NEWS campusreview. com. au
Another reform dust up
Birmingham, Labor spar over potential impact on the price of a degree.
The education minister, Simon Birmingham, has accused opponents of the government’ s efforts to achieve deregulation of universities of running a scare campaign against the measures.
During his address to The Australian Financial Review Higher Education Summit in October, Birmingham reinforced that reform is not dead but on the backburner until 2017. Following his address, Birmingham lamented that a“ scare campaign” had dominated opposition to the reform.
Following the controversial reforms’ repeated defeats in the Senate, Birmingham recently announced a fresh consultation process with the sector. The minister said the purpose was to determine if there were viable alternatives to ensure universities get the funding they need.
While stating that he remained committed to egalitarian access to higher education, Birmingham said a frank discussion on how to maintain this access was still necessary.
“ On average, a student pays about 42 per cent of the cost of their education,” he said.“ The taxpayer picks up the rest. Nobody enjoys a debate about who pays any more than a discussion about tax reform but it is necessary that teaching and learning is properly funded.”
Labor higher education spokeswoman Amanda Rishworth said such claims indicated the minister had not listened to both sides of the debate. Rishworth reiterated the opposition’ s long-held argument that economic modelling showed the risk of $ 100,000 degrees was substantial if deregulation came into effect, and called on government to abandon the controversial reform entirely.
“ Minister Birmingham obviously hasn’ t been listening to the students, parents and all those people who had deep concern about fee deregulation,” Rishworth told Campus Review.“ There was plenty of modelling to suggest … that through deregulation there would be upward pressure, not downward pressure [ on fees ]. That, combined with a 20 per cent cut would have meant significant fee increases. It’ s unfair of [ Birmingham ] not to recognise the real concern among our community,” she said. ■
Chubb’ s take on innovation
Outgoing chief scientist looks to examples from overseas to improve Australia’ s showing.
Australia must seek to emulate countries such as Israel, South Korea, the UK and the US if it is to build an innovation-led economy capable of capitalising on investment in research and skills, the nation’ s top scientist has said.
A report by the office of outgoing Chief Scientist professor Ian Chubb, has called for an urgent overhaul of the way governments and universities work with industry in order to“ bring about a transformation in which high-growth, technology-based businesses become a driving force behind Australia’ s economy”.
The report highlights the disparity between Australia’ s success as a world leader in producing high-quality research and its languishing at 72nd in the world for innovation efficiency, which the report explains as“ a measure of innovation output relative to input in the Global Innovation Index”.
The report, Boosting High-Impact Entrepreneurship in Australia – A role for universities, outlines common approaches other countries are using to achieve broad success in fostering entrepreneurship.
Such approaches include supporting the growth of technology companies via policy and targeted programs, and making a range of entrepreneurship programs available to high school and university students.
The report also recommends universities enlist higher numbers of experienced entrepreneurs to deliver courses, provide greater opportunity for students to engage with industry through internships and international placements, and provide programs that support multidisciplinary collaborations.
Academics could also be rewarded for helping to foster entrepreneurship among their students.
“ Entrepreneurship is an economic activity, requiring attention to the framework conditions for business creation and growth,” Chubb wrote in the report.“ But more importantly, it is a human endeavour, requiring attention to the way our attitudes are shaped, our skills developed, our networks formed.
“ Universities are pivotal, as the stories of so many of the world’ s most iconic entrepreneurs suggest. Some [ built ] their businesses from university-affiliated research; many more were shaped by the people they met and the attitudes they imbibed. We too can work consciously to broaden our students’ opportunities – or we can narrow their choices by default to the well-trodden paths.” ■
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