The Australian Capital Territory’s public tertiary institutions have forged what they describe as the “largest-scale” tertiary harmonisation agreement in the country’s history, granting vocational education graduates automatic advanced standing in related degrees.

Under the “guaranteed pathway arrangements”, people who graduated with diplomas from Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) within the previous five years will receive direct entry and up to a year’s credit in University of Canberra (UC) bachelor’s courses.

The agreement covers seven disciplinary areas – accounting, business, early childhood education, government, graphic design, nursing and project management – and may be expanded to other fields.

It comes after the two institutions signed a 2024 memorandum of understanding to expand educational opportunities across the territory, and follows UC’s August promise to focus on “harmonisation” with vocational education and training (VET).

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“Tertiary harmonisation isn’t just a theory any more,” UC vice-chancellor Bill Shorten told a 21 October press conference. “At long last, our vocational education system and our university system will be speaking the same language.

“Employers tell me all the time, ‘why can’t the education sector in Australia get its act together?’ Federation was 125 years ago, but we’ve still got two educational systems after people leave school.”

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He said the agreement would save graduates of TAFE, Australia’s state-funded VET providers, time and money if they progressed to higher education. “When they come to university, if that’s what they want to do, we won’t be asking them to start at scratch or what mark…they [got] when they finished school.

“UC is happy to be a tradies’ university. We’re not up ourselves. Frankly, if you’ve got a TAFE qual, you deserve our respect and we’re going to make it easier for you to study here.”

Many TAFEs offer formalised pathways to universities, sometimes within the same institution. Swinburne University – a dual sector institution with both TAFE and higher education arms – up to a year’s advanced standing in its bachelor’s degrees to graduates of dozens of Swinburne diplomas.

“The breakthrough with this [arrangement] is the simplicity and the streamlining,” said CIT chief executive Margot McNeill. “In the past…credit recognition took a whole lot of time and effort for the students, but also the teachers and the administrators. This…will be much simpler for everyone.”

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TAFE courses are generally cheaper than their university equivalents and include tuition-free options. Students can save money by avoiding a year of degree-level fees. “You can’t get any cheaper than free,” McNeill noted.

But she said the major saving would come from the “reduction of duplication”, with students no longer required to “repeat” content they had already acquired. “They’ll be able to go straight into second year [and avoid spending time] working out…which units they need to redo.”

Shorten said the savings may encourage employers to “put their hand in their pockets to pay for the upskilling they need for their employees. This is a more productive use of our learning infrastructure.”

He said the two institutions had spent months mapping their qualifications and aligning credit. “We’ve had a committee of CIT senior learning experts and UC senior learning experts working through how we synchronise the matters.”

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Shorten said TAFEs addressed skill shortages “more quickly” than universities and had “always been open for adults to come back and relearn. The university sector sometimes has put obstacles in the path of adults coming back to relearn. I think the university sector can learn from the TAFE sector.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com