Senator TIERNEY (4.13 p.m.) —I move:

  That the Senate take note of the document.

We have before the Senate a report from NBEET on credit transfer and related issues. I would like to note initially, as I have done with previous reports from NBEET, that the timing of this report seems very strange. The letter at the front of this report was written on 27 October and yet here we are in the middle of December receiving this report in parliament. One wonders why it takes seven weeks to get this report through. I believe the reporting date is 15 parliamentary days and that is exactly what we have. It amazes me that this lands in parliament in the last week of sittings. The Senate will recall that this happened before when we had a huge number of education reports come in at the end of the parliamentary sittings. I wait eagerly for Thursday to see if the same thing happens again.

  This report draws attention to a very important area of education that deserves better treatment than it receives with this reporting program. Credit transfer refers to a system where students who have prior learning in a particular area are given credit for that when they move on to another area. Such a development is most welcome. We have a very sorry history in this country of not recognising prior learning properly. Certainly for many years we have been way behind the sort of credit given in countries like the United States.

  Fortunately, we have moved a very long way from the 1940s when the University of Sydney would not recognise anything from the University of New England which was a college of the University of Sydney that had broken away to become an independent university. Thank heavens that sort of academic snobbery is behind us.

  In the 1960s we found examples of students being severely disadvantaged because there was not proper credit transfer between courses. My sister-in-law had completed eight-ninths of a degree at the University of New South Wales in the mid-1960s when she transferred with her husband to New Guinea and studied through the University of Queensland. That university recognised only four-ninths of the degree so she lost half of the degree and had to do all that work over again. That is no encouragement for people to go on to study for higher awards.

  Fortunately in the 1990s we are recognising and trying to create greater articulation, not only between universities but also between different levels of education. There have been considerable problems in developing articulation between TAFEs and universities. These are slowly being overcome and again there is the academic snobbery issue. There are also some very real issues in terms of the standard reached in various courses. It is good to see that the different levels of education are now cooperating to overcome that sort of problem.

  A Senate committee looked at this issue a few years ago. There also seems to be great progress. The new direction in credit transfer is the recognition of informal learning before people come in.

  It is surprising that in this report there is an emphasis on moving in that direction. The report seems to be indicating that most of these sorts of problems have been addressed. On page six of the report, the recommendation states:

Recognising that the continuing momentum of credit transfer through recognition of formal prior learning is becoming well established, the National Board recommends:

I think that is a little premature. We certainly have not solved all the problems. A consultative forum met in 1993 to consider some of these problems that still exist. At the forum it was pointed out that there is still not universal support for credit transfer arrangements. The industry representatives perceived that there was a lack of progress and that in some areas things could be made a lot clearer and articulation between courses could work far more effectively.

  One of the big problems they had was the issue of assessment of prior learning and who pays for that assessment. Certainly as more students come in from adult and community education they will need mastery tests and a whole series of other expensive systems to work out whether they are appropriate to come into a particular course. This move towards credit transfer is most welcome. I recommend the report to the Senate. (Time expired)

  Question resolved in the affirmative.