Rewarding excellence and promoting improvement in higher education teaching in Australia

Current implementation of Australia's Learning and Teaching Performance Fund rewards universities that demonstrate outstanding performance. This paper critically evaluates the capacity of the fund to promote improvement in learning and teaching. Analysis of past data describing institutional performance clearly shows that the rank order of universities has varied little over time. It is argued that this stability implies that incentive for investment in improved teaching and learning will be restricted to those universities that tend to score close to the funding threshold. An alternative approach to funding is advocated, involving graphical communication of trends in performance using control charts. The approach seeks to broaden incentives for better teaching and learning by explicitly, (a) acknowledging excellence in any one funding round, and (b) rewarding improvement in performance over time.