Equity

The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations is pleased to contribute to the Review of the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000. CAPA is the peak body representing Australia's 247,315 postgraduate students, including its 76,877 international postgraduates.

CAPA, the national peak body representing Australia's 247,315 postgraduate students, welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Senate's Inquiry into Lifelong Learning. Postgraduate study is an exceptionally important element of lifelong learning. It provides the opportunity for individuals to retrain should they need or want to change career paths, and the qualifications often necessary for progressing a career. Indeed, postgraduate qualifications are a prerequisite for entry into professions such as psychology and osteopathy.

CAPA's 2004 Policy on International Students identifies a number of issues of concern to CAPA's international student affiliates, including:

- the systemic discrimination of DIMIA's five tiered assessment system, including irrational language requirements imposed by the system;
- the cost of study visas and work permits in Australia, and postgraduation work opportunities, and
- the cost of public primary and secondary education for the dependants of international students.

This background paper provides basic information on these issues as well

This document is a revision of CAPA's 1997 Statement of Minimum Resources. Both the 1997 document, and this revision, reflect the belief stated in CAPA standing policy that "the provision of adequate levels of resources is vital to the effective delivery of postgraduate programs across all modes of study."

In 1990 DEET designated six equity groups, including students from rural and isolated areas, for targeted action to increase these students' access to tertiary education. The strategies, set out in the policy paper A Fair Chance for All, were focused heavily on improving distance education as a means of raising higher education participation for rural and isolated students.

Distance education increases access to postgraduate study for students who would not otherwise be able to attend a university campus. This briefing paper discusses the educational experience of external postgraduate students, describing the difficulties they may encounter due to their distance from the university and suggesting strategies for their support. The scope of this paper has been directed by CAPA Action Policy for 2003:

The introduction of the Research Training Scheme (RTS) has placed considerable pressure on Australian universities to improve the proportion of enrolled postgraduate research students who complete their degrees (completion rates), and to shorten the amount of time they take to do so (completion times). Universities have revised or introduced a variety of policies in order to encourage timely completions.

In the last 10 years, Federal Government funding to Australian Universities has been steadily decreasing. Concurrently, income from private sources has dramatically increased. Funding from fee-paying students has increased from 5 percent in 1992 to 12 percent in 1999 (AVCC, 2001) (Figure 1). As recently outlined by the Federal Minister for Education, Science and Training, Dr Brendan Nelson, in his Overview Paper, Higher Education at the Crossroads:

CAPA believes that the body responsible for allocation of APAs with stipend to institutions should ensure that scholarships are distributed to institutions in as equitable a manner as possible; institutions with a developing research profile are not disadvantaged in any formula driven allocation process awards are not tied to particular research grants or subject areas.

This paper lists various sources of information for data and studies on women in higher education. It is not exhaustive, but provides a basic survey of key documents, relevant statistics and reports, and the most useful government web sites.

The complete briefing paper is available in the PDF below: