Tough targets, radical reforms and an eye-watering price tag were delivered in Australia’s most significant review of higher education of recent years. The most controversial recommendation of the independent Bradley review is for a ‘voucher’ system of funding as part of the deregulation of the sector.
Under the proposals, all suitably qualified Australians would be given “learning entitlements”. These would allow more people greater scope to choose where and what they study. Under the scheme, funding would follow the student rather than being allocated to institutions.
Large universities, however, expressed concerns that students would flock to a tiny number of prestigious institutions and to the most popular courses. Angus McFarland, president of the National Union of Students, shared the unease. He suggested that there could be a “massive increase” in some courses at the expense of others, resulting in, say, too many lawyers and not enough teachers.
Among other proposals in the review, which was led by Denise Bradley, the former vice-chancellor of the University of South Australia, is an ambitious target to increase participation. The aim is for 40 percent of 25 to 34-year-olds to have at least a bachelor-level qualification by 2020 — a significant increase on the current level of 29 percent. This would deliver some 330,000 more skilled graduates, which the review says, are needed for Australia to remain competitive globally.
Prof. Bradley insists that her review’s recommendations are “not just about universities” but also about “absolutely critical economic and social issues for this country”. The review also assessed the provision of higher education in the regions and remote areas, which need “serious attention”. It recommends additional funding of A$ 80 million (Rs.256 crore) a year to improve provision in remote areas, and moots the idea of a new institution that would specialise in delivering higher education to remote regions.
Other proposed new bodies include a super-regulator for higher and vocational education, which the review suggests should be running by 2010, to oversee accreditation and quality assurance nationally. “A national system for accreditation of all higher education providers, both public and private, on a regular cycle is necessary to assure the quality of the deregulated system,” says the report.
On funding, it says there is “no case” for increasing students’ financial contribution through higher tuition fees, and calls for an overhaul of the student-support system. Teaching grants should be boosted by 10 percent in a bid to tackle high student-to-staff ratios and the increasing “casualisation” of the workforce, the report says, and an extra A$ 300 million a year should be found to increase research infrastructure grants.
Prof. Bradley is unequivocal about the importance of acting to shore up Australian higher education, which she says is falling behind its competitors. And she warns that, even if all the review’s 46 recommendations are adopted, it will “do no more than maintain” Australia’s position and performance internationally.
(Excerpted and adapted from Times Higher Education)