The government appears set this week for another Senate rejection of its plan to deregulate university fees. And it can’t just blame a difficult crossbench.
Senator Glenn Lazarus has left the Palmer United Party.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
The Senate numbers have been thrown into new confusion and Clive Palmer’s power much weakened with the defection of the Palmer United Party’s Senate leader, Glenn Lazarus.
Universities should be accountable for their funding, says Shadow Higher Education Minister Kim Carr.
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Labor has outlined its plan for universities should it be elected, saying it would be focusing on degree completion rather than enrolment.
Christopher Pyne could separate some higher education reforms into a bill on their own, along with enough savings measures to make them budget-neutral.
AAP/Lukas Coch
It would be a great shame if trying to achieve too much in higher education reform meant that the federal government achieved nothing at all.
It seems the desired effect of Pyne’s uni reforms is to stratify the system, making the top unis better and the middle-tier unis worse. A progressive tax would allow him to achieve this goal.
AAP
It seems the desired effect of Pyne’s uni reforms is to stratify the system, making the top unis better and the middle-tier unis worse. A progressive tax would allow him to achieve this goal.
Victoria University Vice-Chancellor Peter Dawkins says we need to find a way through the higher education impasse, but not a poorly made or hasty one.
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Higher education reform in Australia has entered a delicate phase. The current impasse must be broken, but any move to do so too quickly carries the risk of an outcome that serves neither students nor…
Would capping domestic fees at international student prices see fees soar?
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In recent media reports, higher education policy experts Peter Noonan and Gavin Moodie dismiss the use of international student fees as an indirect “market cap” for domestic fees. Independent senator Nick…
What will more and more students mean for the sector?
David Cheskin/PA Wire
In the run up to a general election, it would be unusual to spot radical shifts in the government’s higher education policy. The latest annual grant letter that the Department of Business, Innovation and…
In the absence of public appetite to invest in public education, a measure of fee deregulation is the only way left to fund education quality to a reasonable standard.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Over recent weeks, some staff have written to vice-chancellors, urging them to reject the university deregulation measures advocated by federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne. Public universities…
The government’s ad spruiking proposed changes to higher education. Is it legal? And if so, should it be?
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The federal government’s recent television advertisement spruiking the benefits of the proposed changes to higher education have raised the ire of not only the opposition but also taxpayers who have reportedly…
Higher education got the most attention it’s had in decades, thanks to the proposed shake up by this man.
AAP
While 2013 was all about schools and their funding (remember Gonski, anyone?), 2014 was the year of higher education reform. Or, at least, proposed higher education “reform”. With cuts to higher education…
If Pyne’s deregulation plan for unis fails to pass the Senate again, there are some alternatives that will preserve our higher education system.
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The government will introduce amended legislation for higher education reform into the Senate next year for further debate. But how do we keep higher education sustainable if the package is torpedoed again…
Christopher Pyne argues that the government is on the side of history in reforming higher education, but it is a bad history that he evokes.
AAP/Lukas Coch
After the defeat of the Abbott government’s higher education bills in the Senate, Education Minister Christopher Pyne invoked the legacy of past “reforms” that had been violently contested at the time…
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been floated by anonymous sources to journalists as an alternative to Treasurer Joe Hockey.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Among its many problems, the Abbott government is showing distinctly cannibalistic tendencies. It’s not just a matter of the odd leak, which happens in the healthiest of administrations. This is serious…
Christopher Pyne says our universities need reform, but that doesn’t mean his ‘plan A’ is the only option.
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The Senate has rejected the Coalition’s plans to deregulate university fees, cut university funding by 20% and extend government subsidies to private providers, despite a few modest measures offered at…
The Senate has rejected Christopher Pyne’s fee deregulation plan, but that doesn’t mean the sector isn’t in need of reform.
AAP
Education Minister Christopher Pyne’s scheme for the deregulation of university fees is dead or delayed. Either way it has been exposed as bad for Australia. This is because it will put universities in…
If there was doubt higher education was a political battleground for the Abbott government, the events of the last 24 hours have dispelled it. The vote on Tuesday night in the Senate stopped the current…
Pyne has reincarnated and reintroduced his failed Higher Education Bill, but it still doesn’t provide an answer to the problem of ballooning student debt under fee deregulation.
AAP
On Tuesday night, the Senate voted to block the government’s Higher Education Reform Bill. Despite last-minute negotiations, consensus could not be reached regarding its signature element – fee deregulation…
Education Minister Christopher Pyne is still adamant on getting his higher education reforms through the Senate next year.
AAP/Lukas Coch
After the Senate sent his higher education bill packing, Education Minister Christopher Pyne dropped into a Universities Australia reception, which serendipitously happened to be in full swing at Parliament…
Christopher Pyne’s higher education reforms have been knocked back by the Senate.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The Senate has voted down Education Minister Christopher Pyne’s higher education measures – one of the budget’s key reforms – in a major defeat for the Abbott government. But Pyne announced the government…