Tonight’s Federal Budget speech from Treasurer Wayne Swan was one that focused on the importance of education to the national economy, but failed to address concerns that the Government’s current approach to higher education is one of quantity over quality, the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations has said.
“In tonight’s Federal Budget speech, Wayne Swan promised to deliver a stronger, smarter and fairer Australia, one which invests in education and training, in boosting productivity, protecting and creating jobs, and growing the economy – but he failed to reconcile these promises with the Budget’s cuts to the higher education sector, a sector that provides toward all of these objectives in spades,” said Meghan Hopper, President of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations.
“The Treasurer said tonight that the Labor Government’s approach is simple – jobs, and growth,” noted Ms Hopper.
“To the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations, there is one other fact that is very simple – you cannot achieve a smarter Australia and a world-class economy, without a world-class higher education system,” said Ms Hopper.
“While the Treasurer is quick to point to steady increases in funding to higher education over recent years, these increases have been directly tied to dramatic increases in student numbers – an extra 149,000 Commonwealth supported university student places in 2013 compared to 2007,” said Ms Hopper.
“Of course a greater quantity of students leads to a greater quantity of overall funding, but as the cuts to higher education in tonight’s budget illustrate, quantity is not the same thing as quality,” said Ms Hopper.
“Tonight’s Budget includes cuts of $2.3 billion to the higher education sector, including $276 million by removing discounts on upfront HELP payments; $900 million in “efficiency dividends”, which Vice Chancellors across Australia have warned will go straight to teaching and education quality; and close to $1.2 billion on converting the Student Start-up Scholarships into an income contingent loan program,” said Ms Hopper.
“The conversion of start-up scholarships into loans in particular will have a real impact on students deciding whether to undertake further tertiary study, including postgraduate study – a lot of students will be asking themselves whether it is really worth all of the extra debt,” said Ms Hopper.
“We’ve also had tax claims on education expenses capped at $2,000, something which disproportionately affects postgraduate and Higher Degree by Research students who are often required to up-skill or to undertake international travel as an integral part of their research,” Ms Hopper said.
“What these cuts result in is more students, receiving a lower quality of education, a lower quality student experience – and that’s not what higher education funding should be about,” said Ms Hopper.
“With the Government investing $9.8 billion toward the Gonski reforms over six years, what this effectively means is that a quarter of the funding toward primary and secondary education improvements, is coming from our already desperately under-funded higher education sector – literally robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said Ms Hopper.
“What this Budget fails to realise is that when you provide funding to generate world-class primary and secondary students, many of those students are going to inevitably expect to go on to a similarly world-class tertiary education – and that simply won’t exist if we continue to fund our higher education system at 24th place out of the world’s 29 developed economies,” said Ms Hopper.
“The Treasurer has told us tonight that building a smarter nation means building a skilled workforce and a strong, productive and resilient economy. You simply cannot achieve any of these goals without a strong higher education system,” said Ms Hopper.
Meghan B. Hopper, President
Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations
president@capa.edu.au
0421 807 303
