POLICY & REFORM
campusreview.com.au
Analysis:
Somebody
has to pay
Changes to higher education
funding will ultimately result in shifts
in who bears the burden of costs;
just how much is still uncertain.
By Conor King
M conorkingIRU
T
he government has pulled back
from deregulation of student fees
but retains its aim for significant
savings in higher education. It wants to
balance the amount the government
pays with the amount students pay. Major
changes will not take place until 2018,
giving time to get the settings right.
The options paper the government
released sets out the major areas for
change and the policies it wants to consider
before finalising a new package.
The competing objectives driving this
debate remain:
• Universities need to have the resources
to provide effective, high-quality, futurefocused, innovative education that meets
the needs of all students, the economy and
the community.
• Students need higher education to
be affordable, supported by the Higher
Education Loan Program (HELP), with
debts reasonably repayable across a
working life.
• Government needs to invest in students’
higher education, consistent with fiscal
capacity, to support all Australians in
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developing their capability, and to support
Australia’s economy.
Simply put, students want to pay no
more, government wants to pay less and
universities need more. The discussion will
be interesting.
Ruling out a full system of higher
education provider-driven charges, the
emphasis returns to which combination of
government and student contributions will
generate the resources necessary to be
sustainable. The government’s focus is now
on changing the maximums students can
pay; that is, an increase in regulated fees.
The options paper rightly proposes
fundamentally rebooting funding and
charges to suit current and future
expenditure needs. This is not glamorous,
nor will it be easy, but it is necessary.
The paper also sets out many possible
changes to HELP, drawing on the proposals
of Andrew Norton. It is important to
review HELP but the outcome should
hold to its core intent: a system to ensure
all Australians can access undergraduate
university education suited to their
aspirations without concern about fees.
There will be no further attempt to
legislate the efficiency dividend for either
2016 or 2017 but there are some changes in
advance of 2018.
The Higher Education Participation and
Partnership Program (HEPPP) is reduced
by just over 20 per cent from 2017. Labor
did not lock this scheme in as a legislated
loading in 2011 so it can be cut. It is a critical
program for educating all students. The
final version in the 2018 package will be
crucial. The 20 per cent HEPPP cut risks
undermining a program critical for educating
all students. Following a review, it is essential
that the long-term program in the 2018
package sustains the incentive to enrol all
suitable students regardless of background.
The loss of the Office for Learning and
Teaching (OLT), with a commitment to
maintain national teaching awards, marks
the demise of yet another scheme to
improve cross-sector understanding of how
to deliver higher education well. We now
need a discussion about how to maintain the
focus on good education delivery that leads
to improvements within each institution as
part of national education outcomes.
Other