Recommendations

CHAPTER 1

Recommendation 1

That the Government should declare its commitment to the establishment of a learning society in which all Australians, of whatever social, cultural and economic background, have access to a post-compulsory education of excellent value.

CHAPTER 3

Recommendation 2

That governments should make every effort to ensure that virtually all young people proceed to the end of secondary education in order to open up possibilities in later life for participation in postsecondary education.

CHAPTER 4

Recommendation 3

That the Government should work jointly with State and Territory Governments:

to develop a process for rationalising the ownership and control of assets used by universities, enabling universities to leverage these assets to finance structural change; and
once this is complete, to ensure that the capital assets of universities are liable to the same taxes and charges that apply to private higher education providers.

Recommendation 4

That the Government should establish a working party to undertake a study of how a capital charge might be implemented on public assets in the higher education sector.

Recommendation 5

That the Government should establish a loan fund to finance major programs of innovation and structural change, including technological investments associated with such changes.

Recommendation 6

That the Government, working with the State and Territory Governments, should ensure that consistent criteria and processes exist for recognising university level qualifications offered by providers of higher education, such as ‘bachelor degree’, and for using the titles ‘university’ and ‘higher education institution’.

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Recommendation 7

That the Government, working with the State and Territory Governments, should ensure that accreditation arrangements enable private providers of higher education to become self-accrediting bodies with the same powers in this respect as universities which operate under their own acts of parliament.

Recommendation 8

That the Government, working with the State and Territory Governments, should establish a process to ensure that all self-accrediting higher education institutions have robust and rigorous internal review processes.

Recommendation 9

That, as a condition of receiving government funding, institutions should be required to make publicly available information about themselves and the services that they offer, in a form that enables students to make informed choices among competing institutions and courses.

Recommendation 10

That the Government should establish an independent complaints procedure, possibly in the form of a Higher Education Ombudsman, to support students, before a student centred funding framework is implemented.

Recommendation 11

That the Government should implement a suitable mechanism to provide prudential supervision that ensures that students are protected from financial loss.

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CHAPTER 5

Recommendation 12

That the Government should:

implement either Stage 1 or Stage 2 of a student centred approach to the funding of higher education teaching and learning as soon as possible;
commence immediately a detailed examination of the implementation issues associated with Stage 3 of a student centred approach to the funding of higher education teaching and learning;
in consultation with the States and Territories, undertake a detailed examination of the funding and implementation issues associated with Stage 4 of a student centred approach to the funding of teaching and learning in postsecondary education and training, and report publicly on the outcome of that examination; and
subject to the outcome of that examination, establish jointly with the States and Territories an approach to the funding of teaching and learning in postsecondary education and training embodying the principles expressed in Stage 4 of a student centred approach.

Recommendation 13

The Government should allow Australian students to use their lifelong learning entitlement to study in other countries, provided that equivalent reciprocal agreements are negotiated with those countries.

Recommendation 14

That the Government should undertake at least to maintain the current average level of public funding per equivalent full time undergraduate higher education student in real terms for five years after the current budget forecast period.

Recommendation 15

That, under a student centred approach to funding, the Government should provide public funding as a flat amount within three broad course categories.

Recommendation 16

That the Government should undertake periodic reviews of the level of public funding per equivalent full-time undergraduate higher education student to take account of movements in costs.

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Recommendation 17

That the Government should:

allow institutions to set fees for all students, in the first instance subject to an upper limit on fee levels for students receiving Commonwealth tuition funding; and
monitor the impact on access and equity objectives of allowing institutions to set fees for all students within an upper limit for students receiving Commonwealth tuition funding, before further relaxation is contemplated.

Recommendation 18

That the Government should make loans—with repayment contingent on future income—available to all students to cover fees up to the limit of the fees that institutions are able to charge.

Recommendation 19

That the Government should make first time access to postsecondary education and training by school leavers and mature age people its highest priority in implementing a student centred approach to funding.

Recommendation 20

That the Government should negotiate with the States and Territories that funding for vocational education and training be transferred to the Commonwealth in the context of a broader realignment of funding arrangements.

Recommendation 21

That the Government should:

continue to provide targeted equity funding to institutions under Stages 1 and 2 of a student centred approach to the funding of teaching and learning;
reserve a set number of Commonwealth funded student places for targeted equity groups under Stage 3 of a student centred approach to the funding of teaching and learning, with supplementary grants provided as a part of the funding for these places; and
provide supplementary grants targeted to members of equity groups under Stage 4 of a student centred approach to the funding of teaching and learning.

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Recommendation 22

That the Government should examine the feasibility of designating the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies as a national base for research into bi-cultural approaches to Indigenous studies.

Recommendation 23

That the Government should provide special-purpose support for significant but low demand disciplines on a case-by-case basis, using competitive tendering as the vehicle for distributing any funding, and with funding being provided only when it is in the public interest and when all other options for preserving the discipline without special-purpose funding have been exhausted.

Recommendation 24

That the Government should entrust to the Committee for University Teaching and Staff Development (CUTSD) the task of promoting an enhanced teaching culture in higher education institutions to balance the established research culture. With the assistance of additional public funding, in particular CUTSD would:

commission research into learning and teaching practices in higher education that promote the development of graduates who have a respect for scholarship and learning and an appetite for intellectual growth and development;
encourage institutions to adopt a code of quality for scholarly teaching and to develop principles for the promotion of academics on the basis of scholarly teaching; and
encourage institutions generally to appoint new academic staff on probation until they have completed a qualification in teacher training.

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CHAPTER 6

Recommendation 25

That the Government should ensure that the community gets the best value from research training through student centred funding arrangements that:

allow a significant enhancement of student choice and mobility; and
provide incentives for institutions to compete for students on the basis of the quality of research supervision, student experience and outcomes.

Recommendation 26

That the Government should:

implement a student centred approach to the funding of research training in two stages;
for Stage 1, allocate research training places in two funding cycles, with allocations in the first cycle based on a Research Training Index, and allocations in the second cycle based on students’ acceptances of offers made by institutions after the first funding cycle;
for Stage 2, develop, initially on a trial basis for specific disciplines, procedures for national moderation of the qualifications and experience of candidates with a view to developing by 2003 a national merit list; and
ensure that the discipline mix of research training places in Stages 1 and 2 is informed by national priorities based on employer needs and the Government’s national innovation and industry development strategies.

Recommendation 27

That the Government should:

establish a program to provide allowances for student mobility within Australia, and extend funding periods of research training places and stipend scholarships to eliminate the financial disincentives associated with students moving between institutions and cities, and
consider funding this program through additional funds or a small reduction in research training places.

Recommendation 28

That the Government should ask DEETYA and the ARC, in consultation with other appropriate agencies and peak bodies, to develop a strategy to improve the quality and range of information available to students to enable them to make informed choices about research supervisors and host research training institutions.

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Recommendation 29

That universities eligible to receive funding for research training adhere to an updated Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee (AVCC) Code of Practice for Maintaining and Monitoring Academic Quality and Standards in Higher Degrees.

Recommendation 30

That the Government should establish a review of the level of funds allocated to research training within one year of implementing Stage 1 of a student centred approach to research training funding in order to determine the most appropriate balance of resources between postgraduate research training and other research programs such as postdoctoral training.

Recommendation 31

That the Government should expand the role of the Australian Research Council (ARC) to give it explicit authority to:

determine priorities within its own programs (on the condition that these priorities are included in its triennial strategic plans, which are reviewed annually and approved by the Minister);
advise the Government—in consultation with DEETYA and other portfolios and agencies such as DIST and the NHMRC—on priorities for research training that are consistent with the needs of employers, the Government’s innovation strategy and the ARC’s overall strategic plan; and
establish linkages between priorities for its programs with those of other portfolios and agencies, such as DIST, CSIRO and the NHMRC, through bilateral negotiations as well as multilateral mechanisms such as the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC) and the Coordination Committee on Science and Technology (CCST) and their subcommittees.

Recommendation 32

That the Government should require the ARC to include knowledge and skills transfer and technology diffusion as explicit objectives of its priority setting mechanisms.

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Recommendation 33

That the Government should:

provide additional funds to maintain infrastructure support at its current level and raise the level of support for infrastructure over the next three years; and
disperse the Higher Education Research Infrastructure Block Grants program to portfolios administering Commonwealth Competitive Grants programs in proportion to the relative size of programs in each portfolio, for the purpose of including infrastructure support with project grants.

Recommendation 34

That the Government should require the ARC to develop a strategy for higher education research infrastructure, in collaboration with DEETYA, DIST, NHMRC, other agencies providing competitive funding for university research, and major research performing organisations such as the CSIRO, to address the need for major national and international facilities to be shared between universities, other public research institutions and industry.

Recommendation 35

That funding agencies and granting panels should:

provide project-related infrastructure support for each project according to need; and
if necessary, reduce the number of project grants in order to ensure adequate infrastructure support for all funded projects.

Recommendation 36

That the universities and university-based researchers should ensure that grant applications document all costs of research projects, including direct and project-related infrastructure costs, and adopt pricing policies consistent with the sharing of benefits of research between funders and performers.

Recommendation 37

That the Government should review the size and the basis for allocating the Research Quantum in light of the Review Committee’s recommendations on the funding of undergraduate and postgraduate tuition.

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Recommendation 38

That the Government should establish the ARC as an independent body and give it a wider range of functions, and require increased accountability and transparency of its processes and decisions commensurate with such independence and wider responsibilities.

Other Issues

The Committee wishes to draw to the Government’s attention a number of issues, about which it has not made specific recommendations. These are:

Governance in higher education institutions—Universities’ current internal decision making processes will limit their ability to meet the challenges that they will face over the next two decades. Universities that have not done so already need to consider the recommendations of the Hoare Report as soon as possible. We discuss this issue in chapter 4.

Student assistance through Austudy, Abstudy and the Youth Allowance—It was claimed in a number of submissions to the Review that current AUSTUDY arrangements are a major barrier and disincentive to study, both in the level of support offered and in the eligibility rules which apply—particularly the recent increase in the age of independence to 25 years. We discuss this issue in chapters 3 and 5.

Libraries—Libraries face particular challenges in staying abreast of technological change and the continuing increases in the volume of information. Institutions could use the loan fund identified in recommendation 4 to underwrite major investments in library infrastructure. Libraries could also benefit from the implementation of recommendation 33, to provide additional funds for research infrastructure. University teaching could also benefit from investments in libraries made pursuant to recommendation 33, because library infrastructure is largely shared between teaching and research functions.

Taxation treatment of education expenses—Currently, students cannot claim education expenses as deductions if they are undertaking a course of study to prepare them for work or employment different from their present work. A more liberal definition would provide greater incentives for Australians to participate in lifelong learning, particularly for those who must change their area of employment owing to economic imperatives. We discuss this issue in chapter 5.