THE GOVERNMENT’S TWO BIG LIES ON HIGHER EDUCATION
September 1 2004
A report in this morning’s Australian has shown that Prime Minister Howard’s claim that there would never be $100,000 degrees under his Government, is a clear misrepresentation of the truth, with over 50% of full fee degrees costing more than $100,000 from 2005.
The other clear misrepresentation of the truth that the Government has continued to push over the last two years is that government supported university students only contribute about a quarter of the cost of their university education.
“If we are to have a meaningful public debate about universities and university funding during this election campaign, it is important that the Government comes clean with the Australian public about the cost of university education”, said Dr Carolyn Allport, President of the NTEU.
“The Howard Government’s higher education reforms allow universities to enrol up to 35% of their domestic students as full fee paying students. This has resulted in many universities charging full fee domestic places well in excess of $100,000 for degrees in law, medicine, vet science and dentistry”.
“These high priced full fee places are unfair because students from wealthy backgrounds can buy a place at university, while students with better marks are missing out on HECS places” said Dr Allport.
“University places should be based on merit, not money”.
“Even Australian students who are offered government-supported university places will experience substantial increases in HECS fees from next year, with 27 universities having announced increases in HECS fees for 2005.”
Another lie that the Government continues to push is that students who receive government-supported places only pay about a quarter of the cost of their education.
NTEU analysis shows that the Government’s changes to university funding will mean students on average contribute over 50% of the cost of their university place. This varies from about 29% for teaching and nursing students to over 100% for law students. This is up from an average of 27% in 1996 (refer to Attached Table).
“The Government needs to come clean on the real facts about university funding and let the public make an informed choice about which party has the best policies for our public universities”.
For information and comment
Carolyn Allport, NTEU President:
(03) 9254 1910, 0419 349 064
Paul Kniest, NTEU Policy and Research Officer:
(03) 9254 1910 0418 170 622
Student Contributions to the Cost of their University Education
|
Cluster |
Discipline Group |
1996 (1) |
Student Contribution 2005 (2) |
|
|
pre-Howard |
HECS |
HECS + 25% |
||
|
1 |
Law |
36% |
81% |
102% |
|
2 |
Accounting, Administration, Economics, Commerce |
36% |
69% |
87% |
|
3 |
Humanities |
36% |
49% |
61% |
|
4 |
Mathematics, Statistics |
28% |
53% |
67% |
|
5 |
Behavioural Science, Social Studies |
28% |
37% |
47% |
|
6 |
Computing, Built Environment, Health |
23% |
43% |
54% |
|
7 |
Foreign Languages, Visual and Performing Arts |
23% |
30% |
38% |
|
8 |
Engineering, Science, Surveying |
17% |
31% |
39% |
|
9 |
Dentistry, Medicine, Veterinary Science |
14% |
30% |
37% |
|
10 |
Agriculture |
14% |
26% |
32% |
|
11 |
Education (3) |
28% |
35% |
35% |
|
12 |
Nursing (3) |
23% |
29% |
29% |
|
Weighted Averages |
27% |
44% |
54% |
1 Karmel (1999), Financing Higher Education in Australia, Table 3 page 14 DEST Occasional Paper D-99
2 Derived from Commonwealth Contributions and HECS Fees 2005 as updated in DEST (July 2004) Backing Australia’s Future Newsletter Number 12
3 National Priority Places