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19 January
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Agency awards top marks for ACU standards
By Marilyn Rodrigues
The Australian Catholic University (ACU National) has been praised by external auditors for keeping its Catholic character and for setting high standards in indigenous education and community service.
The Australian Universities Quality Agency audit panel says in its report that ACU National "gave substance" to its mission statement that it "brings a distinctive spiritual dimension to the common tasks of higher education".
"While an explicitly religious interpretation of its values is available for those so disposed, the mission has been developed in such a way that any student at ACU National is exposed to the concepts and values of social justice," the auditors said.
They praised the local community service provided by students - many of them nursing, education and other humanities students - as part of their course work.
And the steady increase in indigenous enrolments at the university in recent years is against the national trend - testimony to the high priority it places on indigenous education, they said.
The panel interviewed 150 people from the university's six campuses last September - undergraduates and postgraduates, staff and senior management, members of the university senate and representatives from professional bodies and the university's communities in the different states.
It found the students were generally satisfied with the university's services and happy with the support of individual staff members, but had expressed some dissatisfaction with library resources and lack of opportunity for student input at the university's decision-making level.
The panel recognised ACU National's success in establishing itself as a single institution from eight individual ones, but said it has to encourage the students to become more involved with the university as a whole.
It found that the academic staff have a culture of professionalism, are highly committed to their students and are supported by the university in completing higher degrees.
The practice of getting staff from other universities to cross-mark samples of student's work, to ensure compatible standards, also earned a commendation.
The auditors noted that some of the university's activities offshore, e.g. in Karachi, Pakistan, where it supervises an international graduate certificate of education program, are not aimed at moneymaking but flow from its values of equity and social justice values, something "unusual in the sector".
They made 19 recommendations in various areas, including project and risk management, quality assurance and evaluation procedures, marketing and human resource planning.
ACU vice-chancellor Prof Peter Sheehan, "delighted with the findings", said: "We have worked hard to give substance to our mission and to engage with both the Catholic community and the broader Australian community".