policy & reform
Coalition adds universities to education portfolio
There are some reservations about the abolition of the stand-alone tertiary ministry, but most stakeholders can see opportunities for policy and collaboration. By Dallas Bastian
The Coalition government has created a single federal education portfolio under Minister Christopher Pyne, merging primary, secondary and higher education and academic research.
Although the decision has been well received by the sector, some are concerned there will not be a strong enough focus on tertiary education.
Greens higher education spokesperson Senator Lee Rhiannon believes there should be a dedicated minister for the tertiary sector. She said this is particularly important to meet the need for Australia to be a truly innovative nation with a welleducated population.
“ By abolishing a stand-alone portfolio for higher education the Coalition is, along with its $ 2.3 billion cuts to the sector, telegraphing the fact that it considers it less of a priority than under the previous government,” she says.
Rhiannon believes universities and TAFEs deserve a voice in government and at the Cabinet table.“ An integrated policy approach, such as that articulated by the Greens, does not necessarily mean one individual should have full responsibility for all aspects of education at a federal level,” she says.
Having a dedicated minister for the tertiary sector would mean there was someone to ensure universities were accessible to people irrespective of their background, she says.
The Coalition government believes if education is split between multiple portfolios it is difficult for different parts of the sector to work together.
A Department of Education spokesperson says the department’ s focus is to reduce red tape, regulation and reporting, review and restructure government research funding, ensure the sector has a long-term source of infrastructure funding and support international students studying in Australia.
Belinda Robinson, chief executive of Universities Australia, the peak body for the university sector, says it makes sense to have most university activities in the one portfolio given the close ties between research and teaching. She says it is more convenient to have a single minister and portfolio to go to on policy issues and that it promotes cross-fertilisation of ideas and policy.
However, she says, there needs to be a whole of government approach to university activities that fall into different portfolios, such as health, medical and science research, immigration and foreign affairs.
“ What’ s important are the portfolio responsibilities of the minister, not necessarily his title,” she says. The immediate priority is to confirm the government’ s higher education policy agenda.
Les Field, secretary for science policy at the Australian Academy of Science, says there is concern that research and science have been split between the education and industry portfolios.
He says it is difficult to clearly distinguish between research in education and non-education, and that there is a lot of collaboration between research organisations and the university sector.
With major research infrastructure located in the education portfolio and major facilities in the industry portfolio, he is concerned about ease of communication and accessibility to infrastructure for the industries and organisations in each portfolio.
Some universities rely heavily on integration with industry.“ The sector and the government have been pushing to make sure universities and industry engage much more strongly,” Field says.“ We need to make sure that having them in different portfolios is not an impediment to collaboration and engagement.”
Ian Macfarlane has returned as Minister for Industry, the position he held in the Howard government. The portfolio includes industry, science and research, skills and vocational education and training( VET).
Field says that while Pyne and McFarlane engaged well with the research sector in the past, effective coordination between ministers and staff in each portfolio is important.
Caroline Perkins, executive director of the Regional Universities Network, a network of six regional universities, says that including academic research in the education portfolio is a positive move.
She says that having higher education and schools in the same portfolio should help lift the school completion rate, while the inclusion of VET ensures that VET qualifications and the skills needs of industry are aligned.
She is disappointed, however, that science has not been included.“ It’ s very important to have strong links between the education and industry portfolios,” she says.“ There’ s a lot of overlap between science and research.”
TAFE Directors Australia( TDA), the peak body for the nation’ s TAFEs, welcomes the new ministry.“ The Coalition commitment to reducing waste and focusing on efficient, quality, industry-led training is a great opportunity for the VET sector – this has been a second cousin in treatment in tertiary,” Martin Riordan, chief executive officer of TDA says.
Expanding international education, however, is going to be a challenge for the Abbott government, he says, and if VET and TAFE are to develop more coherent visa rules for students, then work rights and less red tape are needed. ■
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