Federal Government to bleed students

by Peter Mac

If you thought that buying a house was expensive in Australia, wait till 
you see what's in store for our university students! Under the "market 
rates" university fee system which the Federal Government is currently 
considering, the cost of a university course could rise to $140,000 for 
certain courses.

According to the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee (AVCC), it would 
also result in the closure of some universities where there were 
insufficient numbers of students who were able to pay full fees.

The remainder would split between those that were rich and provided 
excellent education, and those that provided a second class education 
commensurate with their meagre finances.

The proposal, which includes a voucher system, also opens up the prospect 
of the domination of tertiary education by private universities, as in the 
United States.

If initiated, the scheme would spell the end of many courses which did not 
necessarily contribute directly to a lucrative career path, such as those 
dealing with the humanities.

The "market rates" proposal was included in a document leaked by the ALP's 
education spokesperson, Michael Lee.

It details how from the year 2002 the scheme would replace the already 
heavy cost burden (for students) of the Higher Education Contribution 
Scheme (HECS) introduced by the Keating Labor Government.

Under the new scheme, students would be issued with a voucher of a 
specified value from the Government which would cover part of the cost of 
the course. They would then have to "shop around" universities offering the 
course they wanted, and would finally have to apply for a loan at market 
rates to cover the difference.

Government funding would be attached to the student (through the voucher) 
and could be used at any university — public or private.

The vouchers could be used at any university, public or private, blurring 
the boundaries between public and private.

The role of the Government would therefore change from a provider of higher 
education to a subsidiser of education services.

The proposed deregulation of fees and shift towards full cost-recovery by 
universities would constitute a big step towards the complete privatisation 
of the university system.

The document also reveals that the Minister for Education, Dr Kemp, 
proposed to force university staff to accept workplace reform (i.e. 
attempting to break unionisation and introduce individual work contracts) 
by witholding a total of $347 million of university funding over a four-
year period.

The document notes that: "... in introducing fee deregulation from 2002, 
the risk is that the institutions will pass on the costs of inefficiencies 
and unfunded salary increases in higher fees if workplace reform is left 
until after fees have been deregulated."

In modern society, a tertiary education is becoming for many people a basic 
need, like food, clothing or shelter — and the cost burden involved in 
getting a degree is indeed beginning to resemble that involved in buying a 
house.

ALP education spokesperson Michael Lee commented that the new fee system 
would force young people to choose between having a home or studying at 
university.

The National Union of Students (NUS) responded last week that if the market 
fee scheme was introduced it would constitute a declaration of war on 
students.

The NSW President of NUS, Amanda Tunstall, remarked that "only rich kids 
will be able to study at top universities. ... these proposals put a 
mortgage over the life of a student just for studying at university."

ALP leader Kim Beazley commented that the new scheme would destroy 
Australia's future, strike deep into the bush and be particularly hard on 
women who break from the workforce to raise children and still have a debt 
to pay off.

The Council of Australian Postgraduates Associations said the proposed 
scheme would increase the rate of drop-outs from universities, would limit 
the range of choices and number of places for postgraduate study, and would 
lead to some areas of postgraduate research being abandoned.

The Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AVCC) said that funded 
postgraduate research had already declined by 19,790 places since 1976. 

Apart from the gross injustice involved in imposing a huge cost burden on 
the less wealthy members of the community for an education "service" that 
was not so long ago free of all charges, there are other issues at stake. 
Not the least of these is the issue of national development.

Playright George Bernard Shaw once pointed out how Britain had suffered 
considerable disadvantage in terms of its national development because it 
drew mainly on the wealthiest 15 percent of the population for its 
intellectual talent, whereas the potential talent was distributed evenly 
throughout all the socio-economic classes.

Since the introduction of HECS fees, Australia has come to increasingly 
resemble the Britain of Shaw's era. The AVCC commented: "Changes like this 
mean that the standard of education drops ... and hence our standing in the 
world."

The introduction of "market rates" fees would complete the picture, which 
Democrats Higher Education spokesperson Senator Natasha Stott Despoja 
described as "returning to an antiquated system of education that locks out 
the poor ... an elite education system based on wealth."

As for claims by the Coalition that they have dumped Kemp's plans to 
abolish HECS and deregulate university fees, they are just as solid as the 
promise prior to the elections that there were no such plans.

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