The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations has tonight welcomed the Government’s announcement of a further $96.7 million over five years toward Commonwealth Supported Places (CSP) for postgraduate and sub-bachelor courses, but has called on Universities and the Government to ensure that an even number of the University-negotiated places will go to postgraduate students.
“$96.7 million in further CSP funding toward postgraduate and sub-bachelor courses is a positive step, but the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations is concerned about the university-negotiated nature of the distribution of places,” said Meghan Hopper, President of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations.
“This Budget promise will result in 1,650 extra Commonwealth Supported Places each year from 2014 to 2017 within Government priority areas such as teaching and language courses, fields in which many are undertaking postgraduate study,” said Ms Hopper.
“However, it is up to Universities to individually negotiate the distribution of these places, and this leads to questions around how many of these places will find their way to postgraduate students,” Ms Hopper said.
“We are worried that there may be a tendency to overwhelmingly favour funding of sub-bachelor places as part of a move to encourage students into further undergraduate study, with the result being that the postgraduate spaces we have the potential to fund under these Budget increases, will be neglected,” said Ms Hopper.
Sub-Bachelor qualifications are courses which may lead to undergraduate studies, including Diplomas, Advanced Diplomas and Associate Degrees.
“Coursework postgraduate students were already left behind by the mid-year budget review announcements, which resulted in long-awaited support for living expenses being pushed back by several years,” said Ms Hopper.
“It is important that Universities ensure that negotiations result in an increase to postgraduate Commonwealth Supported Places, and that postgraduates do not get left behind again,” Ms Hopper said.
“This funding increase also fails to address the lack of parity in FEE-HELP funding which fails to adequately fund the full fee amount for postgraduate qualifications such as the Juris Doctor,” said Ms Hopper.
“One of the pressing concerns amongst the postgraduate coursework student population is that FEE-HELP does not fully cover the Juris Doctor, resulting in students having to make bulk payments at the conclusion of their studies,” Ms Hopper said.
“This poses very obvious equity concerns around the ability of students from low-SES backgrounds to undertake courses such as the Juris Doctor, something which the extra funding for postgraduate coursework places in the Budget fails to address,” said Ms Hopper.
Meghan B. Hopper, President
Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations
president@capa.edu.au
0421 807 303
