Putting Higher Education on the Road to Recovery
31 October 2001
ALP Offers a Real Alternative for Higher Education
The NTEU has welcomed the ALP’s announcement of around $1billion in initiatives to improve quality and access in higher education over the next five years, saying that it signals a strong commitment to increasing public investment. The ALP has also said that it will match the $2.9billion for research and extra student places committed through the Government’s Backing Australia’s Ability Package.
`The ALP’s package means that voters now have a clear choice between the two major parties,’ said NTEU President Carolyn Allport. `Unless Dr Kemp pulls something out of the bag before Election Day, the Coalition offers nothing except making students pay more for their courses. The ALP, on the other hand, is putting universities back on the road to recovery and introducing strategies to reduce the cost burden on students.’
Dr Allport said that university staff would welcome the new university improvement fund, worth nearly half a billion dollars over five years. Importantly, by 2005/6, it would provide more than $200m per year in recurrent funding direct to universities.’
`This money, while it doesn’t match the money cut from university budgets by the current government, will allow universities to rebuild infrastructure and invest in staff and students,’ she said. `We’re also pleased to see a commitment to increasing the HECS thresholds to make it easier for working people to study at university, and to extending rent assistance to Austudy recipients.’
`Within the framework of a very limited surplus and global economic uncertainty, this is an excellent package. It represents a seachange in outlook. Instead of making students and their families pay more, it recognises the need to commit to real increases in public investment in our universities.’
`What we need next is a strategy to increase revenue to the sector in the long-term, so we can maintain the quality of our universities and the opportunities they provide for Australians.’