Shorten gives university funding guarantee

Labor aims to increase the number of students completing university by 20,000 a year under its higher education policy.

While Labor’s student funding guarantee would cost the budget $3.9bn if done in isolation, the amount would be reduced by abandoning associated Coalition spending measures such as the expansion of the demand-driven system to sub-bachelor degrees and private colleges.

“We can not afford a deficit of ambition for higher education”, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten told an audience at his alma mater Monash University, where he released details of the policy.

Government policy, yet to get through the Senate, would force universities to increase fees to make up the funding shortfall.

‘Well-funded universities and TAFE are central to the jobs and the economy of the future, ‘ Mr Shorten said.

Arguing that increased education is vital to Australia’s economic transformation, Mr Shorten will say that under the plan undergraduate funding will be increased, so by 2018 funding will be $2500 more a year per student than it would be if the Coalition stays in office.

Robinson said policy stability and adequate funding were “critical for universities to deliver the quality of education expected by students, employers and the broader community”.

In the end, then-Education Minister Christopher Pyne stripped the bill back just to deregulate fees but abandoned plans to present it to Parliament for a third time because the Senate crossbench was not interested.

The chief executive of Universities Australia, Belinda Robinson, said she was pleased the opposition had revealed its policy on higher education so long before the election due in 2016.

“And to ensure the value of this investment is protected over time, not eroded, Labor will ensure it is indexed and sustainable into the future”. And with additional funding, comes a greater expectation on our universities.

It followed a study that showed a rising number of students are leaving university with a HECS debt but no degree.

“Our cabinet will examine the challenges that we face, the policies that we have”.

“A new Labor Government will work with our universities to improve the quality of your education”.

“If there is criminality found by this royal commission, that is a matter which needs to be looked at, but I don’t accept that everything that this royal commission is doing was started with the best of motivations, nor do I believe that this process has been entirely fair”, he said.

When asked about the government’s own policies, Birmingham indicated he would try to reach out to stakeholder groups, build consensus and “take people with us”.