NELSON’S REFORMS: STUDENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES TO PAY A LOT MORE FOR A LITTLE EXTRA CHOICE
February 25, 2003
The Government’s proposed higher education reforms would see students and their families pay a lot more for a marginal increase in choice, the National Tertiary Education Union said on Tuesday.
“In the same way as has occurred with private health insurance, the Government’s higher education reforms will offer students and their families a little more choice but all of them will end up paying for it through increased upfront fees and higher accumulated HECS debts,” said Dr Carolyn Allport, NTEU President.
The Union’s comments are in response to media reports on Tuesday outlining further details of the Government’s long awaited higher education package, including plans for up to half of all public university places to be taken up by full fee paying students.
“Universities are already able to enrol up to 25% of their students as full fee paying, but the take up is less than 2%. Increasing the limit to 50% does not give students real choices, rather it indicates a retreat by the Government of its responsibility to fund universities effectively.”
“Under the Government’s reforms, it is anticipated that full fee paying places will be at least twice as expensive as a HECS place and any loan scheme for these is likely to be paid back at market interest rates,” said Dr Allport. “Unless the reforms reduce the cost difference between HECS and full fee paying places, students will not enrol in a full fee course and universities will get no financial benefit from it.”
“If this is the Government’s version of choice, then at best it’s a Claytons choice for a tertiary education system that is already the fourth most reliant on private funding in the world.”
“Minister Nelson has said he plans to sell his reform package on the basis of access, equity and sustainability. Based on the information we have the Minister looks set to fail on all three counts.”
“A bit of additional funding for regional universities and the limited provision of scholarships aside, the proposed reforms will restrict access and widen inequality by tying university participation even more tightly to the ability to pay.”
“In terms of sustainability, the reforms fail to include a reinvestment strategy for higher education. Most of the limited public funding there is will not appear until 2007 at the earliest, and we are not even sure how much of this will be new money as opposed to repackaged money from existing schemes.”
“Even in terms of fulfilling the Government’s mantra of cutting red tape for universities it could be a failure,” said Dr Allport. “The reform package could actually centralise and regulate it further through the introduction of a complicated and intrusive system to track all students as they make their way through higher education.”
For information and comment
Dr Carolyn Allport
NTEU President
0419 394 064 or 03 9254 1910
Andrew Nette
NTEU Policy and Research Officer
0438 026277 or 03 9254 1910