{"id":47101,"date":"2019-03-06T11:45:15","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T19:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=47101"},"modified":"2019-03-06T11:45:15","modified_gmt":"2019-03-06T19:45:15","slug":"australia-should-start-planning-for-universal-tertiary-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/australia-should-start-planning-for-universal-tertiary-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia should start planning for universal tertiary education"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nAustralia is often characterised as having a\u00a0mass higher education system<\/a>. In fact, it could be called near-universal. According to the\u00a02016 Census<\/a>, 56% of Australians aged 15 years and over \u2013 9.6 million people \u2013 hold a post-school qualification, up from 46% in 2006.<\/p>\n

Universal education does not mean every Australian should attain a higher education or tertiary qualification. It means every Australian should be given the opportunity to get one if they want.<\/p>\n

The distinction between \u201cmass\u201d and \u201cuniversal\u201d is not just an academic one. Viewing higher and tertiary education as universal could help an incoming government better design policy. All Australians need to be prepared for, informed about and able to make a choice that is right for them about whether or not to pursue post-school education.<\/p>\n

Needs-based funding of schools<\/strong><\/h4>\n

If the government could do one thing to improve post-school education outcomes, it needs to happen in our primary and high schools. Prior academic achievement is one of the\u00a0main predictors<\/a>\u00a0of higher education aspiration and success. In\u00a0some studies<\/a>\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0the<\/em>\u00a0main factor.<\/p>\n

Needs-based funding<\/a>\u00a0puts more money into education. In particular, it puts more money into the schools and students who need it most.<\/p>\n

The Gillard-led Labor government recognised the importance of this approach by adopting a\u00a0needs-based school funding model<\/a>. The Turnbull-led Coalition government reaffirmed this commitment, with the specific aim of helping under-achieving students\u00a0focus on improvement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This coming election, look closely at what positions the Coalition and Labor take on needs-based school funding. Both have signed up in principle, but there should be a clear commitment on how much extra money will be provided. This is not the same as simply spending more money to maintain standards in an ever-expanding system.<\/p>\n

There also needs to be a clear explanation of how that money will be spread around, to ensure those furthest behind get the resources they need to catch up.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not university\u00a0or<\/em>\u00a0TAFE<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Too many Australians \u2013 and successive governments \u2013 think in terms of students having to make a choice between university or vocational studies or neither. Tertiary education policy shouldn\u2019t be seen this way.<\/p>\n

For many people, the false trichotomy of degree-or-trade-or-job is locked in way too early by social and family expectations, and curriculum choices. Greater flexibility in how lifelong education is understood and explained (in terms of pathways and options) needs to be developed at the policy level.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t about merging the vocational and higher education sectors. That is neither necessary nor desirable. All tertiary education providers play a part in delivering lifelong education opportunities.<\/p>\n

What is needed is more cooperation between state and federal governments. They need to be able to coordinate on how these various organisations will be funded and how students will be financially supported.<\/p>\n

In many cases, there are fewer financial barriers to doing a university degree than a vocational course. This can lead some students to make a choice that seems right for them, but over the long term doesn\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n

The good news is all the pieces are there \u2013 even if they don\u2019t quite fit together yet. The Coalition government has made great strides in how students can access loans for vocational courses. But the\u00a0VET fee cap<\/a>means some vocational courses still result in the student having to cover the excess up front, which is not the case for higher education degrees.<\/p>\n

For example, an Australian student studying a Diploma of Business in 2019 would have a loan cap of just over A$5,000. They would have to cover the rest of the cost of the course. Depending on the provider, this could be several thousand more.<\/p>\n

If the same student chose to study a Bachelor of Business at a university, they would have access to a loan for the full amount, which would be more than A$30,000 for the entire degree.<\/p>\n

Against this, students can be more sure they\u2019re getting what they pay for from universities than from vocational education providers. The\u00a0Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency<\/a>\u00a0is responsible for the registration and quality oversight of all higher education providers, public and private.<\/p>\n

The vocational training sector could benefit from a similarly national and coordinated approach to quality assurance. Given there are more than 5,000 vocational providers, a more realistic approach might be to provide a similar oversight (or even expand TEQSA) to cover all courses offered by the public TAFES, to begin with.<\/p>\n

Whoever forms the next government needs to finish the job of creating a more unified structure of financial support and pathway information. It should allow students to think first and foremost about what skills and knowledge are right for them and not about what the institution they\u2019re going to or the degree they\u2019re going to do is called.<\/p>\n

Making Australian higher education look more like, well, Australia<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The foundation of the Australian higher education system is built on two broad principles. The first is that they exist for the betterment of the nation. The second is that the doors of universities and other higher education institutions are open to everyone. This is actually written into the\u00a0founding acts<\/a>\u00a0of our oldest universities.<\/p>\n

The journey towards realising the second principle has been long, rocky and as yet uncompleted. Too many groups of students still remain under-represented. These include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people with disability, those living in regional areas and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.<\/p>\n

Progress has been made and much of the big policy picture has been painted. In particular,\u00a0more institutions have been created<\/a>\u00a0to better meet demand, a\u00a0demand-driven<\/a>\u00a0system of funding has been introduced so there is federal funding for each student place, and an\u00a0income-contingent loan scheme<\/a>\u00a0has been provided to remove many of the upfront financial barriers to accessing university.<\/p>\n

But finishing the picture requires a final push. Committing to a sustainable, needs-based funding of school education and harmonising the support structure for vocational and higher education would go a long way towards achieving this goal. It may be enough, but if not there is another thing that would work \u2013 quotas.<\/p>\n

Quotas are contentious, as recent political debate shows. It\u2019s likely the concern would be raised that quotas would ignore the very different institutional profiles that are in play. For example, a regionally based university is going to find it easier to recruit regional students than one in a CBD.<\/p>\n

One solution would be to apply the quota at the sector level, rather than the institutional level. The government could then enforce the quotas in a number of ways. It could use performance-based funding to reward the universities doing the heavy lifting. Or it could allow the universities to virtually trade between themselves.<\/p>\n

For example, a university with a below-average enrolment of regional students could \u201cpurchase\u201d the excess from a university with an above-average enrolment. The students would not actually move institution, but the money would. This would mean the university with the extra enrolments would receive additional financial support to help with the costs associated with supporting these students.<\/p>\n

Author Bio: <\/strong>Tim Pitman is a Senior Research Fellow at Curtin University<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia is often characterised as having a\u00a0mass higher education system. In fact, it could be called near-universal. According to the\u00a02016 Census, 56% of Australians aged 15 years and over \u2013 9.6 million people \u2013 hold a post-school qualification, up from 46% in 2006. Universal education does not mean every Australian should attain a higher education […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":47102,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[295156],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-47101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-universal-tertiary-education"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAustralia should start planning for universal tertiary education - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/australia-should-start-planning-for-universal-tertiary-education\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Australia should start planning for universal tertiary education - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Australia is often characterised as having a\u00a0mass higher education system. 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