University Staff Respond to Crossroads
Review should focus on more cooperation, less competition, 15 July 2002
The National Tertiary Education Union’s submission to the current Higher Education Review highlights the need to support cooperative specialisation in higher education by encouraging universities into partnerships that serve their own institutional needs and those of the wider community within which they operate.
The submission (available at policy/submission and discussion papers/submissions 2002) documents many of the problems faced by universities under current government policy, including the impacts of their already high dependence on student fees. It argues that the public provision of higher education should be a core concern of Government.
“Universities are suffering from the combined effects of funding cuts and inappropriate competition,” said Dr Carolyn Allport, NTEU President. “We need reform that encourages universities to share their expertise to benefit the many communities they serve.”
“Sometimes the best way to encourage diversity and specialisation is through more support rather than more competition. Universities are a good example of this.
“Our universities have had more than a decade of competing against one another for the same small lucrative markets. It is time for government to assist universities to work together to ensure diversity.”
“It is also time for government to provide the core funding necessary for our universities to be innovative without the fear that they won’t be able to pay the bills. Between 1995 and 2001 universities faced a shortfall of $767m in attempting to maintain competitive salaries. The choice of the Government to force universities to find savings to pay for this is affecting their ability to maintain high quality resources for research and teaching.
“With Australian universities already more reliant on student fees than just about any comparable system, the answer is not the higher student fees that would follow deregulation. Government needs to recognise that we are at the limits of what students are able to pay.
“We look forward to a constructive dialogue around these most important issues and hope that our contribution will assist in broadening the debate.”
Further information and comment
Andrew Nette
Policy and Research Co-ordinator
Mob 0438 026 277
Simon Kent
Policy and Research Officer
Mob 0408 520 016