The Virtual
Plant Pathology Faculty: Developing an Australasian Plant Pathology
Curriculum
John Irwin
and Sue McKell
CRC for Tropical Plant Protection, University of Queensland
Australia
David
Guest
Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Natural resources, University
of Sydney
Australia
Background
The field of Plant Pathology is concerned with the study, diagnosis
and management of plant diseases. Accordingly, Plant Pathology
is vitally important to the continued well-being and future success
of Australian and New Zealand agriculture. Australia’s crop
industries alone are worth over $20 billion in gross value of
production, representing the nation’s most important agricultural
asset. Plant diseases threaten the well-being of any plant industry,
and disaster can strike quickly through the introduction of exotic
pathogens. Despite this, Plant Pathology courses throughout Australasian
universities have traditionally been positioned as specialist
courses with small (and decreasing) student enrolments relative
to other scientific fields. Maintaining training capability in
this area is critical to ensuring that Australia and New Zealand
have the capacity to deal with on-going and future threats to
the plant industries.
At the same time as Australia and New Zealand have seen an increase
in interest in plant industry issues such as biosecurity and genetic
modification, we have witnessed a steady reduction in the number
of courses offered in Plant Pathology and related plant health
disciplines like Entomology. The downsizing of education and training
opportunities in these fields has largely been a function of the
trend towards rationalising university courses with smaller enrolments,
a trend that is unlikely to be reversed at any time in the near
future. The education paradigm that has worked in the past is
unlikely to serve us well in the foreseeable future.
One option is to develop a formal Plant Pathology curriculum.
Developing a formal curriculum will also help to bring the field
of Plant Pathology in to line with training in other professional
fields, such as medicine, commerce and engineering (to name just
a few), that benefit from this approach through providing skills
accreditation to graduates. An Australasian Curriculum will attempt
to ensure that university-level education in Plant Pathology continues
to be delivered in Australia and New Zealand and will meet the
needs of the plant industries by providing professional outcomes
for its graduates long into the future.
An Australasian Plant Pathology Curriculum has as its central
aim the promotion of education opportunities and employment prospects
for students of Plant Pathology, and meeting industry’s
needs for Plant Pathology expertise into the future. The following
outcomes are essential if an Australasian Plant Pathology Curriculum
is to deliver significant benefits:
- Agreed core undergraduate and postgraduate curricula to constitute
a specialisation, major or professional accreditation in Plant
Pathology;
- Remote delivery of core Plant Pathology curricula;
- Alignment of core Plant Pathology curricula with national
research priorities;
- Alignment of core Plant Pathology curricula with professional
graduate outcomes;
- Formation of cooperative teaching groups for the development
of core courses;
- Development of an efficient and effective model to administer
a cross-institutional Australasian Plant Pathology Curriculum.
- Maintaining a core capacity in Plant Pathology training adequate
to service industry and other end-user needs.
Meetings of Australasian Plant Pathology Educators
A meeting of Plant Pathology educators was held in September
2005 at the 13th Australasian Plant Pathology Society Conference
in Geelong. At this meeting the CRC-TPP offered to convene a workshop
to investigate options for Plant Pathology teaching into the future,
and this workshop was held in Brisbane in February 2006. Twenty-five
participants from universities, industry and regulatory authorities
attended this workshop, including Professor John Andrews, President
of the American Phytopathological Society.
The purpose of the two-day workshop in Brisbane was to explore
the possibility of establishing an Australasian Plant Pathology
Curriculum. The specific goals of the workshop were to:
- Provide an overview of existing courses;
- Offer industry perspectives (view of two end-user models);
- Develop possible models for cross-institutional courses;
- Identify possible courses to be offered and their coordination;
- Identify possible processes for course development;
- Identify resources required;
- Identify possible funding sources; and
- Allocate responsibilities.
The meeting opened with an outline of the threats posed to the
nexus between teaching and research by the fragmentation of Plant
Pathology expertise. While a number of institutions offer some
undergraduate training in Plant Pathology as a component of generalist
degrees, not all teachers are active Plant Pathology researchers.
The inverse situation for those who are Plant Pathology researchers
is that there are fewer dedicated Plant Pathology courses being
offered by universities. As a result, hands-on practical
laboratory and field experience with plant diseases is often very
limited. This requirement is also very expensive and is often
vulnerable when institutes face funding cuts. These issues were
identified as key challenges to maintaining comprehensive training
in Plant Pathology and maintaining our research capacity in an
environment of diminishing resources.
Each participant presented their views on the way forward for
teaching Plant Pathology in Australasia. The group agreed to a
set of principles to articulate the APPC’s goal to enhance
Australasian Plant Pathology education and training, and identified
a postgraduate coursework program as the best mechanism to achieve
that goal. A decentralised, consortium-based model of coursework
postgraduate training emerged as the most effective strategy to
increase Plant Pathology capacity in Australia and New Zealand
by building on existing university resources and strengths in
Plant Pathology. The modular structure would also facilitate skills
upgrades for plant health professionals, non-specialists and para-professionals.
A draft list of courses to support this Masters program (and,
with it, Graduate Certificate and Graduate Diploma programs, as
well as short courses in Plant Pathology) was also developed at
the workshop. This curriculum identifies core knowledge and skill
areas required by Plant Pathology professionals. The issue of
how laboratory skills could be taught within a remote learning
model presents a key challenge to the APPC, and suggestions for
managing this issue include offering intensive lab-based training
at centralised locations on a rotating basis, and adopting other
innovative strategies for flexible delivery.
Core Outcomes
The workshop was successful in its goal to shape an initiative
that will help to maintain and
enhance Plant Pathology capacity and capability in Australasia.
The workshop participants agreed to the following outcomes and
actions:
- Principles underpinning the Australasian Plant Pathology Curriculum:
- Australasia needs to maintain and enhance a comprehensive
education and training capacity in Plant Pathology; and
- The most effective way to achieve this is to develop an
agreed set of stand-alone courses that build to a coursework
postgraduate qualification.
- The Australasian Plant Pathology Curriculum will develop a
coursework Masters program (incorporating a Graduate Certificate,
Graduate Diploma and stand-alone courses) in Plant Pathology.
- The APPC will be delivered using a flexible delivery model
through a consortium of Australasian universities.
- The APPC’s success will rely on support from Australasian
universities, state governments and industry, with principle
funding for the initiative being sought at the national level.
Actions Resulting from the Workshop
- Prepare and distribute a report on the APPC workshop (mid-March
2006; contact: Sue McKell s.mckell@uq.edu.au);
- Identify possible funding sources/channels and investigate
application deadlines for relevant funding rounds (February
2006; contact: Sue McKell s.mckell@uq.edu.au);
- Conduct a comprehensive audit of current Australasian tertiary
offerings in Plant Pathology (March 2006; contact: Gavin Ash
gash@csu.edu.au);
- Seek additional funding from the CRC for Tropical Plant Protection
to support the APPC's continued development towards securing
funding (March 2006; contact: John Irwin j.irwin@uq.edu.au);
- Develop the Masters curriculum in Plant Pathology, identifying
current capacity and deficiencies highlighted by the audit (mid
April 2006; contact Gavin Ash gash@csu.edu.au);
- Interested academics (whether or not they attended the workshop)
are encouraged to seek in-principle support from their universities
to support the APPC initiative by the end of April 2006.
- Prepare a strategic (and business) plan, incorporating in-principle
support from universities, to be used in applications for funding
(to be distributed by mid-May 2006; contact: John Irwin j.irwin@uq.edu.au);
- Prepare a paper for submission to the International Society
for Plant Pathology's upcoming Web-based Symposium on Plant
Pathology Teaching (May-June 2006; contact: David Guest d.guest@usyd.edu.au);
- Submit the strategic (business) plan to potential funding
sources (June 2006; contact: John Irwin j.irwin@uq.edu.au).
In-principle Support from Universities
The APPC is now seeking in-principle support from Australian
and New Zealand universities to be involved with the Australasian
Plant Pathology Curriculum initiative. Those universities that
choose to become involved in the APPC consortium stand to benefit
as the only tertiary institutions in Australasia (and possibly
internationally) able to offer comprehensive training in Plant
Pathology, a field at the epicentre of continued growth in global
plant industries. The viability of the consortium model is one
that has already been proven in other disciplines, and is perhaps
the only way forward for delivering scientifically and economically
important programs that cannot currently be sustained under current
per capita university funding systems. The success of this initiative
will rely on the support and involvement of Australasian universities
and, with that, on the support and involvement of academics in
Plant Pathology. Early participation in the APPC will ensure maximum
involvement in shaping the initiative. Academics interested in
being involved in this initiative are encouraged to seek support
from their relevant head, and questions relating to the initiative
should be directed to Professor John Irwin on +61(0)7 3365 2790
or email j.irwin@uq.edu.au. Non-binding letters of in-principle
support from School or Faculty Heads will be included as part
of the APPC’s Business Plan in future funding applications.
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