All posts by Sara Phillips

Australian University Science, Collection 15, Highlight

Harmonised learning: building a joined-up education system from school to university

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From Certificate III to PhD: a connected learning pathway

A few short years ago, Janneke Zoontjens wasn’t really sure what to do with her life. She’d been working odd jobs since she finished school in year 10, and was pondering her future when an online education brochure from Federation TAFE in regional Victoria caught her eye.

The brochure included a picture of a woman planting a tree, advertising a Cert III in Conservation and Land Management, “I saw that, and I thought ‘I can do that’,” says Zoontjens.

While studying at TAFE, Zoontjens realised she could expand it to a year-long Diploma of Conservation and Land Management. She then expanded that to a Bachelor of Environmental Science, all while staying within the same Federation administrative system.

Zoontjens is now halfway through a PhD on the ecology of malleefowl, a ground-dwelling bird that’s similar in size to a chicken. “I have found it challenging at times, but for the most part I’ve been enjoying it, especially when working out in the field, getting to do real research,” she says.

Zoontjens was lucky in that her chosen TAFE institution was able to facilitate a joined-up transition between a TAFE qualification and a university degree. It’s an unusual system in the Australian university context and one that Federation would like to expand further.

Flexible pathways for everyone

Man in a suit with blue check shirt.
Professor Iven Mareels, Federation University. Image: Federation.

Professor Iven Mareels, Executive Dean of the Institute for Innovation, Science and Sustainability at Federation University, says that such flexibility allows opportunity for people who might not traditionally see themselves as university material.

“I believe that we’re leaving far too many people behind in our education system,” says Mareels.

It’s a sentiment shared by Bill Shorten, Vice Chancellor of the University of Canberra, which in April overhauled its marketing to adopt “U CAN” branding.

Man in a suit and tie.
Bill Shorten, University of Canberra. Image: UC.

“What this country’s suffered from for a long time is an artificial demarcation between TAFE and universities,” Shorten says.

U CAN is working towards more seamless integration of TAFE and university credentials – including microcredentials – so that learners of any age and any background can easily plug education gaps as they arise.

Shorten says the mixed TAFE-uni model might not be attractive to Australia’s more traditional universities, but that he believes education “belongs to everyone”, and that the labour-market challenges of the future demand a new approach to higher education.

“I’m not arguing for lower scholarship, I’m just arguing for greater access.”

Seamless transitions between learning environments

Woman wearing glasses and a bright blue shirt.
Professor Tania Signal, Central Queensland University. Image: CQU.

At Central Queensland University (CQU), it’s the flexibility between vocational education training and university degrees that has allowed a less traditional mix of students to be studying for a degree.

Professor Tania Signal, Acting Dean of the School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, says that “a lot of CQU students are first in family, they’re regional, they might be lower socioeconomic, we have a good proportion of First Nations,” she says.

The university is collecting the numbers, but Signal says they have noticed a trend for students to transition from Cert III in pathology collection to a Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Science.

She says the path to a university degree at CQU can even begin at high school level, with students undertaking VET training as part of their high school certificate.

This harmonised approach positions students to move seamlessly from high school into a joined-up education system, enabling progression across levels as their skills and ambitions evolve.

Australian University Science, Collection 15

A joined-up skills system: universities, TAFEs and industry working as one

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The Australian economy is shifting toward increasing demand for service industries and higher-skill roles, according to a report released late in 2025 from the Federal Government agency Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA).

The higher education sector needs to better align training with job requirements if it is to support current and emerging industries, the report says. Some institutions, including the University of Wollongong (UoW) and Western Sydney University (WSU), are already leading the way.

A common language for skills and qualifications

Amongst the 5 recommendations to fill future labour market shortages, the JSA report suggests that shared language between the skills required by industry and the education offered by Australian universities and TAFEs could make it easier to compare job requirements with qualifications and identify gaps.

Higher education institutions working more closely with industry would go some way to establishing a shared taxonomy.

Man in grey suit jacket.
Ty Christopher, Director of the Energy Futures Network at UoW. Image: Via LinkedIn.

It’s the kind of message that the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Renewable Fuels at UoW has taken on board as it integrates research, training and industry collaboration.

“Industry is embedded from the outset”, says Ty Christopher, Director of the Energy Futures Network at UoW, “with partners contributing funding, expertise and real-world challenges”.

Christopher says the arrangement also produces a useful feedback loop, with industry being delivered job-ready graduates with the exact skills they are looking for.

The centre is working on projects of national significance, such as figuring out how to produce ‘green’ iron — with hydrogen instead of coal — at scale. It’s an area of research and development that the federal government has prioritised because of its importance to our largest trading partner, China.

Christopher says that such research has the potential to create “entirely new domestic industries”.

The value of life-long learning

The JSA report also suggests that diversifying the appeal of higher education to less traditionally represented groups is key to closing the gap between jobs and skills.

Beyond the typical 18-year-old high school leaver, higher education institutions need to find ways to appeal to people who might not have considered university.

At WSU, the administration has been trialling microcredentials to appeal to learners who might not have the time or resources to commit to a traditional undergraduate degree.

Man in dark grey suit jacket, standing in front of a colourful background.
Brian Falzon, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Science at WSU. Image: WSU.

Brian Falzon, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Science at WSU says that interest in STEM microcredentials has been strong and is continuing to grow, particularly in subject areas that are experiencing labour shortages and in areas where new technology is changing the nature of work.

The appeal of WSU’s microcredentials “is further strengthened by clear stackability into larger qualifications,” Falzon says.

The JSA report particularly zeroed in on the importance of upskilling Australians with AI skills, and Falzon says that microcredentials in digital skills are in high demand.

Because the topics were determined using a “structured, industry‑driven process”, the result has been “highly specific, immediately applicable skills”.

JSA Commissioner Barney Glover says that Australia’s long-term productivity will depend on how well the tertiary education system equips people with the right skills.

Glover says, “To build a truly inclusive workforce, we must invest in lifelong learning, upskilling and career mobility.”

Australian University Science, Highlight

Evolution or revolution: how might the Bachelor of Science change the future?

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Image: A vision of the future of Macquarie University, as it puts the finishing touches on its new Engineering and Australian Astronomical Optics (AAO) Building. Image: Supplied.

University science education is being disrupted by changes in technology, including AI, and by changes in student and employer expectations.

Training versus education

A key part of evolving the Bachelor of Science (BSc) is navigating the balance between vocational training and broader education, according to Brian Yates, emeritus professor at the University of Tasmania and ACDS executive member. While training equips students with job-specific skills for a smooth transition into the workforce, education in a research-led environment fosters more adaptable capabilities like problem-solving and teamwork.

At the moment, Yates sees a strong focus on producing “job-ready” graduates, with curricula packed with industry-relevant knowledge. However, as specialised information becomes
more accessible, he suggests the emphasis might shift from “having knowledge” to developing the skills needed to find and apply it.

Professor Ingo Koeper, Flinders
University, with students

It’s a view that Professor Ingo Koeper, associate dean of learning and teaching at Flinders University shares, in part.

“I think we need both. We need a solid understanding of foundation in the discipline, but then you have to be able to extrapolate or take that and apply it to various different concepts,” he says.

Job-ready graduates

The problem that Koeper identifies is that science graduates don’t all follow the same career trajectories. Some go into academic research, some go into commercial science, some wind up in unexpected places, such as banking, “because they have critical thinking and analytical brains”.

Therefore he says teaching “job-ready” is a balance
between vocational knowledge and transferable skills.
He believes the BSc of the future could dispense with traditional lectures and move to online or face-to-face workshops, supplemented by in-person practical classes where students can gain hands-on experience in their
chosen discipline of science.

Workshops are a more active form of learning, says Koeper, but they come with a cost. Mass lectures are a financially efficient way of teaching lots of students and are well-suited to identifying important information. More active forms of learning take up more lecturer resources. But the move from mass lectures also opens opportunities.

Personalised learning

Victoria University (VU) has embraced the new hybrid-learning environment with a trial of a new assessment protocol. In recent years VU developed the Block Model, where subjects are run for a four-week intensive block, and students are enrolled in only one subject at a time, so they concentrate and consolidate their learning in one area. Joshua Johnson, chair of the Assessment Taskforce, says that the new “two-lane” assessment embraces AI-assisted learning in the open assessments lane. But in the secure assessments lane, the focus is on practical skills.

“For science education specifically, this includes hands-on experimental work, live data analysis and real-time scientific communication,” he says. Johnson says the framework strikes
a balance between collaborative, hands-on learning essential to science while preparing students for a workforce where technological fluency is paramount.

Macquarie University in Sydney is putting the finishing touches on its new Engineering and Australian Astronomical Optics (AAO) Building.

The $150 million facility – due to be officially opened around February 2026 – will house AAO which designs instrumentation and software for the world’s largest telescopes.

“Students will be going to classes there, but they’ll be walking past a group of professionals that are building an instrument that’s going to go for an international client on a giant telescope in Chile,” says director of the AAO and acting dean of engineering, Richard McDermid.

“I think that it’s great for the students to get exposure to how professional work happens.” McDermid speculates that the defining feature of the future BSc might be personalised learning, with students able to mix and match their skills or knowledge acquisition, tailored to their personal career trajectory.

Multiple self-directed online units might be pre-prepared so that students can gain relevant skills while the impost on
teaching resources is minimised.

In this vision of the future, practical experience with industry professionals, such as that offered in the new AAO building will be essential. McDermid says students should graduate feeling like they didn’t just spend three years getting information they could have looked up online, but come out feeling that they understand how their potential industries work, because they’ve had experience in them.

“So they stand in an interview situation and talk from experience rather than theory,” he says.

But Macquarie’s edifice is being completed at a time when universities are increasingly exploring the advantages of online learning. The question now is what lessons science schools can take from Macquarie’s engineering co-location project, what a BSc will look like, and whether facilities like the AAO building will be required as we transition to the future.

First published in Australian University Science issue 14

Australian University Science, Highlight, News

A pipeline with a problem: how do we make STEM more inclusive?

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The Universities Accord, released in February 2024, called for an increase in the proportion of university-educated Australians aged 25–34 from 45% currently to 55% by 2050.

That involves doubling the number of uni students to 1.8 million. Meanwhile, the number of students undertaking a STEM degree is heading in the wrong direction. Despite numerous calls from industry and government for more STEM-qualified graduates, the overall picture is a pipeline with a problem.

Dr Jessica Danaher, RMIT University

Dr Jessica Danaher, associate dean of student experience in science at RMIT University, warns that emerging industries – such as in climate action, digital transformation, healthcare and advanced manufacturing – all depend on science graduates.

“There is a risk that companies searching for these skills will be forced to set up elsewhere, impacting Australia’s economy and prosperity,” Danaher says.

Meanwhile STEM disciplines have also been singled out for their lack of diversity. “More than a third of men in tertiary education are studying STEM qualifications,” says Cathy Foley, who was until last year Australia’s Chief Scientist. “But for women, the figure is only 9%.”

And it’s not only gender diversity. Science faculties across Australia are striving to boost diversity in their graduates across socio-economic lines, the rural-city divide, disability and race.

Growing the pool

Professor Simon Ellingsen, executive director of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research University of Western Australia (UWA) and ACDS executive member, says one way to fill the pipeline is to grow the pool it draws from.

Professor Simon Ellingsen

This means finding ways to diversify the kinds of people that a science qualification appeals to. As he sees it, people go into a degree
based on two things: whether they are interested, and whether they are suitably prepared. He says Australia is currently failing potential STEM graduates on both counts.

Danaher and Ellingsen say it’s the classic “if you can’t see it, you can’t be it”: women and girls and people from some minorities don’t have role models of future STEM careers.

“Our society doesn’t really value science and that sort of critical thinking, and so people who show aptitude in that area, they’re not really encouraged,” Ellingsen says.

Programs such as Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE), Girls in Science and Technology, Women in STEMM and the Australian Academy of Science’s STEM Women, are attempting to address some of the gender diversity challenges, but diversity is more than gender.

Ellingsen says he believes science is seen by many people as a high-minded passion career, not a workaday income provider, reducing its appeal to some sections of society.

In addition to a cultural shift needed to broaden Australia’s perception of a working scientist, the university preparation path fails many potential STEM enrollees.

Ellingsen says the shortage of good high-school science teachers means there is a risk they will be lured with competitive salaries to elite schools, or other opportunities, leaving the rest of Australia missing out.

“Some of the science and mathematics teaching done in other places is done by staff who are not particularly well-trained, not particularly well-motivated, and not surprisingly, therefore, the students don’t have the best experience,” he says.

Many universities offer catch-up courses for people wanting to prepare for a science degree – both school-leavers and older students.

But Ellingsen says greater coordination between these institutions would bring much-needed efficiencies, with many universities eating up precious resources competing with each other when they could team up.

Science in the regions

Meanwhile, regional universities say that they may have a part to play in encouraging more diversity. Professor Megan Smith, executive dean of the Faculty of Science and Health at Charles Sturt University and ACDS executive member, says that “the thing that regional universities do provide is opportunity.”

Smith believes the problems regional areas face will be solved by science graduates with local knowledge and that regional students shouldn’t be at
a disadvantage because of their location.

“Regional communities need science and they need a science foundation,” she says. Regional universities mean students can stay in their home areas, while still earning their Bachelor of Science.

Linda Pfeiffer, Central Queensland University’s (CQU) associate professor and deputy dean of research in the School of Education and the Arts, says that CQU, decentralised across 12 campuses, offers many courses heavy with online only components, which students can undertake at a time that works for them.

Associate professor Linda Pfeiffer, CQU.

It allows people to fit study around work and family commitments, providing a flexibility that is attractive for people in circumstances that don’t fit the typical school-leaver mould.

“We have a lot of people that work, because the cost of living has risen.
People find online more convenient. It saves the travel time, it saves the parking, you know, you can watch it later,” she says.

CQU enrols a high proportion of Indigenous students and the highest proportion of people from low socio-economic circumstances. Courses are designed to tap into local community and knowledge. “We have a lot of connection to the local industries. We have a lot of co-design of our degrees,” says Pfeiffer.

But Dr Laura McKemmish, director of research- and work-integrated learning at UNSW Science, says that universities in major cities can offer a different kind of connection: “In a city, you’ve got the people, you’ve got the facilities, you’ve got the expertise – there’s advantages in being a big city uni.”

Dr Laura McKemmish, UNSW Science.

McKemmish believes Australia should work towards different universities offering different STEM experiences, rather than one university trying to be all things. Some universities could focus on industry-focused STEM training, while another could specialise in producing world-class research
scientists, she suggests.

“I actually think it’s really, really healthy when you’ve got both models,” McKemmish says.

First published in Australian University Science Issue 14

Australian University Science, Highlight, Industry

Building networks for success through government initiatives

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Image: Associate Professor Amy Cain and her team at the Woodford Folk Festival where they showcased synthetic biology, collecting microbes for the Wild Yeast Zoo. Supplied.

“People keep repeating that you can’t pick winners,” says Barry Jones, Federal Minister for Science 1983-1990. “That’s a sort of half truth.” 

In reality, Jones says, successive Australian governments have always supported particular industries, companies and products. He says it’s part of the vital role of government in bringing good ideas to market and diversifying the Australian economy beyond minerals and agriculture. University science is a key part of this innovation ecosystem, along with industry, venture capitalists and government. 

Along the way, government-led university-industry collaboration programs have helped support the revolving door between university science labs and industry sectors hoping to grow rapidly through access to cutting-edge science. 

One of the stand-out successes in the past 35 years has been the advent of co-operative research centres (CRCs). 

Tony Peacock, who was chief executive of the CRC Association for 10 years between 2010 and 2020, says that the concept came about because Barry Jones, while minister, had urged scientists to advocate more forcefully for government support. At the opening of Questacon — the National Science and Technology Centre in 1988, a group of scientists took him at his word and staged a public protest. Then-Prime Minister Bob Hawke got the message, and the CRC concept was sparked. A CRC takes a specific research problem and brings together a consortium of university, industry and government researchers to tackle it. Through a competitive grant process, they are funded for (usually) seven years. 

Since the first CRC in 1990, the government has funded more than 250, investigating everything from invasive species to hearing loss to minerals exploration. 

Serendipity at work

Peacock says the most successful CRCs were ones that had a clear, specific goal, and that fostered a culture of collaborative creativity. “The biggest impact is often the hardest to actually describe,” he says. 

It’s a message echoed by Stella Valenzuela from the University of Technology Sydney. A professor of cell and molecular biology, she is also director of the IDEAL research hub, which brings together university, industry and government to create devices to detect trace molecules or cell types in complex systems. 

She celebrates the hub for “the serendipity of just bringing people together and seeing what happens in that melting pot”. Given the latitude to explore ideas together, hub members developed concepts not originally slated, but that bore fruit nevertheless. 

As policy has evolved over time, programs like the ARC Industry Fellowships and more recently the National Industry PhD Program have fostered collaboration to bring the world-class research Australian universities are known for into businesses large and small. 

The National Industry PhD Program sees PhD candidates undertake research projects co-designed by university and industry or, alternatively, enables industry professionals to do a PhD while still working for their employer. For employers with talented workers keen to do a PhD, the program can help ensure they don’t lose them, and they can also benefit from closer ties to a university. 

The ARC Industry Fellowships are offered at three levels — early career, mid-career and laureate, supporting university scientists to establish careers in industry, and industry-based scientists to work in university settings. The fellows also receive cash and in-kind contributions from their universities and industry partners. The fellowships have seen university scientists working with industry to solve challenges from recycling waste to transitioning to renewable energy and improving food security. 

Bringing science to industry

ARC Industry Fellow and plant scientist Cailtin Byrt built a startup with her research team at ANU in 2021, developing nature-inspired separation technologies for harvesting nutrients, metals, minerals and clean water from industrial wastewater. 

Along the way, the startup received research translation support from the ANU Agrifood Innovation Institute (AFII) hub. From here, the team was connected to the Canberra Innovation Network for startup training and introductions to the local innovation community. 

In 2023 Byrt learnt about a global mining industry wastewater challenge opportunity created by mining giant Rio Tinto. Byrt and her team had been looking for an industrial wastewater separation problem, and the global wastewater challenge was looking for a solution, so it made for an ideal partnership. The ARC Fellowship is now allowing them to kick off research into developing Rare Earth Element (REE) selective components for use in separating REE resources from wastes. 

Byrt says the fellowship has helped to expand networks within Rio Tinto and collaborating organisations working alongside it. “It has also created a pathway to apply laboratory-derived biotechnological innovations to addressing industrial waste and sustainability challenges,” she adds. 

“Rio Tinto has connected us with brilliant industry and university colleagues across the globe who are focused on transforming the way critical materials are produced, used and recycled to make the process more environmentally, economically and socially sustainable.” 

Freedom to solve the big issues

ARC Future Fellow Amy Cain says it’s often the desire to solve big global problems that sees scientists move between university-based research and industry. 

As a biochemist, Cain has worked with pharmaceutical companies and universities on new drug development, but also with UK charity the Wellcome Sanger Institute on addressing the growing scourge of antibiotic resistance, and at a large hospital in Malawi setting up a program to screen for hospital pathogens. She’s now back at Macquarie University, using the expertise gained along the way to solve new challenges. 

“I always say to people I mentor that you’ve got to balance getting in-depth knowledge of one subject with broad experience across different fields to have the best chance of having practical impacts with your research,” Cain says. 

She helped spin out a new vaccine for a disease that is the biggest killer of horses in the world at Wellcome, and now in Australia as part of her ARC Future Fellowship has been applying research related to drug development to the completely different field of plastic waste. 

At the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology, Cain had a mandate to use microbes to produce useful things and, while working on an ethical alternative to using mice for infectious diseases research, she saw how the larvae of the greater wax moth could voraciously eat certain types of plastic. “Now I’m building synthetic microbes that break down plastic, which is a completely different sort of science,” Cain says. 

She credits the ARC for the support she has received for her work so far, and while she has contemplated a startup or spinout of some of her work, says it’s hard to beat the freedom universities offer to address challenges that may not be financially viable enough to appeal to industry. 

“The main thing is encouraging people to take risks and removing barriers so scientists can freely move in and out of industry,” Cain says.

Written by Sara Phillips and Charis Palmer 


First published in Australian University Science, Issue 12