The 2002 UniSA-PAL pilot operated on the basis of a formal agreement between the University of South Australia and the South Australian Minister for Education and Children’s Services, which is at Appendix 1. In reality this agreement was implemented as a collaborative project between Para West Adult Re-Entry Campus and the School of International Studies, in the Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences of the University of South Australia, the same School and Division which are responsible for the access award the first stage of which comprises the UniSA-PAL course.
The terms of this agreement reflect those already set out above (at the beginning of section 4), and as agreed in principle during earlier discussions between Para West Adult Campus and relevant senior staff of the University. The opening paragraphs stress that the agreement was being entered into “in a spirit of goodwill and with a shared commitment to equity”,105 a significant phrase which resonates throughout much of the qualitative data discussed below in sections 6.3 and 6.6 concerning the factors which motivated the partner institutions to participate in the pilot and the relations between the University and school staff directly involved in it respectively.
The agreement specified that the UniSA-PAL content, course materials, and assessment processes and standards would be the same as for the Diploma, and set out the two delivery forms which Para West could use, both conventional and flexible. In the conventional and in fact the dominant mode used, the school would deliver eight courses in all, four in each of two 20 week long semesters by means of four hours of weekly in-class teaching. In addition the agreement made provision for more flexible arrangements, such as students taking more or less time than the conventional semester to complete a course; more or less than the conventional four courses per semester; reducing the amount of face-to-face teaching for particular students; and accepting enrolments at various times rather than at the conventional time at the start of each semester. It was envisaged that this level of flexibility might be needed to maintain viable student numbers in the pilot group as well as meeting the needs of students.
Eligibility for entry to the PAL pilot course would be identical to those for the University’s own Special Entry Scheme: viz applicants must be 21 years or over before January 1 2002, not hold an AQF diploma (formerly associate diploma) or higher level award from any tertiary institution (including VET as well as higher education institutions) and, if they were last enrolled in a course leading to a higher education award in any of the three preceding years (1999, 2000 and 2001), not have completed more than one full time year of study, or the part time equivalent of this. Also mentioned was the nature of the induction and professional development support which the University’s academic staff would provide to the school staff teaching the program, the initial sessions amounting to two training sessions of two and a half days each, and on-going professional development as required by the school teaching staff up to a maximum of six two hour sessions each semester.
It was also agreed that if a minimum number of 10 students was not reached before the commencement of the course, then either the school or the University could cancel the pilot, in recognition that the resource commitment required for a small number of students, in money, time and effort, might outweigh the benefits to be derived from running the pilot. Finally it was agreed that the school would pay the University $6,000 (plus GST) as a licensing fee to run the course in 2002 with a nominal group of 20 students, and $145 (plus GST) for each set of course materials provided. Although this arrangement was based on that commonly put into place by the University with its off-shore partners, the amounts involved clearly differed in both degree and intention, reflecting the collaborative spirit of the Academic Board paper, and of the pilot, and the commitment to its equity and social justice outcomes by both the University and the school, rather than an intention to make a profit.