In July 2003 a decision was taken by the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) to pursue the development of a national approach to articulation and credit transfer arrangements to promote the efficiency of Australia’s education and training system and make lifelong learning more attractive.

Under the auspices of MCEETYA’s advisory committee on matters of higher education (the Joint Committee on Higher Education), a number of proposals for improving credit transfer and articulation were developed based on two key elements: achieving better implementation of credit transfer and articulation in practice; and improving information to students and potential students.

The following proposals were endorsed by MCEETYA at its meeting in May 2005:

• Good Practice Principles for Credit Transfer and Articulation from VET to Higher Education – the principles set some broad goals to encourage measurable improvement over time and provide a benchmark against which progress can be assessed and reported.
• Draft Principles for Good Practice Information Provision – the Draft Principles outline standard measures for providing clear and easily accessible information on credit transfer and articulation pathways to prospective students and their parents.

In addition to these two initiatives, MCEETYA has agreed to:

• A National study of current practices in credit transfer and articulation between VET and higher education, mapped against the Good Practice Principles. This study will identify gaps in practice and make recommendations for initiatives to drive further improvement.  It will be undertaken by the JCHE in consultation with the Australian Qualifications Framework Advisory Board (AQFAB) and other stakeholders.
• The establishment of a Working Group to improve data. The Data Working Group will be established under the JCHE with cross-sectoral representation and will look at improving existing data sets, definitions of articulation and credit transfer and collection methods.  This will enable national performance to be tracked more accurately.
• Asking the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) and the new VET quality agency to take a more active role in auditing credit transfer and articulation practice against the National Good Practice Principles.

A key priority for Australian, State and Territory governments is to make it easier for Australians to enter higher education from a diversity of backgrounds and experiences, including those students transferring from VET to Higher Education.  It is hoped that this package of measures will result in improvements that will aid in the uptake of credit transfer and articulation arrangements by students and prospective students.

For further information please contact Jill Vardy at Jill.Vardy@dest.gov.au.