Tanya Plibersek says students should compete to get into teaching ‘the same way they compete to get into medicine’

Labor has warned it will introduce mandatory entry scores for teaching degrees if universities do not toughen their admission standards.

In the face of growing concern over entry scores for teaching degrees, the deputy opposition leader, Tanya Plibersek, said on Sunday that if universities did not move to lift standards, a Labor government would move to make Atar (Australian tertiary admission rank) caps mandatory.

“Labor wants our young people competing to get into teaching in the same way they compete to get into medicine,” she said. “We want young Australians with a track record of achievement, motivation and capability to teach the next generation.”

The comments come amid increasing focus on the entry standards for university teaching degrees.

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In September, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership released a report on teacher standards which found that in the decade between 2007 and 2016 the proportion of students in teaching degrees with an Atar score of 70 or lower had increased by 10%.

In 2016 nearly 40% of teaching undergraduates scored below 70, compared with 25% across all university degrees.

Plibersek said universities should be drawing student teachers from the top 30% of high school graduates – an Atar cut-off of about 80. Plibersek said Labor would introduce a cap similar to those applied to medicine degrees.

“If universities don’t do the right thing and fix this themselves, a Labor government will make them by capping the number of teaching places available,” she said. “It’s up to the university community to show leadership here and ensure we have high-quality courses for students who should be there.

“We do appreciate that the university sector is under pressure at the current time, particularly with the government’s billions of dollars of cuts. But we cannot have universities falling for the pressure of ‘letting a few more in to the teaching degree’ just to satisfy short-term financial interests.

“If a student does poorly in year 12, they should still have the chance to prove their academic capacity, for example, by completing an alternative pathway program.”

Some states have already moved to address concerns around teacher standards.

In 2016 the Victorian state government introduced its own Atar floor of 65 for teaching degrees. The floor will increase to 70 in 2019.



Last year, the New South Wales education minister, Rob Stokes, announced a credit average requirement and new psychometric testing for teaching graduates before they could apply for jobs in government schools.

NSW has required student teachers to receive at least three band-five scores in the state’s high school certificate to gain entry to a teaching degree.

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The AITSL report also found that fewer students from the top Atar band were teaching compared with other degrees.

Plibersek said addressing that would require a “substantial cultural change” but also hinted at a need to address teachers’ wages.

“It means incentivising our best teachers with career progression based on competency, not just on time served,” she said. “And it means examining wages and other related labour market issues. Pay for teachers starts relatively high but then flattens out, causing some highly accomplished teachers to leave the classroom to pursue high wages elsewhere.”

The Australian Education Union welcomed the announcement on Sunday.

“The high proportion of students with Atars under 70 being admitted into teaching degrees is a warning sign that we need to do more to recruit and train the best candidates to teach our students,” the union’s president, Correna Haythorpe, said.

“Low university entry scores for teaching degrees is a growing issue. We know that students admitted with low Atars are less likely to continue with their course, and there is a clear correlation between Atar scores and success at university.”