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Kemp review backs demand system, with changes
Targets for young and poor adults should be scrapped, report recommends. By Antonia Maiolo
The sector can expect a massive shake up following the release of the Kemp-Norton review, which recommends the removal of caps on fees and the scrapping of enrolment goals for poorer students.
The review into the demand-driven university funding system conducted by former Liberal education minister David Kemp and education consultant Andrew Norton recommends abandoning the goal of bachelor degrees for 40 per cent of 25- to 34-year-olds by 2025.
It also calls for the government to discard a goal of having 20 per cent of university students come from low-socioeconomic backgrounds by 2020. Denise Bradley’ s 2008 review of higher education instigated both of these targets.
Despite these suggestions, the review strongly supports the demand-driven system and opposes calls to re-impose caps.
University places have increased under the demand-driven system, with universities opening access to thousands more poorer students and those from regional and remote areas, the report finds.
“ Universities have responded to increases in aggregate demand with more places,” the review states.“ In most fields of education, applicants are more likely to receive an offer. However, there has been only a small increase in the proportion of applicants receiving an offer for their firstpreference course.”
The review also finds that for commencing bachelor-degree students with an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank( ATAR) below 50, attrition rates are high and are not improving.
Students from low-SES backgrounds are less likely to complete school than wealthier students and have lower ATAR scores, on average. The report suggests universities should grant admission to any underprepared students only if they can support themselves throughout their studies.
The report further recommends extending the demand-driven system by uncapping Commonwealth-supported sub-bachelor places as a pathway to progress to bachelor-level courses.
“ Due to their over-representation [ amongst ] low-ATAR school-leavers, low- SES students would particularly benefit from more readily available sub-bachelor qualification programs,” the report finds.
Go8 chair professor Ian Young said the review suggests a move in the right direction.
“ The evidence is clear that appropriate pathways courses help less-prepared students make more successful transitions to higher education,” Young said.
He said broadening pathways is a key step towards the expansion of opportunity for all students, regardless of their background.
University of Adelaide vice-chancellor professor Warren Bebbington said he is pleased the report recognised the high dropout rates of students with ATARs below 50.
“ Dropping the arbitrary participation targets of the demand-driven system makes great sense,” Bebbington said.“ There is absolutely no benefit in setting up poorly prepared students to fail academically.”
In terms of university fees, the review finds that the sustainability of a demand-driven system commands greater funding flexibility.
“ In principle, the review panel supports a less-regulated system for setting student charges,” the report states.“ The current system of fixed Commonwealth contributions and capped student contributions was not designed for the current regulatory or market circumstances.”
However, National Tertiary Education Union( NTEU) president Jeannie Rea is concerned by these recommendations, which she believes will shift the costs of extending the demand-driven system onto students, given the report’ s suggestions of lower government contributions per student and higher student fees.
Specific recommendations from the report include a 10 per cent charge for those who need to defer the payment of their fees through the Higher Education Loans Program( HELP). Rea said this would increase the cost of degrees by between $ 2000 and $ 7000.
“ At a time when Australian students are already paying higher fees than in comparable countries and are increasingly impoverished trying to pay for, in some cases, even food, and others are deferring study to avoid mounting debt, increasing the costs of universities even more for students is not the answer,” Rea said.
Under these recommendations, she argued, the view that students will just keep enrolling and are not concerned with accumulating debt fees will be tested.“ Students from previously underrepresented groups, including mature-age students, are more likely to be debt adverse,” she said.
Greens higher education spokesperson senator Lee Rhiannon said she is mostly concerned that the review is proposing to redirect public money to private institutions.
“ Most worryingly, the Kemp-Norton review is proposing to expose public universities to competition from the private sector by allowing private institutions to access funding for Commonwealth supported places in a demand-driven model,” Rhiannon said.“ Our public universities are starved of funding already … Such a move would simply be part of this government’ s ideological war on public education.”
University of Western Sydney vice-chancellor professor Barney Glover says that whilst he is encouraged by the report’ s findings, which show the current system has broadened access to a larger number of low-SES students, aspects of the report do present challenges.
Glover’ s concerns relate particularly to the expansion of the system to a broader range of higher education providers.
“ We also want to ensure that any adjustment to the funding for Commonwealth places and student contrition does not place additional financial burdens on students, nor work as a determent to university study,” Glover said.
At the time of printing, education minister Christopher Pyne had yet to respond to the report. The minister will consider the review’ s recommendations in terms of the upcoming Budget in May. ■
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