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campusreview.com.au
Andrew Norton. Photo: The Australian/Aaron Francis
‘Irreplaceable’ Norton bows out
Grattan Institute calls it a day on
higher education program.
By Kate Prendergast
T
he Grattan Institute is to end its Higher Education Program,
coinciding with the departure of the program’s director
Andrew Norton in September.
The program has been around almost as long as Grattan has,
launching eight years ago, with Norton its leader for the entirety of
its impressive run.
“Andrew is truly irreplaceable, and in view of his departure
Grattan has made the difficult decision not to extend the Higher
Education Program further,” said Grattan CEO John Daley.
Reports produced under the program, funded for the first
four years by the Myer Foundation, contributed substantially to
discourse on and action around the higher education sector. While
little original data was produced, its work was valued by various
stakeholders for its synthesis of existing research. Offering practical
applications through clear policy recommendations, it became a
leading voice on what the status quo looked like, and how it
should change.
With an annual budget of just $5 million, its influence on
policymakers is not to be sniffed at.
“For the past eight years, anybody interested in Australian
higher education policy has come to be highly reliant on the
work of Andrew Norton in his role as the Grattan Institute’s higher
education program director,” wrote The Australian‘s education
editor Tim Dodd.
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“The secret to [the program’s] success is that its people not only
do the work but they also present it in readable reports that any
interested person who is not necessarily an expert in the field can
grasp,” Dodd continued.
“That is something universities – which seek to make an impact
in public debate – frequently forget.”
Published reports cover research funding, student fees, debt and
dropout rates.
Speaking to Campus Review, Norton reflected on what he
considered the program’s greatest achievements.
Foremost of these, he said, was “making the intellectual case for
demand-driven funding of government-supported undergraduates,
contributing to it lasting for many years after its first major
challenge in 2013. The same arguments can be used to bring it
back at some time in the future.”
Through the program, Norton also advocated for a 15 per cent
loan fee on HELP, while asking universities to be more upfront with
prospective students about the risks of enrolment. While not all of
the proposals came into effect, “changes to the income repayment
thresholds and overseas repayment of HELP debt did happen”.
“In future, I hope more will be done based on the findings of
our Dropping Out report of 2018. It found that many students
needlessly incur HELP debt for subjects they don’t complete,”
Norton says.
Mapping Australian Higher Education, a review of the sector
published five times over the eight years, will be remembered as a
particularly useful resource. For its role in increasing understanding
of higher education issues, Norton believes it to be one of the most
important legacies of the Grattan program.
There’s no word on where Norton’s headed next, but one
suspects his time in higher education isn’t over yet. ■