Change in Tertiary Education

A changing society and the current debate on "what" should be taught, "how" and "to whom" is presenting new challenges to educators and encouraging an innovative and flexible approach to teaching and learning.

Students arrive at university with increasingly diverse experiences and social backgrounds. A growing number of students are: mature aged, members of Indigenous communities, from non-English speaking backgrounds and from rural and remote communities. In addition, women are entering fields of study that have been dominated in the past by male students and men are entering fields that have been dominated by female students. Increasingly, tertiary classrooms are less homogeneous in terms of age, gender, religion, academic background, ethnicity or race. At the same time, there is an increasing awareness in tertiary institutions that more effective methods of teaching are required to prepare students for globalised workplaces and citizenship.

The Graduate Certificate of Education (Tertiary Teaching) supports the quality assurance initiatives of Australian universities. It has been developed to provide an intellectual basis for curriculum planning and development and to equip tertiary teachers with specific knowledge and skills. It involves reflection on practice, improved facilitation of student learning and exploration of innovative teaching activities.

This award does not lead to registration as a teacher in schools.