Palmer United Party Senate leader Glenn Lazarus has warned Education Minister Christopher Pyne to “stop harassing” him and other crossbenchers as the government tries desperately to get its higher education…
If passed, the changes to higher education will mean Australia is ‘sleepwalking towards the privatisation of its universities’, according to University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Stephen Parker.
AAP/Paul Miller
Had someone told me last summer that I would be defending public universities on the first day of next summer I would have ridiculed the idea. Somehow I believed what the Coalition wrote in early 2013…
Labor has been touting the notion of $100,000 degrees under fee deregulation, but how likely are they in reality?
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The government’s proposed changes to higher education are a platform on which Labor can fight the next election. The strategy is simple: don’t try to modify the package, or offer new solutions. Just shoot…
Should fee deregulation pass in the Senate this week, there needs to be serious discussion about an independent oversight body.
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The proposed changes to higher education, including the deregulation of fees, while offering potentially significant benefits, also carry significant social and economic risks. Should the bill pass in…
People will always want to know more about humanity: the past, the present and the future. Fee deregulation won’t change that.
Flickr/Trey Ratcliffe
As I travel around the nation, it pains me to find much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth in the senior common rooms of our universities. The academic union reports that morale has never been lower…
Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s personal approval has gone up.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Most voters oppose the government’s plan to deregulate university fees according to a poll that shows Labor’s two-party lead has narrowed since mid-year and Tony Abbott’s approval has risen. The Fairfax…
Are scholarships to help out students in need? Or to make universities look good?
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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.
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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…
Changes to higher education have failed to mention Indigenous participation.
Flickr/Rusty Stewart
The government has made clear that more opportunities for Indigenous students are key to its vision for a world-class higher education system. However, Indigenous issues have received little attention…
When choosing which university to attend, price is not high on most Australians’ list of priorities.
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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?
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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?
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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.
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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
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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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…