Universities to merge in major overhaul as Bradley review recommends vouchers

Luke Slattery and Andrew Trounson December 12, 2008
Article from: The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24788101-12332,00.html

UNIVERSITIES will be merged, a national voucher system introduced and incentives given to enrol students from low socio-economic backgrounds under recommendations being considered by the Rudd Government.

The reforms, which are understood to be contained in a 200-page report to Education Minister Julia Gillard by former University of South Australia vice-chancellor Denise Bradley, would consolidate the prestige metropolitan universities while leaving the future of several outer suburban, regional and remote campuses in doubt.

In anticipation of Bradley's recommendations, two NSW institutions, Charles Sturt University and Southern Cross University, yesterday announced they would merge to form a new national university based in regional Australia.

The two regional universities said they would be the foundation partners in a new national venture triggered by consultations for the Bradley review.

In a prepared release, the two said: "With an expanded course profile and increased investment in digital technology, the new university would improve the accessibility of professional education in its regions and nationally. Consolidation of its research programs will bring increased innovation of particular relevance to regional Australia."

The Bradley review, commissioned in March, is understood to recommend new measures to integrate the vocational training and higher education sectors in order to boost participation among lower socio-economic groups.

Vouchers - or student learning entitlements - represent a radical shift to a student-centred funding system that no government of either political persuasion has been ready to accept. Students could take vouchers to any university that would admit them.

A voucher scheme would introduce flexibility and a potentially better match of courses to students' first choices, but it would also draw students away from less popular universities.

A student-centred approach could also potentially allow more widespread provision of public funding to recognise private providers, as occurs in the vocational education and training and schools sectors.

However, it is understood that the voucher scheme recommended by the Bradley review would not extend to price deregulation.

The reforms are understood to include measures to protect the $13 billion export education program - Australia's third-biggest earner after iron ore and coal and potentially its biggest if the resources boom goes bust.

A new national accreditation agency is also believed to be among Bradley's recommendations. It would challenge some universities to prove they were worthy of the name.

Education Minister Julia Gillard yesterday would not be drawn on the implications of the budgetary stresses on the Government's response to the Bradley review, which she said would be made in February.

"Everybody is aware that these are difficult days as a result of the global financial crisis," Ms Gillard told reporters.

But she said fast-tracked infrastructure funding for the sector was on its way as part of the Government's overall infrastructure spending plans.

"The Government is intending to fast-track an infrastructure announcement - the Prime Minister has made that clear - and that infrastructure announcement will include infrastructure in higher education."

The sector is awaiting the results of the first $304 million funding round from the newly created $8.7 billion Education Investment Fund.

Victoria has been pushing for a more student-driven demand model for universities, in line with its controversial TAFE reforms under which both public TAFEs and private providers are eligible for public funding.

Southern Cross University vice-chancellor Paul Clark told The Australian yesterday that his merger with Charles Sturt was aimed at boosting flagging higher education enrolments in regional Australia, and Professor Bradley was "personally quite supportive of the way in which we want to go".

Professor Clark said Ms Gillard had already asked the pair to submit a commonwealth grant application for a feasibility study to advance the initiative to the next stage.

"They have dentistry and pharmacy and veterinary science; we have law and forestry so there's complementarities," he said.

Professor Clark "pretty much" ruled out forced redundancies as a result of the merger, saying the plan was about growth.

In a separate development, the Government yesterday released $111.5 million to fund specific programs at universities under the annual disbursement of the Diversity and Structural Adjustment Fund. About $206 million has now been disbursed from the fund, reducing it to about $75million.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24788101-12332,00.html