Survey of micro-credentialing practice in Australasian universities 2020

Abstract

A rapidly evolving higher education landscape is an opportunity for Australasian universities to reconsider how it offers education. In a time where knowledge and skills need to be updated constantly, a three- or four-year degree may not suit the currency required in many jobs and other work. A student’s employability and entrepreneurship abilities need to be contemporary and flexible. The way to gain these continually updated skills and knowledge is immense. However, recognising them in a way that is translatable across academia and work providers is limited. This research surveys how Australasian universities approach micro- credentialing to maintain the currency of its offerings and how the sector's higher education landscape is evolving to meet this need.

As there has been no comprehensive benchmarking of micro-credentialing in Australasian higher education thus far, the importance of this work will be to initially benchmark these initiatives and to help progress work in this new field of endeavour.

The method employed in this survey was to approach Pro Vice-Chancellors (PVC) Education or equivalent in ACODE member universities, via email. The survey was hosted on Qualtrics. With participants permission, the responses are collated and shared with ACODE members as per usual practice of knowledge sharing and wider dissemination via presentations and publications. Australian, New Zealand and Fijian universities are well-represented in ACODE with relevant staff who can direct the survey to PVCs on micro-credentialing. 47 member institutions were sent the survey with 34 institutions2 responding (72%). Participants were asked a series of 17 questions to ascertain the level of micro-credentialing work being done.