While an increase in funding for cooperative education in the United States has seen the growth in work integrated learning, the reduction of government funding support in Australia for work placements has had the unintended effect of threatening the academic integrity of work placement programs. The pedagogy around work integrated learning programs is based on experiential learning theory and can be described by Kolb’s (1984) learning cycle. The key to learning, particularly deep level learning, through work integrated learning, however, rests on the students’ ability to reflect on the work experiences, to integrate these experiences with their academic lessons and to conceptualise their learning so that they are able to ultimately bring together their work and their academic experiences to solve problems in unfamiliar environments. The role of academics in supporting student learning through work integrated learning has long been debated and while the evidence in the United States shows that programs that do not have the support and commitment from academics tend to fold, in Australia the commitment from academics to supporting student learning through work integrated learning is very variable. The change in the funding model for work integrated learning programs introducedinAustraliabytheDeapartmentofEducation,ScienceandTechnology(DEST)in2005 could be seen as an incentive to strengthen the academic support in these programs. The impact of the changes has however, not necessarily had the desired outcome.

This paper outlines the pedagogy underpinning work integrated learning, highlights the benefits of cooperative education to all stakeholders and examines one university’s response to the change in DEST funding for work integrated learning programs. In the paper it is argued that despite the connection of work integrated learning to major performance indicators such as the Course Experience Questionnaire results, and despite the encouragement of the Australian government to promote learning through work integrated learning, academics are still resistant to the need to engage with the students in a way that will further promote deep level learning. The easy option is to push this responsibility to employers however in this paper approaches to bringing about attitudinal changes in academic staff will also be explored.

Keywords: cooperative education, learning through work integrated learning, changing staff attitudes to improve cooperative education