Higher Education Review must address core funding
5 April 2002
The National Tertiary Education Union looks forward to a positive and open discussion of the problems facing higher education during the review announced by Dr Brendan Nelson in Melbourne this morning. The review must address the fundamental problem of funding for the core activities of teaching, research and community service.
NTEU National President Dr Carolyn Allport said ‘we welcome the acknowledgement from the Minister that current higher education policy is unsustainable. Agreement that this is a problem is a critical step in fixing it.’
‘The Minister’s view that the status quo is unsustainable is widely supported within higher education, the community and industry.
‘While recognising that government operates under budgetary constraints, we must also acknowledge that conscious, targeted and effective reinvestment strategies are essential to the health of our universities. Universities are vital to the economic, social and cultural wealth of our nation- without increased funding, universities are not able do their job.
‘In recent years student to staff ratios have increased by over 20% and many universities have been forced to reduce course offerings. The lack of funding to our universities is threatening to seriously compromise the quality of teaching and research.
‘The problems of our universities have been well documented through a number of significant reviews in recent years. This review must move on from the problems and deliver solutions.
‘NTEU looks forward to an active involvement in the review process over the remainder of the year and to putting forward the views of the staff working in the sector.’