Ministerial Review of Higher Education (Higher Education at the Crossroads)

The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) welcomes the opportunity to contribute to Minister Nelson's review of the higher education sector. We value this opportunity for public consultation, and believe that this is integral to the review process. We submit the following response to the overview paper Higher Education at the Crossroads on behalf of all students enrolled in Australian postgraduate degrees.

CAPA is the national peak body representing Australia's 155,312 postgraduate students. It has affiliated postgraduate associations in 34 of Australia's public higher education institutions and in all States and Territories. Australian postgraduate students fall into two broad categories: postgraduate coursework students who number 116,913 and postgraduate research students who number 38,499. Coursework students undertake a set program of studies and are likely to be part-time, pay full fees, often deferred through the Postgraduate Education Loan Scheme (PELS), and have limited or no access to income support. The range of coursework awards extends from graduate certificate to professional doctorate. Research students undertake original research for a period of two years (Masters) and four years (PhD), are less likely to pay fees or HECS and can compete for a limited number of scholarships. Research places and scholarships are allocated competitively.

CAPA believes that the Australian higher education system should foster quality, equity and diversity in teaching and scholarship. For this reason, we feel considerable concern over some of the policy options raised in Crossroads. In particular, we are concerned by the prospect of further deregulation of higher education. Postgraduate coursework students have already experienced the effects of the deregulation of their degrees, reducing the quality, equity and diversity of postgraduate coursework education. The postgraduate coursework degree market now contains a plethora of degrees granting the same qualification despite varying standards of curricula, duration, and entry standards. Full up-front fees have been a barrier to economically disadvantaged students and the introduction of the Postgraduate Education Loan Scheme has resulted in universities raising fees further. For this reason, postgraduate coursework students have become increasingly concentrated in business, law and computer science degrees at the expense of the arts and basic sciences. Thus, CAPA views proposals for further deregulation with alarm.

CAPA is also concerned by the suggestion raised several times in Crossroads, that students from different backgrounds should not aspire to the same level or quality of higher education. The proposition that rural students in regional universities should only have access to a narrow breadth of study options of direct relevance to the regional economy, or that shorter degrees should be provided for students from equity groups are both fundamentally inequitable. CAPA views such suggestions as serving only to exacerbate the divide between rich and poor, and between the city and the bush.

Crossroads signals a fundamental shift in the relationship between government and the higher education sector. At the same time as it dismisses the need for any increase in public funding for higher education, Crossroads proposes a number of policies that would increase the influence of government on the institutional decisions made by universities. In Crossroads we see proposals that would dictate the breadth and depth of the courses that universities can teach, as well as the teaching methodologies to be used in these courses. Decisions on topics such as appropriate teaching methodology and delivery options have traditionally been made by academics within universities, not by government. Similarly, Crossroads suggests that the role of government is to purchase specific services, rather than to fund institutions. There is an inherent tension in this document between proposals to limit government's funding role for higher education, but to increase its capacity to overrule institutional autonomy.

In our submission, we address those consultative questions asked in Crossroads of most relevance to our postgraduate constituents, as well as providing additional information on areas of particular importance to postgraduate students. In the process, we have made some recommendations for improving the quality, equity and diversity of Australian higher education, but these by no means exhaust CAPA's ideas on how to improve our higher education system. There is simply not the room here to be exhaustive. However, the establishment of a properly consultative advisory body would provide an appropriate mechanism for CAPA and all other interested parties to continue contributing to the development of Australian higher education policy.

The complete submission is available in the PDF below: