Rehabilitation of the Agriculture Faculty of the National University of East Timor

• University of Queensland, Australia
• Charles Darwin University, Australia
• University of Sydney, Australia
• University of Timor Loro Sae, East Timor

Rehabilitation of the National University of Timor Lorosa'e (UNTL) was a priority for the Government of Timor Leste after the independence referendum in 1999. That rehabilitation included repairs to the infrastructure, purchase of new equipment and the development of staff and curricula. ACIAR supported this initiative in the Agriculture Faculty through this project, which brought members of Curtin University, Charles Darwin University and the University of Queensland together with UNTL staff to rehabilitate the Hera field station, to revise the Agriculture Faculty curriculum and to develop study guides. Also through this process the collaborators helped the staff to enhance their teaching skills. The project commenced in October 2001, with progress reviewed in March 2004. During that period the Agriculture Faculty developed the Departments of Agronomy, Animal Production and Socioeconomics with 21 full time staff, most of whom have only first degrees from the Indonesian system, and six part-time staff, some of whom have post-graduate training from Australia. Demand for student places is high, with over 1000 students now enrolled across the four years.

A key objective of the project included: development of an institutional capacity base to sustain the University for long-term and effective engagement of East Timorese academic staff and students in the promotion of innovative research and development.

A suite of activities included: training for staff of the new faculty; assistance with agriculture curriculum design; rehabilitation of the University experimental farm; redevelopment of an agriculture library collection, and assistance with the information technology requirements in agriculture. After a favourable review an extension was implemented.

The project assisted in further revising the curriculum, aiming to move teaching to a more learner-centred approach and producing graduates who have good problem-solving skills. The educational development and training program was closely linked to the process of identifying graduate attributes required by stakeholders; developing staff skills through their participation in workshops and tasks; production of curriculum and educational material and methodologies that facilitate student learning; and development of graduates with the required skills. Teaching skills in all departments, but particularly in socioeconomics, have significantly improved. The graduate attribute survey conducted in 2005 indicates that the revised curriculum design and delivery developed by the project has produced graduates with the priority skills needs of the stakeholders.

The project also successfully assisted in developing staff skills in the conduct of research and development by involving them in the research cycle. Staff participated in the process of problem identification and priority allocation, experimental design, writing a proposal, conducting the planned experiment, collecting and analysing data, producing a report or publication to be presented at a workshop and/or submitted for publication to an appropriate journal.

English comprehension has improved over the life of the project. Staff progress was limited by high teaching loads and the national requirement that staff learn the Portuguese language. Nevertheless, the majority of teaching staff have developed a basic understanding of English.

Capacity building staff in curriculum development and educational methodology

Curriculum development is an ongoing process. Two curriculum workshops were conducted during the project extension, recommending curriculum modification to encourage student problem-solving skills through implementation of a student-centred approach to teaching. An important part of the changes was to facilitate student understanding of Timor Leste farming/agribusiness systems and to develop problem-identification and problem-solving skills by relating the teaching theory to real-world problem examples to be found in the local farming systems. Thus, the material presented in the lecture room can be considered and debated in terms of what contribution it can make to understanding or improving local farming systems. The unit outlines and study guides produced align the course learning outcomes (required professional and generic skills) with the content, activities and assessment. Consequently the students are aware of the course and unit requirements and have the necessary study guide and material provided to become independent learners.

The units introduced into the curriculum of all departments include:

Farming Systems - this unit provides an introduction to farming systems and requires students to describe the major farming systems of Timor Leste. This syllabus will provide a valuable tool for change. It replaces a teacher centred passive unit, Introduction to Agriculture, with a student-centred unit that facilitates active student participation, thereby enhancing their cognitive development.

Comparative Farming Systems is a second year unit that requires students to compare and contrast farming systems in Timor Leste with those in similar environments in other countries. Agricultural Systems has been developed.

Professional Agricultural Systems Analysis is a third year project-based unit which provides students with the analytical tools to research agricultural systems and requires them to undertake a small agricultural or farming systems research project.

Within the Agronomy and Animal Science curriculum some units have been consolidated to reduce curriculum fragmentation, reduce duplication, and present a more holistic approach in which interactions between elements can be explored.

Outlines have been developed in 75-80% of units as a result of this program and, more recently, to satisfy the University requirement to meet higher education certification standards.

In the period July-December 2005 a further 32 study guide units were developed, made up of the agronomy department four units, animal science department 16 units and the socioeconomics department 13 units. A further four units are under development in the Faculty.

Research Capacity Development

The development of research capacity has included UNTL staff participation in defining industry needs through consultation with stakeholders at the 1st National Agricultural R&D workshop conducted at Hera in July 2004. Staff selected research topics by allocating research priorities and considering the available equipment and funding. Each department at the end of the workshop defined two small research projects and one was defined at the faculty level. Proposals for each of the projects were written, presented and discussed at a workshop then submitted to the relevant Australian adviser for approval. Following approval the projects were implemented according to plan. Data were collected and analysed, with preliminary or final results presented and discussed at the 2nd National Agricultural Research and Development Workshop of stakeholders that included representatives from MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry), NGO's and other donor organisations conducted on 14-15 December 2005 at Hera.

Small projects

Agronomy
Baseline data on soils in alley cropping along a slope transect. The first year of the project has been completed and reported.
Identification of high yielding and suitable local varieties of corn. Initial stage completed and preliminary report presented. The ACIAR Seeds of Life 2 (SOL2) program will support the remaining work.
Animal Science
A study of the nutrition of scavenging village chickens. Completed, report written and presented.
A study of the meat production chain. Completed, report completed and presented. Being written up for submission for publication.
Socioeconomics
Analysis of farmers' behaviour and adoption of technology in rice farming systems in Maliana and Manatuto. Completed and report written. Being written up for submission for publication.
Prospects for vanilla agribusiness development in Ermera and Manufahi. Completed and reported. Being written up for submission for publication.

Faculty project

Graduate attribute survey. This project examined the graduate attributes that stakeholders (employers, students and staff) are seeking in agriculture graduates. The main objective of this research is to determine desired skills and graduate attributes that employers require guiding the development of the curriculum in the faculty of agriculture of UNTL. The results of this comprehensive survey of stakeholders were reported at a curriculum workshop held in Dili on 6 December 2005.

Training workshops

R&D training workshops were run to coincide with information and techniques required by the researchers in processing data and generating output and in the presentation of results. The training covered:

(1) Data entry and analysis using SPSS
How to enter data in SPSS
Identifying types of data (quantitative/qualitative)
Generating and interpreting frequency tables,
Generating and interpreting numerical summaries of descriptive statistics (Mean, mode, median, standard deviation, range, variance, etc).
Generating and interpreting box-plots
Performing analysis of variance (ANOVA) and interpreting results
Post-hoc analysis
Generating and interpreting graphs (bar charts, histograms, pie charts, mean plots)

(2) PowerPoint Presentations - preparing presentation slides in Microsoft Powerpoint computer program.

To strengthen the teaching skills, particularly in socio-economics, and English comprehension

Dr Fay Rola-Rubzen was appointed as project collaborator to work with Socio-economics staff to develop teaching and research skills in socio-economics. Initially Dr Rola Rubzen conducted two needs surveys of staffone on improving teaching and learning and the other on improving research capacity. Training programs designed to assist staff development in the two areas, based on the survey results, were delivered by Dr Rola Rubzen and Assoc. Prof. John Janes.

English training

Three levels of English language training were conducted to match the levels of proficiency to be found among faculty staff. This training has assisted several members of staff in their application for postgraduate training, including Flaviano Soares, Dean of Agriculture, and Acacio da Costa Guterres, Head of Agronomy, for ACIAR John Allwright Fellowships, and Mateus Tavares, lecturer in animal science, for an ADS scholarship to study at the University of Queensland.

To provide advice on the improvement of academic administration systems

Improvement of academic administration systems is currently the focus of the Ministry of Education and the University. Administrative standards have been introduced by the Ministry for registration of university and other higher education institutions in Timor Leste. Professor Dr. Benjamin de Araujo e Corte Real, Rector, indicated at the National University Timor Loro Sa'e National Workshop in December 2005 that the Agricultural Faculty has led the University in the development of curriculum, educational methodology and research. The Rector also stated that he was confident that Agriculture would be the first faculty to satisfy standards required for course certification required for registration. He commended the support that the Faculty of Agriculture has received from the ACIAR project in education and research capacity development.

The Faculty of Agriculture has demonstrated a considerable improvement of academic administration systems in the last 12 months. Management of staff and students has improved. Inventories and records of equipment and consumables are being kept and used to assist the budgeting process. The 2005 Faculty of Agriculture annual report reflects this improvement.