Tertiary teaching: The Ungovernable Profession?

Abstract

Tertiary teaching is regarded by some as a necessary evil of an academic career rather than as a profession with attendant standards and obligations. The tertiary teaching sector lags behind the primary and secondary, which worldwide have developed codes of conduct. A hippocratic oath for teachers along the lines of "first do no harm" would arguably be "first let me not disable my students." However in practice the opposite has been sometimes true. Traditional (and, some contemporary) methods may include lofty objectives, but these have not always been achieved, or achievable, and some have backfired spectacularly. Demands for "quality" teaching have been growing in an increasingly commoditized educational landscape. But what are these "qualities" and what do they require? Should they be regarded as ethical requirements? As legal requirements? How do the duties to student and self interact with duties to employer institutions? In the tertiary sector it has long been considered sufficient to hold a doctorate to practice. Does this culture mean that tertiary teaching is the ungovernable profession? This paper covers the current state of play with regard to professional standards and outlines a possible way forward for governance of the tertiary teaching profession in the context of a changing future for the tertiary sector.