Second Round University Offers Confirm Record Unmet Demand
Thursday 29 January 2004
Today the first set of second round university offers have been released in Queensland, showing that approximately 9,000 eligible applicants will miss out on government-supported place at Queensland University in 2004. This is an indicator that record numbers of Australians will miss out on access to government supported university places.
“Record unmet demand is a direct result of the Government’s new policy on marginally funded over enrolments,” said Dr Carolyn Allport, NTEU National President.
“In 2003 there was about 34,000 over enrolments at Australian universities which are to be phased out and replaced by 25,000 fully funded government places by 2008 under far reaching changes to higher education funding passed by the Senate in December.”
“Based on these numbers some 9,000 fewer students could expect to gain a government supported place in 2008 compared to 2003.”
“Not only does this policy result in a reduction in the number of government-supported places, the allocation of these new places leads to a significant re-allocation of places across the country.”
“As the attached Table shows NSW/ACT, Victoria and South Australia are the losers in this reshuffle of places whereas Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory gain places based on current numbers of over enrolled students.”
“This policy is nothing more than shuffling the deck chairs on a shrinking public university system.”
“In acknowledging the shortage of government-supported places, the Minister’s answer is that student’s have the option to take up a full fee paying place at a public university or attend a private university. This means that students who miss out on government supported places are likely to incur debts as high as $100,000.”
“NTEU believes that all eligible applicants are entitled to a government supported university place and entry should be based on merit and not on ability to pay,” she concluded.
For Further Information Contact