Media Release
October 28 2009
AUQA commends UniSA’s vision for the future
The
University of South Australia has emerged from its second national
quality audit with strong commendations for the clarity of its vision,
its energy, and its development of teaching, learning and research.
The Australian University Quality
Agency (AUQA) awarded the University nine commendations and
acknowledged its achievement of strategic goals.
UniSA
Chancellor, Dr Ian Gould, says he is delighted with the result and
the auditors’ recognition of the innovative leadership and management of
the university.
“Higher Education has been operating in a context of change and more
change in the past four years,” Dr Gould said.
“The University of South Australia is institutionally young and vigorous
but its success during these times depends strongly on the clarity and
determination of its leadership team and on the team’s capacity to
inspire academic and professional staff.
“It is clear from this thorough audit that this is just what that
leadership team is delivering.”
UniSA
Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Høj says the enormous value of the
AUQA audit is that it provides an independent assessment of the
University’s development.
“You can have your own sense of how the University is going but it is so
much more valuable to have an external assessment of that, and the
auditors’ assessment is positive.
“I am grateful for the hard work, leadership and vision that this audit
reveals across the institution – not only at the senior level but right
across the board.
“We have put a great deal of work into reshaping our research and
teaching so that the University can meet the challenges that lie ahead
and continue to deliver quality education for our students, capable and
adaptable graduates for employers, and knowledge and innovation to the
nation.”
The auditors said that “UniSA has a strong sense of direction, is
well‐organised, effectively governed and managed and is tackling core
issues through its focus on workforce reform. It seems well‐placed to
deliver on its ambitious agenda”.
AUQA commended UniSA’s clarity of direction, which it said has been
“communicated to engage and inspire staff at all levels of the
University.”
UniSA was commended for improvements in community engagement, its
strategic approach to building research culture across disciplines, its
approach to teaching and learning issues since 2005 and its “process of
reinvention of teaching and learning, curriculum development and
pedagogy”.
It was also commended for its human resource management and the systems
and processes it has in place for dealing with student issues.
The auditors also found that the University makes “sophisticated use of
management information tools” and has business intelligence capabilities
which are used to support evidence-based change and improvement.
AUQA listed five affirmations, encouraging the University to continue
its work in key areas such as the connection between teaching and
research, staff development, enhancing the international dimension of
the student experience, promoting academic integrity, and support for
students’ English proficiency.
AUQA also made four recommendations for improvement, including a more
strategic approach to benchmarking academic standards, strengthening the
role of Academic Board, communicating its revised international
priorities more effectively and implementing a consistent mechanism to
inform students about actions that have resulted from feedback in
student surveys.
The Australian Universities Quality Agency is an independent,
not-for-profit national agency that promotes, audits, and reports on
quality assurance in Australian higher education. The AUQA audits are
conducted regularly for all Australian universities and other
institutions of higher education to provide public assurance of the
quality of Australia’s higher education providers and to assist in
enhancing the academic quality of these institutions.
The UniSA AUQA audit lasted four days. Auditors interviewed more than
300 staff and also visited four offshore teaching partners.
The full report is available
online.
Media contact
- Michèle Nardelli office (08) 8302 0966 mobile 0418 823 673 email michele.nardelli@unisa.edu.au