Australian Universities Still Aren’t Safe From Deregulation

Australian universities aren't in a great financial place. In 2013, Julia Gillard slashed $2.3 billion from universities to pay for her failed Gonski education reforms. Then in 2014, despite promising no cuts to education, the Abbott government announced plans to cut 20 percent of the government's contribution to all degrees.

the Australian Government spends well below the global average per student—falling behind even Slovenia and Iceland—and universities rely on international students to provide a tenuous level of revenue to stay afloat. In spite of these dire conditions universities give us heaps our bang for our buck. They're our third-largest export earner after iron ore and coal.

This week Simon Birmingham was announced as our new Minister for Education and Training. He replaces Christopher Pyne who infamously pushed for a higher education overhaul that included the deregulation of fees. This proposal was defeated twice in the senate, but Minister Birmingham voted in favour of these changes and has indicated that he'll continue to push for them.

If Pyne's plans are successful, universities would be allowed to set their own fees. Critics claim this will lead to an "Americanisation" of our education system; pricing students out of schools, and forcing them to take out non-government loans with real interest rates.

So what will happens now? Are cash-strapped students out of the woods? To find out we called Gwilym Croucher a policy analyst and researcher of higher education at the University of Melbourne.

VICE: Hi Gwilym. The new Minister for Education and Training, Simon Birmingham, previously voted for deregulation, but said he wasn't "wedded" to the idea this week. Do you think this will surface as an issue again?

Gwilyn Croucher: The government is trying to solve a budget with massive structural problems. Higher education is one area where they're going to cut funding, so they may go ahead with deregulation and might have some ideological commitment to it. But if they're going to be a pragmatic government, they're going to look at other answers. Maybe Birmingham is a signal they'll pause on deregulating the sector. But there's no indication from the crossbench that they're going to change their view simply because the Liberal Party's changed leaders. That doesn't sound encouraging. Is there still a case to be made for university deregulation in Australia?
There are big problems that Australian higher education is going to face pretty soon. The biggest has to do with its increasing cost and a question about where the money's coming from. At present universities really rely heavily on international student fees, so if anything happens to that market, a lot of universities—and probably most in this country—will need a serious rethink. Universities are notoriously underfunded and the Group of Eight previously backflipped on their support for university deregulation. Do you think they'll maintain that stance now?
I think a lot of university vice-chancellors and peak bodies reluctantly agreed to it because they felt they couldn't trust both major parties. In the last few years their budgets were cut without warning from Gillard and Abbott. So it was more a case of self-preservation?
What universities really want is stability, they want to be able to plan. You can't change the budget every year on a dime, with thousands of employees around the country and tens of thousands of students. So a lot of vice chancellors saw deregulation as a way to have some control over their money so that they could offer students quality education. It seems that when these debates happen, students are left out of the conversation. What is the best way to have an impact?
I mean they should really do some research on what course they want to do and where they're going to do the course. Do you try a new career out or do you want a more generalist degree? I think the best thing you can do is to think carefully about what you want to enrol in, because that is ultimately determining what universities are providing. And also just keep the public debate going. The Minster was contacted but failed to provide a comment before deadline. Follow Alan on Twitter. Like this article? Like VICE on Facebook