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From adversity comes strength - repositioning education in agriculture
Citation
Pratley, JE and Botwright Acuna, T, From adversity comes strength - repositioning education in agriculture, Proceedings of the 17th Australian Society of Agronomy Conference, 20-24 September 2015, Hobart, Australia, pp. 1-9. (2015) [Refereed Conference Paper]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2015 the author
Official URL: http://www.agronomyaustralia.org/
Abstract
Much has been written about the decline in agriculture graduate numbers over recent times and the shortages
created in the market place. At the same time, there has been an increased urgency towards professionalising
the industry – a focus on education and training, a desire to improve the image of the sector, a move towards
social licence and greater engagement with future opportunities, challenges and needs. This paper takes a
fresh approach to these issues; drawing together the less commonly reported data on student enrolments in
agriculture, the distortions created by misunderstanding course classification data and the emerging focus
on learning and teaching academic standards in tertiary education. Decline in enrolments from 2001 has
resulted in massive loss of income to university departments with commensurate contraction of academic
staff numbers and expertise. The decline has now been addressed although it remains work in progress. The
development of a national Learning and Teaching Academic Standards Statement (LTAS) for university
Agriculture (AgLTAS) represents a significant positive step that engaged academic, student and industry
stakeholders in its development. We expect that the AgLTAS statement will facilitate the implementation of
academic standards by the agriculture discipline community, inform curriculum design, assist in identifying
marketing opportunities for degrees and contribute to the further professionalization of agriculture.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Conference Paper |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | higher education, learning and teaching academic standards, enrolment, field of education |
| Research Division: | Education |
| Research Group: | Curriculum and pedagogy |
| Research Field: | Science, technology and engineering curriculum and pedagogy |
| Objective Division: | Education and Training |
| Objective Group: | Teaching and curriculum |
| Objective Field: | Assessment, development and evaluation of curriculum |
| UTAS Author: | Botwright Acuna, T (Professor Tina Acuna) |
| ID Code: | 103204 |
| Year Published: | 2015 |
| Deposited By: | Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture |
| Deposited On: | 2015-09-25 |
| Last Modified: | 2018-03-19 |
| Downloads: | 388 View Download Statistics |
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