The University of Notre Dame, Australia is a small Catholic university with three campuses (Fremantle, Sydney, Broome). It will implement a Work Integrated Learning (WIL) framework that will apply to the whole institution from 2024. I interviewed Associate Professor Kathie Ardzejewska from the Curriculum and Quality team in Fremantle on developing the framework.
Internal drivers
I began by asking her what the drivers for the institution were to develop such a framework, given that the University was already well known for its strong practicum programs in Education and in Nursing & Midwifery.
“The institution has a strategic plan, which is to include WIL in each program. This is informed by the strategic pillar of integrating practice and knowledge. For me it was also important to link the framework to another strategic pillar – integral human development. Which means ‘whole student formation and preparation to be an integrated and impactful force for good.'”
“But also what stood us apart in terms of that we were going to provide, was a student welfare model which involves a promise of care for students. So I wanted our WIL model to have a wraparound component that held students while they were out on their professional experience – that was my goal”. She spent “a long time immersed in the literature”. Wide consultation within the University was held, “recognising that Notre Dame had people who knew their own discipline in regards to WIL really well, but not necessarily what it might look like for an institution”. Lexi Rollins, Manager of Student Equity and Wellbeing, played an important role supporting Kathie as a co-designer of the focus areas, and acting as a sounding board during the consultation and review process.
Students were not consulted at this stage, but will be involved in the governance and evolution of the framework from 2024.
External drivers
There were external drivers as well. The Australian Universities Accord requires higher education providers to be much more explicit and active in their support for students. Much work is being done around the country to integrate support into regular units of study, but this framework ensures that support extends to work placements too.
A recent Australian Collaborative Education Network (ACEN) brief investigated student participation in WIL in higher education in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Key findings were:
- There has been limited growth in student participation in work-based WIL over the
three years.
- Non-workplace WIL has grown at all course levels.
- Undergraduate student engagement varies considerably in disciplines where work-
based is traditionally elective.
- There are opportunities to better engage students in work-based WIL, particularly
mature students and those from certain equity groups.”
And finally, the Australian Government’s White Paper on Jobs and Opportunities calls for increasing collaboration with industry and business, “Greater use of work-integrated learning will support this goal as well as improving higher education teaching”.
WIL at Notre Dame
In order to embrace all practices within the University, the definition of WIL is necessarily broad. It includes credit or non-credit bearing practice, with descriptors drawing from the work of Professor Jan Orrell. WIL is broadly classified into three types (Jackson & Dean, 2022):
- work-based (for example traditional professional placements, internships),
- non-workplace (for example virtual projects, simulations, consultancies) and
- global (for example study tours, international internship, international service learning).
The very first principle of Notre Dame’s WIL framework is that WIL is a whole-of-university responsibility. This encompasses the concept of effective governance, full resourcing, rich evaluation mechanisms and efficient lines of communication. I asked Associate Professor Ardzejewska how Schools with their own established WIL support systems felt about this.
“Everyone is in agreement that there needs to be an institutional approach … but each School still maintains its internal processes. What they expect to benefit from is sharing practice. There will be an institutional committee that will have both a risk management approach and a practitioner approach … There was no opposition to it. There was positive feedback”.
Caring for students
The final principle of the framework is that WIL is conducted within caring climates. Associate Professor Ardzejewska says “I am worried about what happens to people’s emotional, physical, financial wellbeing and their ability to finish WIL”. So this principle says that students will be well prepared for their experiences, staff will take care in pre-placement choice and placement, WIL supervisors will have the appropriate qualifications, training, accreditation and qualities. The articulation of this principle into a Focus Area stipulates (among other outcomes) that there will be “understanding from the University and host organisations about the complex lives and multiple commitments of their students (emphasise that they are there as learners not necessarily workers)”.
Next steps
The framework has been reviewed by the governance committees at Notre Dame and by Professor Jan Orrell, and will be rolled out in 2024. The very first thing that will occur under the new framework is a baseline review of existing practice. WIL programs that exist as part of external professional accreditation requirements are well documented, but there are many smaller programs both for credit and not for credit that need to be brought under the umbrella. Reporting mechanisms need to be put in place, and a resourcing audit will also be undertaken. Unifying the voices of those involved in WIL at Notre Dame will strengthen the voice of the institution in the ongoing national conversations around WIL practices that are stuck in the past, such as the lengthy unpaid practicums required by the nursing and the teaching professions. Because in the end, it is about the student. As Associate Professor Ardzejewska sums it up:
‘Notre Dame is a scholarly place … WIL is about bringing about an ethical, wholly developed human who is going to contribute to their community, society, their profession’.
About the author
Do we get to see Notre Dame’s Work Integrated Learning (WIL) framework?
How did you train and accredit the staff to deliver and assess WIL, particularly in disciplines where it is not common?
Great question Tom. The framework is currently only available to staff. The first step the University is taking is to conduct an audit of practice which will give them an idea not only of where upskilling is needed, but also where excellent practice that can be shared is occurring. Nursing and Education have well established practicum departments that align with accreditation, so we know that there are depths of experience that can be leveraged from the beginning.