Funding Paper Signals Government Retreat From its Higher Education Responsibilities
July 25 2002
The Government’s paper on financing higher education signals a retreat from its funding responsibilities to our nation’s universities, a move that will hit students and their families hard.
“This latest issue paper in the Government’s review of higher education is a smoke and mirrors act that produces no new vision on higher education financing,” said Dr Carolyn Allport, NTEU President.
“Even more alarming is that buried within the paper is the prospect of further reductions in public subsidies to universities that will only shift the burden of maintaining a vibrant higher education system onto students and their families.”
“Research conducted by the NTEU shows that Australian students contribute a higher proportion of university funding than everyone else except their counterparts in US private universities, which account for about a quarter of US enrolments.”
“Signs of this shift include suggestions that Commonwealth funding be extended to 86 private tertiary education providers, thus sharing a shrinking amount of funds between a larger number of institutions, and introducing more ‘flexible’ methods of payment of Commonwealth subsidies for student places to institutions through a voucher system.”
“The paper also has within it the seeds of a two tier tertiary system that will discriminate against smaller and regional institutions through proposals to put all research funding into a single competitive pool and encourage universities to borrow commercially for capital equipment rather than accepting government responsibility for responsible capital development initiatives,” said Dr Allport.
“Australia’s tertiary education system is already the fourth most reliant on private funding in the world.”
“The continued emphasis by the Government on extracting itself even further from its higher education funding obligations is even more bizarre given that they actually make a profit from it.”
“As their own paper makes clear, the current net benefit to the Government of higher education is in excess of $9 billion per year, more than $6.4 billion in total Commonwealth funding in 2002.
For information and comment:
Dr Carolyn Allport
NTEU President
Tel: 03 9254 1910, Mob: 0419 349 064
Andrew Nette
NTEU Policy and Research Coordinator
Tel 03 9254 1910, Mob: 0438 026277