Transformative effects of widening participation, emerging technologies and disaggregated learning environments, are combining with rapid changes in both the world of future work and educational modalities to produce a perfect disruptive storm. Australian universities have benefited from almost two decades of national support and funding for innovation and excellence in learning and teaching via the national Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) and its predecessors, the Carrick Institute and the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC).
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