Nelson's Recipe for Brain Drain

"Australia's Federal Education Minister seems to be striving for a solid, third rate, commercially driven higher education system for Australia," CAPA President Benjamin McKay said today. Mr McKay was commenting on information published today by the Sydney Morning Herald, detailing the government's plans for the future of the sector-a future that will see the autonomy of universities severely undermined.

The new funding scheme does not promise much immediate relief for the sector, which has had $5billion stripped from it under the current government. The new package will focus on quantity, not quality.

"Fee deregulation, high interest student loans, the loss of academics' right to strike, and a 'Big Brother' computer system ensuring students don't hold up the higher education queue, are to be compensated for by a few cheap baubles and beads," said a disappointed Mr McKay. "We welcome the suggestion of scholarships for disadvantaged students, and a new telescope for Mt Stromlo, but what we really need is a higher education system which rewards quality, not capacity to pay," Mr McKay continued.

The SMH article suggests that the package will include changes to research funding and the Postgraduate Education Loans Scheme (PELS), but, says Mr McKay, "when you look at what else the scheme includes-commercial interest rates for deregulated undergraduate fee-loans, and the extension of completion driven funding models to undergraduates, we're not holding out much hope."

"The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne was today quoted in The Age calling the Research Training Scheme (RTS-the completions-driven funding scheme for postgraduate research education) "perverse," "bizarre" and "a dogs breakfast." CAPA's been saying so for three years! If the new scheme is anything like the RTS, and it certainly looks to be, then we're hearing the last gasps of quality tertiary education in Australia. I want Dr Nelson to now explain to 155,272 postgraduates why we ought not start looking at moving abroad for a quality education."