Benchmarking in higher education: An Australian case study

In 1995 the Teaching and Learning Development Unit (TALDU) formerly known as the Academic Staff Development Unit (ASDU) at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) embarked on a benchmarking project to compare the ways in which university teachers are prepared for their teaching role. In particular, we benchmarked our Graduate Certificate in Education (Higher Education) with some examples of best practice of similar programmes in Australia, the USA and the UK. We developed benchmarking partnerships with the University of New South Wales, (Sydney) and the University of Texas at Austin and we used the UK Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) accreditation scheme to inform our practice. This paper outlines the process we used and the findings of our project. The improvements we have made to the Graduate Certificate in Education (Higher Education) in light of the benchmarking process and the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) requirements for accreditation are also discussed.