E&OE
SALLY SARA: Australians could face a tougher battle getting accepted into Australia’s top institutions. It comes as the federal government transitions the sector towards what is known as a managed growth model. Several universities have already begun cutting places for domestic Commonwealth supported students, with some in the sector warning the change could have drastic consequences for tertiary education in Australia. Luke Sheehy is the Chief Executive Officer of ºÚÁÏÀÏ˾»ú and is my guest this morning. Luke, good morning.
LUKE SHEEHY: Good morning, Sally.
SALLY SARA: This term managed growth model, what does it mean?
LUKE SHEEHY: The system is transitioning to what we want to see as a growth system, so we can achieve the targets set out by the Australian government’s own aspirations in the Accord report, which is doubling the number of university students by 2050. What we want to see with a managed growth system is growth. We want to see growth in the number of university places right across the country because Australia needs a higher skilled workforce to compete globally into the future. We want to see more teachers, we want to see more nurses, healthcare workers, doctors and engineers to fill those jobs that Australia will need into the future. The managed growth system needs to deliver the growth that Australia needs.
SALLY SARA: And what is the balance there between domestic and foreign students that’s factored in?
LUKE SHEEHY: Australian universities’ core mission is to deliver for Australian students, and we have nearly a million students in the system today. By 2050, we’re hoping to see nearly 1.8 million students. We want to make sure that Australian universities have the adequate funding to deliver on their core mission for Australian students, but importantly, and over the last four decades, that has been complemented by our enrolling of international students – something that both sides of politics have encouraged us to do since the 1980s. We want to get the balance right, but we also want to make sure we’ve got adequate and sustainable funding to have a pipeline of Australian graduates coming through our system into the future to deliver for Australia.
SALLY SARA: Luke, what are the concerns right now about the places for domestic Commonwealth supported students?
LUKE SHEEHY: We want to make sure that each and every student in Australia that has the talent and capacity and ability can get a place at university, and that we don’t jeopardise the ability for those students to get the education they need and want, and that our country so desperately needs and wants. What we want to see in future legislation is that there is a turbocharging of growth now and into the future so we can deliver on that aspiration of doubling the size of university places by 2050. This isn’t a university objective. This is an Australian government objective of 80 per cent of working age Australians in a post-secondary education environment. That means university graduates, and TAFE and apprenticeships, more of them so Australia can have the skilled workforce into the future. Future legislation that’s coming into the Parliament needs to demonstrate that the growth is there, the growth in funding is there and that our universities will be put on a sustainable footing so they can deliver on that aspiration.
SALLY SARA: Luke, what are the completion rates like at the moment for uni students undertaking courses at Australian unis now?
LUKE SHEEHY: It does vary depending on discipline and circumstance, but what we want to make sure is that universities have the right supports, the right community engagement so all students can succeed at university. Certainly, the more diverse and the more students from underrepresented backgrounds and the more equity students we put into the system, the more wraparound support services they need to succeed. We want to make sure that we work with government to get those support services for all students. If we want to have high participation at university, high participation in tertiary education in our country, we need to make sure that we support students to get into university but also get through university. Many students come to university later in life. Increasingly fewer and fewer come from high school and straight into university, and they come with different circumstances. We want to make sure that they’re supported to finish university and then get those skills and qualifications to participate in the Australian economy.
SALLY SARA: So just returning to the question, what are the completion rates at the moment?
LUKE SHEEHY: It does vary and I don’t have all of them in front of me this morning, Sally, but I know that most university students that are supported properly can get through university in a decent time.
SALLY SARA: Just how critical is this moment for tertiary education in Australia? Are we facing a change or die situation?
LUKE SHEEHY: What we are still facing in this country is Scott Morrison era funding for our universities. The Job-ready Graduates Package is a failed policy. It slugs students in arts and humanities degrees more than $55,000 to get a degree and paradoxically rips nearly a billion dollars each and every year out of the system. It’s a failed policy, it’s not working and it needs to be replaced immediately so we can get on with the business of delivering world-class education to our students in Australia and make sure we don’t put those barriers up of thousands and thousands of dollars to get a degree. I remember years ago, the Labor Party campaigned against $100,000 degrees in this country. We’re more than halfway there, so we need to get rid of this failed Job-ready Graduates funding, make sure university remains affordable for Australians and that we support our institutions, which are not-for-profit, to deliver on their mission of delivering world-class education and research that benefits the country.
SALLY SARA: Luke, thanks so much for your time this morning.
LUKE SHEEHY: Good to be with you.
ENDS
