news
Return to enrolment caps: Carr
The new federal minister for higher education, senator Kim Carr, has hinted at a reintroduction of caps on undergraduate places, saying the boom in student numbers has jeopardised the quality of university degrees.
Senator Carr was reported saying he is concerned about the rapid growth in the number of students attending universities.
“ We have to also ensure that there are appropriate levels of quality in terms of the students that are entering the system,” Carr said.
The demand-driven system introduced last year removed the cap on the number of funded places, allowing universities to enrol as many students as they want.
Enrolment caps would relieve the budgetary pressures the government faces in funding the hundreds of thousands of additional places, particularly in the wake of the $ 2.3 billon cuts to the sector announced by Labor earlier this year.
But a move toward enrolment regulation
4 | July 2013 has been criticised by those in the sector already committed to hitting participation targets to 40 per cent of the number of people aged 25-34 with a degree by 2025.
The Regional Universities Network( RUN) said an end to the demand-driven system would be a huge loss to regional Australia.“ If the caps were put back on at this point, we’ d see an enormous opportunity for regional Australia to catch up with metropolitan Australia vanish,” said professor David Battersby, the chair of RUN.
Innovative Research Universities said“ demand-driven funding works”, adding that the capped system discouraged growth in important disciplines including science, technology and health degrees. The number of bachelor students in the natural and physical science, smaller agriculture and environmental sciences and engineering courses all grew by 12 per cent from 2009 – 2011, according to 2013 budget statements from the Department of Tertiary Education.
Curtin insists restructure
The union is warning of widespread redundancies but Curtin University’ s deputy vice-chancellor insists more jobs will be created under a restructure plan. By Antonia Maiolo
Curtin University has rejected claims that all staff members will be forced to apply for their own jobs, amid a restructuring of its academic workforce.
The clarification comes in response to the National Tertiary Education Union’ s( NTEU) claims that the university plans to spill all academic positions under the restructure which will see the creation of more teaching-only roles and less traditional teaching and research positions. The NTEU has notified a dispute with Curtin University for allegedly breaking its workplace agreement.
Applications for the new teaching focused and research focused positions are open to academics currently employed at Curtin University, but those who don’ t apply run the risk of facing redundancy as
Senator Kim Carr
does not affect current jobs
fewer positions will be available following the restructure.
Under the new plan, the number of teaching-focused roles has been capped at 20 per cent of the academic workforce. However, deputy vice-chancellor professor Colin Stirling said the number of jobs available will increase under the restructure, with existing staff given the first opportunity to occupy the new positions.
“ Curtin is not shedding all academic positions,” Stirling said, adding that only where new positions are not able to be filled internally will external applicants be sought.
Stirling said the NTEU together with staff agreed in the recently established Enterprise Agreement to create a new teaching-focused academic position.
Stirling did admit, however, that the new specialist positions( new Teaching- Focused and Research Academic) may result in fewer traditional teaching and research positions, but said“ the overall size of the academic workforce is not expected to change”.
Stirling said the university expects all schools to be involved in the new process by the end of the year.
But according to the NTEU this process will lead to mass redundancies with a
Meanwhile, Belinda Robinson, the head of Universities Australia, welcomed senator Carr to the portfolio, but urged him to reconsider the budget cuts.
Carr’ s appointment will be the federal’ s government’ s fourth higher education minister in less than six months, following the recent Labor leadership change from Julia Gillard to Kevin Rudd, which resulted in Craig Emerson announcing his retirement from politics at the upcoming federal election. n
smaller pool of jobs available, meaning that the remaining staff will have to deal with a heavier workload.
The union also said at least 45 jobs will be abolished in a trial that has already extended across four schools at Curtin, with potentially hundreds more job losses to come if the action is applied across the entire university.
The schools of accounting, speech pathology and psychology, science and built environment are the first to undergo the restructure.
NTEU WA division secretary, Gabe Gooding, said no academics are immune to redundancy with senior professors being required to submit expressions of interest to continue employment.
“ Curtin University’ s plan potentially plunges the entire academic workforce into redundancy,” Gooding said.
“ Such an action is unprecedented in Australia. At no other university is the management attempting to force academics to apply for their own job.” n