Universities will on Wednesday call for a suite of funding moves worth billions of dollars to lift the sector to the point it can churn out 1 million more domestic students each year and deliver more research breakthroughs.
The message from peak body Universities Australia (UA) will come with a warning that the sector has been overlooked and underfunded while being treated “more as a political plaything than a policy priority”.
It’s left the sector in “financial pain”, Universities Australia CEO Luke Sheehy will say in Canberra, while pointing at the sector’s plunge into collective deficit as Commonwealth funding for places fell and support for vocational education rose.
“Our universities must receive equal attention and equal support. I don’t think this is necessarily the case right now,” he will say.
Mr Sheehy will use his National Press Club address to attack the Morison government’s Job Ready Graduates scheme, which altered fees to try and steer students to sectors with high demand like nursing and teaching.
The Universities Accord review last year confirmed the policy has failed to deliver the needed graduates while also reducing university funding.
“Today, we have nearly a billion dollars less for student places every year under this funding system. That’s the equivalent of around 33,000 student places… We are potentially educating 33,000 fewer students each year,” Mr Sheehy will say.
In the run up to a federal election, UA is demanding Job Ready Graduates be scrapped and that an incoming government work with universities to set new rates.
Mr Sheehy will also call for a multi-billion-dollar fund for campus infrastructure that was abolished in 2019 to be revived, and that the federal government raise PhD stipends and start lifting its research investment immediately rather than wait on its national R&D review.
“We can’t keep kicking the can down the road. Our sector has, until now, used international student revenue to cover Commonwealth funding gaps. But this can no longer be assured,” he will say.
“Something must give, or funding gaps risk becoming chasms.”
UA, which represents 39 universities, says the reforms are needed because the institutions are at the centre of the push to a fully skilled workforce by 2050.
The increasing skill demands will require universities to be educating 1.8 million university students a year by 2050, around 1 million more than current levels, Mr Sheehy says.
But the government has forecast that meeting the ambitious attainment targets will also deliver a $240 billion economic boost or around $20,000 per household.
“Every Australian can get around that – it’s a dividend worthy of bipartisan political support,” Mr Sheehy will say.
“But if we are to deliver on this task, our universities need to be match fit.”
The Albanese government has also placed a premium on innovation to help with its clean energy and industry policy, including big bets on green hydrogen, critical minerals and quantum computing.
“If getting our universities match fit isn’t a first-order national priority, how are we going to deliver all of our other national priorities? Promises on the campaign trail only get us so far.”
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