FLINDERS UNIVERSITY
Submission to the Review of the Demand-Driven Funding System
for Higher Education
The following submission from Flinders University to the Review of the Demand-Driven
Funding System for Higher Education addresses each of the Terms of Reference of the
Review.
The effectiveness of the demand-driven system’s implementation, including policies
regarding the allocation of sub-bachelor and postgraduate places
Flinders University is satisfied with the implementation of the demand-driven system as it
applies to Bachelor-level student recruitment.
The University has been actively supportive of the post-Bradley-Report national priority of
increasing the number of university graduates. The demand-driven system implemented to
facilitate achieving this goal, including the loosening of caps in years leading up to its full
implementation, has seen a significant growth in commencing undergraduate load at the
University. Flinders has increased its intake of domestic Bachelor Pass student enrolments
from approximately 3,500 in 2009 to nearly 4,800 in 2013 – an average growth rate of nearly
9% per annum over this time.
Importantly, this has not been achieved by lowering intake standards into the University. On
the contrary, as charted in Figure 1, the average weighted ATAR cut-off for Flinders
University has risen over this period. This is notwithstanding that the school-leaver pathway
to which the ATAR applies has also become an increasing proportion of the University’s
intake over this period.
Figure 1
6000
Enrolments
5000
4000
3000
Enrolments
Weighted Average ATAR Cut-off
2000
1000
* Bachelor (Pass) plus Diect Entry Four
Year Bachelor (Honours) Courses
0
2008
2009
2010
Year
2011
2012
2013
Weighted Avg ATAR Cut-off Increments of 1
Commencing Bachelor (Pass) Type* Enrolments and
Weighted Average ATAR Cut-offs 2008-2013
It is also important to note that undergraduate growth at Flinders has particularly occurred in
disciplines of acknowledged national priority, such as engineering and the health
professions.
Flinders does have concerns about the way in which the continuing regulation of subBachelor and postgraduate places is implemented. In both cases, the allocation of load to
institutions based on entrenched historic decisions produces a distortion within particular
student markets. The availability of places bears little relation to underlying relative student
preference or course quality. Fee-charging competitor courses at the postgraduate level can
be perversely undermined. The impact is to produce unacceptable inequities between
competitor institutions within the same market.
At the postgraduate level in particular, Flinders has consistently proposed that a competitionneutral system needs to be devised and historic allocations phased out. Flinders put this
case in its December 2011 submission to the Consultation Paper on The Allocation and
Funding of Commonwealth Supported Postgraduate Places.
Flinders has also had occasion to put to a previous Minister (unsuccessfully) the impact of a
particularly egregious example of the problem. The Flinders School of Education is unable
to offer Commonwealth-supported places to qualified teachers seeking to upgrade their
professional qualifications at the postgraduate level. Both of its local competitors are able to
do so. This effectively impedes Flinders University, but not its competitors, from delivering
postgraduate non-professional-entry courses to a substantial educationally-engaged
occupational group for a reason which has nothing to do with the relative quality or intrinsic
attractiveness of the postgraduate programs themselves.
There are a number of options for instituting a competition-neutral system in conjunction with
the phasing out historic postgraduate load allocations. Here are some options:

While Flinders does not support this option, contemplating the allocation of no
Commonwealth-supported places at all to any postgraduate courses at any institution
has the heuristic value of envisaging one version of what a competition-neutral
regime might look like. However, there are good reasons, well embedded in current
Commonwealth policy frameworks, for providing Commonwealth-supported places
within professional-entry and national-priority courses at the postgraduate level.

A second option would be to allocate Commonwealth-supported postgraduate places
to all courses within specified professional/disciplinary fields in all institutions. This
would mean, for example, that a decision would need to be made about whether
there should be Commonwealth-supported places for qualified teachers seeking to
upgrade their Bachelor qualifications at the Masters level. If the decision were
affirmative, then the places should be available at any university with the appropriate
course profile.

Alternatively, or in conjunction with the previous option, Commonwealth-supported
postgraduate places could be allocated according to a transparent formula. An
example might be a formula based on a common proportion (or common ceiling) of
overall Commonwealth-supported load within an institution being designated as
postgraduate load. An alternative example might be a formula which allocates
Commonwealth-supported postgraduate load as a common proportion of overall
postgraduate load, an approach which would require the supplementation of
Commonwealth-supported postgraduate load with full-fee-paying postgraduate load.
In relation to sub-Bachelor load the University has been working very closely and
productively with TAFE SA to develop its new enabling program (Flinders Foundation
Studies). The University appreciated the initial allocation of enabling load for this program.
The program has been delivered successfully from several TAFE SA campuses in
metropolitan Adelaide and regional South Australia. The partnership with TAFE SA has
used a combination of TAFE SA and Flinders staff to deliver the curriculum and has made
higher education a possibility for many low-SES and rural/remote students for the first time.
The success of this program warrants extending it further but additional load has not been
approved.
Flinders University has a medical program and some details of the allocation of designated
medical places have been of concern. Past allocations have been determined by an 'ideal'
four year pipeline formula. However, this ideal formula does not account for the inevitable
unit of study student repeats (due to withdrawal and failure) and returning leave of absence
students.
Early evidence on the extent to which the demand-driven system is (a) increasing
participation; (b) improving access for students from low socio-economic status backgrounds
and rural and regional communities; (c) meeting the skill needs in the economy
The Flinders University story provides strong evidence of positive outcomes across each of
these dimensions. Figures 2, 3, 4 and 5 demonstrate that the University’s overall growth in
undergraduate load has encompassed growth in low-SES access, Indigenous student
access, regional and remote student access, and growth in enrolments in designated
national skill shortage areas.
As charted in Figure 2, Flinders has increased its Bachelor Pass access rate for Low SES
enrolments from 20% in 2009 to 23.5% in 2013.
Figure 2
Low SES Access Rate.
CS Bachelor (Pass) 2005-2013
25%
21.0%
% Low SES
20%
20.0%
23.1%
23.3%
22.9%
23.5%
2010
2011
2012
2013
20.4%
19.6%
20.1%
15%
10%
5%
0%
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Year
Figure 3 Flinders has increased its Bachelor Pass access rate for Indigenous enrolments
from 0.096% in 2009 to 1.41% in 2013; refer Figure 3 below.
Figure 3
Indigenous Access Rate.
CS Bachelor (Pass) 2005-2013
Indigenous Enrolments per 1,000
16
14.1
14
11.0
12
10
12.8
11.9
11.5
11.5
2011
2012
9.6
10.0
6.4
8
6
4
2
0
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2013
Year
As charted in Figure 4, Flinders has increased its Bachelor Pass access rate for Regional
and Remote enrolments from 16.4% in 2009 to 18.3% in 2013.
Figure 4
Regional and Remote Access Rate.
CS Bachelor (Pass) 2005-2013
% Regional or Remote
25%
19.1%
20%
15.7%
15%
18.3%
16.4%
15.2%
17.2%
15.8%
15.5%
18.3%
10%
5%
0%
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Year
2010
2011
2012
2013
Flinders’ commencing enrolments in Bachelor (Pass) courses aligned with national skill
shortage areas (see Figure 5) has increased significantly from nearly 2,000 in 2009 to nearly
3,500 in 2013. This is based on an analysis of those courses that can be reasonably
expected to produce graduates who would qualify for occupations on the Department of
Immigration and Border Protection's Skilled Occupation List 2013; refer Figure 5 below.
Figure 5
Commencing Enrolments in CS Bachelor (Pass)
Courses in National Skill Shortage Areas* 2005-2013
4000
Enrolments
3000
* An analysis of those courses that can be reasonably
expected to produce graduates who might qualify for
occupations on the Department of Immigration and Border
Protection's Skilled Occupation List 2013
2000
1000
0
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Year
Extent to which the reforms have encouraged innovation, competition, diversity and greater
responsiveness to student demand including development of new modes of delivery such as
online learning
The Flinders University story likewise provides strong evidence that the competition
facilitated by the undergraduate demand-driven system has encouraged innovation, diversity
and responsiveness. During the last few years the University has:

Continued to innovate in course development, recent examples including new Flinders
courses in Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Education/Disability Studies, Business
(Advanced Leadership), Information Technology (Digital Media), Engineering (Electrical),
Psychological Science and Criminology.

Expanded further into online learning. All teaching delivery at Flinders is expected to
occur with a specified minimum component of online/web delivery and support. Flinders
is also expanding with fully online delivery, including experimenting with several MOOCs
in 2013. Guided by our Strategic Plan 2012-16 with its cardinal principle that the
University “differentiate, focus and intensify” its activities, Flinders continues to
distinguish itself with a distinct course profile.

Enhanced an important partnership with TAFE SA, with particular innovations in enabling
programs and in emerging co-delivered partnership courses. This engagement has
specifically differentiated Flinders from the other two South Australian universities which
have instituted quite different strategies in relation to enabling programs and TAFE
articulation.
Flinders’ geographic footprint is likewise diversifying away from its main campus at Bedford
Park in southern metropolitan Adelaide. In recent years it has opened an Adelaide CBD
presence, commenced delivery of a full medical program in Darwin, commenced
construction of a major presence at the Tonsley site of the former Mitsubishi factory north of
the main campus and maintained a full Nursing program delivered from Renmark.
Whether there is evidence of any potential adverse impacts on the quality of teaching and of
future graduates
Flinders is confident that there have been no adverse impacts on the quality of teaching or of
graduates. This confidence can draw upon the Flinders experience under the new TEQSA
regime under which Flinders experienced a successful re-registration process over 2012 and
2013. That process ensured a close scrutiny of quality and standards issues. In relation to
the quality of graduates, Flinders is participating along with the other Innovative Research
Universities consortium members in the pilot stage of a project intended to calibrate
academic standards and outcomes for pre-graduating students in all Bachelor courses.
Measures being taken by universities to ensure quality teaching is maintained and enhanced
in the demand-driven system
“Valuing Quality in Teaching” is one of the nine specific Key Strategic Priorities in the
Flinders Strategic Plan 2012-2016. The University, in common with many other higher
education institutions, has a number of mechanisms intended to ensure quality teaching.
Last year Flinders instituted a mandatory peer evaluation of teaching regime in which all
teaching-engaged academic staff are evaluated by trained peer reviewers. Drawing on
advice from Australian Council for Educational Research, Flinders has revamped its Student
Evaluation of Teaching regime. It is enhancing the performance management of academic
staff by supervisors including explicit attention to teaching practices and teaching quality.
Whether less academically prepared students are receiving the support they need to
complete the course of study to which they have been admitted
There is no doubt that an increasingly diverse student body provides challenges in relation to
ensuring appropriate student support. This is not a new challenge for Flinders University.
Since its inception nearly 50 years ago Flinders has aspired, with evident success, to the
highest international standards of academic performance while also subscribing to a strong
access/equity approach to student recruitment. The Flinders history demonstrates that
these two elements can be co-managed successfully.
In recent years, innovations at Flinders intended to support less prepared students include:

Enhanced mentoring programs for commencing students and for prospective students
from high schools within our regions.

A major initiative commenced in 2012 focussing on successful transition of first-year
undergraduate students supported by a new Transition Office.

The creation of an academic communication topic (COMS1001) which is mandatory for
students admitted to a number of courses with lower-level entry scores and encouraged
for all other students in these courses. A parallel initiative focused on numeracy is under
development.

Targeted support of students who are the first in their family to undertake university
studies.

An enhancement of Indigenous student support programs through the University’s
Yunggorendi First Nations Centre for Higher Education and Research and through the
creation of a new executive position of Dean Indigenous Strategy and Engagement. The
University also supports two externally endowed Poche Centres, the Poche Centre for
Indigenous Health and Well-Being, Adelaide and the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health
and Well-Being, Alice Springs.

Provision of professional development support for academic staff teaching first-year
undergraduate students.