Kemp figures ignore Coalition cuts to lifelong learning
6 March 2000
The release this afternoon by Dr David Kemp of Students 1999, Selected Higher Education Statistics has highlighted the Government’s withdrawal from funding the national investment in lifelong learning. The Minister selectively quotes from the report in an attempt to create an erroneous impression of growth.
\"Dr Kemp and his predecessor Senator Vanstone have systematically withdrawn Government growth from the most important area of national investment- our education system\", said Ted Murphy, National Assistant Secretary of the NTEU. \"They have abolished growth in student places promised prior to the 1996 election, funded over-enrollments at only 20% of the normal rate, introduced up front tuition fees for Australian undergraduates and effectively forced a large majority postgraduate coursework students to pay up-front fees or to drop out. For the Minister to claim credit for growth in the sector is disingenuous.
\"In order to create an impression of overall growth Dr Kemp relies on the rapid and continuing growth in international students- growth which the Government cannot claim credit for. In claiming an increase in fully funded places since 1995, he conveniently ignores the huge cuts to postgraduate education.
\"A far better indicator of this Government’s performance in providing opportunities to access higher education is the number of commencing domestic students. Despite population increases and strong demand, the number of commencing Australian students remains nearly 2,000 lower than when the Coalition was elected in 1996 (see Table 2, p. 23 of the report). This also ignores the fact that growth in places is now funded at a discount rate, through marginally funded over-enrolments.
\"When Government funded postgraduate places are included in the equation, Kemp’s claims of growth are exposed. Total funded student load has declined by 4,845 places since the Coalition was elected (see Higher Education Funding Report for the 1996-98 Triennium, Table 4.4, p. 39 & Higher Education Report for the 2000 to 2002 triennium, Table 2.14, p. 100). Worse than this is the comparison against growth that was announced in the 1995 Federal Budget. Against these plans, there are now at least 20,000 fewer government places than were planned.
\"These cuts have had a disastrous impact on access to postgraduate coursework education, where the cuts have been most severe. The full scale of this damage is yet to be quantified, however there can be no doubt that any talk by Minister Kemp of lifelong learning is nothing more than rhetoric, given his Government’s disdain for those attempting to re-skill through postgraduate qualifications.\"