One of Australia’s top-ranked universities may scrap formal postgraduate higher education teaching programmes for its staff, it has revealed. The Australian National University has proposed replacing graduate certificate and master’s courses in higher education with short online programmes that do not provide formal qualifications. The courses would be available to academic staff and others interested in teaching, curriculum design, research provision and academic management, The Australian newspaper reported. Marnie Hughes-Warrington, deputy vice-chancellor of the institution, said the replacements would cover similar ground and employees would be able to seek formal credit from other universities. Staff have been given two weeks to respond to a consultation document on the plans, which says that enrolment on the formal courses has fallen by 50 per cent since 2010.
Source: Times Higher Education http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=421247&c=1