policy & reform
It was back in 1986 when the federal government introduced a $ 250 Higher Education Administration Charge to help offset the cost of tertiary education.
Fees for post-graduate courses soon followed, and in 1988 the Higher Education Funding Act passed the Higher Education Contribution Scheme, which took effect in 1989.
Those fees have risen steadily since, with Commonwealth Supported Places ranging from $ 5000 upwards and full-fee paying students facing up to $ 100,000 for a degree.
But that, and the rise of international students, who bring in billions of dollars, is still not enough for universities to adequately cover costs and reinvest in their tertiary institutions.
The Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education’ s 2011 finance report revealed that revenue for Australian universities totalled $ 23.658 billion, of which $ 13.3 billion( 56 per cent) came from the Commonwealth( including research funds).
A further $ 5.45 billion( 23 per cent) derived from fees and charges, threequarters of which was from overseas students. Investment income was the next largest category, accounting for 3.6 per cent in 2011, while the remaining 17 per cent came from a wide range of sources each with their own characteristic features in terms of fundraising.
The pressure to raise external funds is increasing with the likelihood that federal government funding, no matter which political party wins in September, will either stagnate or face heavy cuts.
All universities across Australia are now focusing heavily on external fundraising and restructuring administration to better coordinate efforts and to make it a priority.
“ At the Queensland University of Technology, the top-level academic organisational units are the faculties, and they have primary responsibility for bringing in the revenue to support their operations,” said the university’ s acting vice-chancellor, professor Carol Dickenson.
“ There is also central university activity to provide leadership for particular aspects, and for whole-of-university fundraising campaigns, such areas are typically known as development in universities.
“ There are many different approaches taken by different universities. At QUT we have not undertaken structural change based on fundraising needs, but there are incentives built in to various management processes, which encourage nongovernment income generation. These can include targets or specific activities in individual performance agreements for senior managers,” Dickenson said.
QUT has approximately 42,000 students,
Jeanette Hacket
including 6000 from overseas( 16 per cent), and an annual budget in excess of $ 750 million. While the national average of overseas students is 17 per cent, it varies greatly and is as high as 33 per cent at some universities.
QUT’ s other sources of nongovernment income include the alumni and development team that facilitates philanthropy at QUT, acting as the key fundraisers for various university causes. These include scholarships, bursaries, prizes and endowments that support QUT students, research funds, community projects and the growth of QUT facilities and infrastructure.
The corporate partnerships and development team has responsibility for coordinating and facilitating improvement in QUT’ s activities in the provision of education, primarily at postgraduate level, to corporate clients.
“ In the case of Commonwealth recurrent, or block, funding( which is used to cover the salaries of most staff as well as contribute to a range of other activities of the university), grants are indexed at an amount below that of cost growth, and so over time this puts greater pressure on that part of university budgets derived from base grant funding,” Dickenson said.
“ It is therefore very important for universities to seek other forms of income to provide flexibility and options for deriving surpluses that might be reinvested.”
At Curtin University in Western Australia, income received from overseas students totals 22.8 per cent of their income while‘ other research’ and‘ investment income’ total 2.4 per cent and 3.2 per cent respectively. The university’ s total income for 2012 was $ 792.4 million.
Curtin has been active in seeking alternative funding arrangements for
It is becoming increasingly important for universities to dedicate resources into attracting nongovernment funding.
a decade, believing that this is the key to university survival in the future.
“ It is becoming increasingly important for universities to dedicate resources into attracting non-government funding,” said Jeanette Hacket, Curtin’ s vice-chancellor.“ In particular, Curtin has invested in developing its fundraising capability and the university has a dedicated Office of Advancement, which harnesses Curtin’ s growing reputation to provide advice and support to university groups seeking philanthropic support from individuals and the community.”
Curtin University has received gifts from the Curtin Foundation, which was created to drive philanthropic activities. The foundation was established with an inaugural gift from Gordon Martin, a former Curtin chancellor.
Curtin FM, Western Australia’ s largest community radio station based at Curtin’ s Bentley campus, received a Lotterywest grant of $ 712,871 to enable it to upgrade infrastructure over the next two years.
“ Curtin prides itself on its industryrelevant courses and career-ready graduates which are based upon strong industry partnerships with BHP Billiton, Shell, GE Oil and Gas, Chevron and Woodside,” Hacket said.
“ These industry partnerships also contribute to Curtin’ s research expertise.”
In 2011, the Curtin engineering pavilion complex stage I was successfully initiated with the support of industry partnerships.
“ This engagement has continued with completion of stage II in 2012. The complex received $ 20.5 million in round two of the federal government’ s Education Investment Fund. Curtin committed $ 9.5 million of its own funds and attracted $ 2.5 million from industry partners including Woodside, Rio Tinto, BHP and Clough.”
www. campusreview. com. au March 2013 | 15