By Marina Cameron
The Liberal government's changes to higher education — including a 5% cut to university operating grants, higher HECS to be charged in a new three-tier system, a lower HECS repayment threshold, allowing the charging of undergraduate fees, tightening eligibility tests for Austudy and imposing a two-year wait for migrants applying for Austudy — are likely to be voted on by the Senate in late November.
Earlier this month, the bill to change the existing Higher Education Act (1988) to allow the HECS and fees changes was referred to the Senate Committee on Education, Employment and Training. In public hearings by the committee, the National Tertiary Education and Industry Union and the National Union of Students made strong submissions in opposition to the bill.
The Democrats, Greens and the ALP have pledged to oppose the bill, along with a further bill relating to the Austudy changes. This leaves the passage of the legislation dependent on independent senators Coulston and Harradine.
None of the opposition parties, however, have pledged to block the Higher Education Funding Amendment Bills (1996), which would legislate the cuts to operating grants. Blocking the passage of these bills could leave universities without any funding at all. The NTEU has previously called for them to be blocked, arguing that a short-term crisis is better than submitting to a long-term erosion of education funding.
The legislation to allow universities to charge full fees for 25% additional undergraduate places on top of government/HECS-funded places, as proposed in the budget, is of particular concern to those opposed to the drive towards user-pays education.
The ALP in government amended the Higher Education Act to allow the charging of postgraduate fees. Now the Liberals are proposing to delete the word "postgraduate" from the relevant section of the act, deregulating all fees. The amended act would therefore allow tuition fees to be imposed subject only to safeguards and regulation imposed by the minister for higher education alone.
Any change in the regulation of undergraduate fees beyond the current 25% guideline issued by Amanda Vanstone's office would not even have to go through parliament. When Vanstone's office deems that the time is right, up-front undergraduate fees across the board could be the reality without even any showcase debate in parliament.
Resistance member and recently elected National Union of Students delegate at Curtin University of Technology, Corinne Glenn, told Green Left Weekly, "This news is particularly ominous given the review of higher education funding flagged at the time of the August budget and due to begin soon. This review is undoubtedly going to recommend more cuts, more industry-oriented universities and more fees.
"Students and staff campaigning against education cuts and for a decent pay rise for staff need to be aware of what these changes really mean, what could come down in the next federal budget, and start planning to take the campaign into 1997."