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…
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…
As a young humanities scholar at the beginning of my PhD, my experience with the Irish postgraduate research funding system has left me disillusioned. So much so that I have joined the list of emigrants…
Australia has undergone a significant shift from the Whitlam days when tertiary education was free.
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Recent times have seen heated debates in Australia about whether higher education tuition fees should be deregulated, and about the private/public benefits of higher education. A question that goes to…
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…
Four years on, anger at tuition fees hasn’t gone.
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As we approach the UK general election in May 2015, a number of options are on the table for politicians considering the future of university tuition fees. The parties have not yet fully set out their…
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.
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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…
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…
The sandstone universities have come out in support of fee deregulation, but their support is based on misguided beliefs.
AAP
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…
A number of high-profile cases have put for-profit higher education in the US under the spotlight in recent months. In July, Corinithian Colleges, one of the largest for-profit providers in the country…
Tertiary education has great benefits for the individuals, and also for society.
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Tertiary education graduates across the OECD earn on average 70% more than the non-tertiary educated, meaning despite rising costs of higher education in Australia the investment is still worthwhile. The…
Fee deregulation mightn’t be ideal, but it’s the best option we have given underfunding of the higher education sector.
AAP
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…
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.
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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…
The higher education bill opens up government subsidies to anyone who can call themselves a university. But can anyone call themselves a university?
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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…
Waiting to go off.
Student debt via PathDoc/Shutterstock
According to a new pamphlet issued by the Social Market Foundation, “the Tories’ student loan system that finances our universities, voted through by the Lib Dems, is a timebomb waiting to go off”. The…