DAVID LIPSON:
Let’s now go to an interview that I recorded a little earlier with Belinda Robinson, who is the head of Universities Australia and represents the university sector across Australia. All but one of those universities supported the Government in its attempt to have fee de-regulation pass through the Senate. Of course, it failed last night. Let’s take a look.
BELINDA ROBINSON:
Look, I think one of the really important things to have emerged from the past 12 months when these reforms have been discussed has been a general acknowledgement by almost all parliamentarians and the public that there really is an issue here. That there is an issue that needs to be addressed around the long-term sustainable funding of universities and research. And so the defeat of the bill, I think, has created a terrific opportunity for all parliamentarians now to participate in a more comprehensive and inclusive process for having a look at what all the options might be for resolving this issue and discussing and consulting with students and with the public on what a long-term, durable solution might be.
DAVID LIPSON:
When are we going to start to see that issue, as you describe it, manifesting in terms of the quality of tertiary education – lecture sizes, and tutorial classroom sizes, and the like? Will we start to see that immediately from universities as they seek to find a different path forward, or are they still holding their breath hoping for something from government?
BELINDA ROBINSON:
Well, look, I think we’re on a continuum here. We have seen a decline in per-student funding over the past decades, and in response to that we have seen classes getting bigger, we’ve seen more casualisation of employment, and we’ve seen a reduction in resourcing for student services and so on. So I think what we can reasonably expect if there is no change is for that trend to continue. Classes getting bigger, employment becoming more casual, courses that don’t pay their way – campuses that don’t pay their way potentially being closed, student services being wound back. These are the sorts of difficult decisions that universities are having to make when they’re under financial pressure.
DAVID LIPSON:
So what should the Government do now, because it’s failed twice. It says it’s going to persist but it keeps hitting this brick wall in the Senate. Should there be a new path looked at, a new strategy?
BELINDA ROBINSON:
Well, last night I think it was telling and interesting to see that the Government had announced that it did intend not only to pursue higher education reform but in fact to adopt a new approach to how that reform might be, and so I think it is really important that we do have an open process and I think it’s really important now that we have de-linked higher education reform from the Budget because of course when you’ve got a reform of this magnitude tied to the Budget, you’re constrained by confidentiality rules around budget.
And quite honestly, confidentiality is not what you want when you’re seeking to bring the community into your confidence, when you’re wanting to open up the process, when you’re wanting to consult, when you’re wanting to hear new ideas, to explore new ideas. You actually want a process that is open, that’s transparent, that’s inclusive and consultative, and so I think that’s what we need to do and I think that task starts today.
The other thing that I would say, too, is that we need to make sure that we don’t poison the well for having a third shot at this through further arbitrary cuts that may be being considered in the next Budget.
DAVID LIPSON:
So no further cuts. What about the several billion dollars that is still sort of looming in funding cuts for universities that was de-linked from de-regulation just this week?
BELINDA ROBINSON:
Well, the Government, as you quite rightly point out, has de-linked those two bills and those cuts they have said that they will deal with at some future time. What they mean by that, I guess, is still unclear and what the university sector would be advocating and suggesting is now is not the time to be progressing those cuts or to be seeking offsets from, say, research projects – programs – or in fact any other higher education program. We need some stability now and we need a genuine process that looks at all options in the interest of us really coming to some durable, long-term solution to this issue that is now very well-recognised across the board.
DAVID LIPSON:
That’s Belinda Robinson there, from Universities Australia.
END
