Backing for Coalition’s uni plan

UNIVERSITY of Southern Queensland (USQ) professor Jan Thomas has welcomed key elements of a report on the Federal Government’s higher education reform package.
For the past eight weeks the Abbott government’s much debated higher education reforms have been the subject of a review by a Senate committee prior to being debated in the Senate.
Prof Thomas said fee deregulation is a necessary step for the continued development of a high quality Australian higher education system.
“Allowing universities to set their own fees will create a genuine market dynamic for higher education,” Professor Thomas said.
“It is a reform that is supported by the vast majority of Australia’s vice-chancellors because it will allow universities to diversify, improve the services they provide to our very diverse student body and keep pace with the needs of a rapidly developing graduate jobs market.
“My concern has always been, though, that the government’s deregulation agenda was accompanied by changes to the HECS student loan scheme and an average 20 per cent cut to government grants to universities that would raise costs to students much more than they needed to.
“It is reassuring that this has been recognised by the Senate committee whose recommendations include the need to review and amend the reforms to relieve cost pressures on students.”
The Senate committee also accepted arguments made by regional universities that not all universities are positioned to prosper equally in a deregulated market. In particular, universities who do the heavy lifting for servicing students from low SES backgrounds and who service thin markets in the regions require particular consideration.
Prof Thomas said while the Senate committee had responded by agreeing to make available a short-term structural adjustment package, additional recurrent funding for the universities concerned was needed to ensure the continued high quality of teaching and research.
Meanwhile, the Greens say it is unsurprising that the Coalition-dominated Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee has concluded that Christopher Pyne’s “elitist” higher education bill should be passed.
“The size of a parent’s bank balance should not determine a child’s opportunity to learn and grow,” Greens higher education spokesperson Lee Rhiannon said.
“This is the benchmark of a caring society.
“Australia is already one of the lowest public funders of higher education in the OECD and the Coalition government’s $5 billion cuts proposed in the Bill would take us substantially further backwards.”