Additional publicly funded uni places in health welcome
10 April 2006
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) welcomes the Prime Minister’s announcement on the weekend that the Government will increase the number of Federal Government-supported places in medicine by 400 and nursing by 1000, from 2007.
The Government also announced an increase in funding for clinical training for all existing and new nursing places from $690 a year per student to $1000. These initiatives will cost a total of $250 million over four years commencing in 2007.
“This announcement is a long overdue recognition by the Federal Government that it has a responsibility to address the critical skills shortages in Australia’s health workforce, which were clearly identified in the recently released Productivity Commission report entitled Australia’s Health Workforce,” said Dr Carolyn Allport, NTEU President.
“The Government’s decision to increase the number of Federal Government supported HECS places in these areas, is a clear admission that very few students can afford to pay up to $200,000 for a medical degree.”
“Australia is currently facing major skills shortages in a number of professional areas, including teaching and engineering.”
“One of the problems is that the allocation of Government university places is not based on any data identifying future workforces needs and areas of emerging skills shortages but driven by budgetary constraints.”
“A logical step would be for the Government to ask the Productivity Commission or similarly qualified body, to undertake a detailed study of Australia’s future skills needs in professional areas and for the results to be used to inform the number and distribution of Government-supported university places in the future,” said Dr Allport.
Information and Comment:
Andrew Nette, NTEU Policy and Research Coordinator: (03) 9254 1910
Paul Kniest, NTEU Policy and Research Officer: (03) 9254 1910