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POLICY & REFORM
You’ ve mentioned the success of students a lot. Why is addressing student dropout rates such a focus of the policy? We think we could increase the number of graduates who have completed by 20,000 a year. There is a cost to the system of about $ 400 million per annum as a result of 1 in 4 students not being successful – that is, not completing after eight years at university. The official statistics are clear on this matter.
For those with low university entrance scores, we know that the [ proportion ] who do not complete is 1 in 2. We need to not just enrol students, we also need to ensure that they’ re provided with the necessary support to secure those successful completions of the university degree.
Now, that does not mean we do a tickand-flick arrangement whereby everyone passes. We do have to make sure that students are given the necessary support so they have a qualification that means something within the broader community.
Why is Labor raising concerns about low-ATAR students making it into university and their impact on the dropout rate, especially since analyst Tim Pittman says low-ATAR students made up only 6 per cent of the university offers last year? Well, that’ s not quite right, and furthermore, we’ re not interested so much in just low-ATAR schools; we’ re interested to know, for instance, why it is that so many students from regional backgrounds are not successful. Why it is that so many mature-age students are not successful. Why it is that many Indigenous students are not successful.
We know, for instance, [ low-SES students have a 33 per cent non-completion rate after eight years, for regional students it’ s 32 per cent, for remote students it’ s 41 per cent and for Indigenous students it’ s 55 per cent ]. We know that it’ s easy to enrol a student. We require more attention to provide the support necessary so they have a satisfactory experience at university. What we’ ve seen is a significant expansion in the number of students enrolled in universities. Now we want to look at ways in which we can support those students in being successful.
This policy will cost $ 2.5 billion to implement. How will Labor fund it, if elected? What we’ ve indicated is that the program will cost a lot more than that. We have some upsets already. It’ s a net increase in expenditure of $ 2.5 billion. We’ re not expanding the system to the private providers and we are accepting some of the government’ s changes to the loan scheme.
However, we are also making it clear that Labor’ s priority is to spend more money in higher education than the Liberal party, and we are saying that some of the announcements that were made already in regard to multinationals paying their fair share of tax and changes to the superannuation and concession arrangements – those benefits should go towards the higher education system.
Why does Bill Shorten say the Coalition’ s higher education reforms are a debt sentence? Under the Liberal party plan, the attempt is being made to transfer the cost of the university to the student. For instance, under a Labor plan, dentistry, a five-year program, would cost $ 52,000. Under Mr Turnbull, it would cost $ 148,620. The [ veterinary ] science degree, a five-year degree, $ 52,000 under Labor, $ 131,580 under the Liberals. Medicine, a five-year degree, again, $ 52,000. Under the Liberals, $ 125,155.
We’ re about ensuring that the public expenditure is used wisely. And the public benefit that goes with the higher education system means the government has to pay its bills. ■
DON’ T WIPE OUT STEM GRADS’ HELP DEBT: NORTON
Labor’ s new higher education policy should not wipe the HELP debts of STEM graduates, a policy expert has claimed.
In his mixed critique of Labor’ s new policy, Andrew Norton, higher education program director at the Grattan Institute, said ridding 100,000 STEM students of HELP debts is an unnecessarily expensive and bad idea, as there is already an oversupply of these students pouring into the workforce. He said almost half of biology and medical graduates do not gain employment after four months of completing their degree.
Labor announced this policy in May, and indicated it would pursue this course in the recent policy announcement.
“ There’ s a global emphasis on the importance of STEM,” Norton says.“ While it is true that we do need STEM graduates, we do need STEM research, the critical thing is, do we have enough already? Will the system produce enough when we need them? If we look back in history, student applications have responded to real shifts in the labour market. We’ ve already got a flexible, demand-driven system … we don’ t need these additional incentives.”
Norton has welcomed the additional $ 2.5 billion in funding Labor would provide to universities, and says the policy is good for students, as it does not advocate for cuts and fee deregulation. He also says Labor’ s proposed higher education and productivity commission may lead to better data on markets and performance.
Labor’ s concern about dropout rates is reasonable, Norton says, especially regarding students from weak academic backgrounds. He says while these students shouldn’ t be discouraged from pursuing higher education, they must be aware of the financial risks they are taking, and universities must ensure they’ re getting the support they need.
Norton also says Labor, if elected, should expand the demand-driven system to private universities and sub-bachelor places simply as a matter of equity.
“ The main argument here is a fairness one, that students in public universities are sometimes getting quite large subsidies from the government while students in private institutions are getting nothing,” Norton says.“ There’ s no real public policy rationale for that, it’ s just an accident of history.”
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