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campusreview.com.au
Budget 2018-19
A win for universities,
a loss for students.
By Loren Smith
W
hile metropolitan and rural
universities alike are, for once,
mostly pleased with Budget
2018-19, students feel neglected.
Tertiary institutions praised, among other
measures, the boost in research funding.
At the same time, the Council of Australian
Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) lamented
the budget’s lack of income support for
domestic research and postgraduate
coursework students. National Union
of Students (NUS) president Mark Pace
attacked the budget more roundly, likening
it to a “war on young people”.
UNIVERSITY WINS
For universities, research was the main
government support theme. Heeding the
aims of the National Research Infrastructure
Roadmap, $1.9 billion will be invested in
this area over 12 years. Medical research,
particularly, has been well endowed,
with $240 million for the development of
innovative medical treatments and devices.
Also, the controversial $94 million Murray
Darling Medical Schools Network got the
budget go-ahead. This means students
will be trained in the bush to encourage
them to remain there, post-graduation,
to plug the rural doctor shortage. The
network will not, however, increase the
student headcount.
What will is $28 million, creating 500
new sub-degree and enabling course
places for rural and regional students,
plus $14 million for 185 bachelor places in
regional ‘study hubs’, in recognition of the
recommendations of the Halsey report.
States, too, benefitted educationally
from the budget, with funding to replenish
apprenticeship schemes.
Universities Australia president
Margaret Gardner called the budgetary
announcements “a solid down payment on
future economic growth”.
“Investing in these facilities is like laying
the rail and road networks of the 19th and
20th centuries,” she added.
Regional networks, too, were pleased
with the budget’s focus on them. Regional
Universities Network chair Greg Hill termed
the relevant strategies “well targeted and
welcome”.
Meanwhile, peak STEM body Science
& Technology Australia applauded the
budget’s stance on research.
“The new commitment to $1.9 billion
($1 billion over the forward estimates)
in research infrastructure following the
National Research Infrastructure Roadmap
is very welcome,” CEO Kylie Walker said.
However, the praise from universities
wasn’t universal. Most, including the
Innovative Research Universities (IRU),
censured the government’s continuing
MYEFO policy of freezing student place
funding to 2020.
IRU executive director Conor King added
“the new charges imposed on universities
for students’ access to HELP loans – as well
as the full cost of TEQSA reaccreditation –
are mean-spirited and pointless”.
“This will certainly raise uni expenditure
on students, but the additional value for
students will be zero.”
The National Tertiary Education Union
likewise criticised the MYEFO funding freeze
status quo.
“The unanticipated increase in
government revenue could have been used
to reverse [that] decision,” president Jeannie
Rea suggested.
“Right now, young people are facing
sustained high youth unemployment rates,
worrying spikes in youth homelessness,
record low housing affordability and
difficulties transitioning from education to
work,” she said.
“The longer these issues are ignored, the
worse they will become.
“With an increase in revenue, the
government had the opportunity to invest
in young Australians and instead they have
further mortgaged their future.”
CAPA president Natasha Abrahams held
a similar view, likening the government’s
treatment of young people to ‘ghosting’.
The fact that the budget funded only
a minority of undergraduate places at
“marginal seat universities”, she said,
is testament to this. The only positive
budgetary offering in her perspective is
the financing of the National Research
Infrastructure Roadmap.
OVERVIEW OF MAIN HIGHER
EDUCATION BUDGET MEASURES
Additions
• $275 million to the Medical Research
Future Fund
• 185 bachelor degree Commonwealth
supported places (CSPs) for the
previously announced regional study
hubs in 2018–19. This number is set to
rise to 500 places a year from 2022
• 500 extra enabling and sub-bachelor
places for regional Australians
• $37.2 million toward VET student loans
compliance and complaints handling
• The establishment of a Murray Darling
Medical School Network.
Cuts/levies
• The levying of an annual charge for all
HELP providers – including universities –
to raise $31 million over four years
• A change to funding arrangements for
the higher education regulator, TEQSA,
to move to a full cost recovery model,
raising $28.3 million
• A $63 million cut to the Endeavour
Scholarships program.
STUDENT LOSSES
NUS’s Pace said the budget conferred only
small benefits to certain student groups.
Because of this, he issued a veiled threat to
the government: students will respond at
the ballot boxes at the next federal election.
Katie Acheson, chair of the Australian
Youth Affairs Coalition, mostly shared
this opinion.
Miscellaneous
• A review of the Education Services
for Overseas Students (ESOS) annual
registration charge
• Reclaiming unspent funds from Industry
Growth Centres and Cooperative
Research Centres – a new saving of
$20 million over two years. ■
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