E&OE

ADAM SHIRLEY: What is happening with our major universities? You could be forgiven for asking yourself yesterday. The University of Canberra announces hundreds of job cuts that are necessary, says Vice-Chancellor Professor Steven Parker, formally the head honcho and currently acting in that role. This comes hot on the heels of the hundreds of job cuts that are likely to happen at the Australian National University as well. So, where did it go wrong to this point that hundreds of people have to be let go, say the universities. We will get a view on that very soon…

…Luke Sheehy, CEO of Universities Australia, has joined breakfast this morning. Luke Sheehy, we really appreciate your time. I do wonder, can you forgive Canberra for wondering what has gone wrong with this region’s two top universities?

LUKE SHEEHY: Well, thanks for having me on, Adam. Universities right across Australia are in a difficult position. Many of our universities, like the two fine universities you have got in Canberra, are in a period of budget deficits and jobs are unfortunately going to be lost because we are dealing with what we have seen in federal funding arrangements as structural underfunding for our universities. We are doing more now with less and that is putting our universities and jobs at risk.

ADAM SHIRLEY: Is it wholly and solely that lack of funding from the feds that you point to, or could one say that there has been mismanagement at an executive level in recent years at the University of Canberra and the ANU?

LUKE SHEEHY: Look, I wouldn’t want to comment on what has actually happened at individual universities. I don’t work at those universities…

ADAM SHIRLEY: But do you have a view though? I mean is it possible that that is the issue?

LUKE SHEEHY: Representing universities across this country, what I can tell you is that we teach students from right across Australia and the world. For our domestic funding, we are getting nearly a billion dollars less than what we used to thanks to funding changes of the previous government that are continuing under this government. We want to see a better deal for universities so we can continue to deliver. Universities are under real pressure and that is real pressure because of funding deficits and now cuts to international students are causing even more pressure on universities. For 40 years, international education has been a great success story for Australian universities and the pressure is on now. Sixty-thousand fewer visas have been granted in the first six months of this year. We calculate that as a $4.3 billion hit to the economy and billions and billions of dollars of hits to universities. That’s also causing huge pressure on our system and it’s seeing job losses and other job losses down the pipeline and, frankly, I think any job lost in the university sector is a tragedy in Australia.

ADAM SHIRLEY: How much would you say you disagree with Labor’s proposed student caps on international students and the Opposition’s clear stance to also reduce international student numbers?

LUKE SHEEHY: Adam, I think it’s really important to remember that the damage to the university sector, particularly the international education sector, has already been done. Since the previous Home Affairs Minister put in place Ministerial Direction 107 in December last year, we have seen a sledgehammer taken to the international student sector in Australia. We have seen 60,000 fewer visas granted in the first six months of this year. As I said, this is a $4.3 billion hit to the economy. So, the issue of capping university places is a question for the parliament. We know they won’t vote on that now until November, but what I will say is the damage has already been done and continues to be done by this ministerial direction which effectively slows down visa processing to slow down the number of people coming into the country. It is a bad policy, and we want to see that gone and we also think that the caps will have a long-term economic impact on universities as well. So, it’s a fork in the road between two bad outcomes.

ADAM SHIRLEY: What can be done within these institutions with the current funding they do have? 

LUKE SHEEHY: What I think is we have to work closer with the government to make it clear that our universities, both in Canberra and across the country, are in a lot of pain. Last year alone, 25 of our 39 public universities were in structural deficit, were in budget deficit, so they had to get more money from their reserves to keep jobs going and keep world-class education and research going. That is not going to cut it. We need more structural and sustainable funding for our universities, and I am making that case with the politicians in the federal parliament every single day until we see a really positive outcome. One of the things that Minister Clare wants to do with Universities Accord report is double the number of Australians going to university by 2050, and frankly, Adam, we can’t do that as a sector if we are in bad financial shape. We want to see the finances of our universities stabilised so we can get on with the job of delivering education for Australians and of course international students. What we would also like to see is certainty, stability and growth in the international education sector so our fine universities can continue to deliver world-class education to students from over 140 countries.

ADAM SHIRLEY: If there is no change in the current funding plans and estimations for universities like UC and ANU, are job cuts inevitable?

LUKE SHEEHY: I don’t want to encourage any job cuts in our sector, but frankly the finances of our sector are in bad shape and we have got to make the case to the government that we need help to support our universities because if we continue down this path, we will not only see more job losses in higher education, but there will be a flow on impact. There will be fewer students being able to go to university or more crowded tutorials and lectures. There will be lower quality of education delivery because of that pressure. We don’t want to see that. Australia has a world-class university system, and it needs to be supported with world-class funding.

ADAM SHIRLEY: Luke Sheehy, we will leave it there for now. Thank you for your time today.

LUKE SHEEHY: Good to be with you, Adam.

ENDS

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