It is a cliché, but in my ten years in the university sector, the only constant has been change. It seems that every new government, every new education minister wants to leave its own on the university sector. The current minister for education Christopher Pyne is no exception. He sees himself as a person of vision, reshaping the Australian educational landscape, with a number of reviews in place for all levels of education.
Two main points are emerging in relation to his vision for higher education. The first is the deregulation of the fee structure of student places. Universities currently in receipt of a certain level of government funding per student will be able to charge whatever they like over and above that amount. While the student may be able to cover this through a student loan facility (HECS/FEE-HELP), it would allow those universities with the best reputations (the so called Group of Eight) to charge more for their courses, up to what the market will bear.
This has given rise to the 'shock' headlines regarding $100,000 degrees. While this may happen in some areas (law, medicine, dentistry etc.) the Government argues that a more deregulated environment will ensure enough competition to keep prices down. However there is little evidence that this will be the case if the US experience is anything to go by.
The other major reform is to extend Commonwealth supported places to private providers, institutions which are currently non-government funded such as private business colleges and theological colleges. In order to fund this expansion of government funding to a broader market, the level of funding to the existing universities will be cut as part of the process of deregulating fees.
The big debate is over what level of funding these private colleges will attract. Will they receive exactly the same level of funding as the university sector, or will it be discounted, and if so, to what level? For the Government the funding of private colleges is consistent with its attempt to promote competition in the market place and hence keep fee levels down.
If this is not enough for the higher education sector to absorb, the Government is also pursuing a more aggressive approach to the question of research funding. Drawing on results from the ERA research audit, universities are being asked why the Government should provide research funding where a university is not achieving a certain level of research