Higher Ed Press Release

Before I post the new Labor Policy on Higher Ed... Another plea for NUS Office Bearers! If you are interested please email me at rhiannon.newman@adelaide.edu.au !!!!!!! Even if you just want more info on what NUS is all about!!

19 December 2006
HIGHER EDUCATION NEEDS INVESTMENT NOT COMMITTEES

If the Minister for Education, Science and Training’s priority is a bureaucratic review of the higher education sector, then it’s only further evidence that the Howard Government has completely lost interest in investing in Australia’s future.

During the Howard Government’s 10 and a half years in office:

· HECS debts have increased on average by 100 percent; · Public investment in tertiary education in Australia has gone backwards 7 percent while the OECD average is a 48 percent increase;

· To afford to study, Australian students are working up to two or three jobs at once thus leaving them less time to hit the books;

· 300,000 people have been turned away from TAFE colleagues because the Federal Government wilfully neglects to fund the places.

After a decade of acute underinvestment and blaming others, the best the Howard Government can do for Australia’s universities is to set up an interdepartmental committee and create more paperwork.

It is one thing to initiate the review required by the 2003 legislation; it’s another entirely to get on with the job of actually investing in higher education and easing the growing pressures on students.

Australia’s future prosperity requires policy solutions and greater investment in higher education, not a phased bureaucratic talkfest.

Given the Minister’s propensity for discussion papers, I would encourage her to read Labor’s White Paper - Australia’s Universities: Building Our Future in the World.

The sector has already read and welcomed our White Paper so a significant piece of consultation work has been done if the Government cares to pick it up and implement what’s required.
When Labor makes announcements next year about investing in higher education and addressing the skills crisis, we want be talking about inter-departmental reviews. We will be offering detailed policies for the future of our nation.

This is hopefully the start of making Higher Education a big election issue!

Rhi
xoxo