Is Legislation Governing Tertiary Work Experience Effective? Exploring the Regulatory Role Played by Australian Universities
| Date | 01 March 2022 |
| Author | Anne Hewitt |
| DOI | 10.1177/0067205X211066141 |
| Published date | 01 March 2022 |
| Subject Matter | ARTICLES |
Article
Federal Law Review
2022, Vol. 50(1) 62–85
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/0067205X211066141
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Is Legislation Governing Tertiary
Work Experience Effective?
Exploring the Regulatory Role
Played by Australian Universities
Anne Hewitt*
Abstract
This article extends current understandings of regulation of tertiary education, in particular, work
experience undertaken by tertiary students, by contributing a ‘law in practice’analysis of the effect
of the existing regulatory regime on work integrated learning practice within Australian universities.
It considers how Australian universities are responding to, implementing, or overloo king the formal
regulatory framework regarding work experience placements. The analysis is informed by data
gathered in a series of 68 semi-structured interviews conducted with individuals from 15 uni-
versities around Australia and provides unique insights into how Universities are acting as regulators
in the broad sense of the word. Understanding the enforcement of educational regulation is
important, because it is the only national tool directed to ensuring work experience opportunities
afford real learning which will facilitate skills development and increase future employment op-
portunities and are equitable and safe for student participants.
Keywords
educational regulation, work experiences, internships, law in practice, higher education, university
regulation, labour law, regulatory theory, work integrated learning
Received 20 October 2020
Introduction
Work integrated learning, or WIL, is a significant phenomenon in the Australian tertiary education
sector. In 2015, the Australian Collaborative Education Network, Universities Australia, Australian
*Associate Professor, Adelaide Law School, The University of Adelaide. The author may be contacted at anne.hewitt@
adelaide.edu.au. This work was supported by the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Project grant DP150104516. I
gratefully acknowledge my fellow CIs on the ARC grant, Professor Emerita Rosemary Owens AO, Professor Andrew
Stewart and Associate Professor Joanna Howe. The data collection processwhich has enabled this analysis was a team effort. I
also acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Dr Francesca Rimini, whose expertise in qualitative data collection and
analysis guided us through the journey.
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Australian Industry Group and the Business Council of
Australia released a National Strategy on Work Integrated Learning in University Education. This
Strategy clearly states the potential of WIL to contribute to a broad range of individual, group and
national objectives:
WIL is aimed at improving the employability of graduates by giving them valuable practical
experience which is directly related to courses being studied at university. WIL also improves the
transition from university to work and productivity outcomes for the employer and the economy.
1
The Strategy‘is designed to increase opportunitiesto participate in WIL, recognisingthe benefits to
students,employers, universitiesand the economy’and indicates broadenthusiasm for WIL withinthe
tertiary sectorand industry.
2
Despite this enthusiasm, it has proved difficult to determine exactly how
many tertiary students undertake WIL as a part of their study. In 2016, a nationally representative
survey of unpaid work experience among working-age Australians found that 58% of respondents
aged 18–29 and 26% of respondents aged 30-64 had participatedin at least one period of unpaid work
in the last 5 years,
3
with approximately 20% of that unpaid work experience completed as a part of
university study.
4
However, the 2016 survey did not include data about those tertiary students who
undertake paidwork placements within their degree program, which furtherincreases the numbers of
WIL participants. In 2018, Universities Australia undertook a national survey of the WIL activities
that occurred in 2017 across Australia’s 39 comprehensive universities.
5
That survey found that in
2017, 451,263students, which amounts to morethan one third of enrolled tertiarystudents, had one or
more WIL experiences, and a total of 555,403 WIL activities were undertaken.
6
More recently, and as a number of international surveys have revealed, many work experience
programs have been interrupted or cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic and the various measures
imposed to restrictits spread.
7
However,a significant number of arrangementscontinued on a ‘virtual’
basis, with interns working remotely and interacting with their supervisors (if at all) remotely. Even
before the coronavirus, some organisations had started offering online placement opportunities,
8
and
additional internship brokers are now reorienting their businesses in this direction.
9
1. Australian Collaborative Education Network, Universities Australia, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
Australian Industry Group and the Business Council of Australia, National Strategy on Work Integrated Learning in
University Education (2015), <http://acen.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/National-WIL-Strategy-in-university-
education-032015.pdf>, 1.
2. Ibid 2.
3. Damian Oliver et al, Unpaid Work Experience in Australia: Prevalence, natureand impact (Department of Employment,
2016), 24.
4. Damian Oliver et al, Unpaid Work Experience in Australia: Prevalence, natureand impact (Department of Employment,
2016), 26.
5. Universities Australia, Work Integrated Learning in Universities: Final Report (2019, Universities Australia).
6. Ibid 8.
7. S ee, eg, Fair Internship Initiative, Impact of COVID-19-related Measures on UN Internships (1 May 2020), <https://
fairinternshipinitiative.org/2020/05/01/impact-of-covid-19-related-measures-on-un-internships/> (accessed 20 September
2020); National Association of Colleges and Employers,Quick Poll: Employers Maintaining Plans for College Hiring,
Holding Internships (5 May 2020), <https://www.naceweb.org/talent-acquisition/trends-and-predictions/quick-poll-
employers-maintaining-plans-for-college-hiring-holding-internships/> (accessed 20 September 2020); Yello, Virtual
Internship Statistics and Trends: A 2020 COVID-19 Impact Report, <https://yello.co/blog/virtual-internship-statistics/>
(accessed 20 September 2020).
8. See, eg, <https://www.virtualinternships.com/> (accessed 20 September 2020).
9. See, eg, Australian Internships, Virtual Internship Program, <https://www.internships.com.au/virtual-internship>
(accessed 20 September 2020).
Hewitt 63
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