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VC’ S CORNER
Professor Greg Hill. Photo: John McCutcheon / Sunshine Coast Daily
Coast Lightning national netball team.
Similarly, USC has invested significantly in helping the community address serious mental health issues through the creation of the Sunshine Coast Mind and Neuroscience-Thompson Institute.
Supporting regional universities encourages regional and other Australians to study in the regions and stay in the regions to work.
Regional universities do not receive separate, regional development funding; therefore, there is added pressure on our CGS funding, compared to that of metropolitan universities.
In addition, regional universities are, proportionally, more reliant on government funding for teaching and learning( around 40 per cent for RUN members), than older, metropolitan universities( for example, less than 20 per cent for the Group of Eight). The impact of the CGS efficiency dividend and performance funding will therefore be greater for our universities.
The Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency( TEQSA) is responsible for ensuring the adequate performance of universities through its re-registration and other processes, and performance funding via the CGS is not necessary.
There could potentially be perverse consequences resulting from making 7.5 per cent of the CGS subject to performance measures. For example, if retention was to be one of the metrics used to measure relative performance, we do not know the mechanism that could take account of the significant differences between students at regional and metropolitan universities. Regional universities have higher proportions of students who are the first in their families to attend university, are from lower SES backgrounds and who study part-time.
Our research shows that students at regional universities commonly have complex lives and competing priorities. Many of these students are parents, and many have other caring responsibilities. Many need to engage in paid employment while studying and experience significant financial pressure. The cost of study materials and travel to university, on top of the usual expenses of living, including sometimes supporting a family while on a reduced income, mean that students may have to make difficult choices about their priorities that other more traditional students do not need to make. This includes withdrawing from studies, and taking longer to complete their awards. However, we must encourage more regional students to undertake higher education if we are to reach parity in educational attainment with metropolitan Australia.
While we note that student contributions have not increased since 2005, we are concerned that the proposed increase in contributions may deter some students, particularly those who are mature age and / or part-time. Students from these groups make up a large proportion of RUN’ s student cohort.
The decrease of the first threshold for the repayment of student loans from around $ 52,000 to $ 42,000 is a significant change and will disproportionately affect low-income households, which may also be subject to an increased burden under other Budget measures( for example, the Medicare levy). It will impact some students who are both studying and working part-time: financial circumstances have been shown to be a major contributor to students dropping out of university.
Along with the changes to the arrangements for student loans, students will also be negatively impacted by the efficiency dividend on universities which will constrain universities in what they can provide.
Government policy towards regional Australia must be coherent to significantly lift the participation of regional Australians at university, and unlock the full human and innovative potential of the regions.
Policy contradiction is encapsulated in the Rural and Regional Enterprise Scholarships for regional students to study STEM subjects in higher and vocational education. RUN welcomes these scholarships as many regional students drop out of university due to financial issues, although we note that the funding is not ongoing, and the impact will therefore be relatively limited.
However, there is no mechanism proposed in the allocation mechanism, such as awarding bonus points, to encourage students to study at regional campuses. Around three-quarters of the regional students who go to a metropolitan university to study never return to work in the regions.
Passage of the HESLA Bill in August or later this year will be too late for implementation by 1 January 2018. University budgets for the forthcoming year are worked out a few months prior to the end of the year, and enrolments start during the last six months of the preceding year.
If the Bill was passed in its current form, we have a general, ongoing concern that we wouldn’ t know the outcome of the performance funding component of the CGS, and the number of enabling and postgraduate places, when budgets were being compiled a few months before the end of the calendar year.
We urge the Senate not to pass the HESLA Bill.
There must be adequate consultation on the reforms with the sector and we must fully understand what is involved. While the reforms to HEPPP have been arrived at via a separate, independent review and submission process( conducted by ACIL Allen), and the detail of the reforms, and their justification and implementation, is relatively clear, the same cannot be said for other parts of the package.
We ask the government to be more consistent in its policy towards regional Australia to make meaningful, positive change in the regions for the national good. ■
Professor Greg Hill is the vice-chancellor and president of the University of the Sunshine Coast and is chair of the Regional Universities Network.
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