TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING
MEMBER FOR SYDNEY
GRAHAM PERRETT MP
SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING
MEMBER FOR MORETON
SCOTT MORRISON’S UNIVERSITY CHANGES ARE TERRIBLE: EVERYONE
Students will pay more
“..the fee hikes would outweigh the falls and student fees would on average rise 7.3 per cent for new students next year.”
Professor Andrew Norton, Grattan Institute, The Australian 19 June 2020
"…some students will pay more than their degree costs.”
Dr Alison Barnes, President of the National Tertiary Education Union, ABC 19 June 2020
“A large financial burden is being shifted to these future workers who will fill important professional roles required by industry.”
Australian Industry Group, 19 June 2020
"The future labour force will be reliant on the human skills of communication, creativity and critical thinking, and this new funding model has the potential to drive students away from these fields."
Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and the Humanities, Australian Financial Review,19 June 2020
Young people will miss out on university
“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[ir] cap) whether there will be enough funded university places for school leavers whose plans have been displaced by the pandemic.”
Peter Hurley, Education Policy Fellow, Mitchell Institute, The Conversation, 19 June 2020
“…the class of 2020 is facing a "perfect storm of reduced pathways into the workforce … A cap on university funding, an underperforming VET sector, and a weak employment market mean there will be a pinching in the number of available pathways. With nowhere to go, these students will end up in the ‘not in employment education and training’ category.”
Peter Hurley, Education Policy Fellow, Mitchell Institute, Australian Financial Review, 15 June 2020
University funding will be cut
“We do project that the policy will see a 3 to 4 per cent revenue fall overall for UWA.”
Robert French, Chancellor of the University of Western Australia, former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, The Australian 23 June 2020
“It's reducing the contribution the students have to pay, but saying, 'by the way, we are not covering the shortfall' … The government will save about $770 million in base funding. Students are going to pay more than $470 million in new money. Therefore there is a shortfall [to universities] of $280-odd million.”
Professor Frank Larkins, University of Melbourne, The Age 23 June 2020
“The federal government framed its sweeping changes to university funding as a reprioritisation from arts to sciences to support the "jobs of the future". But the details tell a very different story. While the package punishes arts students, it also deprives universities of the resources they need to teach STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”
Dr Gareth Bryant, senior lecturer, University of Sydney, Sydney Morning Herald 22 June 2020
It won’t get people to do engineering, maths, science, nursing, teaching
“Higher education expert Andrew Norton said...there would be no observable impact in the medium-term.
"Course choices closely reflect student interests. You're not going to do something that will bore you for three years and bore you for another 40 simply because the course is cheaper.”
Andrew Norton, Grattan Institute, Sydney Morning Herald 20 June 2020
“...Australian National University economist Bruce Chapman...said students made study choices based on interests and earning potential, and the national system of income-contingent loans limited the impact of cost on those decisions.”
"There's no doubt that it blunts the effect. And that was kind of the plan. It was to have a system where the payments would not affect behaviour.”
Professor Bruce Chapman, architect of HECS, Sydney Morning Herald 20 June 2020
“My concern is that under these new arrangements, there is a greater incentive for universities to take in a higher number of law, commerce and humanities students than there is to take in students in engineering and maths…that appears to be contrary to the government’s policy intentions.”
Julie Bishop, Chancellor of the Australian National University, former Liberal Education Minister, The Australian 23 June 2020
“This policy is nothing short of a joke from start to finish.”
Professor Peter Van Onselen, The Australian, 20 June 2020
TUESDAY, 23 JUNE 2020
