2011 Academic Board debate: The AUQA (Awkward and Unexpected Questions and Answers) Debate

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• Report from the debate

  The Academic Board debate took place on 7 September 2011 with the motion: UTS at the cutting edge of practice-oriented education: more practice than education? The purpose was to engage with academic staff in a way that was light-hearted but informative on the topic of Practice Orientated Education as one of the themes for the upcoming AUQA audit. The debate was well attended and the teams, relying heavily on academic freedom and taking subtlety to an extreme, provided an amusing and satirical take on the topic.

  The teams were:

  • For the Affirmative: Theo van Leeuwen, Samantha Spurr and Bronwen Dalton; and
  • For the Negative: Jill McKeough, Tim Aubrey and Paul Allatson.

  For those who were unable to attend, these are some examples of the erudite and entertaining arguments presented:

  • Theo van Leeuwen spoke first for the affirmative by proving, in an argument that spanned many centuries and many cultures, that there is an inverse relationship between the prestige and success of institutions of tertiary learning and their relevance to practical education.
  • Bronwen Dalton explained how UTS is at the cutting edge of practice-oriented education by showing us ample evidence of UTS practice orientation as expressed through the creation of a practical built environment and learning spaces. She showed that UTS has smashed the Ivory Tower and embraces — indeed celebrates — the practical!
  • Paul Allatson led the arguments for against Practice Oriented Education by telling a short story.
  • Tim Aubrey continued the argument for more education than practice by pointing out the parlous state of practice in the “real” professional world — a self-perpetuating corrupt world characterised by poor practice, personal greed and prejudice, among many other qualities. A practice-oriented education that was more practice than education would be wildly unreasonable. Hence he proved, by reductio-ad-absurdum, that a practice-oriented education must be more education than practice. To be otherwise would be to surrender all responsibility to the community (that funds the university system), to resign from leadership and to poorly serve our students.

  A special thanks to all the debaters who put a great deal of thought into crafting their suitably non-specific arguments; to Jenna Price, the moderator, who did remind all present of the debate's serious purpose; and to the student adjudicators from the Faculty of Law who provided feedback to the speakers. The teams demonstrated equal brilliance in both their arguments and presentation, making the overall winners difficult to determine. The negative team was announced as the eventual winner.

  The message from the debate was: Read the Portfolio

  See AUQA and the UTS Performance Portfolio for further information.

• A short story by Paul Allatson for the AUQA Debate

   

  Once upon a time, in the United Technology Stable (UTS, a stable, farm and menagerie animal training institution formed during the higher animal training reforms of the 1980s), Pablo Apoloosa is nervous before the late afternoon horse practice run. Jenna Pigeon, an investigative journo at the stable, has just tweeted him: Shirley Alligator, head stable trainer, is on her bicycle riding around the stables and asking random animals ‘what is the United Technology School model of learning?’ This can only mean one thing, Pablo thinks, his heart sinking: an audit by the Australian United Quality Equine Agency (AUQEA)!! The gun fires and Pablo is racing, audits on his brain, when suddenly an explosion in his nether regions sends him surging through the field, and he wins the practice run.

  ‘Dios mio,’ Pablo thinks, I need a drink after that, so he heads to the nearest bar.

  ‘Pablo? You look terrible!’ It's Jill McMustang, in charge of UTS pony law. Pablo debriefs and Jill neighs: ‘No way! The same thing happened to me in the ten o'clock tort practice trots: there I was at the end of the field, mulling on the audit, when there was an explosion in my nether regions and I ran completely away from the junior ponies. No amount of practice can prepare you for that, or for AUQEA!’

  ‘But,’ says Pablo, ‘haven't you been to one of those barn meetings where either Ross Mongoose, Stable Head, or Peter Bantam, Senior Deputy Stable Head, say they'll send us to the back paddock at Kuring-gai unless we know, what is it again, the Drip, Prod, PDRI planning cycle?’

  ‘I have,’ says Jill, ‘that's scary!’

  ‘But let's get back to cutting edge technology. During the explosion, what worked? The bit, the stirrups, fine; but the whip, useless! And I can't even find a room to watch the podcast replay of the practice session. But it gets even worse: AUQEA has been replaced by the Technology Enterprise Quality Standards Animal Agency (TEQSAA), and that means it's not just horses in their sights, all the animals are involved! According to Shirley Alligator, it's AUQEA with teeth.’

  ‘Oh no,’ says Pablo; ‘we don't need that. Some of us are herbivores!’

  ‘I'm also grappling with the global,’ Jill admits.

  ‘Me too,’ says Pablo, ‘despite my years sending foals and pups to stables and kennels across the world. And as my cultural studies trainer says, such concepts are historically contingent and contested.’

  ‘But the scientists, nurses, and IT animals,’ says Jill, ‘they seem to get the global in practice oriented learning. EG: Do we work with Zero? Yes. What numerical system do we use? Arabic. Ergo, we're the heirs of Arab, Indian and perhaps even Mayan education: how more international can we get!’

  ‘Speaking of which,’ muses Jill: ‘where is Bill Panda, head of transnational stable relations?’

  ‘Last I heard,’ says Pablo, ‘swimming south of New Zealand trying to recruit Happy Feet!’

  ‘Good to see,’ says Jill, ‘that the Stable is covering all bases.’

  ‘Quite,’ says Pablo: ‘The United Technology Stable is not all about horses from China, as our bovine business colleagues know so well.’

  ‘Now for practice,’ says Jill: ‘surely it means to rehearse in readiness for a performance where the signs of non-readiness are invisible.’

  ‘Yes,’ says Pablo, ‘and to educate is to bring up, train, rear, lead forth animals into something new. In our complex world, practice, rehearse, that's fine, but it means nothing unless animals are educated in transformative critical skills so they at least do not wet themselves.’

  Jill says, ‘I'm with you.’

  ‘Hey,’ Jill asks, ‘have you seen the mob over there?’

  Pablo looks: there's Theo van Lemming (head of the menagerie in the Department of Asses), obsessed with the practice of powerpoint ever since a semiologist saved him from leaping off a cliff; Bronwen Dromedary, researching whether one- or two-humped camels make better management practitioners in Korean NGOs; and Samantha Sheep, practitioner of fleece-weaving into fabulous new interior designs.

  ‘Oh no,’ says Pablo: ‘they're always raving on about Practice-Oriented Education: more practice than education!’

  ‘They're completely deluded,’ says Jill.

  Jill and Pablo are interrupted: ‘excuse me!’ They turn and see a shaggy-haired dog nursing a peppermint tea in his paw. ‘I'm Muhammed T. Afghan Hound; I couldn't help overhearing your discussion: the same thing happened in the dog race practices last night! There I was musing on the UTS strategic vision, no idea why, when an explosion blasted my nether regions and I not only overtook the greyhounds, but I bit the contraption that carries the hare! That is unheard of; it's also, as my engineering master would say, very poor engineering …’

  Shocked, Jill and Pablo turn to each other: ‘Who would have thought,’ says Jill? ‘I know,’ says Pablo: ‘A talking dog!!!’

  … Only education prepares UTS for such unpractised moments …