Education Styles

With four children (and possibly more someday) to raise and educate, my mind has turned to the cost and limitations of our tertiary education system. If our children want to become chiropractors, they'll need to study at a recognised tertiary institution, which will mean living and studying interstate.

Our education system is getting better at acknowledging and responding to different learning styles at a primary and secondary level, but what happens at the tertiary level? And why is it that *anybody* can sit for an exam and gain a recognised secondary education qualification, but there isn't the same option at a tertiary level.

There are so many subjects that could be self taught, or learnt under an apprenticeship system or within a mentor relationship, but the only current option at a tertiary level is to pay increasingly large fees and enter the sausage factory of tertiary education.

I know that recognition of prior learning (RPL) is difficult for institutions to administer, but I think they need to become more responsive to the possibilities of alternate education styles. That, or we, as a society, need to recognise the benefits of making tertiary education more available to all our members and need to insist on tertiary qualifications being more widely available outside the mainstream institutions.

There are so many people without the financial resources or free time to complete a full university degree for a qualification they need to practice in a particular profession, but who would be willing and able to "fill in" their knowledge gaps if their existing knowledge and expertise was acknowledged. I'm thinking of nurses looking to upgrade to a medical degree, teaching assistants looking to become teachers, and rural workers who've worked with a health professional in a peripheral role but would like to formalise their knowledge and build on it to become a full health professional.

At the moment, there is such a limited role for self-directed study, practical experience or mentoring in our tertiary education system. It would be to our advantage to broaden this role so that we can increase our society's access to the skills and knowledge these alternative learners may possess.