SPECIALISED UNIVERSITIES ARE NOT THE ANSWER
7 July 2006
The Commonwealth’s push to introduce specialised universities is not the answer to the challenges facing Australia’s higher education system and could lead to a reduction in quality and student choice in our existing universities, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) warned on Friday.
“State, Territory and Commonwealth education ministers meeting in Brisbane today need to be clear that the proposal to introduce so-called specialist universities, able to be accredited on the basis of offering only one discipline area plus research, is not the answer to the challenges facing higher education.”
“The reality is that Australia already has a diverse higher education system, with a multitude of public and private providers, in addition to universities, able to offer degrees in many areas and access public subsidies,” said Andrew Nette, NTEU Policy and Research Coordinator.
“The Union is concerned that increasing the number of institutions that call themselves universities will result in greater uniformity rather more diversity as an increased number of institutions are forced to compete against each other on a narrow range of highly profitable disciplines.”
“Not only could this threaten quality, but increased commercial pressure on established universities to focus on profitable areas could lead to a narrowing of research capacity and reduce student choice in fields of study.”
“Many of the arguments for the introduction of specialist universities are based on a highly selective reading of the experience internationally, especially the USA, which has a large higher education system, in which public institutions co-exist with a significant private university and college sector.”
“This is backed up by a massive market and significant public and private sources of funding, almost unimaginable in Australia.”
“This situation makes it possible for the US to run a fairly free market operation with a loose definition of what constitutes a university and for institutions of varying quality to co-exist.”
“The market share and diversity of funds available to US higher education institutions makes the applicability of this system to the Australian context highly questionable. It also means that there are limits to the extent that competition can be applied to Australia’s higher education system.”
“The reputation of Australian universities is arguably our key advantage in the global education market. Central to this is a clearly defined standard for use of university title.”
“Deregulating access to university title by introducing specialist universities risks confusing students about the nature of our higher education system, with potential implications for our international competitiveness.”
Information and Comment:
Andrew Nette, NTEU Policy and Research Coordinator: 0438 026277