Labor’s promise to spend $1.1 billion on higher education if it wins government offers a substantial boost to a critical sector battered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of the money would fund an extra 20,000 university places above the number the government has already subsidised to start next year and the year after.
Labor would also offer an extra 465,000 TAFE courses for free to target the hospitality and tourism sectors,which have been hit particularly hard during lockdowns. Free courses will also be offered to address future skills gaps in the construction,resources,digital and manufacturing industries. Greater investment in training more domestic students will help reduce the reliance on importing workers from overseas.
Universities have welcomed news of extra funding for courses,but the system in which Labor promises to invest is far from perfect. Along with its financial commitment,Labor should also consider more fundamental reform including a major restructure of higher education funding.
Funding for extra courses will help address a projected shortage in places for children born under the Howard government’s baby bonus scheme,introduced in the early 2000s. By 2025,40,000 more people are expected to reach university age every year and 60,000 more by 2030. Australian National University higher education researcher Andrew Norton has if the system fails to adapt.
Research from the University of Melbourne’s Centre for the Study of Higher Education has also suggested that the Coalition government’s Jobs Ready funding arrangements for domestic students,who now pay more for arts degrees and less for nursing courses,will leave universities $1.1 billion short of the money they need to pay for the extra 54,000 student places that the federal government promised by 2024.
But,as the Australian Industry Group notes,developing the right skills for our post-pandemic economy will take years. It wants more immediate solutions to address skill shortages including reskilling and upskilling existing workers.
The federal government,and the sector,also need to consider whether universities have the resources to continue doing research across a broad range of areas or whether some institutions would be better served by specialising in a smaller number of courses. Limited research funding has been spread too thinly across all the fields a university covers.
Universities get government funding for teaching and research,but neither are financed at their full cost. This means that universities have to cross-subsidise research from teaching,which has now exposed their over-reliance on international student income.
Before Professor Glyn Davis left his role as vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne in 2018,he replaced 96 undergraduate degrees with just six. He has long argued that universities need to specialise in a smaller number of courses instead of trying to offer a full range of courses from law,medicine,arts,science,nursing,teaching and engineering. This argument can be harder to make in regional areas where students have fewer choices of universities.
Reforming TAFE funding is also necessary,but it is a more complex task because the vocational training system is controlled by the states.
All political parties have recognised the need to lift the status of vocational training,so that it is no longer considered a poor second option to a university degree. Indeed,more needs to be done to promote the benefits of gaining a trade qualification,including the high salary it can provide,so that more school-leavers consider skills training as their first option.
The former head of TAFE NSW Steffen Faurby was working with universities in a bid to create new pathways for school-leavers that would allow them to mix vocational training with university subjects as part of one qualification. comes after a tense relationship with Skills and Tertiary Education Minister Geoff Lee and as Premier Dominic Perrottet considers a cabinet reshuffle.
As Mr Faurby told his staff on Friday,“TAFE NSW is a tough gig.” He was appointed early last year after TAFE NSW merged 10 separate TAFE institutes into one which The review was also scathing in its criticism of political interference in TAFE management and of TAFE’s conflicting social and commercial roles. The NSW government needs to take responsibility for these failings and ensure taxpayer resources are used more effectively to train more students in the future.
Federal and state governments need to work together to address looming skills shortages. Our economic recovery depends on it.
TheHeraldeditor writes a weekly newsletter exclusively for subscribers. To have it delivered to your inbox,