Kenya’s authorities are trying to deal with declining standards at the country’s public and private universities. This will require a strengthened regulatory framework and hard work from institutions.
Unfortunately ‘free’ public higher education is never actually free.
Shiraaz Mohamed/EPA
If higher education is made “free” for all, the whole society ends up paying more. That’s deeply unjust in already unequal societies, such as those in Africa.
A South African university student references the Oscar Pistorius trial during a fee protest.
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It shouldn’t be up to universities or the government alone to fund students who qualify for tertiary education but can’t afford it. A perpetual bond system could be the answer.
Education Minister Simon Birmingham.
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Michelle Grattan speaks with Simon Birmingham about his negotiations for a new higher education package, efforts to crack down on rorting in the vocational educational sector and the government's overhaul of the childcare system.
Where in the UK do students get the most support for going to university?
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The decline in government investment in higher education and the ever-increasing reliance on fees has made universities more like private for-profit corporations.
South African students want free university education. In a deeply unequal society, could there be another way?
Kim Ludbrook/EPA
Students and academics are fed up with the situation at South Africa’s universities. One way to improve conditions is for universities to be run as institutions of learning – not big businesses.
A student at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand sums up the motive for ongoing campus protests.
Pontsho Pilane/The Daily Vox
South Africa’s higher education sector is dramatically underfunded. Polite conversations between vice-chancellors and the government have failed. It’s time the voices of student activists was heard.
A change in minister needs to mean a change in tack with regard to higher education.
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Higher education policy development should involve learning from the Abbott government’s mistakes and other counties where university reform has been successfully achieved.
Saying we’ve the lowest funded university sector in the OECD doesn’t paint the right picture.
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Many point out that in 2011 Australia’s public funding of universities ranked thirty-third out of the thirty-four OECD member countries. However the story is not so simple.
Simon Birmingham has announced the deregulation of university fees will be delayed until 2017 at the earliest.
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Labor has released a higher education policy intended to restart a discussion stalled by the failure of the Coalition’s deregulation package to pass the Senate. What is the point of the promised funding guarantee?
Labor has said it would immediately scrap cuts to higher education if it won office.
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The opposition’s statement today rules out a number of the current government’s policies. Deregulation, as they’ve said before, but also plans to expand the demand-driven system.
Universities need to be encouraged to collaborate more, not compete more.
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Currently universities collaborate with one another and with other sectors in myriad ways, greater competition through deregulation could discourage such collaborations.
Australia ranks 30th of 31 OECD countries for public investment in higher education.
AAP/Paul Miller
International students are more attracted to universities that charge more, so would price equal quality in the eyes of Aussie students if fees were uncapped?
If universities increase their fees and students can’t pay their loans, should the university be held responsible?
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