Budget Misses Chance to Reinvest in Universities
The National Tertiary Education Union, representing over 26,000 academic and general staff in tertiary education, has expressed disappointment at the Government's failure to address the severe under-funding of Australia's universities."The Budget fails to address key areas of need for our universities", Dr Carolyn Allport, NTEU President said. "There is not even a down payment on the increased resources universities need to provide a quality education. Our universities desperately need a sign of good will from the Government that increased public funding may be coming.
"The Budget does nothing to address key labour market shortages in teaching and nursing; it does nothing to address the increasing number of qualified students being turned away; and it does nothing to address the crumbling human and physical infrastructure in our universities.
"Universities need an additional $1 billion in order to rebuild their teaching capacity. While we do not expect this to happen in a single budget, the process of reinvestment needed to start in this Budget, not next year or the year after. With a strong economy and high growth forecasts there is no better time to invest in the nation's future.
"Universities have again been asked to wait for increased funding. We have already waited since the Budget cuts of 1996 for the Government to repair the damage. The longer we are forced to wait, the larger the cracks will grow. This is a missed opportunity.
"By not addressing the problems our universities face in this Budget, the Government has condemned them to at least another 18 months of deterioration. With the Crossroads review likely to feed into the 2003 Budget, there is no real hope of reversing the slide until the 2004 academic year.
"The Budget is a bad sign of the Government's commitment to our universities and does not inspire confidence in the Crossroads review process."
Further information and comment:
Dr Carolyn Allport
National President
Mobile 0419 349 064
Simon Kent
Policy and Research Officer
Mobile 0408 520 016