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- 17 September 2002
Higher Education Review
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Page: 4821
Mr GAUDRY: My question without notice is to the Minister for Education and Training. What is the Government's response to the Federal Government's higher education review of university education in Australia?
Mr WATKINS: As a local member of Parliament, the honourable member for Newcastle is fortunate to have one of our fine regional universities, the University of Newcastle, in his area. The University of Newcastle is one of 20 university campuses outside the metropolitan area of Sydney that serves the needs of more than 87,000 students. If the Federal Government gets its way all of these institutions could be at risk. It is estimated that New South Wales regional universities inject a total of $817 million into their regional economies. When the flow-on impacts on local economies are taken into account, that adds $1.1 billion to regional economies around New South Wales.
More than 28,000 full-time jobs are created by these regional and rural universities. Over recent months the Commonwealth Government has been undertaking a review of higher education. The Federal Minister has issued seven discussion papers that outline a range of quite frightening scenarios for higher education in this country. From the universities to TAFE the higher education sector is extremely nervous, in some cases panicked, about the possible outcomes of these discussion papers. Dr Nelson's papers contain proposals which, if implemented, would strike at the very heart of our regional universities.
Yesterday the New South Wales Government provided its detailed response to that review and today I release a copy of that in its entirety. The potential damage to our regional and rural universities should Dr Nelson proceed on the path he has foreshadowed is obvious and alarming. The centrepiece of Dr Nelson's reform plans is the proposal to create teaching-only universities. This would see the removal of the research component of many of our regional universities. Related to this is the proposal to reclassify some universities as primarily having a community charter. In short, these proposals would make rural and regional universities second-class citizens of the higher education community. They would downgrade the reputation of rural and regional universities and lead to an inevitable loss of high-quality staff and students.
This proposal is not only foolish, it is offensive to our fine rural and regional universities, which currently make a fine contribution to our higher education community and local economies throughout New South Wales. For example, Charles Sturt University is a national leader in wine science and research into dry land salinity. That would be compromised. The University of Newcastle plays a leading role in engineering, technology and medicine. There are also serious equity concerns about what the Commonwealth Government is proposing. Opportunities opened up in tertiary education to underrepresented groups of people, young and mature-age people in rural and isolated areas, would inevitably be closed down.
For example, more than 61 per cent of all domestic students at Southern Cross University are from rural or isolated areas, as against the national average of 19.4 per cent. Many country kids simply would not get the opportunity to go to university without regional universities. Should Dr Nelson's plans be implemented, not only would they be disadvantaged but the enormous educational, cultural, social and economic benefits to these local communities would be damaged. The Howard Government has a plan to take us back to the old days of a two-tier system of higher education. Regional universities would be relegated to the second tier—underfunded, underresourced and unable to compete with the larger city-based universities.
Instead of rising to the challenge that rural and regional universities face, the Commonwealth Government is using this review as a pretext for giving up on higher education in the bush. When this review is combined with plans to apply the Higher Education Contribution Scheme to TAFE, the situation is truly alarming for families in rural and regional centres. These universities occupy a special place in country communities and they deserve the strongest support. Higher education is for all Australians, not just city dwellers. The crux of this problem is clear even to the casual observer: The entire review is a dismal effort to compensate for the negative impacts of Commonwealth underfunding in recent years. Since 1996, $3.5 billion has been ripped out of the university sector. All our universities have suffered, but particularly our regional and rural universities. With these latest Federal plans, regional universities, regional economies and regional populations will pay the ultimate price.
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