University of Tasmania
Browse
plenary-Pratley-Acuna.pdf (380.21 kB)

From adversity comes strength - repositioning education in agriculture

Download (380.21 kB)
conference contribution
posted on 2023-05-23, 10:24 authored by Pratley, JE, Tina AcunaTina Acuna
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.

Funding

Office for Learning & Teaching

History

Publication title

Proceedings of the 17th Australian Society of Agronomy Conference

Editors

T Acuna, M Harrison, C Moeller, D Parsons

Pagination

1-9

Department/School

Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA)

Publisher

Australian Society of Agronomy

Place of publication

Australia

Event title

17th Australian Society of Agronomy Conference

Event Venue

Hobart, Australia

Date of Event (Start Date)

2015-09-20

Date of Event (End Date)

2015-09-24

Rights statement

Copyright 2015 the author

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Assessment, development and evaluation of curriculum

Usage metrics

    University Of Tasmania

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC