In 2008/2009, the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR)
funded a project to develop a set of Good Practice Principles for English language proficiency for
international students in Australian universities (GPP). This project’s focus was international
students studying in Australian universities.
The project was undertaken by a steering committee convened by the Australian
Universities Quality Agency (AUQA). The project was a quality enhancement activity for the
Australian university sector and reflected extensive work being undertaken in many
Australian universities. It built on the outcomes of a 2007 National Symposium
commissioned by the Department of Education, Science and Training.
Following extensive consultations with the Australian higher education sector, the DEEWR
reconvened the Good Practice Principles steering committee in 2010 (p. 12) and asked it to
develop the principles into English standards that would apply to all students in the
Australian Higher Education sector. The draft standards were submitted to the
DEEWR in July 2010.
This document is the outcome of the work of the reconvened steering committee.
The inclusion of the English language standards for Higher Education (ELSHE) in a
global standards framework is essential in the current context of developing a national
framework for academic standards that would assist the higher education sector in setting
up quality systems, in particular, to respond to recent government regulations and initiatives,
such as the Knight recommendations and the Bradley Social Inclusion agenda.
Alex Barthel, Member, ELSHE Steering Committee