By ERWIN CHLANDA
Batchelor Institute, which receives $32m a year in government grants, refuses to disclose information that would allow comparison of the performance of its students with national results for VET courses.
The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) provided the Alice Springs News Online (upon its request) with statistics of Government-funded VET program completions, by qualification level, across Australia in 2015-16, and subject load pass rates.
We passed these tables to Batchelor CEO Kim Jenkinson on October 6 with the request to provide the corresponding data for Batchelor students.
Mr Jenkinson replied yesterday: “At this stage I will not be providing the statistics for Batchelor as you will note in explanatory notes of the NCVER publication that small subpopulations, like the NT, should be interpreted with caution.
“It is apparent then that an even smaller subpopulation of Batchelor data potentially contained the NT data set would require even more caution and [that] is what I am exercising.”
“The only cautionary note in the explanatory notes says: ‘Caution should be taken when using data with a large number of ‘not known’ responses.’
“The Batchelor data exist in the NCVER database but can be released only with the consent of the provider.”
Mr Jenkinson declined to give that consent.
Batchelor Institute has been in turmoil for months, as reported by insiders.
Mr Jenkinson’s predecessor resigned abruptly and the institute’s handling of recognition of prior learning is under Federal scrutiny.
PHOTO: Batchelor staff at the recent presentation of certificates in Alice Springs.