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Articles on Higher Education Bill 2014

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Are scholarships to help out students in need? Or to make universities look good? AAP

What are scholarships for?

The University of Sydney’s Vice-Chancellor, Michael Spence, presumably achieved his political aim by announcing that his university could offer scholarships to almost a third of its students if fees were…
In the wake of a Senate committee report, Christopher Pyne faces an uphill battle to get his higher education legislation through. AAP

Pass higher education bill with amendments: Senate inquiry

The Senate inquiry into the government’s proposed suite of changes to higher education has now reported. The committee came up with five recommendations, some of which were foreshadowed by Education Minister…
When choosing which university to attend, price is not high on most Australians’ list of priorities. Shutterstock

Does price matter when picking a university?

The proposed changes to higher education, including the removal of caps on student fees, have led many to question what drives students to pick a university. In a deregulated market will universities compete…
Will medical graduates with a hefty student loan be able to resist the higher paying specialties? Shutterstock

Rising university fees threaten to skew public health services

American medical graduates enter hospital training with a debt of around US$160,000 if they attended a public medical school, or US$190,000 if they attended a private school. In the United Kingdom, fees…
Is it realistic to say graduates gain a million-dollar advantage over non-graduates? Shutterstock

Million-dollar degree pay-offs: how real are they?

The main reason given for planned subsidy cuts to university courses has been that, with a degree, graduates will earn “a million dollars more”. Figure 1 shows how the May Budget compared graduate incomes…
Commonwealth scholarships sound like a good idea, but they’ve been mired in controversy over how they will be doled out. Shutterstock

The problem with Commonwealth ‘scholarships’

Equity scholarships usually attract general support as a “good thing”. It therefore seems surprising that the Coalition’s proposed new Commonwealth scholarship scheme should generate so much contention…
When contemplating our fee deregulation gamble, we should look no further than New Zealand, where it was tried and failed. The.Rohit/Flickr

Will Australia learn from NZ’s mistakes in higher education?

Since 1990 New Zealand has introduced many dramatic “reforms” into its higher education system, many of them well in advance of Australia. A number of these “reforms” have been unwound after nasty, unintended…
Fee deregulation, cuts to research: these won’t help boost Australia’s universities in the rankings. AAP

Pyne’s plan isn’t the way to protect our unis from ‘mediocrity’

The rise and rise of Australian universities in the THE World University Rankings is indeed a good news story. Eight Australian institutions ranked in the top 200, and five in the top 100; that’s quite…
The government’s higher education reforms will benefit the prestigious universities with branding and price power, but few others. Supplied

Non-Go8 university leaders seek changes to higher education bill

Leaders of Australia’s middle-tier and regional universities are concerned that the government’s proposed higher education package will hurt their brand and their students. At a conference in Melbourne…
Submissions to the inquiry into Christopher Pyne’s higher education bill have now closed: what do they say? AAP

A few embrace higher ed changes but many more have reservations

Submissions to the Senate’s inquiry into the higher education reform bill have now closed. The submissions are to assist the Senate in deciding whether or not to pass, block or amend proposed changes to…
The fee model University of Western Australia will adopt under fee deregulation would see course repayments quadruple in some instances. Shutterstock

NATSEM: UWA model would lift uni debt for women, disadvantaged

The University of Western Australia recently announced its proposed post-deregulation price structure. UWA’s new fee is a flat fee of A$16,000 per year for undergraduate courses, which is significantly…
CPI? Bond rate? Surcharge? What’s the best and fairest way to charge interest (or not) on student loans? Shutterstock

The best compromise for HELP loan interest rates

The government’s plan to charge up to 6% interest on HELP loans has been widely attacked as unfair. Many critics, including Shadow Education Minister Kim Carr, the Group of Eight universities, Universities…
The sandstone universities have come out in support of fee deregulation, but their support is based on misguided beliefs. AAP

Three misguided beliefs of the Group of Eight universities

The Abbott government’s proposals for reform of the higher education sector have not found much favour with students, academics or the general public. They have, however, had a good deal of support from…
Fee deregulation mightn’t be ideal, but it’s the best option we have given underfunding of the higher education sector. AAP

Higher education – how did we get to here?

For years the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee - and then Universities Australia - warned higher education in Australia was moving inexorably towards a tipping point. Without substantial increases…
Should we put a cap on uni fees? Shutterstock

Which cap fits? Putting a ceiling on university fees

In all of the debate about the government’s plans for higher education, what people seem to worry about most is the prospect of ballooning student fees, with predictions of A$100,000 degrees or more. So…
Gough Whitlam’s free university didn’t greatly improve access for students from low socio-economic backgrounds, but if Pyne thinks his reforms will, he’s badly mistaken. Flickr/Gostalgia

Maybe free university didn’t improve access for all, but neither will fee deregulation

Education Minister Christopher Pyne defied historical orthodoxy last week by declaring Gough Whitlam’s free tertiary education a failure. Free education only helped reinforce the place of the rich, Pyne…
Universities have other options rather than just raising fees to astronomical levels. Flickr/Philip Nordmeyer

Fee deregulation is not the only answer for universities

Debate begins this week on the higher education bill introduced to parliament last week. If political bartering can result in some sort of compromise, there is potential for the higher education sector…
The higher education bill has been debated by students, university leaders and the opposition. What is likely to pass and what will be blocked? AAP

Higher ed bill explainer: what will pass and what will be blocked

The much-awaited higher education reform bill has now been introduced to parliament. If passed, it will result in the most significant changes to the Australian higher education system since the Dawkins…
The higher education bill opens up government subsidies to anyone who can call themselves a university. But can anyone call themselves a university? AAP

Bill opens door to putting private and public universities on same footing

There’s a devil lurking in the detail of the higher education reform bill presented to parliament. As expected, the bill, introduced yesterday, proposes to open Commonwealth subsidies for undergraduate…

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