Shadow Education Minister Julian Leeser has called for universities to scrap group assignments as students “hate them”.
Speaking at the Universities Australia Solutions Summit held in late February, Leeser maintained strong opinions on the continued existence of group projects in tertiary education and advocated for their removal.
“There is always that student who does the work, and that student who reaps the benefit. It diminishes the role of the individual,” Leeser said.
In response to Leeser’s comments, Australia’s Minister for Education Jason Calre commented on the importance of developing skills in team work.
In an interview with Gamamari Professor of the School of the Arts and Media Dr Elizabeth McMahon offered a perspective that challenges Leeser’s assumption that groupwork diminishes individual performance.
“I strongly oppose banning group work assignments. The advantages are great and the skills students develop relate directly to a range of desirable graduate attributes and prepare students for their careers,” she said.
“UNSW, like other universities, has very sound policies and guidelines on group work assignments and UNSW limits the value of group work to no more than 30% of an individual student’s overall mark for a course.”
The perceived value of group assignments varies among students.
“I feel like group assignments give you a good indicator of the real-world working space. There are those who will do the work, those who are there just to take credit for the work, and those who don’t show up at all. Although it’s annoying to do group assignments, I think they’re necessary for showing what the working life out there looks like,” UNSW student Petra Chan told Gamamari.
A third year medical student, who asked to remain anonymous, shared that they “understand the need to develop teamwork skills,” but that group assignments are not “executed the best that they could”.
The student added that universities should put more thought into how to mark students for the effort they “have actually put in”.