Credit transfer rates at a regional university on the path towards dual sector status

Educational pathways within and across the Australia tertiary sector are an important issue in creating a seamless tertiary environment, encouraging Australians to obtain further education and training, and to develop skills and employment options that will contribute to Australia's economic productivity. The current research on movement between the higher education (HE) and vocational education and training (VET) sectors points to difficulties in data collections in both sectors (Harris et al 2006, Karmel and Nguyen 2003), with the statistics being problematic and even controversial (Teese and Polesel 1999; Pitt 2001; Ramsay et al. 1997). The National [Centre] for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) collects the Australian Vocational Education and Training Management Information Statistical Standard (AVETMISS) for the Australian VET sector, and whilst this contains statistics relating to recognition of prior learning (RPL) and credit transfer, very little is known about this movement into the higher education sector through the Higher Education Statistics Collection. Individual HE institutions maintain data at the organisational level, but to date there has been no systemic review of these data across institutions.