Kemp promises money in 2004...but where is the money universities need now?
5 September 2001
The Federal Government today took political opportunism to a low, with the announcement of $40m in capital development funds to be allocated to universities in 2004.
`This is money that universities would normally expect to receive - for the past three years, the government has allocated around $40m per year in Capital Development Pool money, announced in late December each year. ' Said NTEU President Carolyn Allport. `So why is the Minister announcing it nearly four months early, as if it's `new' money for the sector? It can only be because he knows that higher education is an electorally sensitive issue, and people don't like his Government's policies.'
`He will take any opportunity to porkbarrel in regional Australia - even if it is simply an opportunity to announce that funding that was available in 2001 will still be available in 2004.'
`As a gesture, it's an insult to the sector,' Dr Allport continued. `Funding per student from university operating grants has fallen by $250 per head since 1996, and the number of fully-funded places fell by nearly 5,000 between 1996 and 2001. Income from all sources is not keeping pace with rising costs, libraries are unable to maintain their collections and students are being slugged with higher fees than ever before.'
` Yet the best the Minister offers is funding which the universities would ordinarily expect to receive…in 2004!'
`Voters will not be fooled by such cynical gestures.'