Higher education alarmed by A$2.3 billion cut

By Geoff Maslen. Alarmed vice-chancellors across Australia face a A$900 million (US$940 million) cut to their universities’ revenues with a further A$1.4 billion to be slashed from higher education over the next four years so that the federal government can generate some of the A$14.5 billion it plans to allocate to schools. Professor Glyn Davis, chair of the main lobby group Universities Australia, said the cut was on top of A$1billion taken from the sector’s research budget less than six months ago through the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook process. Davis said the government’s latest decision would place a severe strain on institutions that had been encouraged to expand enrolments so as to boost access to higher education. He said the further cuts were at a time when Australia sat “disturbingly” 25th out of 29 advanced economies for public investment in universities. Read more...