Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Universities have been starved of support

By Andrew Brennan and Jeff Malpas - posted Wednesday, 19 December 2007


The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) recent report, Education at a Glance, singles out Australia as the only developed country to reduce public spending on higher education in the ten years up until 2004, and shows that Australia devotes a lower proportion of GDP to the sector than the world average.

These statistics even managed to intrude upon an electoral campaign that was notable, in spite of Labor’s focus on education, for its lack of actual discussion of higher education: then Prime Minister John Howard lost his temper in a debate when his opponent, Kevin Rudd cited Australia’s lamentable standing in the report.

The OECD report documents the ways in which Australian universities have been increasingly starved of public support, becoming more reliant on student fees and other income - while at the same time having to support much higher numbers of students. There can be no doubt that the report provides a largely accurate picture of the state of higher education funding in this country. And Australia’s much-vaunted Higher Education Endowment Fund did little to improve the situation.

Advertisement

Indeed, the real situation is even more pessimistic than the OECD report suggests, largely because of increases in bureaucracy. The last 15 years has seen an enormous growth in government control and scrutiny of higher education, with a consequent rise in the proportion of university budgets given over to bureaucracy and administration. Most Australian universities now devote more than half of their income to non-academic costs. This diversion of funds into bureaucracy means funding directed to the core activities of teaching and research has declined even more significantly than the overall figures indicate.

The increase in bureaucracy confronts academics with constantly rising demands on their own time and energies to meet a range of reporting and assessment requirements. The RQF (Research Quality Framework) exercise provides a good example of the absurd ratio of costs to benefits. The scheme, which aims to provide a new framework for the annual distribution of about $600 million in research funding is estimated to cost each university alone about $10 million - and this for an exercise that almost all agree is seriously flawed.

For academics, the past decade or more has not just been a period of over-administration and under-funding, but of sustained attack by government on the independence and the value of academic work in general.

Examples abound: the then minister of education, Brendan Nelson's vetoing of ARC projects selected by peer review; the Howard government's rejection of social scientific research that does not conform with the government’s own ideological commitments or political interest (research on WorkChoices being a good case in point); the ridicule of research and teaching in the arts and humanities that does not conform with a certain conservative agenda.

There can be no “education revolution” that does not include a revolution in higher education.

In the present circumstances, a true revolution in higher education must recognise the distinctive character of academic research and teaching, and the fact that its modes of operations and measures of success cannot be simply equated with those drawn from other sectors of society. It must involve improved levels of funding, not to university administration or higher education bureaucracies, but to the real tasks of research and teaching that are at the heart of university life and work.

Advertisement

Such improvements in funding will undoubtedly involve some real increases in expenditure in the sector. But these increases could be kept at a minimum by dismantling some of the unnecessarily complex and burdensome reporting and assessment structures that have become such a feature of the higher education landscape over recent years, and by removing some of the pressures on universities to compete among one another for the same dwindling supply of resources.

There is need for an education revolution in Australia. That need is driven by the enormous challenges that the future holds for us - challenges that are already evident in the present. In a range of areas from climate change to new technologies, we need skills and intelligence, creativity and innovation, ideas and inventions, more than we have ever needed them before.

While our schools are vital in ensuring that we have the foundations to meet such challenges, it is our universities that provide the developed capacity, the disciplinary skill, and the intellectual drive that is essential.

While additional investment in education, including higher education, is a vital part of any true education revolution, the first steps towards reinvigoration of the university sector could be taken simply through a redirection in existing funding and a reduction in bureaucratic structure along with a reassertion of the fundamental principles of academic freedom and independence.

  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

5 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Authors

Andrew Brennan is a professor of Philosophy in the Humanities and Social Sciences faculty of Latrobe University.

Jeff Malpas is a professor in the School of Philosophy at the University of Tasmania.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Photo of Andrew BrennanAndrew BrennanPhoto of Jeff MalpasJeff Malpas
Article Tools
Comment 5 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy