tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/higher-education-funding-6102/articlesHigher education funding – The Conversation2022-09-08T15:33:41Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1901702022-09-08T15:33:41Z2022-09-08T15:33:41Z17 strikes in 23 years: a unionist explains why Nigeria’s university lecturers won’t back down<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483463/original/file-20220908-13-jtesly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A protester holds a placard as workers show solidarity with the Academic Staff Union of Universities.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Lecturers at Nigeria’s public universities have been on <a href="https://punchng.com/asuu-embarks-on-16-strikes-in-23-years-fg-lecturers-disagree-over-13-year-mou/">strike 16 times since 1999</a>. On <a href="https://businessday.ng/news/article/asuu-strike-labour-begins-nationwide-solidarity-protest/">14 February 2022 they went back on strike</a> to make it the 17th. Only 11 of Nigeria’s 59 state universities haven’t taken part in the current strike action. The Conversation Africa asked Dele Ashiru, a lecturer and member of the national executive council of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, to provide insights.</em></p>
<h2>What’s behind the incessant strike action?</h2>
<p>There are so many reasons. </p>
<p>The bottom line is underfunding of the system and the failure of the government to implement an agreement it reached with our union in 2009. Infrastructural, teaching, learning and research facilities are grossly inadequate in our universities. That’s why we, the Academic Staff Union of Universities – the umbrella body for public university lecturers in Nigeria – demanded adequate funding. We reached an agreement but the government has reneged on its implementation. </p>
<p>Tied to this is the issue of salaries. We demanded that universities have autonomy. Instead the government came up with a salary payment system that is alien to the university system anywhere in the world. They come up with a system whereby salaries of lecturers are paid by the accountant general of the federation. </p>
<p>We rejected this because it means every payment – including research grants, sabbatical leave payments and leave allowances – has to pass through the personnel system. This is inefficient, and facilitates corruption. </p>
<p>Besides, our wages are so poor that a very senior professor earns less than US$1,000 per month. </p>
<p>And our students are suffering. A hostel room that is supposed to house just four students will have 12 living in it. Lecture rooms are overcrowded. This is unacceptable. </p>
<p>The underlying problem is the proliferation of universities. Institutions are created for political reasons. We told them during one of our negotiations to stop creation of more universities when existing public universities are underfunded. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-universities-in-nigeria-absolutely-not-189083">New universities in Nigeria? Absolutely not</a>
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<p>The poor working conditions have forced many of our colleagues to seek greener pastures abroad. This leaves the remaining ones with a heavy workload.</p>
<p>But the government is not listening. They set up committees and reports are submitted but are not implemented. The cycle continues. </p>
<p>As lecturers, our interest is in the development of our students and the university system. So long as the government remains adamant, the cycle of strikes will continue.</p>
<h2>How have the strikes benefited the universities?</h2>
<p>I will say that the first benefit is that public universities are still standing. Otherwise most would have gone into extinction. </p>
<p>Secondly, if it were not for the strikes, some of the interventions to uplift the institutions’ facilities would not have been set up by the government. For instance, our strikes led to the establishment of the <a href="https://tetfund.gov.ng/index.php/mandate-objectives/">Tertiary Education Trust Fund in 2004</a>. This is an agency that provides funding for educational facilities and infrastructural development in tertiary institutions. </p>
<p>It came about after our agitation for infrastructural development on our campuses. Some of the lecture theatres, hostels, libraries and laboratories you find on our campuses now were built by the agency. </p>
<p>Thirdly, our strikes have also brought the challenges facing the university system into the consciousness of Nigerians.</p>
<p>Those in government and rich stakeholders who are supposed to collaborate with us to develop public universities have alternatives for their children. That’s why they are not interested in growing public universities.</p>
<h2>Are there other ways you could get your demands met?</h2>
<p>The government is the one that always pushes us into taking strike action. If you enter into an agreement, you have to honour it. But that is not in the character of the Nigerian government. </p>
<p>Before the Academic Staff Union of Universities calls a strike, we would have consulted top officials of government to prevail on their bosses to meet our demands. We would have appealed to respected leaders of thought, leadership of religious organisations. Sometimes, we go as far as visiting the president’s chief of staff. </p>
<p>It is after we have exhausted all these avenues that we resort to strike action. I think the only language government understands is strike. It is the frustration visited upon us by the government that forces us to down tools.</p>
<h2>What conditions must be met for the strike to be called off?</h2>
<p>We have declared this action as indefinite because we want it to be the last time our universities will be shut. The government has options. Most of their children are in good schools abroad while some are in well-funded private universities. But the children of the poor are made to face the consequences of their irresponsible and insensitive actions. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nigerias-university-strikes-winners-losers-and-ways-forward-179698">Nigeria's university strikes: winners, losers and ways forward</a>
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<p>That is why we have resolved never to call off the strike until our demands are met. These include:</p>
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<li><p>revitalise the universities with adequate funding </p></li>
<li><p>obey the country’s constitution, which says you must provide education for Nigerians</p></li>
<li><p>grant autonomy to universities </p></li>
<li><p>pay lecturers’ salaries in a transparent and accountable way </p></li>
<li><p>stop creating politically motivated universities </p></li>
<li><p>pay a living wage to lecturers and improve students’ welfare </p></li>
<li><p>provide infrastructural facilities for research, learning and training </p></li>
<li><p>implement the agreement with our union.</p></li>
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<p>Once these conditions have been met we will be good to go.</p>
<h2>Are you justified in asking that lecturers be paid while on strike?</h2>
<p>The excuse the government is advancing for the no-work no-pay rule is that it doesn’t have money. That is not true. The truth is that there is unbridled corruption. And, might I ask, where do they get money to send their children to foreign universities? </p>
<p>Nigeria has the resources to fund university education. It should block leakages in public finance and fund education. A nation cannot develop beyond the level of education it gives its citizens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190170/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dele Ashiru does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Public universities in Nigeria have been bedevilled by lecturers’ strikes for years. To break the cycle, the union insists the institutions should be adequately funded.Dele Ashiru, Lecturer, University of LagosLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1890832022-08-24T08:57:29Z2022-08-24T08:57:29ZNew universities in Nigeria? Absolutely not<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480119/original/file-20220819-16-qmv2tv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The University of Lagos is one of the institutions affected by the lecturers' strike in Nigeria. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Public university lecturers in Nigeria have been on strike <a href="https://businessday.ng/news/article/asuu-strike-labour-begins-nationwide-solidarity-protest/">since 14 February 2022</a>. One of their biggest issues is that the institutions they work for are poorly funded. Despite this, Nigeria’s National Assembly recently raised the idea of establishing <a href="https://ln247.news/national-assembly-proposes-63-new-varsities-others-experts-kick/">63 new universities</a>. Nigeria already has more than 200 universities. In this interview, Dr Jerome Isuku, an educational management expert who works at the University of Ibadan, sets out his views on the government’s thinking.</em></p>
<h2>Does Nigeria need 63 new universities?</h2>
<p>The proliferation of universities in the face of dwindling financial input from the government has serious implications for <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337732904_Policy_Options_for_Effective_Financing_of_University_Education_in_Nigeria_An_International_Comparison_Approach">cost and quality</a>. </p>
<p>It is irrational for the government to be creating additional universities when it can’t cater for existing ones. It would be more plausible to invest in the existing ones so that they are able to produce the quantity and quality of graduates that can compete globally. </p>
<p>New universities are being set up in Nigeria for political gain. State governors compete with one another in the race to create new ones.</p>
<p>Nigeria doesn’t need new universities now. It already <a href="https://www.nuc.edu.ng/">has about 217</a>, according to the National Universities Commission, the agency that regulates and supervises the nation’s university system. </p>
<p>Forty-nine are run by the federal government. These include defence and police academies. Fifty-seven are run by the country’s 36 state governments and there are 111 private universities. Over 90% of the country’s students are in public universities.</p>
<h2>Is the student population not an argument for more universities?</h2>
<p>Nigeria’s population is well <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/nigeria-population">over 200 million</a>. Nevertheless, population growth should not be a reason for arbitrary establishment of universities. We have about <a href="https://www.newtelegraphng.com/2-1m-students-studying-in-nigerian-universities-says-nuc/">2.1 million students in existing universities</a>. But there is the problem of <a href="https://www.europeanjournalofsocialsciences.com/issues/PDF/EJSS_60_3_05.pdf">carrying capacity</a>. </p>
<p>Over 1.7 million candidates apply for undergraduate admission annually. The number that the universities can conveniently admit is about 400,000. This is because teaching and learning facilities are extremely inadequate. The capacity to absorb them and expand access can be increased through economies of scale (increasing enrolment and lowering costs) in the existing universities via sufficient funding. </p>
<p>University lecturers in Nigeria are among the lowest paid when compared with many other countries. And there’s a shortage of lecturers. So if you create new universities, where will the lecturers come from? It is unlike Japan, whose capital, Tokyo, alone has over <a href="https://www.4icu.org/jp/tokyo/">90 universities</a> but with quality facilities, good remuneration for staff, and adequate funding to cater for growth in the system. </p>
<h2>What impact would creating new ones have?</h2>
<p>You have to reflect on what has happened to public primary and secondary schools in the country, where you see students sitting on windows, tyres and bare floors to learn. They are <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336563218_Budgetary_Allocation_and_Quality_of_Secondary_Education_in_Oyo_State_Nigeria">grossly underfunded</a>. Only the poorest of the poor now enrol their children in these ramshackle public primary schools. Private primary and secondary schools dot the nation’s landscape. </p>
<p>Increasing underfunded universities without a systematic and rational plan could come at a similar price. </p>
<p>The government bites off more than it can chew. In 1998, Nigeria had 37 arts and sciences universities, three agriculture universities and one military university. But the number has grown to about 217 since the National Universities Commission approved the creation of <a href="https://www.nuc.edu.ng/nigerian-univerisities/private-univeristies/">private universities in 1999</a>.</p>
<p>Quality will be compromised. This is already evident in the fact that most private universities have lowered the scores of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination to substantially below what government universities take. Though most government’s universities accept 200 out of a possible 400 score, most private universities accept the <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/544076-breaking-jamb-fixes-cut-off-marks-for-2022-admissions.html">minimum national benchmark</a>.</p>
<p>The money used for additional universities should be ploughed back to expand the quality and quantity of graduate output in existing universities. </p>
<p>Moreover, it takes a lot of time to train PhD graduates who will teach in these institutions. Additional universities mean additional qualified personnel. If they are not readily available, these additional universities may have to resort to unqualified staff, thereby damaging the quality of output. </p>
<p>Even the older public universities are <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360577368_insecurity_and_brain_drain_in_Nigerian_universities">struggling to keep their academics</a>. Many are relocating abroad in search of the proverbial greener pastures.</p>
<h2>What is your assessment of Nigeria’s universities?</h2>
<p>Deplorable, an abysmally poor teaching and learning environment. Most public universities lack modern teaching and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336563107_Trend_Analysis_in_the_Funding_of_University_Research_in_Nigeria_Implications_for_Social_and_Economic_Development_in_an_Emerging_Economy">learning facilities</a>. Laboratories are empty. Books in the libraries are obsolete. Classrooms and hostel accommodation for students are grossly inadequate. Rooms that are meant to accommodate two students have between six and eight. </p>
<p>There are also inadequate offices for staff members. Academic staff have a heavy workload because of the government’s restriction on <a href="https://dailytrust.com/fg-places-embargo-on-recruitment">civil service employment</a>. Added to this is the brain drain, as intellectuals <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336554643_Fund_Accessibility_on_Research_and_Output_of_Academic_Staff_in_the_University_of_Ibadan_Nigeria">migrate</a> to other countries where they are valued. To conduct research for development is another challenge facing the Nigerian university system. </p>
<h2>What should be done to improve the quality of learning?</h2>
<p>Adequate funding is at the frontier of achieving a quality university system. This will enhance the production of the human capital that can compete in the global economy. </p>
<p>Government and other consumers of university education products must provide the resources – funds, facilities, equipment and adequate remuneration. This will motivate and enhance the quality service delivery in the system. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/scholarly-success-of-african-universities-common-contributing-factors-122555">Scholarly success of African universities: common contributing factors</a>
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<p>It is irrational for the government to claim it doesn’t have money to efficiently run the existing universities, while at the same time establishing new ones. It is nauseating.</p>
<h2>How does it feel being a lecturer in a public university?</h2>
<p>University lecturing is one of the most competitive and prestigious professions in any country in the world, except in Nigeria, where the government has consistently treated university lecturers with disdain. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://punchng.com/asuu-knocks-fg-blames-poor-pay-for-worsening-varsity-brain-drain/">welfare package is one of the poorest in Africa, not to talk of other developed societies</a>. When a public <a href="https://punchng.com/asuu-knocks-fg-blames-poor-pay-for-worsening-varsity-brain-drain/">university professor earns less than US$1,000 (approximately N421,580) a month</a>, it does not speak well of the country’s priorities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189083/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eragbai Jerome Isuku does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Creating more universities in Nigeria has serious implications for quality of graduates.Eragbai Jerome Isuku, Lecturer, University of IbadanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1838082022-06-05T20:02:12Z2022-06-05T20:02:12ZThe inequity of Job-ready Graduates for students must be brought to a quick end. Here’s how<p>Labor’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/labors-promised-universities-accord-could-be-a-turning-point-for-higher-education-in-australia-183810">promise of a “universities accord”</a> suggests a slow and careful approach to higher education policy. A <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/jason-clare-rides-his-zingers-into-the-education-ministry/news-story/05f80142fe540653a596b9eb0908fe13">new education minister</a> without a strong background in the portfolio may also want time to get across the issues. </p>
<p>In general, taking this time to get policy right and build support for it is a good approach. But when current policy is causing problems and lacks significant support there is a case for acting more quickly. This is the situation with the previous government’s <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready">Job-ready Graduates</a> student funding policy <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_LEGislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r6584">enacted in late 2020</a>. </p>
<p>Job-ready Graduates imposes unfair <a href="https://www.studyassist.gov.au/help-loans">HELP debts</a> on some students, adds to the government’s costs of running the HELP loan scheme, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-offers-extra-university-places-but-more-radical-change-is-needed-173219">distorts university incentives</a> in distributing student places between courses. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/labors-promised-universities-accord-could-be-a-turning-point-for-higher-education-in-australia-183810">Labor's promised universities accord could be a turning point for higher education in Australia</a>
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<h2>How are university courses funded?</h2>
<p>A mix of <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/higher-education-loan-program/approved-hep-information/funding-clusters-and-indexed-rates">contributions from the Commonwealth and students</a> fund domestic undergraduates in public universities. Added together, these contributions are the overall funding rate per subject. </p>
<p>The government sets Commonwealth contributions, which vary by academic discipline. The government pays universities according to their enrolments up to a <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/collections/higher-education-providers-2021-2023-funding-agreements">capped total grant amount</a>.</p>
<p>Universities set student contributions up to a legal maximum, which also varies by discipline. Universities are paid directly by students or through <a href="https://www.studyassist.gov.au/help-loans/hecs-help">HECS-HELP loans</a>. Total student contribution revenue is not capped.</p>
<p>Once universities reach their maximum Commonwealth contribution grant they can still increase enrolments, but on student contribution revenue only. These extra students are called “over-enrolments”. Historically, over-enrolments have been an important source of flexibility in meeting student demand.</p>
<p>In its basic architecture, Job-ready Graduates has similarities with previous funding policies, other than the <a href="https://theconversation.com/demand-driven-funding-for-universities-is-frozen-what-does-this-mean-and-should-the-policy-be-restored-116060">demand-driven system</a>, which uncapped both Commonwealth and student contributions.</p>
<p>Where Job-ready Graduates differs is in the setting of Commonwealth and student contributions. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/demand-driven-funding-for-universities-is-frozen-what-does-this-mean-and-should-the-policy-be-restored-116060">Demand-driven funding for universities is frozen. What does this mean and should the policy be restored?</a>
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<h2>Commonwealth cut per student contribution</h2>
<p>Job-ready Graduates increases student places by keeping <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2021/05/14/the-budget-and-higher-education/">total university grants at roughly the same level</a> but reducing the average Commonwealth contribution. Universities need to deliver more student places for each million dollars in public funding.</p>
<p>Labor has already promised a <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2022/05/22/a-few-notes-on-the-future-of-higher-education-policy/">small, and possibly temporary</a>, increase in total Commonwealth contribution funding. Given the government’s <a href="https://budget.gov.au/2022-23/content/bp1/index.htm">overall budget position</a>, a significant increase per student may not be feasible.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-offers-extra-university-places-but-more-radical-change-is-needed-173219">Labor offers extra university places, but more radical change is needed</a>
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<p>For universities, increases in student contributions at least partly offset reductions in Commonwealth contributions under Job-ready Graduates. </p>
<h2>Student contributions changed radically</h2>
<p>The most radical element of Job-ready Graduates was a further change to student contributions. Before this policy took effect, a mix of assumed private financial benefits and course costs explained student contribution levels by discipline. The price gap between the cheapest and most expensive discipline was about $4,500 a year. </p>
<p>Job-ready Graduates abandoned this system. Instead, it uses student contributions to manipulate student demand. </p>
<p>In nursing and teaching, “job-ready” courses the previous government favoured, student contributions were cut by about $2,700 a year. In disfavoured courses they went up. The biggest increases of $7,800 a year were in humanities other than languages. </p>
<p>The gap between the cheapest and most expensive course more than doubled, to $10,550 a year. </p>
<p>Higher or lower Commonwealth contributions partly offset these changes to student contributions, so overall funding rates changed by less than the student contribution levels. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-big-issues-in-higher-education-demand-the-new-governments-attention-183349">3 big issues in higher education demand the new government's attention</a>
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<h2>Job-ready Graduates has long-term impacts</h2>
<p>The Job-ready Graduates assumption that students would respond to these price signals and change enrolment patterns was never sound. Course preferences still <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/06/21/jobs-interests-and-student-course-choices/">depend on student interests</a>. For financially motivated students, <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/06/28/financial-influences-on-job-seeking-university-applicants/">differences in job and salary prospects</a> are also more significant than how much they pay for their course. </p>
<p>Job-ready Graduates annually shuffles hundreds of millions of dollars in HELP debt between students. Some students, like those in nursing or teaching, will owe less than previously and repay their debt earlier.</p>
<p>Others, like those taking humanities courses, will owe much more and keep repaying for years longer than before. Some may never fully repay their HELP debt.</p>
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<p>While HELP is designed to allow slow or incomplete repayment, this should reflect varying individual circumstances. It is not sensible or fair to assign repayment periods and risks based on course choices. </p>
<p>Slow or no repayment increases the <a href="https://twitter.com/andrewjnorton/status/1392075423094173697/photo/1">cost of HELP to the government</a>. This is not prudent when it already faces large budget deficits.</p>
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<p>The system also affects the economics of over-enrolment. </p>
<p>In fields such as arts, law or business, the student contribution covers more than 90% of the maximum revenue a university could get per student. These fields are close to a de facto demand-driven system, with only minor financial constraints on increased enrolments for universities already earning their maximum Commonwealth grant. </p>
<p>In fields such as education and nursing, less than 25% of maximum per student revenue comes from the student. Over-enrolments in these fields are almost certainly loss-making, creating a deterrent to accepting more students.</p>
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<h2>How can this system be fixed?</h2>
<p>To fix the system we need student and Commonwealth contributions that vary within a narrower range. </p>
<p>This change can be close to budget-neutral. Course that are too expensive, relative to other fields, would have student contributions decreased and Commonwealth contributions increased. Courses that are too cheap would have student contributions increased and Commonwealth contributions decreased. </p>
<p>Estimates of 2022 enrolments could be used to ensure contribution increases and decreases balance each other, leaving the government and universities in the same financial position. </p>
<h2>A fast or slow change?</h2>
<p>Student contribution increases are normally “grandfathered”, so only new students are affected and continuing students are retained on the old rates. </p>
<p>Grandfathering is generally preferable, so students partway through their course are not suddenly hit with unexpected extra charges to finish it. But Job-ready Graduates creates so many problems that it should be ended as quickly and comprehensively as possible.</p>
<p>If the new student pricing system was introduced for 2023, students facing higher charges would have benefited from up to two years of discounted student contributions. Their total course cost at graduation would still be lower than for other students.</p>
<p>A fast fix for the problems of Job-ready Graduates does not preclude later changes coming from the accord process. It is an interim measure to correct errors rather than a long-term policy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183808/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Norton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Huge disparities in how much students pay for courses mean graduates of high-fee disciplines will take longer to repay their debts or might never do so. That will ultimately add to government debt.Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1839772022-06-01T20:12:47Z2022-06-01T20:12:47ZWhy big university surpluses underscore the need to reform how they are funded and governed<p>The election of a new Labor federal government probably drew sighs of relief across the higher education sector. University staff and students will be hoping for a more sympathetic approach than they received from the Coalition government.</p>
<p>Tertiary education lobby groups have already put forward their wish lists and funding priorities. Yet the case for increasing funding might be a harder sell now that several universities have announced <a href="https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/buckets-of-money-at-big-sydney-unis/">staggeringly large surpluses</a> in their annual reports.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/labors-promised-universities-accord-could-be-a-turning-point-for-higher-education-in-australia-183810">Labor's promised universities accord could be a turning point for higher education in Australia</a>
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<h2>So how big were these surpluses?</h2>
<p>The University of Sydney’s <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-university-records-1-billion-surplus-as-staff-demand-a-share-20220523-p5anv2.html">A$1.04 billion operating surplus</a> stands out. But the biggest universities’ annual reports all show <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/universities-large-surpluses-complicate-their-case-for-aid/news-story/cb59b68d12651d19bb95c072b23d4d44">healthy surpluses</a>. <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/victorian-unis-bounce-back-despite-pandemic-pressures-on-income-20220503-p5ai06.html">Monash</a>, <a href="https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/buckets-of-money-at-big-sydney-unis/">UNSW</a> and <a href="https://www.couriermail.com.au/education-queensland/big-salaries-are-back-as-universities-recover-from-covid/news-story/e42c550343d4fe766a575683f97408b8">Queensland</a> have reported surpluses of more than $300 million. </p>
<p>While some universities, such as <a href="https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/vic-uni-finances-theyre-still-standing/">La Trobe</a>, reported operating losses, many <a href="https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/wa-uni-2021-financials-saved-by-the-feds/">other</a> <a href="https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/vic-uni-finances-theyre-still-standing/">universities</a> around the country also <a href="https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/uni-financial-results-some-look-better-than-they-like-to-admit/">recorded</a> surpluses, including some that aren’t far off Sydney’s result in relative terms. Examples include <a href="https://honisoit.com/2022/05/usyd-records-1-04-billion-surplus-for-2021/">Charles Sturt</a> (a 21% surplus of $143 million) and <a href="https://www.2nurfm.com.au/news/university-of-newcastle-defends-185-million-surplus-after-union-backlash/">Newcastle</a> (a 19% surplus of $185 million).</p>
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<p>The new government is already committed to fiscally expansive policies in areas such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme (<a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-vows-to-tackle-the-ndis-crisis-whats-needed-is-more-autonomy-for-people-with-disability-181470">NDIS</a>), <a href="https://theconversation.com/labors-plans-for-aged-care-are-targeted-but-fall-short-of-whats-needed-180497">aged care</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/high-childcare-fees-low-pay-for-staff-and-a-lack-of-places-pose-a-huge-policy-challenge-183617">early childhood education</a>. In an inflationary environment, it might be tempted to take a light-touch approach to university funding – scrap the Coalition’s incoherent <a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-offers-extra-university-places-but-more-radical-change-is-needed-173219">Job-Ready Graduates Package</a> and let universities look after themselves. </p>
<p>After all, despite regularly decrying the damage done by the Morrison government, Labor in opposition made few concrete policy commitments to universities beyond the welcome addition of 20,000 student places.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-offers-extra-university-places-but-more-radical-change-is-needed-173219">Labor offers extra university places, but more radical change is needed</a>
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</em>
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<p>However, the latest university surpluses actually highlight, rather than diminish, the case for more public funding, and indeed for broader reform of university governance and finances. The key to understanding this lies in the market-based sources of revenue that underpinned these surpluses.</p>
<p>Take the University of Sydney. According to its <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/about-us/vision-and-values/annual-report.html">annual report</a>, the surplus was: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“mainly due to increases in overseas student enrolments, strong investment performance and non-recurring items including the Commonwealth Government’s $95.1 million Research Support Program contribution and the net gains from the disposal of property assets”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>International student fee income increased by about $250 million. Investment returns were up by almost $400 million. </p>
<p>It was a similar story elsewhere. Newcastle University reaped <a href="https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/uni-financial-results-some-look-better-than-they-like-to-admit/">$119 million</a> in additional investment income and UNSW <a href="https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/attachments/publications/2021-annual-report-v20b-digital-single.pdf">$117 million</a>. Many universities also profited from <a href="https://thepienews.com/news/australian-universities-sell-stake-in-idp-to-offset-losses/">selling their shares</a> in international student placement business IDP Education. </p>
<p>On the downside, the University of Wollongong <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/student-housing-deal-gone-sour-costs-uni-of-wollongong-169m/news-story/ff0ff2aeac32b1b079843ace877091a5">lost $169 million</a> after terminating its contract with a private student accommodation provider it had been underwriting.</p>
<h2>Remember, these are public institutions</h2>
<p>Bear in mind that these universities are public institutions. They are created by acts of parliament. A <a href="https://www.teqsa.gov.au/what-we-do">public agency</a> accredits and regulates their degree-conferring ability.</p>
<p>Public universities have legislated responsibilities to serve public ends. Yet they resemble profit-driven corporations in their financial governance. </p>
<p>This has been evident during the past two years. Having been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/04/australian-universities-angry-at-final-twist-of-the-knife-excluding-them-from-jobkeeper">denied JobKeeper</a> by the Coalition government, universities savagely cut staff. First casuals, then fixed-term staff, and then staff on ongoing contracts. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-2-years-of-covid-how-bad-has-it-really-been-for-university-finances-and-staff-172405">After 2 years of COVID, how bad has it really been for university finances and staff?</a>
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<p>In response to what loomed as a short-term drop in income from international students, university leaders took the corporate route. They restructured aggressively, losing incalculable expertise and institutional memory and throwing thousands of staff into unemployment. This process boosted “profits”, with employee expenses down at many universities.</p>
<p>Given the composition of university governing councils – about <a href="https://theconversation.com/2-out-of-3-members-of-university-governing-bodies-have-no-professional-expertise-in-the-sector-theres-the-making-of-a-crisis-171952">one-third of members</a> are from the corporate sector – it’s hardly surprising a for-profit orientation has come to dominate. </p>
<h2>What is the role of federal funding?</h2>
<p><a href="http://publicuniversities.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/University-Governance-Fact-Sheet.pdf">Federal funding settings</a> have played a role. Successive federal governments have refused to fund the full costs of university <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-analysis-shows-morrison-government-funding-wont-cover-any-extra-uni-student-places-for-years-167542">teaching</a> and <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp2122/Quick_Guides/UniversityResearchFunding">research</a>.</p>
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<p>Government funding accounts for <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/907-Mapping-Australian-higher-education-2018.pdf">a little over half</a> of higher education revenue, if government <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/higher-education-loan-program">HELP contributions</a> are included. This creates an incentive for university chiefs to pursue private sources of revenue to make up the shortfalls. Consistent with the corporate approach, the risks arising from market exposure have been devolved to staff by loading up on insecure employment (<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-17/university-casual-workforce-redundancies-dirty-secret/12462030">nearly 70%</a> of the higher education workforce) and rolling workplace restructures.</p>
<p>Surplus revenues are earmarked for infrastructure investment or “to shield the University against unforeseen circumstances”, as the University of Sydney annual report states. Except, as we saw over the past two years, when “unforeseen circumstances” arose, staff bore the brunt to preserve balance sheets.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-the-government-and-universities-can-do-about-the-crisis-of-insecure-academic-work-183345">Here's what the government and universities can do about the crisis of insecure academic work</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>What can governments do?</h2>
<p>Such perverse dynamics are out of place at a public institution. And this is the point at which federal policy can play a positive role. Increased and stable federal funding would reduce the incentive for university chiefs to pursue market-based sources of revenue and help avoid the wild budget gyrations of recent years. </p>
<p>But, given the corporate orientation of university governing boards, this would do little in and of itself to fix problems such as chronic <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-the-government-and-universities-can-do-about-the-crisis-of-insecure-academic-work-183345">job insecurity</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/hit-hard-by-the-pandemic-researchers-expect-its-impacts-to-linger-for-years-169366">increasing workloads</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/2-out-of-3-members-of-university-governing-bodies-have-no-professional-expertise-in-the-sector-theres-the-making-of-a-crisis-171952">2 out of 3 members of university governing bodies have no professional expertise in the sector. There's the making of a crisis</a>
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<p>Governance structures are a state responsibility. However, federal legislation can nonetheless influence universities’ internal resource allocation. The work of the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Job_Security/JobSecurity">Senate Select Committee on Job Security</a> provides a good starting point. </p>
<p>The committee sought to place responsibility on universities, as public institutions, to achieve positive employment outcomes. It <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/reportsen/024764/toc_pdf/Secondinterimreportinsecurityinpublicly-fundedjobs.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">recommended</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“as a condition of receiving public funding, universities […] set publicly available targets for increasing permanent employment and reducing casualisation”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It also argued the government should legislate to improve the ability of unions to inspect the records of universities with respect to potential wage theft.</p>
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<p>Such an approach is well within the remit of government. It could steer universities towards more positive outcomes for employees, students and the broader community. As it stands, university vice-chancellors seem to be saving for a rainy day, when a typhoon is sweeping across the sector.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183977/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Damien Cahill is Secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union NSW.</span></em></p>Reports of big university budget surpluses appear to undermine calls for their federal funding to increase. But a closer look at how the surpluses were achieved reveals why change is needed.Damien Cahill, Associate Professor in Political Economy, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1838102022-05-31T20:12:49Z2022-05-31T20:12:49ZLabor’s promised universities accord could be a turning point for higher education in Australia<p><em>This essay is longer than our usual articles, so please set aside a little extra time to read and enjoy.</em></p>
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<p>Australian higher education could arrive at a turning point in the next three years. Not because the incoming Albanese government is likely to increase funding greatly. And not because it has ambitious plans to change higher education. </p>
<p>The reason is likely to be the <a href="https://www.alp.org.au/policies/your-education">universities accord</a> promised by Labor. The turning point is likely to emerge from rebuilding shared understandings of how to manage the pressures that built up over the past decade and how to negotiate a transition to a different higher education sector over the next decade. </p>
<p>These pressures have fractured a sense of a common purpose within the sector and among its interest groups. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-big-issues-in-higher-education-demand-the-new-governments-attention-183349">3 big issues in higher education demand the new government's attention</a>
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<h2>Pressures for a new settlement</h2>
<p>Pressures for a new settlement in higher education arise not just from the replacement of a government widely perceived within the sector as being <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-australian-government-letting-universities-suffer-138514">unsympathetic</a> to it, though that didn’t help. The new government’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/albanese-appoints-former-university-of-melbourne-vice-chancellor-glyn-davis-to-head-pmandc-184059">appointment</a> of former University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Glyn Davis to head the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has been <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/media-item/ua-welcomes-new-pmc-head-glyn-davis/">welcomed</a> as a positive sign.</p>
<p>We have seen relations fracture along three lines:</p>
<ul>
<li>between university staff and many of their managements that they regard as exploitative</li>
<li>between students and universities that they see as driven to maximise “profits”</li>
<li>between communities and government and universities that they consider to be self-serving.</li>
</ul>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-are-not-corporations-600-australian-academics-call-for-change-to-uni-governance-structures-143254">'Universities are not corporations': 600 Australian academics call for change to uni governance structures</a>
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<p>The sources of these tensions are substantial long-term and widespread changes in the nature of higher education, its relations with work, its globalisation, the transforming role of research, broader economic and social changes, and their management by universities and governments. </p>
<h2>Accords past and imminent</h2>
<p>As Labor’s shadow education minister, Tanya Plibersek <a href="https://www.tanyaplibersek.com/media/speeches/tanya-plibersek-speech-to-the-afr-higher-education-conference-sydney-monday-16-august-2021/">foreshadowed</a> the universities accord in August 2021. She said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The accord would be a partnership between universities and staff, unions and business, students and parents, and, ideally, Labor and Liberal, that lays out what we expect from our universities. […]”</p>
<p>“The aim of an accord would be to build consensus on key policy questions and national priorities in a sober, evidence-based way, without so much of the political cut and thrust. Building that consensus should help university reform stick. […]”</p>
<p>“The accord process would be led by the minister with advice from a small group of eminent Australians from across the political spectrum. No aspect of the higher education system will be out of bounds.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Labor leader Anthony Albanese stressed this change in approach in his <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-22/anthony-albanese-acceptance-speech-full-transcript/101088736">election victory speech</a>. He promised to “seek our common purpose and promote unity”, “find that common ground” and “work in common interests with business and unions”.</p>
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<p>Albanese has often said he wants to emulate the consensus style of governing of <a href="https://theconversation.com/vale-bob-hawke-a-giant-of-australian-political-and-industrial-history-93719">Bob Hawke</a>, the Labor prime minister from 1983 to 1991.</p>
<p>The promise of a universities accord consciously invokes the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-prices-and-incomes-accord-75622">Prices and Incomes Accord</a>, the series of agreements negotiated by the Hawke government from 1983 to 1991. Those accords traded off pay rises for increases in the “social wage” such as Medicare, pensions and unemployment benefits and, eventually, superannuation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-prices-and-incomes-accord-75622">Australian politics explainer: the Prices and Incomes Accord</a>
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<p>Plibersek didn’t seem to contemplate a grand bargain in higher education, but said last August a Labor government would want the accord to address “<a href="https://www.tanyaplibersek.com/media/speeches/tanya-plibersek-speech-to-the-afr-higher-education-conference-sydney-monday-16-august-2021/">big questions</a>”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“There are big questions that need to be answered about how higher education is structured and funded – so that it can keep offering affordable, high-quality teaching and produce world-class research, and so that knowledge translates to prosperity and jobs. We must look at the whole system rather than tinkering around the edges if we want to make sure we have the educated workforce necessary to drive economic growth. Australia’s future prosperity depends on it.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Participation is still growing</h2>
<p>These questions emerge as Australia absorbs its transition over the past half century from elite higher education (less than 16% participation) to <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED091983">mass participation</a> (16%-50%). </p>
<p>Australia and other wealthy countries are now moving towards <a href="http://escholarship.org/uc/item/96p3s213">universal access to higher education</a> (more than 50% participation). The UK government, for example, <a href="https://www.ahua.ac.uk/taking-the-long-view-on-student-number-control/">removed controls on student numbers</a> in England from 2015. Australia <a href="https://theconversation.com/demand-driven-funding-for-universities-is-frozen-what-does-this-mean-and-should-the-policy-be-restored-116060">lifted caps on funded enrolments</a> from 2012 to 2017.</p>
<p>No government in Australia is likely to reinstate demand-driven funded student places soon. However, enrolments are likely to expand to accommodate growing numbers of school leavers and increased social, occupational and economic aspirations to undertake higher education.</p>
<p>Public universities currently offer <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/higher-education-statistics/resources/2020-section-4-all-student-load">82% of higher education</a>, TAFE and other vocational colleges 10%, non-university higher education institutions 6% and private universities 2%. Whether this is the ideal balance will presumably be one of the “big questions” for the accord to consider.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wholl-teach-all-the-students-promised-extra-tafe-places-4-steps-to-end-staff-shortages-175523">Who'll teach all the students promised extra TAFE places? 4 steps to end staff shortages</a>
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<h2>Education and work</h2>
<p>The expansion of higher education has been fuelled by <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-government-spending-on-education-promote-economic-growth-60229">human capital theory</a>, the idea that education increases productivity and, in turn, incomes. Nonetheless, concerns persist that Australia has too many graduates who are not well matched to their jobs and still less to future employers’ needs.</p>
<p>This is due in part to employers’ substantial cuts in their investment in their employees’ induction and training since the 1990s in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00742-3">Australia</a>, <a href="http://www.conferenceboard.ca/e-library/abstract.aspx?did=7542">Canada</a>, the <a href="http://www.llakes.ac.uk/research-papers">UK</a> and the <a href="http://heldrichcenter.org/sites/default/files/products/uploads/Dimension_of_Labor_Market_Alignment.pdf">USA</a>.</p>
<p>The gaps in the mythical conveyor belt from education to work have been one cause of students’ disenchantment, leading to the insistence by them, employers and governments that universities produce “job-ready graduates”.</p>
<p>Further narrowing the supply of graduates to meet predicted labour force needs does not improve the match between education and work. Apart from anything else, there’s the <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374435">changing demand and structuring of jobs in the labour market</a> to consider. But it would be good to develop a more sophisticated understanding and management of the relations between higher education and work.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pandemic-widens-gap-between-government-and-australians-view-of-education-148991">Pandemic widens gap between government and Australians' view of education</a>
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<h2>Research and innovation</h2>
<p>Universities have also benefited from the idea of a linear relation between research, experimental development, innovation and economic development. And, again, it has narrowed and distorted university research’s priorities, funding and management. The relations between research and innovation are far more complex and uncertain than the linear model assumes. </p>
<p>And just as some argue that Australia relies too heavily on its comprehensive teaching and research universities for higher education participation, so it relies too heavily on these universities for applied research and development. </p>
<p>Governments and others should stop pressuring universities to fill gaps in innovation. Australia already has many of the elements of a sophisticated innovation ecosystem. They need more careful tending and stronger support.</p>
<h2>The rise of international education</h2>
<p>Australian universities were at first reluctant to expand international enrolments when they were allowed and then required to charge these students full fees, another Hawke government decision. However, these enrolments had started to increase strongly by the time Labor lost office in 1996. </p>
<p>Now, of course, international education is such a success that it is deeply enmeshed in and supports universities’ core activities, especially <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/06/04/why-did-universities-become-reliant-on-international-students-part-3-the-rise-of-research-project-grants/">research</a>. </p>
<p>Universities, their staff and their students managed shocks magnificently during the pandemic. The dependence on international students doesn’t make universities as vulnerable as some feared before COVID, but it is still a serious weakness.</p>
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<h2>How the other half thinks</h2>
<p>Australia performs relatively well in higher education equity research, policy and implementation. There is also a relatively good understanding of how economic, social and educational inequalities shape inequality in higher education, and how higher education may ameliorate it. </p>
<p>Like many other countries, Australia builds higher education policy on redressing the disadvantages of under-represented groups. But perhaps a different type of inequity remains unaddressed. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334770033_Education_and_the_geography_of_Brexit">Brexit</a> and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2016/11/18/educational-rift-in-2016-election/">Trumpism</a> have shown around 30% of adults are deeply alienated from the pursuit of rational inquiry from evidence. </p>
<p>A similarly sizeable body of Australians seems to be alienated from higher education and its values. </p>
<p>Many unionists and employers constructed competency-based training from the 1990s to “teacher proof” vocational education. It may be worth considering how higher education may serve those who are alienated or at least disengaged from further education.</p>
<h2>And what about funding?</h2>
<p>HECS income-contingent loans, an Australian policy innovation introduced by the Hawke government, have partly financed the transitions from elite to mass higher education and towards universal access. While universities are as keen for increased funding as governments are to cut it, there is no crisis in Australian higher education financing. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-had-record-job-losses-but-not-as-many-as-feared-and-the-worst-may-be-over-176883">Universities had record job losses, but not as many as feared – and the worst may be over</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But tensions about financing will increase as participation increases. A major advance may be more structural than financial, by having most increases in higher education enrolments in TAFE institutes. These already offer high-quality baccalaureates and have campuses across the country.</p>
<h2>Decision-making and employment structures</h2>
<p>The transition to mass higher education was governed by the managerialism and later the <a href="https://srheblog.com/2019/01/21/metrics-in-higher-education-technologies-and-subjectivities/">metricisation</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2020.1748811">datafication</a> of higher education so despised by academics.</p>
<p>Clearly, there is scope for improving government direction and oversight of higher education, and for improving universities’ own decision-making. There are legitimately different views on the balance between collegial and managerial governance of universities. However, examples of universities’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-the-government-and-universities-can-do-about-the-crisis-of-insecure-academic-work-183345">wage theft</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/wage-theft-and-casual-work-are-built-into-university-business-models-147555">exploitative employment practices</a> reflect problems with many universities’ management.</p>
<p>Australian universities have a very high reliance on casual employment, even more so than in many <a href="https://theconversation.com/self-employment-and-casual-work-arent-increasing-but-so-many-jobs-are-insecure-whats-going-on-100668">other areas of the economy</a>. Indeed, the growth of insecure alongside secure employment in universities and colleges reflects a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/political-science-research-and-methods/article/dualization-stratification-liberalization-or-what-an-attempt-to-clarify-the-conceptual-underpinnings-of-the-dualization-debate/C20383B2A41D6C45EA3D32234174256D">dualisation</a> of employment protections in many OECD countries, as part of a general liberalisation of employment regulation.</p>
<p>This suggests the need for more comprehensive protections against insecure employment throughout the economy.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-the-government-and-universities-can-do-about-the-crisis-of-insecure-academic-work-183345">Here's what the government and universities can do about the crisis of insecure academic work</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>An early test of government</h2>
<p>Many other substantial issues confront Australian higher education. It is hard to see the accord addressing all of these. </p>
<p>An early indication of the new minister and government’s governing style will be the extent to which the most important issues to be addressed are identified just within government, in private consultations with privileged “stakeholders”, or openly with students, staff and the public.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183810/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gavin Moodie has received various research grants from bodies funded by the Australian and state governments, and was employed by Australian universities for 35 years. He is currently employed by the University of Toronto and is a co investigator on a grant funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p>Higher education didn’t feature heavily in the election campaign, yet the sector has high expectations of the new government. The key is the idea of an accord and the change in approach it implies.Gavin Moodie, Adjunct Professor, Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education, OISE, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1804042022-04-04T05:34:26Z2022-04-04T05:34:26ZAustralia has committed $1.6 billion to help research projects become commercialised. Here’s what the money will do<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456011/original/file-20220404-26-hsfi52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/medical-healthcare-research-development-concept-doctor-1296802027">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/taylor/media-releases/action-plan-supercharge-research-commercialisation">federal government is investing</a> $2.2 billion for university research commercialisation which would place “university innovation and industry collaboration front and centre of Australia’s economic recovery.”</p>
<p>Part of this funding includes $1.6 billion over ten years for Australia’s Economic Accelerator – a new competitive funding program to help university projects bridge the so-called “valley of death” – the place between the lab bench or research environment and the marketplace, where many good ideas essentially die.</p>
<p>The government’s funding boost is a step in the right direction. Here’s why it’s needed and how it will work.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/scott-morrison-pursues-commercialisation-of-australian-research-with-2-billion-new-money-176033">Scott Morrison pursues commercialisation of Australian research with $2 billion new money</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Australia’s commercialisation landscape</h2>
<p>Australia is home to <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/media-item/australian-unis-score-top-marks-for-world-class-research/">world class</a> research universities. While we have breakthrough ideas from our university researchers, we <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/university-research-commercialisation-package/resources/university-research-commercialisation-package-consultation-submission-documents">struggle to get</a> ideas originated in our labs to innovative products in the market. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tudge/lifting-impact-universities-strengthen-australias-future">February 2021 speech</a> then Education Minister Alan Tudge pointed to Australia’s low rate of invention disclosures, which he said were the “first step in the commercialisation process”. An invention disclosure is a confidential document written by a scientist or engineer for use by a company’s patent department, or by an external patent attorney, to determine whether patent protection should be sought for the described invention.</p>
<p>Tudge said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] survey data shows Australian public research organisations made an average of about 20 invention disclosures in 2016, roughly the same as in 2004 despite the more than fourfold increase in research output. Moreover, Australia’s average rate of 20 invention disclosures compares to more than 40 in Canada, more than 60 in Israel, and over 120 in the US.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Significant barriers to commercialisation including low collaboration among <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/university-research-commercialisation-package/resources/university-research-commercialisation-package-consultation-submission-documents">industry and university exist</a>. Another significant barrier is the lack of significant proof of concept funding which plunges many of our brilliant ideas into the “<a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7601581/billions-to-plug-university-research-valley-of-death/">valley of death</a>”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-unis-are-far-behind-the-worlds-best-at-commercialising-research-here-are-3-ways-to-catch-up-159915">Our unis are far behind the world's best at commercialising research. Here are 3 ways to catch up</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Proof of concept could include a trial of a medication or a prototype of technology to show the feasibility of a product.</p>
<p>All Australian universities engage in research commercialisation effort to a varying extent. While the Group of Eight have more sustained <a href="https://go8.edu.au/media-release-university-research-commercialisation-is-crucial-for-economic-growth-and-prosperity#:%7E:text=Group%20of%20Eight%20Chief%20Executive,industry%20to%20grow%20Australia%27s%20economy.">effort and fundings</a>, the resources available at other Australian universities are significantly limited. </p>
<p>Even at the prestigious Group of Eight universities, the level of funding available for proof of concept could only support a limited number of projects each year, mainly for the so called “<a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/urc">first tier ideas</a>”. These are premium ideas in leading disciplines such as health which have a higher chance of success. This limits strategic commercialisation capability and impacts the so called second tier ideas, even though these ideas may have potential. It is important to understand what drives university level commercialisation decisions.</p>
<h2>Barriers to commercialisation</h2>
<p>Let’s say an innovative idea at a certain university needs to be commercialised. To begin with, universities typically screen an idea from <a href="https://pure.bond.edu.au/admin/editor/dk/atira/pure/api/shared/model/activity/editor/consultancyeditor.xhtml?scheme=&type=&id=125738250">three key angles</a></p>
<ol>
<li><p>technical – the nature of the core technology, how it is developing and what it does </p></li>
<li><p>intellectual property – how the nature of the project’s intellectual property is developing</p></li>
<li><p>commercial – the commercial potential for the technology and the key markets. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Certain universities (such as the University of Queenland) also engage other measures such as the <a href="https://pure.bond.edu.au/admin/editor/dk/atira/pure/api/shared/model/activity/editor/consultancyeditor.xhtml?scheme=&type=&id=125738250">Technology Readiness Level</a> adopted by <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/scan/engineering/technology/technology_readiness_level/">NASA </a> to assess how ready to market the technology is. </p>
<p>If the idea is attractive enough, the commercialisation arm of the university then decides to help the <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tudge/ip-framework-critical-commercialising-research">researchers to develop the intellectual property strategy</a>. The university may also provide some competitive internal proof of concept funding to develop a prototype (such as a working medical device). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456015/original/file-20220404-17-nwr6jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456015/original/file-20220404-17-nwr6jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456015/original/file-20220404-17-nwr6jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456015/original/file-20220404-17-nwr6jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456015/original/file-20220404-17-nwr6jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456015/original/file-20220404-17-nwr6jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456015/original/file-20220404-17-nwr6jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456015/original/file-20220404-17-nwr6jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Proof of concept can include a prototype to prove the feasibility of the product.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/electronics-engineer-works-robot-soldering-wires-1104131903">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other sources of funding exist too. For example, external funding sources such as <a href="https://uniseed.com/about/">UniSeed</a>, state and federal government funding or even private capital may be effective to get the idea to a working stage. Challenges still remain beyond this point, especially with regards to finding key markets. </p>
<p>The success of an innovative idea (such as a new technology) is further influenced by <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/small-business/business-must-do-more-to-support-university-sector-20160928-grq1wr.html">adoption from the industry</a>, a key market. Depending on the proof of concept, industry may show an avid interest, or decide to hold off until more evidence is provided. This could be multiple experiments to provide data regarding how the product works.</p>
<p>The majority of the industries in Australia are small and medium sized enterprises. These organisations may not have an absorptive capacity for new technology. These are barriers to commercialisation as well. </p>
<h2>Why the federal funding matters</h2>
<p>A prototype is the bare minimum of evidence and <a href="https://business.gov.au/planning/new-businesses/develop-a-new-product">from a prototype to a product, it could still take several years</a>. Resource support is needed at this phase to see the idea reaches the market as a product. Universities and their pool of creative ideas in the absence of significant proof of concept and subsequent funding may plunge into the so called “valley of death”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/will-the-governments-2-2bn-10-year-plan-get-a-better-return-on-australian-research-it-all-depends-on-changing-the-culture-176358">Will the government's $2.2bn, 10-year plan get a better return on Australian research? It all depends on changing the culture</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is exactly where the federal government’s $1.6 billion funding may help. Universities in Australia should be judicious to scan innovative ideas using meaningful frameworks, engage with the market to find strategic partners from the industry and ensure these ideas actually turn into exciting products that can benefit larger society. </p>
<p>The federal government funding can potentially help many of our brilliant ideas avoid the valley of death. This resource support is needed not only to fund the proof of concept, but to further support a working concept to develop into an actual product available in the market.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180404/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The government’s funding boost is a step in the right direction. This is how it will help research avoid the ‘valley of death’ which is the place between the lab and marketplace.Rajat Roy, Associate Professor, Bond Business School, Bond UniversityVik Naidoo, Adjunct Associate Professor, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1717212021-11-17T18:57:52Z2021-11-17T18:57:52ZBridging programs transform students’ lives – they even go on to outperform others at uni<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432289/original/file-20211116-19-3j7530.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5615%2C3724&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>“I remember how hard the words hit me – ‘you’re not smart enough’.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Dylan, a proud Bundjalung man in his 30s from northern New South Wales with South Sea Island heritage, shared with us what high school staff had told him during year 12. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“My childhood dream was crushed. My grades were terrible and my future was not looking bright. I hit rock bottom with no university acceptance, no career trajectory and no plan. I entered the workforce and bounced around.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Years later, Dylan is publishing research on coral reefs while completing a PhD, thanks to completing the <a href="https://www.scu.edu.au/study-at-scu/courses/preparing-for-success-at-scu-program-2307160/">Preparing for Success (PSP) program</a> at Southern Cross University. </p>
<p>PSP is an award-winning, fee-free bridging or enabling program that provides an entry pathway into a wide range of undergraduate degrees. Our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07294360.2021.1990222">recent research</a>, which included comparing academic achievements over six years, shows students who completed the PSP are more successful in their studies than students who gained admission by other means such as an ATAR score. They are also more likely to complete their undergraduate studies. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1452946428897095680"}"></div></p>
<h2>How do these programs work?</h2>
<p>University <a href="https://enablingeducators.org/enabling-education/">enabling programs</a> such as PSP are offered across Australia. These programs are designed to equip students who don’t meet standard university entry requirements with the key academic literacy skills. By preparing students for successful transition into university study they can open the way to exciting careers and brighter futures. </p>
<p>Anyone who has completed year 10 of school can apply for Southern Cross’s PSP. Other universities offer versions of bridging programs to students without year 10. </p>
<p>These programs are typically fee-free across Australia. At Southern Cross, there are three intakes a year in March, July and November. </p>
<p>Students can complete PSP full-time in 12 weeks over two six-week terms, or part-time over a year. They can study completely online or on campus. </p>
<p>A shorter six-week version, <a href="https://www.scu.edu.au/study-at-scu/courses/transition-to-uni-2309905/2022/">Transition to Uni</a>, is now available for students who have completed year 12 with an ATAR. Both programs are delivered in the new <a href="https://www.scu.edu.au/southern-cross-model/">Southern Cross Model</a>, which delivers a deeper, more focused learning experience in six-week terms. Transition to Uni has a January intake so students can start their undergraduate degrees with their peers in March. </p>
<p>The empowering teaching style engages students in an active learning experience. <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/southern-cross-uni-will-expand-its-new-teaching-model-to-all-students/news-story/9bf5b68e2a3ac30eb23bc8df6643fa27">Active and empowering learning experiences</a> encourage and reward students who are actively contributing, questioning and stretching their thinking. It allows them to develop independent learning and critical thinking skills. These skills ensure later success in degree study.</p>
<p>The approach is very different from most of the students’ previous experiences. In school, students often felt they had to follow teachers’ directions – sit, listen and learn, instead of question information.</p>
<p>Programs like PSP achieve the government’s aim of increasing participation in higher education of people from targeted equity groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, regional and remote students. They also help produce more job-ready graduates.</p>
<h2>5 reasons to protect enabling education</h2>
<p>Despite its successes, enabling education is facing challenges in Australia. The <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready">Job-Ready Graduates</a> legislation has changed the higher education funding landscape in 2021. </p>
<p>Dedicated funding for enabling programs was removed from legislation and from universities. Despite growth in enrolments in many institutions, enabling funding has not substantially increased since 2017. </p>
<p>It is now up to the universities to decide how they will allocate their limited funding. Our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07294360.2021.1990222">research</a>, including interviews with former PSP students, identifies five good reasons to support enabling education.</p>
<p><strong>1. It provides access to higher education for students who would otherwise miss out due to disadvantage or past schooling attainment.</strong></p>
<p>Ella, a first-in-family student who dropped out of school in year 11, described her experience of the enabling program. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It just really switched that light bulb for me. I’m about to graduate my Bachelors in Midwifery and I’ll be the only person in my entire family ever to graduate from university.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>2. It prepares students to succeed and complete their undergraduate studies.</strong> </p>
<p>Aimee, now studying to be a teacher, thought she would go no further than being a cleaner.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It was amazing to be using my brain again after four years of mindlessly scrubbing toilets. I gained enough confidence and enough understanding of what being at uni is like.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>3. It contributes to the government’s goals of increasing national participation in higher education and producing more job-ready graduates.</strong> </p>
<p>Neve was offered multiple interviews for graduate midwifery positions. This is a scenario she had not previously considered possible. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“If it wasn’t for the enabling program I couldn’t see myself being in the position I am now, doing all these interviews and completing my degree.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mother and daughter sitting at a table as they study" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432288/original/file-20211116-27-1wf1a0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432288/original/file-20211116-27-1wf1a0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432288/original/file-20211116-27-1wf1a0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432288/original/file-20211116-27-1wf1a0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432288/original/file-20211116-27-1wf1a0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432288/original/file-20211116-27-1wf1a0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432288/original/file-20211116-27-1wf1a0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When a parent succeeds at university it can transform their children’s attitudes to education.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>4. It promotes inter-generational changes in attitudes to education.</strong></p>
<p>Leanne’s progress in an Indigenous Studies degree helped give her daughter the courage to pursue a university education.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“My youngest daughter said she was definitely not going to uni. She just was too scared. And having seen me do it, she’s now in the middle of session 2 . So that was a direct effect of me doing it and gaining confidence.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>5. It develops students’ critical thinking skills in a world of misinformation.</strong></p>
<p>Wade saw just how much he had developed as a person. He uses the skills he learnt in the enabling program to analyse information and support his views in an informed way.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Rather than just listen to one person’s opinion on a topic, I can actually go and find different evidence.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Enabling education opens up a much-needed academic pathway. It allows students from a diverse range of backgrounds to get into and succeed in higher education. It equips them with the skills and confidence they need to fulfil their academic potential and achieve previously unimaginable careers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171721/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research shows university students who gained entry via bridging programs outperform others who gain admission through ATARs and other means. They are also more likely to complete their degree.Thomas Roche, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic Quality), Southern Cross UniversitySuzi Syme, Associate Dean (Education), Southern Cross UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1594112021-06-15T12:23:51Z2021-06-15T12:23:51ZWhat a Title IX lawsuit might mean for religious universities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406213/original/file-20210614-130393-umkkxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C24%2C5414%2C3579&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A recent lawsuit has charged the U.S. Department of Education as being complicit in the abuse of LGBTQ students.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SupremeCourtLGBTRights/fd2b0fc395af4776a84bcc5c998ad6bd/photo?Query=lgbt%20AND%20university&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=97&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Religious Exemption Accountability Project, or REAP, filed a <a href="https://www.thereap.org/lawsuit">class action lawsuit</a> on March 26, 2021, charging that the U.S. Department of Education was complicit “in the abuses that thousands of LGBTQ+ students endured at taxpayer-funded religious colleges and universities.” </p>
<p>According to the suit, those abuses include “conversion therapy, expulsion, denial of housing and health care, sexual and physical abuse and harassment.” The abuses also include the “less visible, but no less damaging, consequences of institutionalized shame, fear, anxiety, and loneliness.”</p>
<p>REAP – an organization that aims for “<a href="https://www.thereap.org/about-us">a world where LGBTQ students on all campuses are treated equally</a>” – holds the Department of Education culpable, arguing that, under the federal civil rights law Title IX, it is obligated “to protect sexual and gender minority students at taxpayer-funded” schools, including “private and religious educational institutions.” </p>
<p>The lawsuit’s <a href="https://www.thereap.org/">33 plaintiffs</a> include students and alumni from 25 colleges. Most of these schools – including Liberty University and Baylor University – are evangelical, but the list also includes one Mormon and one Seventh-Day Adventist university. </p>
<p>Indeed, the implications of the lawsuit extend to the <a href="https://www.thereap.org/">more than 200 religious schools that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation</a>. In 2018 these schools <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/christian-colleges-lawsuit-lgbtq-equality-act/2021/03/29/39343620-90af-11eb-9668-89be11273c09_story.html">received US$4.2 billion in federal aid</a>.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/righting-america-creation-museum">scholars who write extensively</a> on evangelicalism from <a href="https://rightingamerica.net/the-racm-blog-2/about/">historical and rhetorical perspectives</a>, we argue that, whether or not it succeeds, this lawsuit poses a serious challenge to these religious schools.</p>
<h2>Holding on to values</h2>
<p>Historian <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/tlel/faculty-and-staff/profile.html?id=alaats">Adam Laats</a> argued in his 2008 book, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/fundamentalist-u-9780190665623?cc=us&lang=en&">Fundamentalist U</a> that evangelical colleges are forever engaged in a balancing act. </p>
<p>They have had to convince accrediting bodies, faculty, and students that they are legitimate and welcoming institutions of higher education. At the same time, as Laats says, they “have had to demonstrate to a skeptical evangelical public” – alumni, pastors, parachurch leaders and donors – that they are holding fast to the “spiritual and cultural imperatives that set them apart.”</p>
<p>These imperatives differ from school to school, but they can include both doctrinal commitments and lifestyle restrictions. For example, faculty are often required to affirm that the <a href="https://theconversation.com/fundamentalism-turns-100-a-landmark-for-the-christian-right-123651">Bible is inerrant</a>, that is, without error and factually true in all that it teaches. For another example, students and staff at many of these institutions are required to agree that they will not consume alcoholic beverages. </p>
<p>And as Laats points out, these schools are obliged to prop up the idea that those “imperatives” are eternal and unchanging.</p>
<h2>Racial issues and change</h2>
<p>But it turns out that evangelical imperatives are subject to forces of change. Take, for example, the matter of race.</p>
<p>In the mid-20th century, administrators at many of these schools insisted that their policies of racial segregation were <a href="https://rightingamerica.net/the-perilous-challenge-of-keeping-evangelical-colleges-safely-orthodox/">biblically grounded and central to the Christian faith</a>. Not coincidentally, at mid-century segregation was part of mainstream American culture, including higher education.</p>
<p>But as the rhetoric of the civil rights movement became increasingly compelling, administrators at evangelical schools cautiously moved away from their racist practices. By the 1970s, things had changed to the point that <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/fundamentalist-u-9780190665623?cc=us&lang=en&">racial segregation no longer rose to the status</a> of an evangelical “imperative.” </p>
<p>Of course, there were a few religious schools – including <a href="https://rightingamerica.net/the-reap-lawsuit-an-apocalyptic-moment-for-evangelical-colleges/">Bob Jones University</a> in Greenville, South Carolina – that continued to practice racial discrimination and got away with it because of the religious exemption that they claimed. All that changed in 1983 when the Supreme Court ruled, in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1982/81-3">Bob Jones University v. United States</a>, that BJU “did not get to maintain its tax-exempt status due to an interracial dating ban – a policy the university claimed was based in its sincerely held religious beliefs.” </p>
<p>The Court’s decision meant that BJU and similar schools had to make a choice. They could keep racist policies like the ban on interracial dating, or abandon them and retain their tax-exempt status as educational institutions. While BJU held firm for a while, by 2000 <a href="https://multiracial.com/index.php/2000/04/01/dances-with-compromise-the-bob-jones-university-twist/">it had abandoned its interracial dating ban</a>. </p>
<h2>Push for and resistance to change</h2>
<p>REAP is leaning on the Court’s decision v. Bob Jones University as a legal precedent for its <a href="https://www.thereap.org/lawsuit">lawsuit</a>. And this lawsuit comes at a challenging moment for evangelical schools that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.eiu.edu/polisci/faculty.php/hendrickson.php?id=rpburge&subcat=">political scientist Ryan Burge</a> has noted – <a href="https://religionnews.com/2020/08/07/on-lgbt-and-womens-equality-stark-statistical-reality-is-coming-for-white-evangelicals/">drawing upon data</a> from the General Social Survey – in 2008 just 1 in 3 white evangelicals between the ages of 18 and 35 believed that same-sex couples should have the right to be married. <a href="https://religioninpublic.blog/2019/12/17/what-turned-the-tide-on-gay-marriage/">But by 2018</a>, it found that “nearly 65% of evangelicals between 18 and 35 [supported] same-sex marriage,” a change in keeping with the dramatic change in opinion in the broader culture. </p>
<p>In response, administrators at many evangelical schools have recently adopted a conciliatory rhetoric for LGBTQ students and their sympathetic allies on and off campus. As Shane Windmeyer, co-founder of <a href="https://www.campuspride.org/about/">Campus Pride</a>, a national organization devoted to working to create a safer college environment for LGBTQ students, <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/lgbtq-students-christian-colleges-face-204717244.html">has recently observed</a>, most Christian colleges now “want to cloud this issue and come off as supportive [of LGBTQ students] because they know it’ll impact recruitment and admissions.” </p>
<p>But at most of these colleges, this conciliatory rhetoric <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/lgbtq-students-christian-colleges-face-204717244.html">has not translated</a> into scrapping policies that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. And there is a reason for this. As <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/taking-america-back-for-god-9780190057886?prevNumResPerPage=100&prevSortField=6&view=Standard&resultsPerPage=100&sortField=6&type=listing&start=3700&lang=en&cc=us">several</a> <a href="https://rightingamerica.net/god-hates-westboro-baptist-church-american-nationalism-and-the-religious-right/">scholars</a>, <a href="https://rightingamerica.net/books/righting-america-at-the-creation-museum/">including us</a>, have amply documented, opposition to homosexuality is central to the Christian right, which is dominated by evangelicals and which has framed the push for LGBTQ rights as an attack on faithful Christians. </p>
<h2>‘The great sorting’</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406260/original/file-20210614-72954-r9ey4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A cross erected on Candlers Mountain overlooking Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406260/original/file-20210614-72954-r9ey4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406260/original/file-20210614-72954-r9ey4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406260/original/file-20210614-72954-r9ey4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406260/original/file-20210614-72954-r9ey4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406260/original/file-20210614-72954-r9ey4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406260/original/file-20210614-72954-r9ey4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406260/original/file-20210614-72954-r9ey4j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Some administrators and faculty at evangelical colleges see discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation as being at odds with their Christian commitments.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BoomingLiberty/088f1362cdfb4eb2bcde9aec0d5d7c71/photo?Query=liberty%20AND%20university&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=634&currentItemNo=44">AP Photo/Steve Helber</a></span>
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<p>Evangelical colleges <a href="https://rightingamerica.net/facing-the-apocalypse-the-reap-lawsuit-and-moderate-evangelical-universities/">have had to play to two very different audiences</a> when it comes to the matter of sexual orientation and gender identity. Folks in both audiences are paying close attention to the REAP lawsuit. Their responses indicate that “the two-audiences” strategy may no longer be tenable.</p>
<p>See, for example, <a href="https://spu.edu/about-spu/our-history">Seattle Pacific University</a>, an evangelical school founded in 1891 and <a href="https://fmcusa.org/ministries/educational-institutions">affiliated with the Free Methodist Church</a>. On April 19 of this year, <a href="https://julieroys.com/seattle-pacific-university-faculty-vote-no-confidence-board-lgbtq-exclusion/?mc_cid=b29535dac7&mc_eid=33988b2f02">72% of the faculty</a> supported a vote of no confidence in its board of trustees. This came after the trustees refused to revise a policy that forbids the hiring of LGBTQ individuals and refused to modify SPU’s <a href="https://spu.edu/about-spu/spu-facts/statement-on-human-sexuality">statement on human sexuality</a> which stipulates that the only allowable expression of sexuality is “in the context of the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman.” </p>
<p>Adding to the pressure is the announcement that “<a href="https://julieroys.com/seattle-pacific-university-faculty-vote-no-confidence-board-lgbtq-exclusion/">the students and alumni are planning a campaign to discourage donations</a> to the school and … decrease enrollment at the school.” </p>
<p>In a subsequent article in the Roys Report, a Christian media outlet that reported the development, several commentators indicated <a href="https://julieroys.com/seattle-pacific-university-faculty-vote-no-confidence-board-lgbtq-exclusion/#comment-90705">a very strong opposition</a> to any effort to end SPU’s discriminatory policies. As one person noted: “I am sorry to hear this once Biblical school has hired so many woke Professors.” Another said: “God hates all things LGBTQ.” A third person observed: “I am a Christian and lifelong resident of the Seattle area. I say good for the SPU Board but sad they have so many faculty with debased minds.” </p>
<p>[<em>Explore the intersection of faith, politics, arts and culture.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-explore">Sign up for This Week in Religion.</a>]</p>
<p>As <a href="https://albertmohler.com/2021/03/31/briefing-3-31-21">Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Al Mohler</a> has put it, “we are about to see a great sorting where we’re going to find out where every institution stands, and it’s not going to come with the filing of this lawsuit. It’s going to come when the moment that the federal government says … ‘You can have the federally supported student aid support … or you can have your convictions. Choose ye this day.’”</p>
<p>This comes from a hard-line fundamentalist. On the other hand, there are administrators and faculty at evangelical colleges who see discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation as being at odds with their Christian commitments. For them, the choice is whether to accept financial donations from the segment of their constituency opposed to LGBTQ rights, or go with their convictions.</p>
<p>There are indications that the <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/162696/religious-freedom-lgbtq-equality-act-biden">Biden administration is seeking a compromise</a> with these schools that claim a religious exemption that gives them the right to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identity. But whether or not the REAP lawsuit is successful, religious colleges and universities in the U.S. will keep getting pressed to take a stand on the status of LGBTQ students on their campuses.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159411/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A recent Title IX lawsuit alleges discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation at religious schools. Two scholars argue that this might be a pivotal moment.William Trollinger, Professor of History, University of DaytonSusan L Trollinger, Professor of English, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1608622021-05-13T05:51:13Z2021-05-13T05:51:13ZThe 2021-22 budget has added salt to universities’ COVID wounds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400455/original/file-20210513-19-pvtn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/education-global-world-graduation-cap-on-793972774">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The federal government’s budget announcements this week included nothing new for universities — an industry hit particularly hard by the pandemic border closures and loss of international students.</p>
<p>Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on Tuesday night confirmed Australia’s border is likely to remain closed until mid-2022. Research from the <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-hopes-of-international-students-return-fade-closed-borders-could-cost-20bn-a-year-in-2022-half-the-sectors-value-159328">Mitchell Institute</a> found a third academic year of few new international students (2022) would cost Australia about A$20 billion a year — half its pre-pandemic value.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-hopes-of-international-students-return-fade-closed-borders-could-cost-20bn-a-year-in-2022-half-the-sectors-value-159328">As hopes of international students' return fade, closed borders could cost $20bn a year in 2022 – half the sector's value</a>
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<p>In his <a href="https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/josh-frydenberg-2018/speeches/budget-speech-2021-22">budget speech</a>, the treasurer said only this about universities:</p>
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<p>[…] we are also providing more than $19 billion in funding for our universities in 2021‑22. And as a result of decisions made during the pandemic, this year there are 30,000 more places at Australian universities.</p>
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<p>This $19 billion is the continuation of previously announced higher education funding, including some temporary additional funding announced in 2020 as part of the government’s COVID response. </p>
<p>This temporary money will quickly phase out. Tuesday’s budget shows a reversion to the previous policy of keeping total higher education funding broadly stable. </p>
<h2>Flat funding for university teaching and research</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/about-us/corporate-reporting/budget">budget papers</a> show some falls in the next financial year in the main teaching and research grant programs. But this is mainly due due to the end of a special $1 billion COVID-related boost to research spending and the phasing out of $550 million in temporary student places intended to meet an expected increase in demand driven by the COVID recession. </p>
<p>The main recurrent programs for teaching, research and equity are stable at around $11 billion a year from the 2020-21 financial year through to 2023-24, which is unchanged from last year’s budget. Once inflation is taken into account, this implies a decline in real funding. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/big-spending-recovery-budget-leaves-universities-out-in-the-cold-160439">Big-spending 'recovery budget' leaves universities out in the cold</a>
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<h2>HELP loans are the main potential source of funding growth</h2>
<p>A full picture of government support requires also considering <a href="https://www.studyassist.gov.au/help-loans">HELP loans</a>. This is the money students borrow from the government to pay for their tuition. </p>
<p>In the 2021-22 financial year, HELP could be the largest single source of university revenue, possibly just exceeding teaching subsidies and overtaking fast-diminishing international student fee revenue. The $19 billion the treasurer referred to includes HELP revenue.</p>
<p>In a surprising omission, the budget papers never directly tell us how much the government is lending through HELP. To work out what this number might be requires us to reconcile figures that appear in different budget documents. These suggest a government estimate that just under $7.6 billion will go towards HELP loans in 2021-22. That’s up about $340 million on the previous year. </p>
<p>Unlike other government higher education programs, outlays on HELP are not capped. This means they have growth potential that is missing for teaching and research grants. </p>
<p>Under the <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready">Job-ready Graduates Package</a> announced in June 2020 <a href="https://www.studyassist.gov.au/help-loans/hecs-help">HECS-HELP</a> lending will go up. </p>
<p>Under this policy, <a href="https://theconversation.com/fee-cuts-for-nursing-and-teaching-but-big-hikes-for-law-and-humanities-in-package-expanding-university-places-141064">students will pay</a> less for degrees considered job-relevant such teaching, nursing and languages. But student contributions for most arts subjects will more than double. There are also significant increases for business and law students. </p>
<p>On average student contributions will be higher, pushing up average annual per student borrowing under HELP. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fee-cuts-for-nursing-and-teaching-but-big-hikes-for-law-and-humanities-in-package-expanding-university-places-141064">Fee cuts for nursing and teaching but big hikes for law and humanities in package expanding university places</a>
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<p>No official enrolment data yet shows the 30,000 additional student places mentioned by the treasurer. But early signs are that <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2021/03/25/has-job-ready-graduates-increased-the-number-of-commencing-students/">university enrolments are up in 2021</a>, and a <a href="https://twitter.com/andrewjnorton/status/1392069496588824579/photo/1">baby boom cohort</a> of students will arrive in the next few years. More students will equal more borrowing. </p>
<p>Some universities are also reporting spikes in full-fee domestic postgraduate enrolments. These courses do not get any subsidies from the government, but the students can borrow under the <a href="https://www.studyassist.gov.au/help-loans/fee-help">FEE-HELP scheme</a>. </p>
<h2>What about funding for research?</h2>
<p>University research is facing a <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-and-university-reforms-put-at-risk-australias-research-gains-of-the-last-15-years-141452">crisis with no real precedent</a>. Australia’s <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/06/14/australias-higher-education-research-boom/">research boom</a> was fuelled by the profits on international students that are now disappearing. It was helped by some domestic undergraduate courses making profits, but Job-ready Graduates will require that money to be spent on new student places instead. </p>
<p>In the 2020 budget, the government injected an extra A$1 billion into the <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/research-block-grants/research-support-program">Research Support Program</a>, effectively doubling it for a year. </p>
<p>The goal was to to ease the financial pain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and loss of international student fee revenue.</p>
<p>If Australia’s borders had re-opened to international students in the second half of 2021 or early 2022 there would not have been a strong case for another $1 billion. But unless safe travel zones on the New Zealand model open for major international student source countries, the budget <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-11/federal-budget-2021-borders-international-travel-vaccines/100132620">suggests no major international movements</a> until mid-2022. </p>
<p>With the temporary research grant increase not offered again in Tuesday’s budget, university research output will inevitably decline significantly. There are no major public funding increases on offer, other than for research infrastructure from 2023-24 – after the international student market is expected to be in a recovery phase. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-and-university-reforms-put-at-risk-australias-research-gains-of-the-last-15-years-141452">Coronavirus and university reforms put at risk Australia's research gains of the last 15 years</a>
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<h2>New programs for non-university providers</h2>
<p>The government says it will provide $74 million to <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tudge/more-support-international-education-providers">support Australia’s international education sector</a>, but none of this is going to universities.</p>
<p>It includes funding for non-university higher education providers and English-language colleges. </p>
<p>The money will go into an additional 5,000 Commonwealth-supported undergraduate certificate and graduate certificate short-course places at non-university higher education providers in 2021.</p>
<p>Unfortunately this money is unlikely to make much difference. Many of these non-university providers rely entirely or largely on international students. Funding for domestic students, a market they don’t usually target, cannot compensate for the loss of international students.</p>
<p>The closure of these colleges would hit universities in coming years, since many of them offer preparatory courses for students seeking university entry. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/for-most-universities-theres-little-point-to-the-governments-covid-19-assistance-package-136244">For most universities, there's little point to the government's COVID-19 assistance package</a>
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<h2>Assistance should have continued until borders open</h2>
<p>It would not be reasonable to expect government to fully insure universities against the loss of international student revenue. Although nobody could have predicted two or more years of closed borders, universities were pursuing international strategies they knew were high risk. </p>
<p>But nor is it reasonable to expect a small number of industries, especially international education and international tourism, to incur massive losses to protect all Australians from the risk of COVID. There is a strong case for assistance to continue until the borders re-open.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160862/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Norton works for the ANU, which has been significantly affected by the loss of international students. He has also worked on a project for the Department of Education, Skills and Employment on an unrelated topic. </span></em></p>Tuesday’s budget shows a reversion back to the previous policy of keeping total higher education funding broadly stable.Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1521802020-12-17T03:34:33Z2020-12-17T03:34:33ZThe year everything got cancelled: how the arts in Australia suffered (but survived) in 2020<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375590/original/file-20201217-13-1rscf78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=197%2C87%2C4595%2C3166&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dancers from Bangarra perform at the reopened Australian Museum in November.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lisa Maree Williams, Getty/PR handout</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The arts sector has been through a trial by fire this year. Most activities planned from March had to be cancelled, or modified to such an extent they were no longer recognisable.</p>
<p>The challenge for many is the sector <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-says-artists-should-be-able-to-access-jobkeeper-payments-its-not-that-simple-138530">is complex</a>: not defined by one artform, one form of artistic expression or one mode of organisation. Those not familiar with this complexity find it hard to come to grips with or make sense of. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-litany-of-losses-a-new-project-maps-our-abandoned-arts-events-of-2020-148716">A litany of losses: a new project maps our abandoned arts events of 2020</a>
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<p>The federal government, in particular, has been very slow in both recognising the damage to the sector with the sudden closures, and in taking any significant action to address it. </p>
<p>Coronavirus-specific funding didn’t start to be distributed by the government <a href="https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/fletcher/media-release/60-million-rise-grants-restart-arts-and-entertainment-activity-around-australia">until November</a> through its RISE program — eight months after the calamity hit. A very long time for artists and arts organisations to survive without assistance. </p>
<p>For some, state governments <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-what-the-latest-stimulus-measures-mean-for-australian-artists-and-arts-organisations-134233">stepped up</a> and provided support. </p>
<p>But the message to artists from the federal government was: you are not important to the national agenda, and therefore we can — and will — ignore you.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375592/original/file-20201217-19-ccfdl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375592/original/file-20201217-19-ccfdl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375592/original/file-20201217-19-ccfdl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375592/original/file-20201217-19-ccfdl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375592/original/file-20201217-19-ccfdl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375592/original/file-20201217-19-ccfdl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375592/original/file-20201217-19-ccfdl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375592/original/file-20201217-19-ccfdl4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews tours the reopened National Gallery of Victoria on November 25.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Crosling/AAP</span></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-says-artists-should-be-able-to-access-jobkeeper-payments-its-not-that-simple-138530">The government says artists should be able to access JobKeeper payments. It's not that simple</a>
</strong>
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<h2>The collapse of arts degrees</h2>
<p>Being ignored was one thing. But then the federal government decided it should ensure there was no future in the arts by decreeing an education in the arts and the humanities to be <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-22/university-fee-changes-dan-tehan-capitalist-economics-analysis/12377498">effectively an indulgence</a>. </p>
<p>From 2021, arts and the humanities will become <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-08/university-changes-pass-parliament-for-more-expensive-degrees/12743916">as expensive as law degrees</a>. Rapidly and across the country, universities started to axe or modify their arts offerings. </p>
<p>We have Monash getting rid of its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/oct/22/death-of-a-thousand-cuts-theatre-degree-closures-could-wipe-out-future-generations-of-australian-performers">theatre studies</a> and <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/canon-fodder-monash-cuts-to-music-studies-draw-chorus-of-protest-20200929-p5608q.html">musicology</a> programs; Newcastle and La Trobe getting rid of their <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news-article/opinions-and-analysis/public-policy/julian-meyrick/drama-cuts-that-hurt-us-all-261454">drama departments</a>; an Australian National University proposal to <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7031205/arts-disciplines-on-chopping-block-under-anu-recovery-plan/">downgrade</a> its arts school; Griffith’s Queensland College of the Arts <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/education/news-article/news/arts-education/gina-fairley/cuts-to-photography-design-and-fine-arts-at-queensland-college-of-art-261503">cutting</a> courses in fine arts, photography and design; and Flinders announcing “a temporary pause” to enrolling students in its acting degree <a href="https://indaily.com.au/news/2020/12/11/flinders-university-drama-review-sparks-alarm/">in 2021</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-amid-a-war-on-culture-are-australias-art-schools-an-endangered-species-144928">Friday essay: amid a war on culture, are Australia's art schools an endangered species?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>When universities focus on being businesses first and educational institutions second, they are willing collaborators in the degradation of Australian’s arts and culture.</p>
<p>There is a dreadful feeling this is just the beginning, and there will be many more to follow across the country.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1327444385697435650"}"></div></p>
<p>It seems the federal government has no idea how long it takes to develop these arts programs, and that once they are gone, they are gone. </p>
<p>The capacity for the country to continue to train a range of performers, directors, musicians, artists, writers and curators will be dramatically affected.</p>
<p>What is also so frustrating is the arts are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10286632.2015.1128420">excellent</a> at job creation. This is the mantra the government keeps repeating: they want to create more jobs. But there is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/high-viz-narrow-vision-the-budget-overlooks-the-hardest-hit-in-favour-of-the-hardest-hats-147601">bias</a> to what sectors they will support. </p>
<p>Supported industry sectors seem to be generally male dominated, such as construction, mining and agriculture. The arts and education sectors are female dominated and ignored.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/high-viz-narrow-vision-the-budget-overlooks-the-hardest-hit-in-favour-of-the-hardest-hats-147601">High-viz, narrow vision: the budget overlooks the hardest hit in favour of the hardest hats</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Alternatively, perhaps the government does not see the arts sector as a natural supporter of the coalition parties — thus they may as well take them out of the game.</p>
<p>Even provided with <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/departmental-news/economic-value-cultural-and-creative-activity">evidence</a> about the impact of the creative and cultural sector to the economy, as well as to the long term development of the country’s capacity to <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1299&context=research_conference">adapt</a> to contemporary needs, it seems the arts and cultural sector is neither valued nor respected. </p>
<p>It is short-term thinking at best, creating a bleak and uninspiring future for our young people.</p>
<h2>The ‘non-essential’ artist</h2>
<p>Through the year we have seen some amazing things happen, and some really disappointing ones.</p>
<p>When some of our major orchestra and opera companies dismiss their artists, and musicians are framed as “<a href="https://www.theage.com.au/culture/music/struggling-melbourne-symphony-orchestra-stands-down-all-musicians-20200414-p54jso.html">non-essential</a>”, all our perceptions about what an arts organisation is are thrown out the window. </p>
<p>Are some major arts organisations just a shallow corporate shell, only there for the benefit of their board and management? <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/opera/redundancies-will-gravely-weaken-orchestra-musicians-say-20200927-p55zne.html">Opera Australia</a> is the most well-funded arts company in the country, receiving a minimum of <a href="https://cdn.opera.org.au/2020/04/29144616/opera-australia-2019-financial-report.pdf?_ga=2.35667363.28146658.1608170375-1719374670.1608170375">A$26 million</a> in government funding in 2020, and yet stood down its musicians. </p>
<p>The company was later placed on <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/opera/opera-australia-brings-down-the-curtain-on-2020-20200729-p55gof.html">JobKeeper</a>, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/opera/redundancies-will-gravely-weaken-orchestra-musicians-say-20200927-p55zne.html">nearly a third of the orchestra was made redundant in September</a>.</p>
<h2>Light in the dark</h2>
<p>Despite this gloomy picture, there have been some wonderful adjustments by artists and arts organisations. The embrace of the digital medium has enabled greater access by audiences to all forms of arts practice, both locally and internationally. </p>
<p>The Australia Council hosted a series of excellent online training workshops. </p>
<p>The Melbourne Fringe managed 250 events despite the lockdowns by adapting to the conditions and going online. </p>
<p>The Melbourne Virtual Concert Hall enabled musicians to continue to perform for much of the year and receive an income. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375319/original/file-20201216-17-1msgh8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Production image" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375319/original/file-20201216-17-1msgh8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375319/original/file-20201216-17-1msgh8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375319/original/file-20201216-17-1msgh8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375319/original/file-20201216-17-1msgh8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375319/original/file-20201216-17-1msgh8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375319/original/file-20201216-17-1msgh8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375319/original/file-20201216-17-1msgh8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When live theatre was able to return – as with the Sydney Theatre Company’s The Picture of Dorian Gray – seats sold out.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">STC/Dan Boud</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There was online streaming of events and exhibitions from around the world and a sense of a global arts world surviving and adapting, despite the pandemic. </p>
<p>Most importantly, when live performance has been possible, audiences are <a href="https://cityhubsydney.com.au/2020/12/review-the-picture-of-dorian-gray/">booking shows out</a>, and savouring the experience of being in a real theatre again.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Correction: this article originally stated the Opera Australia musicians were stood down with out pay, this was incorrect. When all productions were shut down back in March, employees, including the orchestra, were paid 50% of their salary with the option of an additional drawing of up to 30% of their annual leave entitlements through to the end of May.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152180/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Caust has received funding from the Australia Council. She is affiliated with NAVA and the Arts Industry Council SA. </span></em></p>Lockdowns, job loss and university courses struck down: 2020 was a difficult year for Australia’s artists. But there was light through the darkness.Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), School of Culture and Communication, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1494392020-11-04T19:22:20Z2020-11-04T19:22:20ZUniversities in crisis? They’ve been there before, and found a way out<p><em>This is an edited extract of a new history, Australian Universities: A history of common cause, by Gwilym Croucher and James Waghorne (UNSW Press). In the early 1950s the universities faced an acute financial crisis, forcing them to find creative ways to lobby the Menzies government. The outcome was a resounding affirmation of the national importance of universities.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Unresolved problems of Commonwealth support for universities came to a head in 1952, when the funding recommended by the 1950 <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/archive/hefunding">Mills Committee</a> expired. Despite his oft-expressed affection for Australian universities, Robert Menzies’ refusal to appoint a standing committee to manage university funding or new inquiry left future Commonwealth support and funding uncertain. The government’s practice of delaying the passage of the States Grants (Universities) Act until just in time for the following year tested universities’ nerve. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367402/original/file-20201104-15-rxj2hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cover of Australian Universities book" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367402/original/file-20201104-15-rxj2hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367402/original/file-20201104-15-rxj2hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367402/original/file-20201104-15-rxj2hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367402/original/file-20201104-15-rxj2hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367402/original/file-20201104-15-rxj2hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367402/original/file-20201104-15-rxj2hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367402/original/file-20201104-15-rxj2hc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The new history of Australian universities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/history-australias-universities/">UNSW Press</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Coupled with this uncertainty was the problem of inflation, which had soared after the previous Labor government’s wage controls were lifted. The Commonwealth allocations so precisely calibrated in the middle of 1950 were increasingly inadequate. By 1952, the <a href="https://www.eoas.info/biogs/A000167b.htm">Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee</a> (AVCC, predecessor of Universities Australia) estimated inflation had reduced the effective Commonwealth allocation by “up to 40%”.</p>
<p>In October 1951 universities used the opportunity of the ceremony installing the first ANU chancellor, <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bruce-stanley-melbourne-5400">Stanley Melbourne Bruce</a>, to send a deputation to the prime minister to urge him to initiate a “co-ordinated plan of development”. Menzies was unavailable. The visiting vice-chancellors had to be content with <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hasluck-sir-paul-meernaa-18555">Paul Hasluck</a>, minister for territories, as the prime minister’s representative. </p>
<p>The UWA vice-chancellor, <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/currie-sir-george-alexander-12384">Sir George Currie</a>, later confessed to other universities that he “was not optimistic regarding the result”. Hasluck indicated the Commonwealth had limited interest in establishing a new committee that might bind it to increasing funding. </p>
<p>Their discreet appeals having failed, universities were compelled to adopt a more public stance. This meant a degree of co-ordinated public action universities had only infrequently practised. The University of Sydney appointed communications professionals to develop the public case. </p>
<p>They were not alone, though, in public advocacy. During a speech on the responsibility of science in the modern world, <a href="https://www.science.org.au/fellowship/fellows/biographical-memoirs/ian-clunies-ross-1899-1959">Ian Clunies Ross</a>, head of the CSIRO and former Sydney professor, “turned an elegant celebration on the traditional role of the university into an urgent appeal for help”.</p>
<p>Facing a pressing funding shortfall, universities took the unprecedented step of preparing a booklet, <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1823662">A Crisis in the Finances and Development of the Australian Universities</a>. Signed by vice-chancellors, it set out a reasoned case on university finances. </p>
<p>The publication shed the previous restraint of the AVCC’s public statements and presented the situation facing universities as a “crisis”. The combination of the loss of Commonwealth funding and rising inflation meant universities were worse off in real terms than they had been in 1939. The booklet presented concerns to the public, and made the case that the public should value universities’ contribution:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Universities are destined to play an increasingly important role in Australian development. Their future is a matter of grave concern to you and to every other member of the community. Yet there is an alarming degree of public apathy regarding their affairs. While they are accepted as an integral part of our educational system, there is little public appreciation of the wide nature of their responsibilities to the community.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The universities argued their role had expanded in the years after the second world war and they now performed many functions of vital national significance. Their tasks of transmitting knowledge to students, along with the training of professionals with technical expertise, such as “architects, engineers, scientists, doctors, dentists, lawyers, teachers, economists”, were now undertaken to meet national priorities.</p>
<p>Another role was in Commonwealth-supported research. Universities distinguished their contribution from the CSIRO’s mission-oriented investigation of specified problems. Universities had the freedom to advance knowledge and make discoveries where the end result was unknown. Moreover, they were the primary source of “specialist training in professions and science” essential for the national research enterprise. </p>
<p>All these benefits crossed state boundaries and had wide public utility. Research, for example, was not the private work of individuals, but rather provided a “threefold advantage”: in “advancing knowledge”, training research workers for government and industrial employment, and “indirectly maintaining the interest and vigour of the staff with a benefit to teaching standards”. Acknowledging that research did not always produce immediate economic benefits, they argued that their research training provided an essential prerequisite for growth of the economy.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367404/original/file-20201104-21-dg9jgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cover of booklet" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367404/original/file-20201104-21-dg9jgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367404/original/file-20201104-21-dg9jgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367404/original/file-20201104-21-dg9jgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367404/original/file-20201104-21-dg9jgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367404/original/file-20201104-21-dg9jgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1196&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367404/original/file-20201104-21-dg9jgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1196&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367404/original/file-20201104-21-dg9jgb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1196&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The universities distributed 2,000 copies of the Crisis booklet in their campaign to build support for increased funding.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-14425612/view?partId=nla.obj-14429355">Trove/National Library of Australia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Two thousand copies of the Crisis booklet were distributed to politicians, university governing bodies, professors and others “interested in increasing government support”. A media statement was drafted emphasising the problem of inflation. Journalists were encouraged to quote from the booklet as the official position of Australian universities.</p>
<p>In the wake of the publication of the booklet, Menzies reiterated his support for Australian universities. More promisingly, he indicated broad support for an immediate 20% increase in “second level” Commonwealth assistance, which benefited the smaller universities, and the establishment of a committee to respond to immediate needs and prepare a long-term plan for university development. </p>
<p>Yet by the following February the process had slowed. Universities became increasingly frustrated.</p>
<p>The 1953 Premiers’ Conference was scheduled for the day after the universities met, and the vice-chancellors telegraphed the Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Department, Allen Brown: “would it be possible to obtain the Prime Minister’s views on additional assistance for universities in current year”. Brown telephoned in reply that the Premiers’ Conference would be dealing with “weighty problems” and unfortunately would not have time to consider universities’ appeal. </p>
<p>The plight of universities was discussed at the conference and, in response to appeals from Victoria for more support, Menzies replied that they had done well “without a Commonwealth grant”. Left with little recourse, the vice-chancellors again wrote to the prime minister, reiterating their requests.</p>
<p>As universities sought to build a case for federal funds, they faced growing internal pressures to raise academic salaries. These had declined in real terms as inflation eroded their value. Some disciplines struggled to attract quality candidates. </p>
<p>In response, in 1952 staff formed a Federal Council of University Staff Associations of Australia (FCUSAA). In 1953 it pressed universities to support its campaign for wage increases. </p>
<p>In this, universities were hamstrung by their separate relationships with their respective state governments. While some universities, such as Sydney and Melbourne, had independently granted wage increases, others, such as Adelaide and Western Australia, were not in a financial position to do so. Nevertheless, universities supported the proposal with a statement of principle that academic salaries were “inadequate in view of changed economic conditions”.</p>
<p>While the funding impasse continued, the weight of the number of enrolments that had grown since the second world war squeezed operations, leaving little capacity to expand universities’ activities in line with international trends. In response to the deteriorating state of affairs, the AVCC conducted its own survey of the needs of universities to prepare for the appointment of a full government inquiry and to provide greater specificity to universities’ requests for funding in the meantime. The task of compiling a “Survey of University Needs” proved challenging and there was no certainty the members would agree to what emerged.</p>
<p>As the survey was being compiled, the AVCC prepared a public statement on the absolute minimum requirements of Australian universities. The timing was significant. On the eve of the May 29 1954 federal election, Menzies responded that he was “anxious not to involve the Commonwealth government in the internal affairs of universities”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367413/original/file-20201104-19-oez7aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Robert Menzies delivers a speech" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367413/original/file-20201104-19-oez7aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367413/original/file-20201104-19-oez7aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367413/original/file-20201104-19-oez7aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367413/original/file-20201104-19-oez7aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367413/original/file-20201104-19-oez7aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367413/original/file-20201104-19-oez7aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367413/original/file-20201104-19-oez7aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Universities had to work hard to change Prime Minister Robert Menzies’ mind about funding.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/PhotoDetail.aspx?Barcode=30922130">National Archives of Australia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The AVCC report sought to answer profound questions about the shape and character of the whole system, such as the “optimum size of a university”, the “essential” facilities, what “special types of university” were necessary, considerations in determining the location of these universities, what residential component was important, what departments were “too expensive to be duplicated”, and where new facilities and departments were needed to overcome “overcrowding”. </p>
<p>It concluded that each should commence with Arts and Science, plus “at least one other faculty reflecting the needs of the district where the university or college is located”. These departments should be headed by professors and as “adequately staffed as possible”. Staff–student ratios should be as low as possible, with 2,500 to 3,000 students considered optimal, even though the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne had already grown to twice this size. </p>
<p>The report also acknowledged that larger universities, with more extensive offerings and a broad range of departments, had stronger reputations. The tension between good education and reputation was difficult to resolve.</p>
<p>At the March 1956 meeting, the AVCC chair, <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/paton-sir-george-whitecross-15033">George Paton</a>, announced the plans for university co-ordination would be shelved. He considered them no longer “desirable at the present stage” and went on to explain that Menzies had joined him for a private dinner at the Melbourne staff club, University House, at which he agreed to appoint a new inquiry, subject to approval from the states. Menzies asked universities for a list of names of “persons in the United Kingdom who would be suitable for appointment as chairman of such a committee”.</p>
<p>This breakthrough was greeted with acclamation by universities, which drew up a list at the top of which was the chair of the University Grants Committee in Britain, <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/murray-sir-keith-27205">Sir Keith Murray</a>. Vice-chancellors had been instrumental in the appointment of Murray, and Murray sought guidance from them upon his arrival. </p>
<p>Universities set out a template for the “ideal conditions” for a visit to an Australian university, including the time for a tour of the facilities and the order in which to speak to interest groups. Each visit began with an official exposition of the university’s submission, followed by informal talks with professorial and then non-professorial staff, then a meeting with student representatives. Finally, a formal meeting would be held with a university’s governing body, with subsequent informal conversations to “clear up points of doubt”. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367407/original/file-20201104-23-1kzm3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Portrait of Keith Murray" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367407/original/file-20201104-23-1kzm3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367407/original/file-20201104-23-1kzm3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367407/original/file-20201104-23-1kzm3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367407/original/file-20201104-23-1kzm3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367407/original/file-20201104-23-1kzm3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=984&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367407/original/file-20201104-23-1kzm3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=984&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367407/original/file-20201104-23-1kzm3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=984&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sir Keith Murray agreed with vice-chancellors that ‘the problems appeared to be immediate and large’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Murray,_Baron_Murray_of_Newhaven#/media/File:Baron_Murray_of_Newhaven.jpg">Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Receiving this advice with gratitude, Murray agreed in a way that gave comfort to vice-chancellors that “the problems appeared to be immediate and large”. “Was anybody thinking in revolutionary terms?” he asked.</p>
<p>The universities’ planning work that went into formulating a co-ordinated approach was not wasted. It formed the basis of the AVCC submission to the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/archive/hefunding">Murray Committee</a>. Drafted by Paton, the report emphasised the need for “long-range” planning, so universities were not “faced with a similar problem in two years’ time”, as they had been after the Mills Inquiry. </p>
<p>Although constitutional impediments prevented the “translating” of the University Grants Committee into Australia directly, the AVCC submission urged Murray to investigate the creation of an equivalent body. To clarify this for the British members of the committee, Paton explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If the Universities are to develop as they should, we must of necessity depend more on the Commonwealth for our financial requirements, while the Commonwealth has the superior power over taxation. But we are equally anxious that anything the Commonwealth might contribute should not merely ease the financial responsibilities of the States towards the Universities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Murray Committee considered the vice-chancellors’ submission alongside those of student groups and industry representatives, and undertook the review at remarkable speed with the support of Menzies. The final report drew particular attention to the vice-chancellors’ request for a similar organisation to the British University Grants Committee. </p>
<p>Menzies adopted the recommendations within three days of the report’s release. The government pledged to establish a permanent body with the support of the state governments. The body would reside in the Prime Minister’s Department, separate from the Office of Education, so as to distinguish it from the provision of primary and secondary education. It would have its own secretariat and, although Murray recommended that it act informally, at least at the beginning, it would be established as a statutory authority in 1959. </p>
<p>This went much of the way to meeting the vice-chancellors’ request, although they might have preferred the body to have a more public role.</p>
<p>The Murray Report cited Commonwealth estimates that the number of students would almost double over the following decade, following “rapid” population growth and the increasing numbers remaining in secondary school to matriculation. This, Murray argued, would require existing universities to take more students, as well as a new university in Sydney and Melbourne. </p>
<p>Yet this grossly underestimated the demand for higher education that came only a few years later. The [newly established] <a href="https://archives.unimelb.edu.au/resources/keys-to-the-past/keys/key-67">Australian Universities Commission</a> immediately found itself grappling with a system growing more rapidly than anybody had imagined. New universities cast from the mould of the old would require unprecedented levels of public investment. In just five years a new committee of inquiry would be appointed to determine how this expansion could be supported.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>An extract from <a href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/history-australias-universities/">Australian Universities: A history of common cause</a> by Gwilym Croucher and James Waghorne, UNSW Press, November 2020, $39.99RRP.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149439/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Universities Australia supported research for the writing of this book.</span></em></p>A post-war funding crisis forced universities to take the initiative in making their case to the public. A new history explores how universities did it and the changes they brought about.Gwilym Croucher, Senior Lecturer, Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of MelbourneJames Waghorne, Senior Research Fellow, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1477402020-10-09T03:17:36Z2020-10-09T03:17:36Z3 flaws in Job-Ready Graduates package will add to the turmoil in Australian higher education<p>The Morrison government’s <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready">Job-ready Graduates</a> legislation has <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r6584">passed the Senate</a>. This higher education policy has two major aims:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>to steer enrolments towards courses with good employment prospects</p></li>
<li><p>to ready the higher education system for the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/five-anus-two-unsws-unis-not-ready-for-looming-costello-baby-boom-20200227-p544yq.html">“Costello baby boom” students</a>, the big birth cohort who will reach university age in the mid-2020s. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Unfortunately, achieving these goals is a much less certain outcome of this package than years of disruption for universities and decades of debt for some students. Three design flaws in Job-ready Graduates put it at high risk of not achieving its own objectives.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-can-help-australias-economic-recovery-but-thats-all-at-risk-if-the-job-ready-graduates-bill-passes-146582">Universities can help Australia's economic recovery, but that's all at risk if the 'job-ready graduates' bill passes</a>
</strong>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>Students aim to be ‘job-ready’ without fee incentives</h2>
<p>To influence student course choices, Job-ready Graduates radically changes how student contributions are priced. </p>
<p>Current student contributions are roughly based on earnings prospects. Law and medical graduates on average earn high incomes, placing them in the <a href="https://www.studyassist.gov.au/help-loans-commonwealth-supported-places-csps/student-contribution-amounts">highest student contribution band</a>. They pay A$11,115 a year. Arts graduates tend to earn less, putting them in the cheapest band of A$6,684 a year. </p>
<p>Job-ready Graduates discards the link between student contribution and earnings prospects. Instead, its student contributions aim to encourage or discourage enrolments, to improve graduate job prospects or to meet other “national priorities”. </p>
<p>Arts courses are not a government national priority, so the student contribution for arts will more than double to A$14,500 a year. An eccentric exception is made for English and foreign languages, which will have student contributions of A$3,950, despite <a href="https://twitter.com/andrewjnorton/status/1298216511027388416/photo/1">worse employment outcomes</a> than other humanities fields. Law and business courses are not government priorities either and so go up from A$11,115 a year to A$14,500.</p>
<p>Revenue from the extra student contribution for non-priority courses will be spent cutting student charges in other courses. Student contributions for teaching and nursing courses will drop from A$6,684 in 2020 to A$3,950 in 2021. In science, engineering and IT, the amount students pay will be cut from A$9,527 a year to A$7,950.</p>
<p>Yet, despite shuffling billions of dollars in charges between students in the next few years, Job-ready Graduates will probably not significantly alter student course choices. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-would-save-1-billion-a-year-with-proposed-university-reforms-but-thats-not-what-its-telling-us-142256">The government would save $1 billion a year with proposed university reforms — but that's not what it's telling us</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The main <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/06/21/jobs-interests-and-student-course-choices/">drivers of course choices</a> are student interests and job prospects. Prospective students can have more than one interest, and several courses may match their interests. But few students – less than 5% according to <a href="https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/1513123/FYE-2014-FULL-report-FINAL-web.pdf">a first-year student survey</a> – enrol in courses without interest in the field being a major factor. Fewer years spent repaying HELP debt cannot compensate for years of boredom in an uninteresting course and career. </p>
<p>Generally, university applications <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/06/28/financial-influences-on-job-seeking-university-applicants/">move with labour market trends</a> without any policy intervention from government. Employment and salary prospects after graduation already provide a financial incentive for students to prioritise their interests in a “job-ready” way. </p>
<p>If university applicants are missing opportunities that might suit them, careers advice is a much cheaper way of pointing these out than reducing student contributions. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cheaper-courses-wont-help-graduates-get-jobs-they-need-good-careers-advice-and-links-with-employers-141270">Cheaper courses won't help graduates get jobs – they need good careers advice and links with employers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>University and student incentives are not aligned</h2>
<p>Job-ready Graduates assumes universities will respond to changed patterns of student demand by providing extra student places. University enrolments typically move in the same direction as student applications. But in key disciplines Job-ready Graduates reduces the financial incentive universities have to meet student demand.</p>
<p>Courses with likely employment growth in coming years, including teaching, nursing, allied health and engineering, will have less total funding per student under Job-ready Graduates than the current system.</p>
<p>The cut in funding for key disciplines derives from a redesign of overall funding rates in line with a consulting firm’s analysis of <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/2019-transparency-higher-education-expenditure-publication-0">teaching and scholarship costs by field of education</a>. </p>
<p>Yet universities are more likely to respond to financial incentives than students. Students can defer paying their student contributions through the HELP loan scheme, which reduces their price sensitivity. Universities have to meet all their costs each year. In the midst of <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-universities-could-lose-19-billion-in-the-next-3-years-our-economy-will-suffer-with-them-136251">a financial crisis</a>, universities will examine their revenues and expenditures more closely than ever.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/07/12/funding-incentives-for-students-and-universities-in-the-tehan-reforms-some-are-aligned-others-contradict-each-other/">contradiction between student and university incentives</a> is poor policy design.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-universities-face-losing-1-in-10-staff-covid-driven-cuts-create-4-key-risks-147007">As universities face losing 1 in 10 staff, COVID-driven cuts create 4 key risks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Student places are more likely to grow in non-priority fields</h2>
<p>The Job-ready Graduates strategy for increasing student places also suffers from mismatches between policy intent and likely outcomes.</p>
<p>Job-ready Graduates cuts the average student subsidy, called a Commonwealth contribution. This means that, on average, universities need to deliver more student places for each A$1 million they receive from the government. </p>
<p>If this cut was consistent across all disciplines it would probably achieve its objective. But the government has increased rather than decreased Commonwealth contributions in several priority fields, to compensate universities for lower student contributions. </p>
<p>As a result, in these priority fields universities need to deliver fewer places per A$1 million in government subsidy. For example, under current Commonwealth contributions universities need to deliver 91 IT places to earn A$1 million. Under Job-ready Graduates, they only need deliver 75 IT places.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="students in computer lab" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362582/original/file-20201009-22-1hn42mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362582/original/file-20201009-22-1hn42mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362582/original/file-20201009-22-1hn42mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362582/original/file-20201009-22-1hn42mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362582/original/file-20201009-22-1hn42mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362582/original/file-20201009-22-1hn42mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362582/original/file-20201009-22-1hn42mh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If universities need to deliver fewer places in priority fields per A$1 million in government subsidy that’s not a great incentive to increase places.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">goodluz/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By contrast, arts, law and business courses get lower Commonwealth contributions under Job-ready Graduates than the current system. As a consequence, universities can deliver many more student places per A$1 million in government subsidy. In law and business, student places per A$1 million will grow from 447 to 990.</p>
<p>The policy goal of increasing student places will succeed to the extent that the policy goal of moving enrolments to priority fields fails.</p>
<h2>Collateral damage is near certain</h2>
<p>These three design flaws — changes to student contributions that won’t change student preferences, overall funding rates that weaken university incentives, and Commonwealth contributions that limit enrolment growth in some courses — create serious doubt about whether Job-ready Graduates will achieve its stated goals. We can, however, be near certain of serious collateral damage. </p>
<p>Arts, law and business graduates will leave university with student debts of A$40,000 to A$50,000. Many arts graduates have relatively low incomes and will take decades to repay their HELP loans. </p>
<p>The cuts to overall funding rates will reduce university capacity to combine teaching and research, especially in science and engineering. It will add to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-and-university-reforms-put-at-risk-australias-research-gains-of-the-last-15-years-141452">already significant fall in university research expenditure</a> caused by a decline in international students. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-and-university-reforms-put-at-risk-australias-research-gains-of-the-last-15-years-141452">Coronavirus and university reforms put at risk Australia's research gains of the last 15 years</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A future education minister is going to have to fix these problems. But before that happens, Job-ready Graduates, coming in on top of the international student crisis, guarantees several turbulent years for Australian universities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147740/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Norton works for the Australian National University, which will be affected by the Job-ready Graduates policy. </span></em></p>Three key policy errors in the legislation mean the Morrison government is unlikely to achieve the stated goals of its package.Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1447982020-09-30T04:19:26Z2020-09-30T04:19:26ZDo Australians care about unis? They’re now part of our social wage, so we should<p>In 1988, then federal education minister, John Dawkins, drew upon the politics of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvh4zj6k.10?seq=15#metadata_info_tab_contents">class privilege</a> to justify rolling out HECS student loans. A university user-pays system was needed, he argued, because Labor was not in the business of funding “middle-class welfare”. At the time, one reason a neoliberal appeal by Labor to its base could deflate widespread public opposition was that just <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/education-and-work-australia/may-2019/62270do028_201005.xls">7% of working-age Australians</a> held a degree. </p>
<p>Three decades on, Education Minister Dan Tehan is also dog-whistling up the politics of class to cut off the loans system to first-year students who <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/failing-university-students-to-be-kicked-off-hecs/news-story/eee39ecaf01b8521a9d3821926052e65">fail</a> half their subjects, <a href="http://www.nteu.org.au/article/Fake-culture-wars-a-distraction-from-fee-hikes%2C-cuts---chaos-%28Sentry%2C-August-2020%29-22217">ramp up</a> fees for many others, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/25/four-private-australian-universities-allowed-to-access-jobkeeper-payments">deny JobKeeper</a> to workers in the sector and <a href="http://www.nteu.org.au/fundunifairly/crossbench">cut funding</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-would-save-1-billion-a-year-with-proposed-university-reforms-but-thats-not-what-its-telling-us-142256">The government would save $1 billion a year with proposed university reforms — but that's not what it's telling us</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Dawkins’s representation of the policy problem framed higher education as a bastion of privilege. It relied on the relative absence of working-class students and the irrelevance of higher education to their parents. </p>
<p>For Tehan the problem is represented by these students’ overabundance — particularly in courses that do not produce workers with the specific technical skills he claims are <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-22/university-fee-changes-dan-tehan-capitalist-economics-analysis/12377498">in demand</a> by employers. Tehan’s call to rid the system of failing students is couched in paternalism, a hallmark of the welfare system. </p>
<h2>Agenda predates COVID</h2>
<p>On the surface, a small cohort of students mostly from low socioeconomic backgrounds appear to be the target. Politically, however, it neatly links with the government’s broader restructuring agenda across the campuses. For higher education students and staff alike, it epitomises what the National Union of Students (NUS) president has called a neoliberal way to “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-13/university-hecs-limits-for-failing-students-explained/12553548">incentivise success through fear of punishment</a>”.</p>
<p>The restructuring goes well beyond the crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. An explosion of casual employee networks <a href="https://www.facebook.com/NHECN">across the country</a> and a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/aug/25/hundreds-of-university-academics-around-australia-vote-to-take-unprotected-strike-action">recent national assembly</a> of nearly 500 academics voting to build towards unprotected industrial action have boosted campaigning by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and NUS against the current cuts and broader restructuring agenda. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-universities-face-losing-1-in-10-staff-covid-driven-cuts-create-4-key-risks-147007">As universities face losing 1 in 10 staff, COVID-driven cuts create 4 key risks</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What has changed since 1988?</h2>
<p>There are optimistic grounds for thinking that broader societal support is now more likely than in 1988 for this defence of universities as a freely accessible public good. </p>
<p>In May 2019, a <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/education-and-work-australia/latest-release">third of the working-age population</a> (20-64 years) held at least a bachelor degree. That’s almost five times more than in 1988. And nearly two-thirds of this group had a degree, diploma or post-school certificate. </p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/education-and-work-australia/may-2019/62270do028_201005.xls">46% of women and 35% of men</a> between the ages of 25 and 34 have a degree. Soon most women in this key working-age cohort will be university graduates, alongside a significant proportion of men.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360677/original/file-20200930-16-160no5w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="graph showing increases of women, men and all Australians holding at least a bachelor degree from 1988 to 2019" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360677/original/file-20200930-16-160no5w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360677/original/file-20200930-16-160no5w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360677/original/file-20200930-16-160no5w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360677/original/file-20200930-16-160no5w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360677/original/file-20200930-16-160no5w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360677/original/file-20200930-16-160no5w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360677/original/file-20200930-16-160no5w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/education-and-work-australia/may-2019/62270do028_201005.xls">Data: ABS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Social wage has widened</h2>
<p>This mainstreaming of university education means the sector joins health and welfare as a core part of the social wage. Australian government spending on keeping the workforce skilled, fit and able to work accounted for more than 60% of its <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Budget_Office/Publications/Chart_packs/2019-20_Budget_Snapshot">2019-20 budget</a>. Health-care spending, whether provided by employers (such as US insurance schemes) or more commonly via <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/harman/2009/zombiecap/00-intro.html">the state</a>, is in reality part of our wages whether it is paid in cash or kind or goes to workers collectively rather than individually. </p>
<p>The social wage came to prominence in the 1980s as a key part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-prices-and-incomes-accord-75622">Prices and Incomes Accord</a>. The Labor government reached agreement with trade unions and employers that they would trade off wage increases for better social security benefits and progressive education and health reforms. Political economist Elizabeth Humphrys <a href="https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1360-how-labour-built-neoliberalism">has explained</a> how these trade-offs strengthened the hold of neoliberalism and weakened trade unions. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-prices-and-incomes-accord-75622">Australian politics explainer: the Prices and Incomes Accord</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The social wage is the collective part of our overall wages. This understanding provides broad-based, industrial grounds to defend its provision. </p>
<p>Just as it has been unfortunately shown that wage cuts are <a href="https://www.solidarity.net.au/unions/strategy-needed-to-halt-uni-bosses-job-cuts/">not stopping job cuts</a> in the university sector, cuts to our social wage are also not in our collective self-interest. </p>
<p>For example, we need to loudly call out that the framing of social security payments as handouts for the poor is a cynical attempt to cultivate “<a href="https://insidestory.org.au/them-and-us-the-enduring-power-of-welfare-myths/">them and us</a>” divisions. In reality, between 2001 and 2015, <a href="https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/hilda/publications/hilda-statistical-reports">over 70% of Australian working-age households</a> required income support at some stage. These payments helped smooth the financial risks of unemployment, low wages, caring responsibilities, injury, frailty or disability. </p>
<p>Arguments for the JobSeeker supplement to be kept after the pandemic – such as by the <a href="https://raisetherate.org.au/">Raise the Rate</a> campaign – are gaining widespread traction. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/unemployment-support-will-be-slashed-by-300-this-week-this-wont-help-people-find-work-146289">Unemployment support will be slashed by $300 this week. This won't help people find work</a>
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<p>A similar basis of mass support exists for campaigns to have equitable, accessible and quality higher education. Secondary school students and their parents, casualised and ongoing staff and the wider trade union movement all have a stake in rejecting the current round of university cuts and restructuring. Higher education is now firmly part of our social wage, and we must defend it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144798/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcus Banks is involved in various research collaborations with the Brotherhood of St Laurence Research and Policy Centre. He is an NTEU delegate and member.</span></em></p>Three decades ago, in another time of upheaval in higher education, 7% of working-age Australians had a degree. Today 33% have one. More people than ever have a stake in what happens to universities.Marcus Banks, Social policy and consumer finance researcher, School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1470072020-09-28T05:14:04Z2020-09-28T05:14:04ZAs universities face losing 1 in 10 staff, COVID-driven cuts create 4 key risks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360183/original/file-20200928-16-ydrspj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5410%2C3585&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/downsize-business-employee-moving-off-office-1438097237">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 pandemic caused a sudden and very big <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-universities-could-lose-19-billion-in-the-next-3-years-our-economy-will-suffer-with-them-136251">decline in Australian universities’ revenue</a> as a result of the loss of international student enrolments. Being <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-australian-government-letting-universities-suffer-138514">excluded from the federal government’s JobKeeper program</a> has forced universities to embark on immediate and sustained cost-cutting. Our <a href="https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/lh-martin-institute/fellow-voices/australian-university-workforce-responses-to-covid-19-pandemic">newly released research</a> identifies several significant risks associated with this approach.</p>
<p>Most universities have tried to reduce the impact on their permanent workforce. They have contained infrastructure programs and other operational costs, cut executives’ pay, reduced casual staff, frozen hiring and drawn on any available reserves. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiNThhMjNiZGEtMzlkNy00OWM5LWFmMmEtODFhN2ViNzE4ZGY1IiwidCI6ImRkMGNmZDE1LTQ1NTgtNGIxMi04YmFkLWVhMjY5ODRmYzQxNyJ9">57% of Australian university expenditure</a> was allocated to employment and related costs of an estimated total higher education workforce of <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/node/53181">137,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff</a> in 2019. Workforce savings are an inevitable consequence.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-australian-government-letting-universities-suffer-138514">Why is the Australian government letting universities suffer?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Drawing on media reporting of university responses to mid-September 2020, we estimate the financial impact of the pandemic at A$3.8 billion for 2020. We estimate overall job loss expectations for continuing appointments to be at least 5,600 full-time equivalent staff. A conservative 25% reduction in casual and research-only fixed-term staff could result in further losses equivalent to 7,500 FTE, or an estimated 17,500 people. </p>
<p>In FTE terms, the total loss amounts to 10% of the workforce. In terms of the number of individuals losing jobs, the loss is greater.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-70-of-academics-at-some-universities-are-casuals-theyre-losing-work-and-are-cut-out-of-jobkeeper-137778">More than 70% of academics at some universities are casuals. They're losing work and are cut out of JobKeeper</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Two approaches to cutting staff costs</h2>
<p>To date, Australian public universities have taken two different approaches to cutting employment costs.</p>
<p>Firstly, ten universities have gained staff support to vary their enterprise agreements. These universities have individually adopted an approach similar to an earlier national <a href="https://theconversation.com/pay-cuts-to-keep-jobs-the-tertiary-education-unions-deal-with-universities-explained-138623">Job Protection Framework proposal</a>. That arrangement failed to gain sector-wide consensus. </p>
<p>Enterprise agreement variations enable these universities to reduce or delay job losses by freezing salary increases and purchasing leave entitlements. While saving some jobs, some of these universities have continued with agreed voluntary redundancy programs this year and are reserving options for next year.</p>
<p>Secondly, 17 universities have taken a management-led approach. These universities have implemented voluntary and involuntary redundancy programs within the framework of existing enterprise agreements.</p>
<p>Of the remaining universities, <a href="https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/education/south-australia-uni-merger-back-on-the-cards-20200809-p55jzm">one has signalled</a> it is not anticipating significant workforce change. Nine are still considering their responses, or are in discussions with staff and unions, or there is limited publicly available information.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-what-australian-universities-can-do-to-recover-from-the-loss-of-international-student-fees-139759">COVID-19: what Australian universities can do to recover from the loss of international student fees</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What risks do job cuts create?</h2>
<p>Clearly, there is an immediate imperative driving most universities to reduce staff numbers. However, a COVID-19 response based on widespread staff reductions creates risks for universities. These include:</p>
<p><strong>1. Inability to teach growing numbers of domestic students</strong> </p>
<p>Despite a decline in international students, some universities are reporting <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/student-applications-rise-midyear-and-2021">increased demand for domestic university places</a> in semester 2 of 2020. A <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/atar-cut-offs-to-soar-without-more-uni-places-to-meet-surging-demand-20200617-p553ih.html">forecast decline in employment opportunities</a> is likely to increase pressure on universities in 2021 to increase enrolments beyond 2020’s planned levels. </p>
<p>Across the board, voluntary redundancy programs are likely to lead to academic staff shortages in some discipline areas and loss of academic leaders. This could result in:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>reduced capacity to absorb the increased demand for places</p></li>
<li><p>a decline in the quality of programs</p></li>
<li><p>diminished skilling of the future workforce.</p></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>2. Impact on research productivity</strong> </p>
<p>Reducing casual staff will increase pressure on continuing and fixed-term staff to dedicate more time to teaching and less to research. Research capacity will be reduced. Cuts to fixed-term early career researchers are an easy but not a strategic approach. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/job-ready-graduates-changes-loom-as-last-straw-for-emerging-researchers-144853">Job-ready graduates changes loom as last straw for emerging researchers</a>
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</p>
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<p>Combined, such actions will reduce research output. The result will be a decline in the overall capability of Australian university research.</p>
<p><strong>3. Less capacity to reconfigure and rebuild to be effective in a post-COVID world.</strong></p>
<p>Continual redundancy rounds and “death by a thousand cuts” are an undesirable consequence of many “bottom-up” voluntary redundancy processes. These are essentially tactical rather than strategy-led initiatives. They lead to diminished institutional capability and loss of institutional memory. </p>
<p>This is happening at a time that demands rethinking of the whole of higher education. This approach should include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>a greater focus on evidence-based and targeted cost reductions</p></li>
<li><p>investment in and development of new growth opportunities</p></li>
<li><p>an enhanced digital learning and student experience.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-learning-economy-challenges-unis-to-be-part-of-reshaping-lifelong-education-144800">New learning economy challenges unis to be part of reshaping lifelong education</a>
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</em>
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<p><strong>4. A weaker international market position</strong></p>
<p>An inability to maintain current levels of academic commitment to research risks a slide in world rankings if universities elsewhere sustain their research productivity. This would reduce the attractiveness of Australian universities for international students and international research and industry collaborations. And that, in turn, would threaten future funding of higher education.</p>
<p>Universities have a significant role in the national and global COVID-19 recovery. They must contribute to the reskilling of workers and employment growth, provide educational opportunities for school leavers, research medical innovations such as COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, and collaborate in creating new industries and jobs.</p>
<p>This national role is threatened by an apparent unwillingness on the part of government to recognise and respond to the funding crisis in Australian higher education. Universities face a difficult balancing act to avoid cutting staff numbers so deeply that they lose the capacity to support the nation’s recovery, maintain international standing, drive innovation and discovery, and contribute to the well-being and prosperity of all Australians.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article was co-authored by Teresa Tjia, a strategic adviser with senior executive experience in higher education. The article is based on more detailed analysis, which can be found <a href="https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/lh-martin-institute/fellow-voices/australian-university-workforce-responses-to-covid-19-pandemic">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147007/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Teresa Tjia, a strategic adviser with senior executive experience in higher education, is a co-author of this article.
Ian Marshman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond his academic appointment.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Baré is affiliated with Association of Tertiary Education Managers, Chartered Member of the Australian Human Resources Institute</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janet Beard is affiliated with Association for Tertiary Education Management, Australian Institute of Company Directors</span></em></p>A collapse in revenue and a lack of government support have led to university workforces being decimated to cut costs. This presents a number of longer-term risks for universities and the nation.Ian Marshman, Honorary Principal Fellow, Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of MelbourneElizabeth Baré, Honorary Fellow, LH Martin Institute, The University of MelbourneJanet Beard, Honorary Senior Fellow, LH Martin Institute, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1444142020-08-17T20:12:59Z2020-08-17T20:12:59ZUni student failure rate is a worry, but the government response is too heavy-handed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353073/original/file-20200817-16-1vvm3m3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C0%2C5227%2C3372&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/single-sad-student-checking-failed-exam-644598994">Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a surprise move, the government has revealed <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/08/13/checking-that-students-are-on-track-to-pass-the-governments-proposal/">several new policies</a> to reduce rates of failure in university subjects. If the <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready/job-ready-graduates-package-draft-legislation-consultation">legislation</a> passes, it will require universities to:</p>
<ul>
<li>monitor student academic performance more closely</li>
<li>prevent students enrolling in too many subjects</li>
<li>exclude students who <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/08/14/should-students-lose-commonwealth-support-for-failing-too-many-subjects/">fail more than half their subjects</a>, except in special circumstances. </li>
</ul>
<p>The problem with the new laws, which include withdrawal of funding for students who fail too many subjects, is they will push universities towards faster, and possibly premature, termination of student enrolments. </p>
<h2>Failing is expensive</h2>
<p>In 2018, <a href="https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiYWM2NjRkYTktZGJkNC00MGVkLWJlYjItMGRjNTc3Y2FkNmVkIiwidCI6ImRkMGNmZDE1LTQ1NTgtNGIxMi04YmFkLWVhMjY5ODRmYzQxNyJ9">nearly 17% of subjects</a> taken by Commonwealth-supported students were not successfully completed. The students either failed or withdrew after the census date when they incur a HELP debt. </p>
<p>This lack of subject success is expensive. Exact costs are not published, but taken as a proportion of <a href="https://app.heims.education.gov.au/HeimsOnline/IPInfo/Determination">Commonwealth payments</a> the fail-or-withdraw rate translates into nearly A$800 million in HELP debt and almost A$1.2 billion in subsidies to universities. </p>
<h2>Some fails are avoidable</h2>
<p>Some students fail subjects because, despite their best efforts and those of their teachers, their academic work is not satisfactory. We would worry about academic standards if the pass rate was 100%. But other failed subjects are potentially avoidable. </p>
<p>Sometimes students fail due to academic factors universities can do something about, such as by improving teaching or helping students who are falling behind. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/failing-a-subject-isnt-just-the-students-fault-universities-can-and-should-help-126195">Failing a subject isn't just the student's fault. Universities can and should help</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Universities cannot control student life issues such as health, work and family matters. All of these are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07294360.2019.1664999">reasons students give</a> for failing subjects. But universities can judge whether these issues are temporary or manageable. If so, they are not fundamental obstacles to future academic success.</p>
<p>Other students fail because they are not going to class, handing in essays or sitting tests. They have effectively dropped subjects or their course, but have not officially notified their university. The system then automatically registers HELP debts and fails. </p>
<p>When <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/universities-must-exorcise-their-ghost-students">La Trobe University examined its records</a>, it estimated a quarter of all fails were by “ghost students” who did not submit the work needed to pass. If these students can be encouraged to formally withdraw earlier, subject fails and HELP debts will decrease.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-students-are-going-to-university-than-before-but-those-at-risk-of-dropping-out-need-more-help-118764">More students are going to university than before, but those at risk of dropping out need more help</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The government’s measures to reduce fails</h2>
<p>The legislation has several measures intended to limit ghost enrolments and failed subjects. </p>
<p>Students would not be allowed to enrol in more than double the subjects a full-time student normally takes in a year, unless they had a demonstrated capacity to do so. University policies already prevent major subject overloads, as taking on too much increases the risk of failure. </p>
<p>But some students – <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/no-help-uni-students-who-fail-half-their-subjects-to-lose-taxpayer-support-20200812-p55l18.html">about 2,500 on the government’s figures</a> – enrol in more than one university at once. <a href="https://heimshelp.education.gov.au/resources/TCSI">Upgrading the government’s enrolment IT</a> should help identify and regulate these students.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2015L01639/Download">By law</a>, universities must check before enrolment that each prospective student is academically suited to their course. The new law would extend this requirement to the subject level. </p>
<p>How this would work in practice is unclear. With more than eight million subject enrolments a year, checking every one would be a massive exercise. </p>
<p>Focusing on students with prior fails may be sufficient. It would be in line with <a href="https://www.deakin.edu.au/students/studying/assessment-and-results/academic-progress">existing</a> <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/current-students/managing-your-course/classes-and-assessment/academic-progression/international-student-requirements/academic-progress-and-early-intervention">university</a> <a href="https://my.uq.edu.au/information-and-services/manage-my-program/academic-progress-and-final-results/academic-warnings-and-showing-cause">policies</a> on students who fail half or more of their subjects in a semester. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/dropping-out/">2018 Grattan Institute report</a> I co-authored found that, of the 7% of commencing bachelor-degree students who failed all their first-semester subjects, a quarter continued and also failed all second-semester subjects. Future outcomes like that may signal non-compliance with the academic suitability law.</p>
<p>Finally, the legislation would give the government power to deprive universities of funding for students it deems not “genuine”. Genuineness indicators already <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2019L01699">used in private higher education institutions</a> include whether students are reasonably engaged in the course, whether they have satisfied course requirements and, if the course is online, how many times they have logged on. These provisions target ghost students.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-need-to-train-lecturers-in-online-delivery-or-they-risk-students-dropping-out-133921">Universities need to train lecturers in online delivery, or they risk students dropping out</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Consequences for students</h2>
<p>As general themes, the ideas in the legislation are not inherently bad. Many reflect standard or common practices in higher education. </p>
<p>The problem is that universities have to balance the risks of further fails and HELP debt against the benefits of giving students a second chance. </p>
<p>If the legislation passes, universities will be nervous about being fined for breaching the academic suitability rule and losing funding for non-genuine students. This creates an incentive to end enrolments, possibly prematurely, after one bad semester. </p>
<p>Students who fail more than half their subjects, after taking at least eight in a bachelor degree, <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/08/14/should-students-lose-commonwealth-support-for-failing-too-many-subjects/">already face exclusion from their course</a>. But the legislation would limit which factors universities can consider in making this decision. </p>
<p>Universities could take into account failures due to reasons <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2013C00782/Download">beyond a student’s control</a>, such as their own or a family member’s illness. But universities could not consider general difficulties adapting to university life, or other reasons a student could plausibly have controlled. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353071/original/file-20200817-14-1gb1gj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="University lecturer discusses a student's work with them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353071/original/file-20200817-14-1gb1gj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353071/original/file-20200817-14-1gb1gj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353071/original/file-20200817-14-1gb1gj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353071/original/file-20200817-14-1gb1gj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353071/original/file-20200817-14-1gb1gj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353071/original/file-20200817-14-1gb1gj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353071/original/file-20200817-14-1gb1gj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The provisions of the current bill could lead to students who could succeed with proper support being denied a second chance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/professor-gives-bad-grade-after-oral-150629666">Adam Gregor/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A different approach</h2>
<p>Patterns of subject failure are worth investigating, to protect students put at unacceptably high risk of further fails and debt. But this task should be handled not by the Department of Education, which would implement these laws, but the <a href="https://www.teqsa.gov.au/">Tertiary Education Quality and Standard Agency</a>. Many subject fails are linked to the course admission, teaching quality and course retention matters that TEQSA already regulates. </p>
<p>TEQSA operates under a “regulatory necessity, risk and proportionality” principle, which lets it take a nuanced approach. Universities that put failing students at high risk of continued poor performance would have to improve their practices. But universities would still be free to consider the complex trade-offs of each individual case, without inflexible rules driving them to one conclusion. </p>
<p>Students should also be made more aware of the census date’s importance. <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/08/13/disengaged-and-failing-students-are-an-issue-worth-policy-attention/">A small Grattan Institute survey</a> showed many students did not know what the census date was, or thought they did but gave an incorrect answer. A name change that highlights its significance, such as “payment date”, would encourage students to drop subjects sooner to avoid HELP debt and fails.</p>
<p>Although the government has identified a real problem, its heavy-handed regulation would create unnecessary red tape for universities and exclude students who should get a second chance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144414/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Norton works for the Australian National University, which would be affected by the policies discussed in the article. </span></em></p>Although the government has identified a real problem, its heavy-handed regulation would create unnecessary red tape for universities and exclude students who should get a second chance.Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1443652020-08-13T20:10:36Z2020-08-13T20:10:36ZVital Signs: this university funding crisis was always coming – COVID-19 just accelerated it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352650/original/file-20200813-14-artg79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3586%2C2400&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the early 1930s a 21-year-old undergraduate at the London School of Economics asked a great question during his summer research project: “if my economics professors are right that markets are an efficient way to allocate resources, then why do firms exist?”</p>
<p>To put it another way, why would an entrepreneur go to the effort of building a company and buying things “in house” rather than just buying them in the market?</p>
<p>That student, <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1991/coase/facts/">Ronald Coase</a>, would go on to win a Nobel prize for his contribution to answering this question. </p>
<p>He suggested markets have the great virtue of the price mechanism, which communicate information about economic fundamentals (like what consumers value) and balances supply and demand. But there are “transaction costs”, and sometimes haggling in the market can be less efficient than, say, a manager simply telling her employees what she wants done.</p>
<p>These insights point to the fundamental problems with Austalia’s university sector in 2020. </p>
<p>We have about 40 “firms” that, as far as domestic undergraduates are concerned, don’t set their own prices, don’t set their own quantities (i.e. the number of students they accept) and are regulated not by the invisible hand of the market but the federal government’s <a href="https://www.teqsa.gov.au/">Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency</a>.</p>
<p>At the same time universities compete in an international marketplace for both students and staff.</p>
<p>This leads to the worst of all worlds. The sector has many of the downsides but none of the benefits of market competition. They are not in control of their own destiny.</p>
<p>The recent round of federal government <a href="https://theconversation.com/fee-cuts-for-nursing-and-teaching-but-big-hikes-for-law-and-humanities-in-package-expanding-university-places-141064">reform attempts</a> – encouraging students to pursue “job-ready” qualifications by slashing the price of courses such as mathematics, agriculture and nursing while doubling those such as humanities and communications – is incrementalism likely doomed to failure. </p>
<p>There is pressing need for more significant reform. </p>
<h2>A crisis that was always coming</h2>
<p>Perhaps the place to begin is to acknowledge that both the university sector and the government have legitimate gripes with the current funding model.</p>
<p>Universities can point to a host of perverse incentives – creating unintended negative consequences contrary to what was intended – embedded in the system. In particular, it has encouraged universities to chase full fee-paying international students to cross-subsidise Australian students.</p>
<p>The funding universities receive for domestic undergraduates is insufficient to provide them a world-class education. Research is also underfunded. This has left universities with no choice but to enrol large numbers of foreign students, paying market prices for their education.</p>
<p>The government argues universities might not be preparing students as well as they could for the job market – with too few graduating with the skills the economy demands and too many pursuing degrees in fields they are unlikely to find employment. </p>
<p>To all these points there are responses. I could tell you, for instance, that in nine years at UNSW Sydney I have seen the quality of undergraduates I teach get even better, not worse. But this back and forth rather misses the point. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-universities-could-lose-19-billion-in-the-next-3-years-our-economy-will-suffer-with-them-136251">Australian universities could lose $19 billion in the next 3 years. Our economy will suffer with them</a>
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<h2>Warning bells</h2>
<p>COVID-19 has simply accelerated a crisis in university funding that was always coming. </p>
<p>There has always been the risk of the Chinese government simply turning off the tap. China has done so to other countries, such as <a href="https://www.studyinternational.com/news/china-doesnt-want-students-study-taiwan/">Taiwan in 2017</a>, when it halved the number of students permitted to study there to just 1,000.</p>
<p>In February 2018, Clive Hamilton and others warned about dependence on Chinese students after <a href="https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/universities-are-too-reliant-on-income-from-china-experts-say-20180216-h0w6vn">China issued a “Study Abroad Alert”</a> about Australia being unsafe for Chinese students.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/without-international-students-australias-universities-will-downsize-and-some-might-collapse-altogether-132869">Without international students, Australia's universities will downsize – and some might collapse altogether</a>
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<h2>Two major reforms needed</h2>
<p>We need two things.</p>
<p>First, removing the perverse incentives of cross-subsidies in the system. </p>
<p>This will require domestic students paying more for their education through the HECS-HELP loan system. Our “<a href="https://go8.edu.au/">Group of Eight</a>” universities can’t keep charging a quarter of what institutions like Boston University or the University of California San Diego charge and deliver a world-class undergraduate experience. It will also require funding research properly, in part by linking universities and industry more closely.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-can-do-a-better-job-of-commercialising-research-heres-how-95526">Australia can do a better job of commercialising research – here's how</a>
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<p>Second, we need to allow and encourage universities to specialise more. Not every institution needs to be doing research in particle physics, for example. Indeed, not every university needs to being doing research at all.</p>
<p>Universities focusing more on their comparative advantage, in research or teaching, would enable research dollars to be better targeted. </p>
<p>Nor should we continue to insist that all universities charge the same price to students for the same subject matter. Students should be allowed to be the arbiters of what good education looks like, rather than an Excel spreadsheet in Canberra making that determination.</p>
<p>When we come out of COVID-19, economic growth will be at more of a premium than ever before, and harder to come by. Economists have long emphasised the crucial role of <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2018/romer/facts/">human capital and “ideas” developed through research</a> in driving economic growth. We need a high-quality, well-functioning university sector.</p>
<p>Rather than bicker about incremental changes to the system, we need a grand bargain between universities and government that fundamentally reforms the sector. The future of young Australians, and our economy, depends on it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144365/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Holden was previously an ARC Future Fellow. These views are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect official UNSW views.</span></em></p>Australia’s higher education sector needs significant reform to remove the perverse incentives that have made universities dependent on revenue from international students.Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1416892020-07-02T20:09:22Z2020-07-02T20:09:22ZDefunding arts degrees is the latest battle in a 40-year culture war<p>The government’s recently proposed <a href="https://theconversation.com/fee-cuts-for-nursing-and-teaching-but-big-hikes-for-law-and-humanities-in-package-expanding-university-places-141064">restructure of university fees</a> would see students pay 113% more for many humanities subjects.</p>
<p>The package is not a case of “humanities vs STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths)”, as some initially saw it. Some arts degrees, like English and languages, would see higher Commonwealth contributions.</p>
<p>But a disproportionate portion of the de-funding burden would still fall on the humanities if the package is approved by the Senate – to the extent many arts degrees would become <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/19/key-crossbencher-says-university-fee-changes-are-grossly-unfair">almost full-fee paying courses</a>.</p>
<p>So, <a href="http://www.president.unsw.edu.au/speeches/unsw-response-to-proposed-changes-to-higher-education-policy-and-funding">those who care about the humanities</a> have found themselves fighting yet another round of a decades-old culture war.</p>
<p>Since the 1980s, the humanities have been particularly vulnerable to funding cuts. This was driven by the hostility of conservative governments and critics who saw the humanities as generally antagonistic to their political interests.</p>
<p>Developments in this period set the parameters for much of the political discourse around the humanities since. And they made it possible for governments at various times to seek to defund or make funding for the humanities increasingly precarious.</p>
<h2>From civilisation to diversity, and back again</h2>
<p>Traditionally, the humanities were conservative in tone. There was an emphasis on the <a href="https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/original/00000792_0.pdf">achievements of “civilisation”</a>, a principally Western, masculine canon of literature, art, music and history. </p>
<p>At the opening of the Menzies Building for the humanities at Monash University in 1963, Sir Robert Menzies said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] civilisation is in the heart and mind of people and the task of the humanist, the task of the people who teach and learn in a school of humanities is not to forget that history, for example, is no useless study, since a man who is ignorant of it will have no sense of proportion, no benefit of experience in dealing with new problems as they arise.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>From about the mid-1960s, the humanities’ political centre of gravity <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/449049?journalCode=ci">began to shift gradually leftwards</a>. Scholarship and teaching became more diverse, critical and feminist. </p>
<p>Eventually, a clear antagonism emerged between this new version of the humanities and the values of both older cultural conservatives and those pushing for deregulation and privatisation – “economic rationalists”, as they were then called – who had captured much of the public service in the 1980s.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345174/original/file-20200702-2658-1f6a23h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345174/original/file-20200702-2658-1f6a23h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345174/original/file-20200702-2658-1f6a23h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345174/original/file-20200702-2658-1f6a23h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345174/original/file-20200702-2658-1f6a23h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345174/original/file-20200702-2658-1f6a23h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345174/original/file-20200702-2658-1f6a23h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345174/original/file-20200702-2658-1f6a23h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Menzies building at Monash University was opened by Robert Menzies in 1963 who saw the study of civilisation as vital to the humanities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/melbourne-australia-august-5-2018-menzies-1162588057">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>At the same time, research policy circles became <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08109029708632070">increasingly instrumentalist</a> – believing research must be practically “useful”. This generated a growing demand for taxpayer-funded research to demonstrate its contribution to the “national interest”.</p>
<p>Initially this <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0162243906291865">development concerned</a> the relationship between basic science and more practical, applied science and had little to do with the humanities. </p>
<p>But the changes in overall research philosophies came to impinge on the humanities, especially in the new <a href="https://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A1033">emphasis on “relevance” in teaching and research</a> imposed on universities through the “Dawkins Reforms” of the late 1980s. </p>
<p>These reforms saw the large-scale restructuring of higher education through the introduction of more corporate forms of management, merging of universities and the more technical Colleges of Advanced Education, creation of the Australian Research Council (ARC), and reintroduction of student fees through the HECS system.</p>
<h2>Populism versus the humanities</h2>
<p>In March 1987, the new instrumentalism and growing conservative alienation from the humanities came together in their crudest, most populist form.</p>
<p>The Liberal-National opposition’s Waste Watch Committee, a group run by the NSW Senator Michael Baume, launched <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/media/pressrel/HNC092015012148/upload_binary/HNC092015012148.pdf">an attack</a> on 60 Australian Research Grants Scheme (ARGS) grants it declared to be “waste”.</p>
<p>The committee borrowed the tactics of US Democratic Senator for Wisconsin, William Proxmire, who since 1975 had issued a monthly “<a href="http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=1742">Golden Fleece Award</a>” to instances of supposed waste of public funds. The committee pioneered, in Australia, the strategy of holding up research grants to public ridicule on the basis of titles that sounded funny or indulgent to non-experts.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345160/original/file-20200702-2692-12nekj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345160/original/file-20200702-2692-12nekj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345160/original/file-20200702-2692-12nekj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345160/original/file-20200702-2692-12nekj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345160/original/file-20200702-2692-12nekj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=872&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345160/original/file-20200702-2692-12nekj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1096&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345160/original/file-20200702-2692-12nekj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1096&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345160/original/file-20200702-2692-12nekj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1096&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">‘Cash for absolute clap trap’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daily Telegraph front page, August 22 2016</span></span>
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<p>The grants the committee opposed were mostly in the humanities, with a few in the social sciences. Its leading example was a project on “Motherhood in Ancient Rome”. It was no accident that a project on women’s history was singled out.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/136295340">judgements of the projects’ unworthiness were superficial</a>, and an enthusiastic tabloid media – especially <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/136295340">radio personality John Laws</a> – played a key role in whipping up populist indignation and ridicule. </p>
<p>Unused to such attacks, academics and university administrators offered a <a href="http://smharchives.smedia.com.au/Olive/APA/smharchive/SharedView.Article.aspx?href=SMH%2F1987%2F07%2F30&id=Ar01500&sk=512EC65E">lacklustre response</a> that underestimated the capacity of such populism to damage the humanities’ public standing and funding base.</p>
<p>In the <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/12614237">May 1987 “mini-budget”</a> the Hawke government bowed to public pressure and cut A$1 million from the ARGS budget for 1987–88.</p>
<p>The Waste Watch Committee’s intervention set the template for subsequent populist attacks on the humanities – now a <a href="https://theconversation.com/telegraph-story-on-research-funding-does-nothing-to-advance-australian-journalism-64479">regular sport</a> of the tabloid press.</p>
<p>The effects on funding of such public disparagement were evident again in 2004–5, when then education minister Brendan Nelson <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09502386.2014.1000607">vetoed at least nine</a> grants recommended by the ARC. Various researchers, and <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/monthly-essays-gideon-haigh-nelson-touch-research-funding-new-censorship-214#mtr">Herald-Sun columnist Andrew Bolt</a> himself, surmised this move was in response to Bolt’s criticism. </p>
<p>Bolt had written of the grants:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In cultural studies, seven of the eight grants were also for peek-in-your-pants researchers fixated on gender or race, and Marxists got all the grants you might expect of priests who worship state power.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In October 2018 it was revealed former education minister Simon Birmingham had <a href="https://theconversation.com/simon-birminghams-intervention-in-research-funding-is-not-unprecedented-but-dangerous-105737">quietly vetoed</a> a further eleven major research grants for mostly humanities projects totalling almost A$4.2 million.</p>
<p>This time there was no direct line to draw between a particular episode of populist criticism and the cuts, but there need not be.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1055734590969507841"}"></div></p>
<p>By 2018, the caricature of the humanities as “<a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/editorials/oh-the-political-humanities/news-story/a6d6f6257cc56790d540284b69d2ef3a">disfigured by cultural left theory hostile to mainstream Australia</a>” (as an editorial in the The Australian called it) was commonplace in sections of press and in the regular interventions of the <a href="https://ipa.org.au/publications-ipa/research-papers/rise-identity-politics">Institute of Public Affairs</a>.</p>
<p>It is not difficult to see several decades of populist condemnation of the humanities playing a similar role in the recent announcement of arts teaching cuts.</p>
<h2>The good news for the humanities?</h2>
<p>If this story contains any good news, it is that humanities scholars are now much better prepared than they once were to make the public case for the social and economic value of their disciplines.</p>
<p>In 1987, the response to the Waste Watch Committee was tepid. In 2018, the response to the grant veto revelations was full-blooded and successful in forcing a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/28/education-minister-restores-funding-to-rejected-grants-and-unveils-new-interest-test">reinstatement of a portion of the funds withheld</a> and a <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/education-minister-dan-tehan-pledges-nationalinterest-test-for-grants/news-story/8625f2e48e428dd92c885bcbbaee6427">ministerial commitment to future transparency</a>.</p>
<p>It is time again to make the case for the humanities, and for proper public funding of higher education generally.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141689/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Barnes is a Research Associate on a project on the history of humanities institutions funded by the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Developments in the 80s set the parameters for much of the political discourse around the humanities since.Joel Barnes, Research Associate, Australian Centre for Public History, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1412702020-06-30T19:10:53Z2020-06-30T19:10:53ZCheaper courses won’t help graduates get jobs – they need good careers advice and links with employers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343897/original/file-20200625-190531-1l6edm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-standing-near-arrows-on-asphalt-1156933444">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The government’s higher education funding changes aim to ensure graduates are “job-ready”. Students will be charged more for courses the government deems have poorer employment outcomes, to incentivise them into cheaper courses with supposedly better job prospects. </p>
<p>But these changes seem ignorant of the research surrounding future jobs, and the unpredictable nature of the market. Experts <a href="https://www.fya.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/FYA_TheNewWorkSmarts_July2017.pdf">predict today’s graduates</a> will have several different careers throughout their working life. A linear path from education to work makes little sense in a rapidly changing world.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-government-actually-predict-the-jobs-of-the-future-141275">Can government actually predict the jobs of the future?</a>
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<p>Changes can also happen fairly quickly that affect the availability of jobs. We saw this in the <a href="https://www.infoworld.com/article/2613473/it-job-market-recovering-faster-than-after-dot-com-bubble-burst.html">collapse of IT jobs</a> after the dot-com bubble burst in the 2000s, and the demise of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/world/australia/holden-automaker-factory-closes.html">Australia’s car manufacturing industry</a> in the last decade. </p>
<p>Instead of lowering fees for some courses to make them more attractive, the government should ensure better links between study and employment and strengthen careers advice for students to make better choices.</p>
<h2>Why cheaper courses won’t help with career choices</h2>
<p>Higher education expert <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/06/21/jobs-interests-and-student-course-choices/">Andrew Norton writes</a> 80% of students enrol in courses with a specific job in mind and only 10% based on subject interest. But he explains interests and job goals aren’t mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>He says when survey participants are given the choice of multiple answers for why they chose a course, interest in the field of study is the most popular – more than 90% of respondents say it’s important. While three quarters of respondents say they have a specific job in mind.</p>
<p>This fits with something called vocational interest profiles. This theory holds a person’s choice of occupation is influenced by their personality.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2017.11.012">Research on vocational interest profiles</a> found students with a stronger preference for jobs that involve working with people (such as in sales, police work or nursing) had a one in 50 chance of being enrolled in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) courses. </p>
<p>Students with a stronger preference for conventional type jobs (those that involve working with data, rules or procedures) had a one in two chance of being enrolled in a STEM course. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344700/original/file-20200630-103677-1r1d1wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344700/original/file-20200630-103677-1r1d1wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344700/original/file-20200630-103677-1r1d1wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344700/original/file-20200630-103677-1r1d1wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344700/original/file-20200630-103677-1r1d1wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344700/original/file-20200630-103677-1r1d1wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344700/original/file-20200630-103677-1r1d1wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344700/original/file-20200630-103677-1r1d1wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">People’s career choices are often influenced by their character.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/senior-woman-sitting-chair-talking-nurse-1178442679">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Based on the strong link between a person’s interests and their career, the government’s plan to influence this choice by changing the price of courses will likely have a limited effect.</p>
<h2>Instead, career education must be better</h2>
<p>Research shows starting university students have a <a href="https://ojs.deakin.edu.au/index.php/jtlge/article/view/894">poor understanding of the potential careers</a> their degree may lead to.</p>
<p>The government, universities and industry must work together to help students understand how their knowledge, skills and other attributes can be applied in the labour market, and where the opportunities exist.</p>
<p>Students also need better access to <a href="https://theconversation.com/careers-education-must-be-for-all-not-just-those-going-to-university-49217">career education</a> in high school and at university. Career services in universities have been <a href="https://brill.com/view/book/9789004410459/BP000016.xml">recognised as under-resourced</a>. </p>
<p>My research has found <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1360080X.2019.1646380">careers advisers are often employed as generalists</a>, with workloads spread across career counselling, running workshops, developing curricula, designing programs and liaising with employers. </p>
<p>Employing more careers advisers will enable staff to specialise and deliver targeted support to more students. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-governments-funding-changes-are-meddling-with-the-purpose-of-universities-141133">The government's funding changes are meddling with the purpose of universities</a>
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<p>To be effective, career education should be <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1235633">embedded in all university courses</a>. It should provide opportunities for students to identify their knowledge, skills and other attributes and learn about the range of jobs and industries they can apply these. </p>
<p>It should also teach students how to identify and apply for jobs, and confidently articulate to an employer how they can contribute to the organisation. </p>
<p>Career education should be facilitated by <a href="https://ojs.deakin.edu.au/index.php/jtlge/article/view/785">qualified career development practitioners</a> who can design career education programs in collaboration with academics and industry.</p>
<p>Examples of such collaboration include <a href="https://www.latrobe.edu.au/students/opportunities/careers">La Trobe University’s Career Ready Advantage</a>, <a href="https://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/faculties-and-divisions/administrative-divisions/grad-emp">Deakin Talent</a>, and <a href="https://students.flinders.edu.au/student-services/careers/horizon">Flinders University’s Horizon Award</a>. </p>
<h2>And labour market information</h2>
<p>In addition to increased career education, the government needs to provide better labour market information so students can make informed decisions about identifying appropriate job opportunities. </p>
<p>A few resources are currently available, but they only give snippets of information and do not connect. </p>
<p>Two examples include:</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344698/original/file-20200630-103645-1nr2t16.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344698/original/file-20200630-103645-1nr2t16.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344698/original/file-20200630-103645-1nr2t16.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344698/original/file-20200630-103645-1nr2t16.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344698/original/file-20200630-103645-1nr2t16.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344698/original/file-20200630-103645-1nr2t16.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344698/original/file-20200630-103645-1nr2t16.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344698/original/file-20200630-103645-1nr2t16.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Graduates in Agriculture and Environmental Studies from Charles Sturt University had a median salary of $60,000.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.compared.edu.au/compare/study-areas">Screenshot ComparEd</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://www.compared.edu.au/">ComparED</a> – a website for prospective students to compare courses and universities. The information is limited to graduate starting salaries, the proportion of graduates employed four months after course completion and graduates’ satisfaction with skill development achieved through the course. </p>
<p>This site could be improved by adding data, for each course, on the types of jobs and industries in which graduates find employment.</p>
<p><a href="https://joboutlook.gov.au/">Job Outlook</a> – a government website that provides labour market information such as average salary and predicted growth or decline in job vacancies. </p>
<p>It also has a handy <a href="https://joboutlook.gov.au/skills-match.aspx">Skills Match</a> app which gives suggestions on jobs that use skills you have. </p>
<p>The app has limited value for graduates as it determines skills based on jobs you have already done. As an example, if a student has worked as a barista, Skills Match recommends similar jobs such as a kitchen hand or cleaner. It doesn’t ask what course you are studying or have completed, so it won’t recommend barrister if you’ve been studying law. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-is-making-job-ready-degrees-cheaper-for-students-but-cutting-funding-to-the-same-courses-141280">The government is making ‘job-ready’ degrees cheaper for students – but cutting funding to the same courses</a>
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<p>Together, a deliberate and well-resourced strategy to support university students’ career education and links with industry will be a more effective way to increase labour market productivity than price signals on university courses.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141270/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Brown is a professional member of, and has served on committees for the National Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (NAGCAS) and Career Development Association of Australia (CDAA). </span></em></p>Experts predict today’s graduates will have several different careers throughout their working life. The government’s university changes seem ignorant of this.Jason Brown, Lecturer in Careers and Employability Learning, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1414522020-06-28T20:14:21Z2020-06-28T20:14:21ZCoronavirus and university reforms put at risk Australia’s research gains of the last 15 years<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344224/original/file-20200626-104499-108ngtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-wearing-brainwave-scanning-headset-sits-1036798300">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Education minister Dan Tehan will be <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/tehan-to-convene-vice-chancellor-group-to-replace-broken-research-funding-system-20200624-p555ps.html">meeting with university vice-chancellors</a> to devise a new way of funding university research. They will have plenty to talk about. </p>
<p>Australia’s universities have been remarkably successful in <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/06/14/australias-higher-education-research-boom/">building their research output</a>. But there are cracks in the funding foundations of that success, which are being exposed by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-universities-could-lose-19-billion-in-the-next-3-years-our-economy-will-suffer-with-them-136251">revenue shock of COVID-19</a> and <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/job-ready">the minister’s reforms</a> announced this month, which would pay for new student places with money currently spent on research.</p>
<p>I estimate the gap in funding that needs to be filled to maintain our current research output at around <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/05/21/how-reliant-is-australian-university-research-on-international-student-profits/">$4.7 billion</a>.</p>
<h2>The funding foundations crumble</h2>
<p>The timing of Dan Tehan’s higher education reform package could not have been worse for the university research sector.</p>
<p>The vulnerability created by universities’ reliance on international students has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-what-australian-universities-can-do-to-recover-from-the-loss-of-international-student-fees-139759">brutally revealed this year</a>. Travel bans prevent international students arriving in Australia and the COVID-19 recession undermines their capacity to pay tuition fees.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-universities-could-lose-19-billion-in-the-next-3-years-our-economy-will-suffer-with-them-136251">Australian universities could lose $19 billion in the next 3 years. Our economy will suffer with them</a>
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<p>Profits from domestic and international students are the only way universities can finance research on the current scale, with <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/8111.0">more than A$12 billion spent in 2018</a>.</p>
<p>Based on a Deloitte Access Economics <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/2019-transparency-higher-education-expenditure-publication-0">analysis of teaching costs</a>, universities <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/05/19/how-profitable-is-university-teaching/">make a surplus of about A$1.3 billion</a> on domestic students. Universities use much of this surplus to fund research.</p>
<p>Tehan’s reform package seeks to <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/document/job-ready-graduates-discussion-paper">align the total teaching funding rates</a> for each Commonwealth supported student – the combined tuition subsidy and student contribution – with the teaching and scholarship costs identified in the <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/2019-transparency-higher-education-expenditure-publication-0">Deloitte analysis</a>. </p>
<p>On 2018 enrolment numbers, revenue losses for universities for Commonwealth supported students would <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-is-making-job-ready-degrees-cheaper-for-students-but-cutting-funding-to-the-same-courses-141280">total around $750 million</a> with this realignment. With only teaching costs funded, universities will have little or no surplus from their teaching to spend on research. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-is-making-job-ready-degrees-cheaper-for-students-but-cutting-funding-to-the-same-courses-141280">The government is making ‘job-ready’ degrees cheaper for students – but cutting funding to the same courses</a>
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<p>International student profits are larger than domestic – at around $4 billion. Much of this money is spent on research too, and much of this is at risk. The recession will also reduce how much industry partners and philanthropists can contribute to university research.</p>
<p>Australia’s Chief Scientist estimates <a href="https://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-05/rrif-covid19-research-workforce.pdf">7,700 research jobs are at risk </a> from COVID-19 factors alone. Unless the Commonwealth intervenes with a new research funding policy, its recent announcements will trigger further significant research job losses.</p>
<h2>Combined teaching and research academic jobs will decline</h2>
<p>Although less research employment will be available, the additional domestic students financed by redirecting research funding will generate teaching work.</p>
<p>More students is a good thing in itself, as the COVID-19 recession will generate <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-simpler-reset-could-have-met-dan-tehan-s-education-aims-20200619-p55481.html?fbclid=IwAR2_YRNgfTv20-_RlQcZ7FiCtzl0fjZoCqJtWYSDmaIl-EG5A4jUkqJ1PTg">more demand for higher education</a>. </p>
<p>But this reallocation between research and teaching will exacerbate a major structural problem in the academic labour market. Although most academics <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/06/05/why-did-universities-become-reliant-on-international-students-part-4-trying-to-maintain-a-teaching-research-academic-workforce/">want teaching and research, or research-only roles</a>, over the last 30 years Commonwealth teaching and research funding has separated. </p>
<p>After the latest Tehan reforms, funding for the two activities will be based on entirely different criteria and put on very different growth trajectories. </p>
<p>An academic employment model that assumes the same people teach and research was kept alive by funding surpluses on domestic, and especially international, students. With both these surpluses being hit hard, the funding logic is that a <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/06/05/why-did-universities-become-reliant-on-international-students-part-4-trying-to-maintain-a-teaching-research-academic-workforce/">trend towards more specialised academic staff will have to accelerate</a>. </p>
<p>We can expect academic morale to fall and industrial action to rise as university workforces resist this change. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-10-000-job-losses-billions-in-lost-revenue-coronavirus-will-hit-australias-research-capacity-harder-than-the-gfc-138210">More than 10,000 job losses, billions in lost revenue: coronavirus will hit Australia's research capacity harder than the GFC</a>
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<p>The funding squeeze will also undermine the current system of Commonwealth research funding. This funding is allocated in two main ways. In part, it comes from competitive project grant funding, largely from the <a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/">National Health and Medical Research Council</a> and the <a href="https://www.arc.gov.au/">Australian Research Council</a>.</p>
<p>Academic prestige is attached to winning these grants, but the money allocated does not cover the project’s costs. Typically, universities pay the salaries of the lead researchers and general costs, such as laboratories and libraries. </p>
<p>Universities are partly compensated for those expenses through <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/research-block-grants">research block grants</a>, which are awarded based on previous academic performance, including in winning competitive grants. But because block grants <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/06/04/why-did-universities-become-reliant-on-international-students-part-3-the-rise-of-research-project-grants/">do not cover all competitive project grant costs</a>, the system has relied on discretionary revenue, much of it from students, to work. It will need a major rethink if teaching becomes much less profitable.</p>
<h2>The stakes are high</h2>
<p>University spending on research (which was over <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/8111.0">$12 billion</a> in 2018), has nearly tripled since 2000 in real terms. </p>
<p>Direct government spending on research increased this century, but not by nearly enough to finance this huge expansion in outlays. In 2018, the Commonwealth government’s <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/consolidated-time-series-data">main research funding programs</a> contributed A$3.7 billion. </p>
<p>An additional $600 million came from other Commonwealth sources such as government department contracts for specific pieces of research.</p>
<p>In addition to this Commonwealth money, universities received another $1.9 billion in earmarked research funding from <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/node/47851">state, territory and other (national) governments, donations, and industry</a>.</p>
<p>These research-specific sources still leave billions of dollars in research spending without a clear source of finance. Universities have investment earnings, profits on commercial operations and other revenue sources they can invest in research. </p>
<p>But these cannot possibly cover the <a href="https://andrewnorton.net.au/2020/05/21/how-reliant-is-australian-university-research-on-international-student-profits/">estimated $4.7 billion gap</a> between research revenue and spending.</p>
<p>With lower profits on teaching, this gap cannot be filled. Research spending will have to be reduced by billions of dollars. </p>
<p>We are at a turning point in Australian higher education. The research gains of the last fifteen years are at risk of being reversed. The minister’s meeting with vice-chancellors has very high stakes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141452/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Norton works for the Australian National University, which is directly affected by the issues discussed in this article. </span></em></p>Travel bans, a recession and the government’s university reform package will leave an estimated $4.7 billion gap in research funding that needs filling to maintain our current output.Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1412802020-06-23T20:17:54Z2020-06-23T20:17:54ZThe government is making ‘job-ready’ degrees cheaper for students – but cutting funding to the same courses<p>One objective of the government’s recently <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tehan/minister-education-dan-tehan-national-press-club-address">announced</a> funding changes for universities is to increase the number of graduates in areas of expected employment growth – such as teaching, nursing, agriculture, STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) and IT. </p>
<p>The education minister said student fees in these degrees would drop. But what he didn’t say is universities would also receive less funding for these degrees, because the government had assessed they are currently over-funded. </p>
<p>We have modelled the shortfall in guaranteed base funding to universities for degrees in areas of employment growth, and others, using the latest <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/selected-higher-education-statistics-2018-student-data">2018 domestic student enrolment data</a>.</p>
<p>To educate 584,346 domestic full-time bachelor students, the government will save <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/perverse-incentive-for-universities-to-use-humanities-as-cash-cows-20200622-p5551t.html">A$769 million per year</a>. Students will be charged an extra A$476 million per year and universities will have reduced funding of A$293 million per year.</p>
<p>The reduced rate of funding to universities (of up to 17%), per place, for national priority courses sends perverse messages to universities. They will be receiving a lower rate of funding when they are expected to expand domestic enrolments. </p>
<h2>It’s not as it seems</h2>
<p>The basis for the government’s funding decisions is a <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/collections/transparency-higher-education-expenditure">Deloitte Access Economics report</a> on transparency in higher education spending. </p>
<p>The reform package sees substantial reductions for student fees in certain national priority degrees – 21% for science and engineering to 62% for agriculture and mathematics. </p>
<p>As the table below shows, the government contribution for four of these courses (teaching, nursing, agriculture and mathematics) has increased. </p>
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<p>But universities won’t be fully compensated for the student fee reduction for any of these courses.</p>
<p>The funding reductions for universities, per place, of between 6-17% will be a barrier to the minister’s objective of seeing more enrolments in these courses. </p>
<p>In sharp contrast to the STEM courses, humanities and social sciences students (except those in languages and English) will have to contribute much more of the cost, and the government significantly less.</p>
<p>As the below tables shows, universities can expect to receive increased funding, from 15%-55% for courses in languages, English, humanities and social sciences, law, economics, management and commerce.</p>
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<p>But the government’s pricing signals are designed to redirect students from humanities and social sciences to courses of national priority. If these signals succeed – meaning fewer students will be studying humanities, and therefore paying the fees – overall university levels of funding for humanities will decline. </p>
<p>Does the government now expect universities to subsidise STEM subjects from humanities and social science domestic student fees in the same way they have cross-subsidised research and research training from international student fees? </p>
<p>As part of the reform package, the table below shows university funding, per place, for ten fields of study (including engineering, nursing and teaching) will reduce, and increase for 11 (including health, creative arts, and society and culture). </p>
<p>The level of funding reductions for national priority places, and in environmental studies (with a decrease of nearly $10,000 per place), are most significant. </p>
<p>What signal does the government seek to send about the importance of the environment for Australia’s future social well-being?</p>
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<p>The government’s package indicates much of government savings ($769 million per year) will be redirected to rural, regional and Indigenous programs. This outcome will be of marginal benefit to metropolitan universities.</p>
<h2>Issues for universities</h2>
<p>The focus on national priority courses in government’s reform package raises some important issues for universities.</p>
<p>Overall, universities will receive less funding per student place than they currently do. This is at a time when universities are <a href="https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/lh-martin-institute/insights/modelling-individual-australian-universities-resilience-in-managing-overseas-student-revenue-losses-from-the-covid-19-pandemic">experiencing a massive shortfall in the billions</a> in international student fee revenue.</p>
<p>Universities could, within their internal budget allocation models, restore funding for national priority courses by redirecting income from humanities and social science programs. But this would be counter-productive, divisive and inefficient for universities, as it involves budgetary opaqueness and removes incentives for revenue growth.</p>
<p>The reform package encourages universities to reallocate places across disciplines to reflect changes in student demand. If universities respond to desired changes in student demand by increasing places in national priority courses through reallocation from other disciplines, a fixed level of government funding will result in fewer places becoming available. For example, a student in engineering ($16,500) will attract 15 times the level of government funding than a humanities student ($1,100). </p>
<p>An issue for government will be whether the discipline-based changes in funding places will lead to gaming by universities, which may seek to redefine subjects to secure higher funding rates. </p>
<p>In humanities, the incentive will be to have subjects coded as English and languages. Environmental studies will receive increased funding if coded as agriculture. Legal studies may be presented as education. Costs will increase if this occurs.</p>
<p>Thirty two universities participated in the 2019 data collection for the Deloitte report the government’s funding decisions is based on. Of these, 13 universities were unable to supply detailed activity-based costing data. </p>
<p>The validity of the new discipline-based funding model will depend on whether the Deloitte report reflects true costs of university teaching.</p>
<p>Universities are already predicted to lose billions of dollars in international fee revenue in 2021 and beyond. A further financial impost would severely affect their capacity to maintain high quality teaching programs and undertake internationally competitive research.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141280/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Marshman is a director of the Grattan Institute and is a director of a subsidiary company for the University of Melbourne.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Larkins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The reduced rate of funding to universities (of up to 17%), per place, for national priority courses sends perverse messages to universities.Ian Marshman, Honorary Principal Fellow, Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of MelbourneFrank Larkins, Professor Emeritus and Former Deputy Vice Chancellor, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1411332020-06-22T19:59:25Z2020-06-22T19:59:25ZThe government’s funding changes are meddling with the purpose of universities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343095/original/file-20200622-75512-12nspwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-statue-greek-philosopher-socrates-on-684489145">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Federal education minister Dan Tehan <a href="https://theconversation.com/drafts/141133/edit">in recent days announced</a> an overhaul of the fee structures for undergraduate degrees – and the courses based in those degrees – to direct students towards ones it believes are more likely to get them a job. </p>
<p>Student contributions for degrees in teaching, nursing, clinical psychology, English and languages will fall by 46%; agriculture and maths by 62%; and science, health, architecture, environmental science, IT and engineering by 20%.</p>
<p>But the student contributions for law and commerce will increase by 28%, while for the humanities, they will more than double (up by 113%).</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fee-cuts-for-nursing-and-teaching-but-big-hikes-for-law-and-humanities-in-package-expanding-university-places-141064">Fee cuts for nursing and teaching but big hikes for law and humanities in package expanding university places</a>
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<p>Universities exist to expand knowledge and create a civil society. They allow us to understand, challenge, collaborate, inquire, discover, create, design, confront and imagine. </p>
<p>The implications of the government’s announcement are about more than incentivising the career trajectories of students. They are a direct assault on the premise of universities. </p>
<h2>What’s a university for?</h2>
<p>The first <a href="https://www.leru.org/files/What-are-Universities-for-Full-paper.pdf">modern university</a> in the West was founded in Bologna, Italy, in 1088. It became a widely respected school of canon and civil law. </p>
<p>It also became a model for other universities such as the University of Paris and Oxford. The initial faculties were of theology, law, medicine and the liberal arts.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/about-us/our-story/australias-first-university.html">University of Sydney</a>, founded in 1850, is the oldest university in Australia. William Charles Wentworth is noted as proposing the idea of Australia’s first university, imagining “the opportunity for the child of every class to become great and useful in the destinies of this country”.</p>
<p>The university’s motto is a beacon – <em>Sidere mens eadem mutato</em> – which translated means “the stars change, the mind remains the same”. The broad evolving mind remains the raison-d'etre for universities, more than the fad of the day.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343097/original/file-20200622-75483-ci71kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343097/original/file-20200622-75483-ci71kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343097/original/file-20200622-75483-ci71kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343097/original/file-20200622-75483-ci71kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343097/original/file-20200622-75483-ci71kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343097/original/file-20200622-75483-ci71kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343097/original/file-20200622-75483-ci71kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343097/original/file-20200622-75483-ci71kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The University of Sydney’s motto – <em>Sidere mens eadem mutato</em> – means ‘the stars change, the mind remains the same’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/historic-quadrant-building-sydney-university-australia-201733868">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The evolution of the modern university, funded increasingly over time by governments, moved the focus from promulgating religious tenets to values that are civic-minded, and centred on knowledge transmission accessible to all citizens – not just the wealthy.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-have-gone-from-being-a-place-of-privilege-to-a-competitive-market-what-will-they-be-after-coronavirus-137877">Universities have gone from being a place of privilege to a competitive market. What will they be after coronavirus?</a>
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<p>Of course, work still needs to be done to improve diversity. But the overarching purpose of the university was to advance human discovery, promote diversity of thinking and enhance the common good. </p>
<p>The library – solemn with books – was the hub of a university education. As knowledge evolved, libraries grew into subject departments.</p>
<p>The physical library and its virtual equivalent still form the foundation of the student academic experience.</p>
<h2>The government is overstepping the mark</h2>
<p>Government support for public universities was intended to come with few strings. If we agree the purpose of universities is to disseminate knowledge and advance society, we cannot allow a political agenda to diminish academic freedom and equitable student choice. </p>
<p>And yet, the trend in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia is for <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-australian-government-letting-universities-suffer-138514">conservative-leaning governments</a> to see their role as shaping universities to match their agendas. </p>
<p>This is counter to long-held beliefs universities should <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-are-losing-sight-of-higher-educations-true-purpose-73637">operate independently</a> to shape knowledge. Public engagement and social impact are the overall goals for higher education. </p>
<p>In stating its plan expands job preparation and promotes economic growth, the government is <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/proposed-overhaul-of-university-fees-nothing-short-of-radical-20200619-p55482.html">overstepping its charge</a>, undermining the notion of choice and opportunity for all.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343098/original/file-20200622-75483-ytybns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343098/original/file-20200622-75483-ytybns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343098/original/file-20200622-75483-ytybns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343098/original/file-20200622-75483-ytybns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343098/original/file-20200622-75483-ytybns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343098/original/file-20200622-75483-ytybns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343098/original/file-20200622-75483-ytybns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343098/original/file-20200622-75483-ytybns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The library is the centre of university learning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-bookshelf-library-243766495">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>These fee changes will have most effect on working class families. Wealthy families who are not price sensitive will be able to choose across the current array of offerings without financial worries. </p>
<p>This inequity may price some Australians out of their dreams of a liberal arts education because they can no longer afford it.</p>
<h2>What is the danger in that?</h2>
<p>Degrees in humanities, society and culture, and communications are <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/uni-fee-overhaul-won-t-change-demand-or-affordability-hecs-architect-20200619-p5549a.html">singled out</a> as not preparing graduates for the jobs of the future. </p>
<p>Yet the skills fostered in these degrees are in high demand. Critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, strong writing prowess and people skills are valued as future-focused “human” skills that translate across the employment sector. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-the-government-listened-to-business-leaders-they-would-encourage-humanities-education-not-pull-funds-from-it-141121">If the government listened to business leaders, they would encourage humanities education, not pull funds from it</a>
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<p>With many people getting their information from an <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2018-12-10-more-people-get-news-from-social-media-than-newspapers.html">increasingly narrow bandwidth</a> of social media influences, the role of a university education is even more important. It’s there to teach students to question, seek evidence and think independently.</p>
<p>A university education <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/media-item/a-higher-purpose-universities-civic-transformation-and-the-public-good/">promotes open mindedness</a> and the pursuit of knowledge across a diverse set of disciplines, especially those that have now been marginalised. </p>
<p>Students across all disciplines need these attributes to help advance humanity and address the global challenges we face. </p>
<p>It remains to be seen whether the plan minister Tehan has put forward to steer undergraduate students into certain degrees will be successful in promoting “jobs and growth”. </p>
<p>What is clear is this move oversteps the government’s role and function by dictating to Australians and their universities what the priorities should be for building a fair, civil and just society.</p>
<p>The government proposes we engineer our way to the future, rather than think, collaborate and imagine our way forward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141133/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Fischetti is President of the NSW Council of Deans of Education.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catharine Coleborne is the Secretary of the Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities.</span></em></p>The implications of the government’s announcement are about more than incentivising the career trajectories of students. They are a direct assault on the premise of universities.John Fischetti, Professor, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the College of Human and Social Futures, University of NewcastleCatharine Coleborne, Dean of Arts/Head of School Humanities and Social Science, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1411212020-06-21T20:08:17Z2020-06-21T20:08:17ZIf the government listened to business leaders, they would encourage humanities education, not pull funds from it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343016/original/file-20200620-43187-1ge6rf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/book-stacktextbook-on-desk-library-room-1748048714">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The federal government’s announcement they will <a href="https://theconversation.com/fee-cuts-for-nursing-and-teaching-but-big-hikes-for-law-and-humanities-in-package-expanding-university-places-141064">more than double</a> the cost of humanities and communications degrees for university students has taken the sector by surprise – not least because it goes against increasing evidence that these programs are the key to our nation’s future success.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fee-cuts-for-nursing-and-teaching-but-big-hikes-for-law-and-humanities-in-package-expanding-university-places-141064">Fee cuts for nursing and teaching but big hikes for law and humanities in package expanding university places</a>
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<p>If the government wants to support university courses that lead to jobs, they’d do well to listen to their business leaders who have been quite clear, in recent years, about the sorts of graduates they’re looking for.</p>
<h2>Business leaders call for humanities</h2>
<p>Chief Executive of the Business Council of Australia, Jennifer Westacott, <a href="https://www.bca.com.au/the-true-value-of-humanities">said in a 2016 speech</a> all 21st century successful leaders would need “some form of humanities perspective and education”. </p>
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<p>I argue this because I believe our economic and technological success has not been matched with a constant orientation towards a better human condition.</p>
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<p>She said the humanities produce people who can “ask the right questions, think for themselves, explain what they think, and turn those ideas into actions”.</p>
<p>She went further to say the key skills required by industry and business were nested in the humanities: “critical thinking, synthesis, judgement and an understanding of ethical constructs”.</p>
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<p>Another valued industry body, Deloitte Access Economics, <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/economics/articles/value-humanities.html">reported</a> in 2018 that humanities and communications graduates delivered 30 technical skills hugely sought-after by employers.</p>
<p>Their analysis was based on graduate outcomes and employer satisfaction surveys, coupled with wide-ranging consultations with global business, public sector agencies and researchers. </p>
<p>They found 72% of employers “demanded” communication skills when hiring, but only 27% of potential hires actually had those skills.</p>
<p>They also found transferable skills, such as as teamwork, communication, problem-solving, innovation and emotional judgement, “have become widely acknowledged as important in driving business success”.</p>
<p>The report concluded</p>
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<p>[…] humanities education and research has a fundamental role to play in understanding how our society and economy can adapt to these changes, in creating future value, and in helping individuals gain rewarding employment.</p>
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<p>If our purpose is to incentivise programs that lead to jobs, which will equip the nation for the future, and will elicit innovative and creative responses to complex problems, then we must encourage broad study in the humanities and social sciences.</p>
<h2>Our society calls for humanities</h2>
<p>Most of us working in these fields can explain with great conviction the richness our disciplines bring to students, and ultimately to the societies they live in. </p>
<p>They bring an understanding of the world, of past mistakes and future threats, of current failings we can try to solve, and of medical, social and environmental challenges that confront us.</p>
<p>Our ability to understand the impact of the current global pandemic or migration, the environmental crisis, social cohesion, poverty and its many side-effects, domestic violence, the effects of social media and politics are daily concerns in the humanities.</p>
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<p>And increasingly, we are aware the scale of these problems and the failure of our current institutions to deal with them – the often-discussed “crisis of trust” – cannot be solved by science, mathematics, engineering and technology alone.</p>
<p>It is the contribution of the humanities and social sciences to the STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) disciplines that may ultimately lead us to some real and applied solutions to the crises we face.</p>
<p>It’s therefore curious the education minister Dan Tehan is <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/uni-fees-to-be-slashed-for-in-demand-courses-but-cost-of-arts-degrees-set-to-soar">encouraging humanities students</a> to add a “job-ready” edge to their studies by doing (soon-to-be much cheaper) courses in technology, science and maths. </p>
<p>And at the same time, he is actively discouraging students of technology, science and maths from being able to take some humanities courses as part of their degree because of the prohibitive higher cost.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/humanities-graduates-earn-more-than-those-who-study-science-and-maths-141112">Humanities graduates earn more than those who study science and maths</a>
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<p>“So if you want to study history, also think about studying teaching. If you want to study philosophy, also think about studying a language. If you want to study law, also think about studying IT”, <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tehan/minister-education-dan-tehan-national-press-club-address">Tehan said</a> in his National Press Club address.</p>
<p>Interdisciplinary knowledge, and combining humanities and social science with the STEM disciplines, is a strong concept. We already do it in many of our communications and arts degrees. </p>
<p>But to suggest this should only be one-way traffic is highly problematic.</p>
<p>Microsoft president Brad Smith and head of Microsoft’s AI division Harry Shum <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-president-says-tech-needs-liberal-arts-majors-2018-1?r=AU&IR=T">recently wrote</a> that lessons from liberal arts would be “critical to unleashing the full potential of AI”.</p>
<p>They wrote</p>
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<p>[…] skilling-up for an AI-powered world involves more than science, technology, engineering, and math. As computers behave more like humans, the social sciences and humanities will become even more important. Languages, art, history, economics, ethics, philosophy, psychology and human development courses can teach critical, philosophical and ethics-based skills that will be instrumental in the development and management of AI solutions.</p>
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<p><a href="http://catalog.mit.edu/interdisciplinary/undergraduate-programs/degrees/humanities-engineering/">Leading universities</a> around the world are increasingly combining core study in engineering and IT with humanities study. They acknowledge the communication, interpersonal and adaptable skills gives a much longer “shelf life” to the technical skills learned while at university.</p>
<h2>And let’s not forget world leaders with Arts degrees</h2>
<p>The Academy of Social Sciences <a href="https://socialsciences.org.au/news/devaluing-humanities-and-social-science-education-will-leave-Australia-worse-off/">reports</a> two out of three CEOs of Australia’s ASX200 listed companies have a degree in the social sciences. There are similar proportions of government senior executives, and federal parliamentarians holding social science degrees.</p>
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<p>And of course, the roll call of important world leaders of the 20th and 21st century with a humanities or social science degree – Barack Obama, Martin Luther King, Youtube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and Indira Gandhi among them – tells us our messages now must be around the importance of the humanities, not the reverse.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/university-students-arent-cogs-in-a-market-they-need-more-than-a-narrow-focus-on-skills-140058">University students aren't cogs in a market. They need more than a narrow focus on 'skills'</a>
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<p>So I return to the start. There is increasing confirmation, in Australia and across the world, that humanities, social sciences and communication are key to a viable future.</p>
<p>On what evidence, then, has the federal government proposed these changes? We have to trust this is not an attempt to muzzle critical thought and new ideas in our universities – but rather, a misguided attempt that needs a little more work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141121/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Forde does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The government has more than doubled the cost of humanities degrees to encourage ‘job-ready’ graduates. But on what evidence?Susan Forde, Director, Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1411122020-06-19T04:39:54Z2020-06-19T04:39:54ZHumanities graduates earn more than those who study science and maths<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342901/original/file-20200619-41200-jz7kqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/shot-graduation-hats-during-commencement-success-730882288">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Education minister Dan Tehan has <a href="https://theconversation.com/fee-cuts-for-nursing-and-teaching-but-big-hikes-for-law-and-humanities-in-package-expanding-university-places-141064">announced changes</a> to funding rates for university courses as part of a plan to create “job ready graduates”. </p>
<p>He said:</p>
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<p>Projections prepared before the COVID-19 pandemic showed that over the five years to 2024 it is expected that the overwhelming majority of new jobs will require tertiary qualifications – and almost half of all new jobs will go to someone with a bachelor or higher qualification.</p>
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<p>Under the new plan, students doing teaching, nursing, clinical psychology, English and languages will pay 46% less for their degree from next year. </p>
<p>Students in agriculture and maths will pay 62% less, while those studying science, health, architecture, environmental science, IT, and engineering will be 20% better off.</p>
<p>But the student contribution for the humanities will go up by 113%, and the costs for law and commerce will jump by 28%. </p>
<p>The rationale is to encourage students to select courses with the best employment outcomes.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fee-cuts-for-nursing-and-teaching-but-big-hikes-for-law-and-humanities-in-package-expanding-university-places-141064">Fee cuts for nursing and teaching but big hikes for law and humanities in package expanding university places</a>
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<p>Tehan said health care is projected to make the largest contributions to employment growth, followed by science and technology, education and construction.</p>
<p>He said these industries are projected to provide 62% of total <a href="https://lmip.gov.au/default.aspx?LMIP/GainInsights/EmploymentProjections">employment growth over the next five years</a>.</p>
<p>Although there will be no change in course fees for medicine, dental, and veterinary science students.</p>
<p>With a <a href="https://ministers.dese.gov.au/tehan/minister-education-dan-tehan-interview-fran-kelly-abc-rn-breakfast">forecasted rise in unemployment</a> due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tehan is expecting more young people to go to university, and others to return to re-skill.</p>
<p>National figures show <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/docs/default-source/gos-reports/2019-gos-l/2019-gos-l-national-report.pdf?sfvrsn=63fdec3c_4">about 93% of graduates</a> who are available for work are employed three years after completing their bachelor degree.</p>
<p>While science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) graduates are a focus of Tehan’s reforms, not all STEM graduates have above-average employment outcomes. After three years, the overall employment rate of engineering graduates is 95%, while science and maths graduates have a 90.1% rate of overall employment.</p>
<p>And science and maths graduates actually earn less than those with a degree in the humanities.</p>
<h2>Which university students get jobs?</h2>
<p>Undergraduates who <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/docs/default-source/gos-reports/2019-gos-l/2019-gos-l-national-report.pdf?sfvrsn=63fdec3c_4">study physiotherapy and occupational therapy</a> have the highest level of employment (98.8%) three years after finishing their bachelor degree, while creative arts graduates the lowest (89.3%).</p>
<p>Of the study areas where the government is proposing students contribute more, law graduates (95.8%) and business graduates (95.5%) are employed at rates above the average. Humanities graduates are employed at a rate of 91.1% (above science and maths). </p>
<p>The median salary for university graduates differs as well. After three years, medicine graduates earn the most (A$100,000) along with dentistry graduates (A$97,400).</p>
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<p>As the graph above shows, humanities and social science graduates (A$70,300) earn more than maths and science graduates (A$68,900).</p>
<h2>Will reforms help the coronavirus class of 2020?</h2>
<p>It is unclear whether these reforms will help school leavers facing an uncertain future. </p>
<p>During a recession many people look to study while the employment market remains weak. In his speech, Tehan said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We know that people turn to education during economic downturns and we also know the Costello Baby Boom generation will begin to finish school from 2023.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 2017 the Australian government effectively put a cap on university places, after <a href="https://theconversation.com/demand-driven-funding-for-universities-is-frozen-what-does-this-mean-and-should-the-policy-be-restored-116060">five years of “demand driven” funding</a> (where government essentially funded the amount of places students were enrolled in). </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/demand-driven-funding-for-universities-is-frozen-what-does-this-mean-and-should-the-policy-be-restored-116060">Demand-driven funding for universities is frozen. What does this mean and should the policy be restored?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>In practice, this means there are now limits on the number of government subsidised places at universities.</p>
<p>Because of demographics and previous growth in enrolments, the cap <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/five-anus-two-unsws-unis-not-ready-for-looming-costello-baby-boom-20200227-p544yq.html">was not expected</a> to restrict the number of people going to university until 2023.</p>
<p>But the COVID-19 pandemic means these assumptions may no longer apply.</p>
<p>Normally school leavers follow a number of pathways into the workforce (including going straight to work, or studying a university or vocational education and training course first). Most young people take the university pathway.</p>
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<p>However, these school leavers don’t start their courses at the same time.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/most-young-people-who-do-vet-after-school-are-in-full-time-work-by-the-age-of-25-133060">Most young people who do VET after school are in full-time work by the age of 25</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Around 20-25% of school leavers who go to university before working <a href="https://www.ncver.edu.au/research-and-statistics/publications/all-publications/who-takes-a-gap-year-and-why">take a gap year</a>. Travel restrictions and a weaker employment market may mean this year’s school leavers will bring forward their study plans.</p>
<p>There may also be more school leavers who choose to study at university instead of entering the workforce directly after school. For instance, 44% of 18 and 19 year olds who are not studying work in retail, accommodation and food services, and trade. </p>
<p>These industries have suffered <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6160.0.55.001">large job losses</a> because of the coronavirus pandemic. </p>
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<p>A reduction in <a href="https://www.vu.edu.au/sites/default/files/impact-of-coronavirus-on-apprentices-and-trainees.pdf">new apprenticeships and traineeships</a>, fewer jobs and higher youth unemployment mean school leavers may look to enrol in education and training. </p>
<p>Before COVID-19 hit, the number of year 12 students was <a href="https://theconversation.com/enrolments-flatlining-australian-unis-financial-strife-in-three-charts-126342">only projected to go up</a> by around 1-2% in the next few years – meaning minimal demand for extra university places. However, due to COVID-19, there already has been a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/atar-cut-offs-to-soar-without-more-uni-places-to-meet-surging-demand-20200617-p553ih.html">reported</a> doubling of year 12 students in NSW applying for a university course compared to the same time last year.</p>
<p>The government believes 39,000 extra university places will be created by 2023 because of these changes. But this number is not specifically designed to meet a projected increase in demand because of the coronavirus. Therefore, it is unclear (without the government lifting the cap) whether there will be enough funded university places for school leavers whose plans have been displaced by the pandemic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141112/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Hurley works for Victoria University. </span></em></p>The education minister has outlined reforms to higher education funding aimed at producing ‘job ready graduates’. But his announcements don’t seem completely in line with the data.Peter Hurley, Policy Fellow, Mitchell Institute, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1193932019-11-14T15:30:24Z2019-11-14T15:30:24ZWhere Kenya is spending money on education – and what’s missing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301296/original/file-20191112-178511-30fyzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pupils sit the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination at a slum school in Nairobi.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Daniel Irungu</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s conclusive <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1137541">evidence</a> that education improves societal well-being. For this reason societies invest heavily in inclusive and quality education. Households play their part by funding their children’s education and citizens pay the taxes that support the public education system.</p>
<p>Kenya’s <a href="http://www.treasury.go.ke/component/jdownloads/send/201-2019-2020/1443-budget-highlights-19-20.html">budgetary allocation to education</a> in the current financial year stands at 494.8 billion shillings (about US$4.95 billion). This is twice the combined allocations for defence, health and the presidency. Put simply, the education budget is about 5.3% of 2018 GDP. </p>
<p>Overall, Kenya has over <a href="https://www.knbs.or.ke/?page_id=3142">17 million children and youth in education and training</a>. Of these, 13 million attend the country’s private and public primary and secondary schools. Enrolment in public universities in 2018 was about 513,000. The rest are in early childhood education and non-university tertiary institutions.</p>
<p>The education budget growth goes to three main beneficiaries. The first is the <a href="https://www.tsc.go.ke/">Teachers’ Service Commission</a>, which hires and manages teaching staff at primary and secondary schools as well as tertiary colleges. The commission receives over 50% of the education budget, over 85% of which goes to pay salaries for 310,000 teachers and trainers. </p>
<p>The immediate question that comes to mind is: why are the resources weighted so heavily to teacher productivity while the allocation for support services, especially quality assurance and standards, has remained at the same level for three years?</p>
<h2>Public universities</h2>
<p>The second institutional beneficiary is public universities, which get 20.9% of the education budget. The university allocation covers both staff costs and direct programme costs. </p>
<p>The university sub-sector has two major programmes – university education and research and development (R&D). While university education remains the second major spender within the sector, the allocation to research remains low. </p>
<p>That said, it is commendable that the R&D budget has been increasing over the years, funding close to 500 projects. This signifies a commitment to rejuvenate this programme. This is promising news for faculty, the research community and the small and medium enterprise sector. </p>
<p>For years, Kenyan universities made huge profits thanks to a flawed exam system which generated thousands more university-entry scores than government sponsorship could afford. These extra students enrolled into self-sponsored courses which generated millions in fees. During the days of the so-called “parallel programme” cash boom, universities hired many staff on a permanent basis.</p>
<p>But with fewer students <a href="https://www.knec.ac.ke/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/KNEC-Bulletin-inside-pgs-Jan-Jun-2018.pdf">meeting the minimum entry qualifications</a> under a more stringent exam management system introduced in 2016, many universities are cash strapped and looking for a financing strategy to keep their core mission on course. Retrenchment, early retirement, encouraging unpaid leave, and providing outsourcing services remain open options for public universities.</p>
<p>Universities have also <a href="https://theconversation.com/kenyas-universities-need-deep-reform-not-just-a-hike-in-fees-115149">sought to increase fees</a> to meet their needs and if this happens, many students from poor backgrounds with little access to bursaries will be affected.</p>
<h2>School and youth training</h2>
<p>The third important expenditure item is public primary and secondary schools under the basic education programme. The non-salary allocation to the basic education programme is 21.7% of the education budget. This includes funding for the country’s free primary schooling at 1,420 shillings ($14.20) per student and free secondary school education programme at 22,244 shillings ($222.40) per student. </p>
<p>The free secondary education allocation remains stable at about 15%-16%, up from 10% two years ago. The high transition from primary to secondary experienced in 2019 and again expected in 2020 perhaps justifies this spending. However, public school managers feel this is <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2019-06-10-school-principals-decry-delayed-cash-as-7500-meet-for-annual-talks/">a drop in the ocean</a>. At least 1,155 new classrooms, up from 1,041 in the previous financial year, are planned, along with an additional 250 laboratories. </p>
<p>Because of high construction costs, there is an opportunity here for innovative ways to build less expensive, long-lasting, child-friendly classrooms. Another option to ease the pressure of the 100% transition is to give allocations to students to join private schools. However, such private schools and private providers should adhere to certain <a href="https://www.abidjanprinciples.org/">principles</a>,such as the rights to equality and nondiscrimination. </p>
<p>Finally, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) gets a very small proportion (below 5%) of the education budget. Yet this is a critical sub-sector because unemployment among youth aged 15-24 years stands at 22.2%. TVET’s focus on acquisition of skills sought after in the job market provides an opportunity to tackle challenges such as <a href="https://unevoc.unesco.org/fileadmin/up/2013eforum_virtual_conference_report_youth_unemployment.pdf">skills mismatch</a> that hinder a smooth transition from school to work.</p>
<p>TVET provides opportunities for skill development that could ultimately lead to employment. Though the proportion of the budget allocated is low, the budgetary allocation has more than doubled in the past two financial years. At this rate, TVET will overtake the university budget in the next five to 10 years, a deliberate and perhaps well informed policy. </p>
<h2>What matters</h2>
<p>It is interesting to see how programme budget allocation per student has been changing over time and within programmes. It provides an indication of where policy changes are likely to take place. For instance, TVET and secondary education show a decline in student programme budget allocation. These two areas are priorities for government and have attracted high enrolments. Hence declining per capita student allocations while the absolute allocation has gone up. </p>
<p>Overall, Kenya’s emerging emphasis on secondary education and TVET training through enhanced spending is a good way to go. But a long-term funding sustainability strategy is needed to ensure the country makes strong strides on the proportion of the population with tertiary education – <a href="http://www.factfish.com/statistic-country/kenya/population+with+tertiary+education,+ages+15+and+above,+total">now below 10%</a>. To be an industry-driven middle income country, which Kenya aspires to be by 2030, the proportion of the population with tertiary education should be in the neighbourhood of 50%.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the quality assurance and standards related activities seem to be dropping off the radar. This does not bode well for the quality of education and training, much as there may be other available mechanisms to support such activities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119393/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Moses Ngware does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>At the current rate, technical and vocational education and training will overtake the university budget in the next five to 10 yearsMoses Ngware, Senior Research Scientist, African Population and Health Research CenterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1127172019-03-11T14:21:20Z2019-03-11T14:21:20ZNigeria’s universities are performing poorly. What can be done about it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261869/original/file-20190304-110107-162s7z1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In one year alone 380,000 domestic applicants didn't get a university place in Nigeria.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Why are Nigeria’s universities in such a sorry state? Some would say it had to do with just one word: money. Sadly this is part of the reason. But not entirely. </p>
<p>Nigeria’s universities have been under-funded for <a href="https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/files/neu:cj82pz897/fulltext.pdf">decades</a>. Like a talented but under-achieving football team, fail to achieve goals because the country hasn’t invested enough in their structure, their facilities and their people.</p>
<p>Higher education in Nigeria includes universities (federal, state and private) as well as polytechnics (skills-intensive and experiential learning programmes) and colleges of education. With over 160 universities, 128 polytechnics and 177 colleges of education, it constitutes the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273699592_Higher_Education_in_Nigeria_and_the_Emergence_of_Private_Universities">largest higher education system</a> in Africa. </p>
<p>My colleague Professor Val Ekechukwu, the Dean of Engineering at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and I did a <a href="https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2019/02/03/are-nigerias-universities-hitting-enough-goals/">review</a> of Nigeria’s top 12 universities to assess their academic output. This review was undertaken as part of a comparative assessment of Nigerian universities to other emerging global economies (Brazil, Turkey and Thailand). The review hasn’t been published in an academic journal but its contents have been made available to readers interested in the development of tertiary education in Nigeria <a href="https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2019/02/03/are-nigerias-universities-hitting-enough-goals/">via news outlets</a>.</p>
<p>We found that the country’s universities lag well behind equivalent emerging global economies like South Africa, Egypt, Thailand, Turkey and Brazil. They also lag behind traditional world leaders. </p>
<p>We sourced the data for our paper from <a href="https://www.scival.com/">SciVal</a>. This tracks the research performance of over 10,400 research institutions from 230 countries. </p>
<h2>The problems</h2>
<p>Decades of under-funding in universities has had dramatic consequences. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Nigeria’s university system isn’t big enough. The country’s <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ni.html">population</a> is now pushing towards 200 million, over 60% of which is under the age of 25 years. Demand for university places vastly exceeds current capacity. In 2017, 380,000 domestic university applicants didn’t get a <a href="https://thepienews.com/analysis/two-million-applicants-for-750k-places-nigerias-bid-to-tackle-its-capacity-issue/">university place</a>.</p></li>
<li><p>Nigerian universities lack prestige. According to the 2019 Times Higher Education world university rankings, <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/best-universities/best-universities-africa">Nigeria has two</a> universities in the world’s top thousand – Covenant University and the University of Ibadan. This compares to nine from South Africa – out of a total of <a href="https://www.usaf.ac.za/public-universities-in-south-africa/">26 in total</a> – and 11 from Egypt.</p></li>
<li><p>Universities under-perform on research. According to our research, Nigeria’s universities produce only 44% of the “scholarly output” of South Africa and 32% of Egypt. This is despite the fact that Nigeria has nearly four times more universities than Egypt and over six times more than South Africa.</p></li>
<li><p>The higher education sector loses local talent and fails to replace it. According to <a href="http://uis.unesco.org/en/uis-student-flow">UNESCO data</a>, over 60,000 of Nigeria’s brightest students – equivalent to 375 students for each of our 160 universities – choose to study abroad. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with this. The trouble in Nigeria’s case is that it fails to attract the equivalent in foreign students. It becomes a “brain drain” rather than the “brain exchange” it could be.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>And yet, the education budget in Nigeria has seen <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/04/education-free-fall/">little or no change</a> over the last few years, and government funding of education remains low. In 2018, it was just over 7% of the national budget. This level of funding, as a percentage of the total budget, has remained stagnant since 2009 when it was 7.25%. </p>
<p>A widely-used international indicator to measure the level of investment in research is the Gross Domestic Expenditure on Research and Development. It’s measured as a percentage of the total economic activity in a country or Gross Domestic Product.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/gb.xpd.rsdv.gd.zs">world average</a> is a healthy 1.77%. But African countries lag behind. In South Africa it is <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS?locations=ZA">0.76%</a> and in Egypt it’s <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS?locations=EG">0.4%</a>. </p>
<p>Nigeria trails behind even its African equivalents at <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS?locations=NG">0.2%</a>.</p>
<h2>How to fix the problem</h2>
<p>Nigeria is Africa’s biggest economy and most populous country. Why then, when it comes to university education, does it behave more like a backwater than the mainstream it should be? What can be done? </p>
<p>We would argue that improving the outcomes of Nigeria’s universities requires investment, powered by a national strategic vision and matched with good governance.</p>
<p>The Nigerian University Commission has <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/238940-number-nigerian-universities-may-double-nuc-considers-200-new-private-university-applications.html">indicated</a> that it intends to increase university capacity by supporting the creation of new private universities. But indications show that the commission hasn’t focused on the level of scholarly output. Quantity is of limited use unless accompanied by quality.</p>
<p>Offering joint faculties or schools between foreign and local institutions would be another way of bringing investment into Nigerian universities. The foreign investment model has led to significant improvements in the quality of education in other countries, for example in <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322222847_Education_and_Economic_Growth_A_Case_Study_in_Malaysia">Malaysia</a>. </p>
<p>But turning to the international market for investment would require significant policy and governance changes within the Nigerian University Commission.</p>
<p>To improve university research activity, the proposed establishment of the National Research and Innovation Foundation as detailed in the <a href="http://workspace.unpan.org/sites/internet/Documents/UNPAN048879.pdf">Science, Technology and Innovation Policy of 2011</a>, is now urgently required. An established research and innovation foundation could have responsibility to fund research and development across all subject areas, and monitor its quality.</p>
<p>It’s vital that the strategic vision of the foundation is aligned with the economic objectives of the country. This will ensure the development of strong research in subjects critical to the economy.</p>
<p>Of course, decades of neglect will not be remedied in a year. There are competing demands for government funds, such as in areas from transport infrastructure to health. But there must be a strong political will to improve universities year on year, and make education a long-term priority.</p>
<p>Nigeria has just voted for a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/26/muhammadu-buhari-to-claim-victory-in-nigerias-presidential-election">new government</a>. Let us hope the new government has a vision for Nigeria’s tertiary education – a vision that will give a youthful, vibrant Nigeria the universities it deserves.</p>
<p><em>Professor Val Ekechukwu, the Dean of Engineering at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, contributed to the research.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112717/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Mba does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nigeria’s higher education system is the biggest on the continent but it lags behind on research output.David Mba, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Computing, Engineering and Media, De Montfort UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.