policy & reform
campusreview.com.au
HIGHER (AND LOWER) EDUCATION
A retrospective
What is Simon Birmingham’s
legacy as education minister?
By Loren Smith
H
e used to be in charge of grading, but
now the public has the scorecard.
With Simon Birmingham’s departure
from the education ministership, it’s
possible to weigh up his tenure.
For schools, will he get a Band One on
some initiatives, and a Band Six on others?
In higher education, was his record kissed
or blighted with any high distinctions
or passes?
Education Review (schools) and Campus
Review (higher education) asked industry
leaders to report on ‘Birmo’. But before they
did, the longest serving education minister
since Brendan Nelson reflected on his time
in the office.
GETTING SCHOOLED
Birmingham is perhaps best known
for facilitating the passing of the
Gonksi 2.0 school funding reforms this
year, which promised true, per-student
needs‑based investment in accordance
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with the recommendations of the
Gonski report. While celebrating this, he
also acknowledged its Catholic school-
related flaws.
“I am confident that these reforms will
provide enduring fairness that will only be
enhanced by impending improvements,”
he said.
The Australian Education Union,
which advocates for public schools,
said Gonski 2.0, which promises less
money than the original Gonski plan
(under a Labor government), doesn’t go
far enough.
Despite this, the reforms are much
needed: NAPLAN writing results, after
decreasing since 2011, just dipped to
an all-time low. The NSW Teachers
Federation, via a commissioned report,
branded the results unreliable, as for the
first time, under Birmingham’s watch,
students undertook a mix of online and
written tests.
Birmingham also lauded his embrace
of the national phonics tests for Year 1
students, to both praise and concern.
Then there was his arguably failed STEM
push, per the government’s overarching
innovation strategy.
In terms of higher education, his
crackdown on dodgy VET providers via
the abolition of the FEE-HELP scheme
benefited the sector, as did his Skilling
Australians Fund.
Craig Robertson, chief executive officer
of TAFE Directors Australia, termed the
VET crackdown Birmingham’s “notable
achievement”, yet said “the response in the
form of VET Student Loans is administratively
cumbersome and fiscally mean”.
Robertson went on to lament the
remoteness of the possibility of the
government treating VET equally to
universities, given it has recently been
excised from the education portfolio.
More controversial, still, were Birmingham’s
university reforms. Announced at MYEFO
late last year, the government froze demand-
driven funding and lowered the threshold for
repayment of student loans. On the upside,
however, were his changes to admissions
transparency, record-breaking numbers of
international students under his leadership,
and a boost to infrastructure funding.
Universities Australia was particularity
appreciative of his support of international
education.
The Innovative Research Universities,
meanwhile, remained squarely diplomatic.
“The IRU is grateful to former Education
Minister Simon Birmingham for all his work
in the role. Despite not always agreeing with
his policy decisions, we always had a good
relationship and constructive dialogue with
him and his office,” IRU executive director
Conor King said.
HIGH CHAIR TO HIGHER ED
Victoria University’s Mitchell Institute – a
policy think tank covering all of education –
thanked Birmingham for doing this himself.
His holistic consideration of education was
encapsulated in a speech he gave at the
ADC Education Summit in August 2016,
where he said: “From the high-chair to higher
education, we must ensure that the silos
of our education system are coordinated,
the transition seamless, and that we are all
working towards similar objectives.”
With the splitting of the education
portfolio into education and VET, the
institute hopes the ‘continuum’ approach
persists.
Nonetheless, the institute was
disappointed by Birmingham’s lack of
commitment to ongoing funding for
preschool for four-year-olds. ■