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Transcript
THE HON DR BRENDAN NELSON MP
Doorstop University Places
27 JANUARY 2004
Dr Nelson
I’d also like to announce today the distribution of 25,000 new fully funded places into Australian universities, over the next four years, beginning in 2005. At the moment in Australian universities there are just under 30,000 students who are over enrolled. Those students are receiving only about a quarter of the public funding that students enrolled up to the benchmark level would expect to receive and attract. One of the reasons why students are jammed into university lecture theatres, like sardines, is because universities have been over enrolling students, over the last four or five years. For the past two years the universities have been reducing the number of students that they over enrol because they know that over enrolled students are reducing the quality of education being delivered to our children and those returning to universities in adult life. 25,000 places which will certainly be added to Australian universities at a cost of $542 million will be distributed across Australia. Every State and Territory will have increased places available to them. The flash points in terms of growing demand in Australia for university education are in Queensland and in the State of Western Australia. At the moment a student who tried to get into nursing for example, according to the Good Universities Guide last year, a student in Western Australia would have a tertiary entrance score of 68, yet in the State of Victoria could gain entry with a tertiary entrance score of only 44. At the moment there are kids in Queensland and in Western Australia in particular who, having worked very hard, miss out on a university place that they would otherwise get in the State of South Australia or for example Victoria. 25,000 fully funded places at a cost, as I say of $542 million, will be distributed according to a formula. The formula of course I’m happy to explain. But it will mean that there will be 9,000 places for New South Wales and ACT, that’s 35% of the 25,000. There will be some 6,200 for the State of Queensland, representing 25% of the allocation. 9.4% of the allocation will go to Victoria, representing 2,350 places. South Australia will receive 1,470 places, representing 6% of the distribution, and Tasmania 1,000 places, representing 4%. In addition to these 24,000 there will be another 7,500 additional places distributed over the next 5 years, including 6,700 growth places in year 2008.
Question:
Dr Nelson, they have been over enrolling, what difference is it actually going to make to the number of places on the ground, on campus?
Dr Nelson:
It will make a significant difference because the universities, which are, on average across Australia over enrolled by around 8%, have quite rightly been reducing the offers they’re making to students who are marginally funded and over enrolled. The over enrolment rate in Australian universities ranges from 10% right through to 40%. Which is totally unacceptable if we’re wanting to maintain the high standards in higher education. This represents 25,000 places that would otherwise not be offered to students that will now not only be offered but they will be fully funded and distributed around Australia to make sure that we get fairness in terms of participation for students in their late teens and early twenties and then also for mature aged students coming back.
Question:
But when you take away the over enrolment, how many extra are you talking about (inaudible)
25,000 minus the over enrolments?
Dr Nelson
I don’t quite understand, but at the moment there are – well won’t say (inaudible) until the final figures are in, but for example we’ve got just over 25,000 over enrolled marginally funded students in the system at the moment. The Government is now fully funding those 25,000 places at a cost of $542 million. Those places would otherwise disappear. In addition to that the universities will be able to continue to enrol above their quota to a maximum of 5%. So they will still be able to have some degree of over enrolment, but we are not, in the interests of quality, prepared to tolerate the excessive levels of over enrolment and instead the Government is going to fully fund those places.
Question:
How does the distribution of these 25,000 places (inaudible) semi funded 25,000 students (inaudible)?
Dr Nelson:
Well at the moment it’s entirely up to each and every university to decide whether it will offer over enrolled places and the extent to which they will be offered. The Government, in the reforms that were passed for Australian universities last year, injecting another $2.6 billion into universities in the next 5 years, one of the measures was to say to universities “Look, we will only allow a level of over enrolment of up to 5%.” That’s entirely a matter for the university itself, but the Government will fully fund 25,000 of these marginally funded over enrolled places and we want to make sure that those places are distributed so that over a 5 year period it doesn’t matter whether you live in Hobart or Bunbury or Adelaide or Sydney, that you’ve got as fair and reasonable a chance of getting into university as any person in any other part of the country.
Question:
What about the more difficult (inaudible) or Victoria or South Australia though isn’t it?
Dr Nelson:
Well the Government is significantly increasing the places. There are 34,000 additional places in universities, specifically 2,000 of those are for nursing and for teaching. There will be no changes whatsoever to HECs for nursing and teaching, which represents 14% of the students in the sector, unless of course HECs charges go down in some of those courses. The reforms in total, including the allocation of additional places, increases opportunities not just in nursing and teaching but right across the board in Australian higher education.
Question:
You say, in areas where perhaps there’s more than 5% over enrolment and they haven’t received as many places in other areas, say for instance Adelaide, isn’t this just going to drive cut off scores right up through the roof?
Dr Nelson:
For example in Adelaide, Adelaide will gain 480 over enrolled places if the universities enrol up to the 5% limit. But Adelaide will then gain some 1,470 fully funded places to replace them. In other words the fully funded places is more than three times the number of marginally funded over enrolled places that the university would otherwise lose. And that’s before we talk about the 745 nursing and teaching places, the 574 regional nursing places, the 1,170 medical places and specifically the 6,800 growth places that will come on line beginning in 2007.
Question:
But Minister, what about next year? I mean we’re just talking – next year there’s only going to be 538 places in Adelaide. What’s going to happen next year with cut off scores?
Dr Nelson:
Firstly, in the State of South Australia, the universities next year will have more than 538 fully funded extra places that they can offer. They will also be able to over enrol and offer places up to 5%. I’ve also retained the discretion in the legislation to allow the universities, under specific circumstances, to enrol above the 5% limit, which will be particularly relevant to Flinders University. In addition to that, for the very first time in Australia the 40,000 students attending private universities in Australia will be eligible for a loan from the Australian Taxpayer, which they don’t have to pay back until they’re working. And we believe that these measures, on balance, will make sure that there are more opportunities available for more students. And let’s remember, that in the State of South Australia alone there are 7,000 students who got a university place this year, who will not be in that place by the end of the year, having dropped out, and who will never return. 40,000 students who got a place in an Australian University this year will have dropped out by the end of 2004 and will never return to university. There are 90,000 who got a place who will not complete that course and 70,000 will at some time drop out and never return. So what we are trying to do is to balance demand with reasonable supply.
Question:
Minister you’ve mentioned private universities, the Student Union has expressed some concern that this is going to force students into full fee paying courses. How do you respond to those concerns?
Dr Nelson:
Well, there are 125,000 foreign students whom we welcome into Australian universities, they pay full fees, why shouldn’t an Australian citizen once all of the HECS places have been expanded, why shouldn’t an Australian have the same right to be offered a full fee paying place if they choose? If the Government was reducing HECS places and replacing them with full fee paying places then I would be leading the charge to criticise such a policy. People need to understand that what we’re doing is we’re expanding the number of HECS places in Australian universities by 34,000 over the next five years at the same time we are saying to Australian students who have worked very, very hard to get a HECS place in science, industry, law or medicine that may have just missed out instead of taking up a HECs place in the course you don’t want, if you want to you are free to choose to take a full fee paying place just like a student from Beijing or Jakarta and for the very first time the Australian Government will lend you the money and you don’t have to repay it until you are earning at least $35,000 a year and working in the workforce – and that’s a fair deal.
Question:
(inaudible) deciding which States get the money, not which universities, not which (inaudible).
Dr Nelson:
There are two phases to this. The first is to distribute the places around Australia and then the second will be in consultation and negotiation with the universities themselves and the States to then distribute the places to the institutions themselves. One thing we can be confident about all of this is that every single State and Territory is going to complain because somebody is getting more places than them, but every part of Australia is getting more places, more fully funded places, more opportunities for kids and for those of us who are not so young to get a university education.
Thank you very much.
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