Priority for education, a positive start

The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) welcomes the New Directions Paper for Australian education released by Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd and Shadow Minister for Education and Training, Stephen Smith.

The New Directions Paper confirms higher education not only as an important public good, but as a central means of economic and social development. "This view of higher education comes in marked contrast to an 'individualist' view which sees the sector propped up largely by international student fees and domestic students taking on huge amounts of personal debt," CAPA President Nigel Palmer said.

"We also support Labor's view of a higher education sector that is internationally competitive, and welcome their undertaking to consult broadly to meet these aims. On our view this is pretty simple really: proper resources to support universities to develop infrastructure, and support both quality in teaching and innovation in research. Most importantly this means giving students what they want - quality and equity in higher education."

"We don't need a revolution in higher education, we just need to fix the problems, many of which are already widely acknowledged. Making them a priority is a good start."