By Jill Maclean, Marina Cameron and Alison Dellit
The Coalition's cuts to higher education are likely to be the most severe in over a decade. The process of moving towards a user-pays system was begun under Labor, and now the Howard government is planning brutally to finish off the job.
If one read only the mainstream media, one could be forgiven for thinking that the Coalition's education policy was about student welfare and improving the education system. Both Labor and Liberal use three buzz words when talking about their higher education policy: quality, diversity, equity. How well does this stand up to reality?
Quality?
Real funding per student has declined by 13% since 1986. In 1986, universities had an average of one tutor for every nine students; now it is one for every 16. Staff are overworked, less able to respond to student needs and underpaid, resulting in difficulties in obtaining qualified teachers and support staff.
Staff costs amount to 80% of university costs, and many universities, in anticipation of the cuts, are not renewing contracts or have suspended contracts for those about to take maternity leave, for example.
Since the 1970s, government operating grants have gone down from 90% to 50% of university funding. These cuts mean that universities depend on industry sponsorship for equipment, which is often old, outdated or unavailable. A reliance on company funding also results in teaching biased towards methods and courses preferred by business.
This will worsen with cuts to operating grants of another 4-10% likely in the August budget. Courses, staff, faculties and even universities are earmarked by university administrations and vice-chancellors to go.
Diversity?
The closure or amalgamation of many smaller campuses has eliminated many specialist courses. We now have 36 super-universities, offering standard courses. Currently under consideration is the merging of Curtin University of Technology and Murdoch University in WA. This is described in the media as a positive process of collaboration and coordination between the two universities. In reality it means having one university instead of two.
Economic "rationalists" would cite the opening of two entirely new universities as evidence of diversity. Bond University and the University of Notre Dame both offer courses for as little as $20,000 or as high as $100,000. "Diversity" in this case means allowing private universities to offer expensive courses to those who can pay for them.
The number of overseas students attending Australian universities could be seen as evidence of diversity. The Overseas Students Program was introduced in 1975 to enable students from poorer countries to attend university. These days ended, however, with the introduction of full fees for overseas students in 1988. Now, in familiar fashion, only the rich can study here.
Equity?
While there have been no full studies on the impact of HECS on the attendance of working-class people at university, payment records show that increasing percentages of first year students are paying up front, indicating that more enrolments are from wealthy backgrounds.
Studies on HECS have shown that one in four women will still be paying off their HECS debt at the age of 65, compared with one in 25 men. HECS was never equitable, and increases to HECS, increases in the repayment rate and charging market rate interest on the loan are all options under consideration by the government.
In the decade of free education from 1975, participation by Aboriginal students increased by 3000% and participation by women went up from 35 to 55%. This has already been undermined through HECS and postgraduate fees. Any further increases in fees, HECS or cuts to Austudy will affect the ability of women, Aboriginal people, migrants and working-class people to get an education.
But seeing equity just in terms of underprivileged sections of society is biased, according to the Liberals. What about "equity" for those students who can afford fees but don't get high enough entrance scores to obtain a place? Allowing full fee-paying undergraduate places for such students is under consideration by the government at present.
Even Bruce Chapman, the architect of HECS, has said fees would discourage students from poorer families from even thinking about tertiary education. Yet, in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald on July 15, Senator Vanstone attempted to justify a proposal to charge up-front fees for second or double degrees by saying it would allow more places to go to disadvantaged students.
If this were really the Liberals' agenda, they would not have proposed abolishing Austudy and replacing it with a loans scheme.
Education for all
Improving the education system for Labor and Liberal means improving its usefulness to big business and making up costs by charging students more and paying staff less. The socialist youth group Resistance takes the opposite, arguing that young people should "have the right to all levels of education without any financial barriers". It says the only really equitable education is a free one, paid for through a progressive taxation system.
The language employed in the establishment media is a device to soften up opposition to the cuts. It is part of a right-wing ideological barrage which says that the interests of students and staff are the same as those of government and business, and that questioning the direction that things are heading in is useless. But the government and business versions of "quality, diversity and equity" are very different from those of people serious about preserving higher education.
The National Tertiary Education and Industry Union is holding a national strike on August 7, and student groups on most campuses are helping to organise rallies and pickets on the day. Howard is reported to be backing off on the abolition of Austudy because it would be too politically damaging.
This is a sign that the resistance to the government's plans is having an effect. We need to keep up a strong and mobilised opposition to any education cuts. [See pages 26-27 for details of the August 7 national day of action.]