A Message From the VC

Dear Colleagues,

Today’s update from the VC will address two important Government announcements:

1. New Capital Funds for VU and
2. Update on Bradley Report


1. New Capital Funds for VU
The Prime Minister today has announced major infrastructure investments over the next year. These involve major investment of $1.58 billion in tertiary sector infrastructure, including $10.5 million (and more) specifically for Victoria University.

Firstly, $580 million has been allocated to eleven projects from the Higher Education Investment Fund. VU did not submit for this round but is looking to put the St Albans development into the second round next year.

Secondly, a further $500 million will be allocated to Universities based on their proportion of domestic higher education student load. VU will receive $10.5 million through this to spend on teaching and learning infrastructure.

Thirdly, a further $500 million will be allocated for infrastructure for vocational education and community education providers, including an element specifically targeting TAFEs for maintenance backlog expenses and competitive applications for additional capital funds for emerging training needs or to address green skills requirements.

These additional amounts are a further valuable investment from the Government which will help us renew the buildings we work in and the teaching facilities we use. It is important to realise these funds are provided to support capital projects and as such do not reduce our Budget challenge to bring our annual underlying expenditure into line with our annual revenue and produce reasonable surpluses.


2. Update on Bradley

We have also been told that the report of the Review of Higher Education (Bradley Report) will not be released until next week. This is despite the briefing provided to The Australian as reported in today’s paper. I need to see the full report before responding in depth to the proposals so far outlined so we can understand the full context in which they have been made.

As reported we will have to compete even more intensely for HE students, as well as VE and FE students. This is because the number of HECS funded places will no longer be “capped” for each University. An important element as reported, however, is that student charges will remain capped so we compete on a fairly even basis with the other Universities – in terms of the “price” of HECS places.

The option of mergers has been raised by an announcement by Charles Sturt University and Southern Cross University, with more mergers expected. We know the challenges of providing multi campus education. If there are options for integration we will have to look at them on their merits for the capacity to improve the education and training provided to the west of Melbourne and Victoria more broadly.

Incentives for Universities to enrol more students from low socio-economic backgrounds remains firmly on the agenda, and we will keep you informed as information comes to hand as to how this may benefit VU and our students.

Liz Harman
Vice Chancellor
Professor Elizabeth Harman
Vice-Chancellor and President Victoria University
emailto:elizabeth.harman@vu.edu.au
Web http://www.vu.edu.au/