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The Society for Research into Higher Education

MarciaDevlin


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Australian HE reform could leave students worse off

By Marcia Devlin

Australia is in full election campaign mode. What a returned conservative government means for higher education is a little worrying, although what a change of government means is worrying for different reasons.

Two years ago, the then federal Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne, proposed a radical set of changes for higher education funding including, among other things, a 20% cut to funding and full fee deregulation. While the latter received support from some institutions and Vice-Chancellors, there were very few supporters of the whole package. Among those who did not support it were the ‘cross-benchers’ – the independent and minor party members of the Parliament of Australia who have held the balance of power since elected in 2014 – and so the proposals were not passed.

The government have since introduced Senate voting reforms which means the minor parties will not be able to swap preferences in order to secure Senate seats as they have done in the past, and there is less likelihood of a future cross bench like this one. Which is a shame for higher education in my view as these folk actually listened to the sector and public and responded accordingly. Mr Pyne has now moved onto other responsibilities. But just before he moved, this actually happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc9NRwp6fiI

The new and current Education Minister, Simon Birmingham has released a discussion paper in lieu of budget measures: Continue reading

Ian Mc Nay


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Post election, Post budget: The shifting landscape of Higher Education in the UK

By Ian McNay

It says something about the Guardian and its reader profile when it builds a crossword round knowing the names of the chancellors of Russell Group universities, as it did on 27 June. I also liked its headline the previous day: ‘New dinosaur found in university store cupboard’. It has now been re-united with older colleagues in the department of economics.

My serious considerations here concern the post-election agenda – what I called Jo-Jo’s in-tray issues in a recent workshop at Coventry (to where/whom, congratulations on their Guardian league table ranking on student views on teaching quality: second only to Cambridge, and, more importantly, above Warwick). That system level policy focus will be balanced by treatment of emergent concerns at institutional level in a later piece.

The most immediate issue is a cut of £450m in the DBIS budget, which may be followed by further longer-term cuts as the failed austerity project continues. Nick Hillman at Coventry suggested an easy step was to convert grants to loans, which reduces the deficit but still increases the debt. I am writing before the budget, but I expect a loosening of fee limits, not ruled out during the election and possibly linked to teaching excellence, with high scorers being allowed to increase fees, as UUK want. Then there will be the sale of further tranches of the loan book, possibly to universities for their own alumni. Research Fortnight expects science to be protected Continue reading