By Tim Dodd. Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne has come out strongly in support of allowing Australia's universities and colleges to compete on price by deregulating what fees they can charge students.
In a speech on Thursday that sets the scene for the biggest reforms to higher education in a generation to be announced in the budget, Mr Pyne will say that price competition, freedom from red tape, and giving transparent information to students about study options are critical to improving Australia's higher education system. Read more...
By Andrew Trounson. UNIVERSITIES Australia has warned against any immediate move to deregulate fees, backing recommendations from the Commission of Audit that options for partial or full deregulation should be examined over the next 12 months.
But it attacked proposals for abolishing the Cooperative Research Centres program and scrapping funding for inter-university collaboration under the Collaborative Research Networks Program. More...
By Matt Reed. Yesterday’s post on indentured servitude drew some scolding from people who thought the metaphor was overdrawn. Then, I read this.James Skoufis, a Democratic Assemblyman in New York State, is proposing making CUNY and SUNY tuition-free for students who fulfill two conditions:
Author: Gemma Ware. Interviewed: Colin Riordan and Jo Beall. A growing number of UK students are considering going abroad to study with a majority of them motivated in some part by the rise in university fees at home, according to new research on student mobility. At the same time, there has been a decline in the number of US students wanting to travel for their education. The US remains the top destination for British students, while the UK is the first choice for US students. The most popular subjects for students from the UK to study abroad were business and administrative studies, while for US students it was medicine and dentistry. The research, carried out by the British Council, found that 37% of the 2,630 18-24 year-olds UK students surveyed were considering studying overseas, an increase of 17% from a similar study in 2013. More...
By Yojana Sharma. The Chinese government's decision to scrap free tuition for postgraduate studies – including masters degrees and PhDs – is driving more graduating students to enter the job market instead of remaining in higher education. The trend is likely to intensify the graduate unemployment problem in the country this year. Read more...
By Charles Huckabee. Florida is poised to join the growing list of states that allow students who were brought into the United States illegally as children to qualify for lower in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities, according to reports by The Miami Herald and The New York Times. On Thursday the State Senate approved an amended version of a bill that has previously passed the House of Representatives and that Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, supports. More...
By Severin Carrell. Report estimates lack of fees, plus cuts in grants to poorer students leave middle-class families £20m a year better off. Welsh students get most financial support in UK.
Poorer students in Scotland have been left millions of pounds worse off after cuts to government grants which middle-class families have escaped, a study of higher education funding has found. More...
By Courtney Sloane (NTEU National Office). The NTEU says that if the Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne, caves into the demands of Group of Eight and some other university Vice-Chancellors and lifts the existing caps on fees charged to government supported university students, then days of $100,000 university degree will not be far off. According to a report in today’s Australian by Andrew Trounson one of the authors of Demand Driven Funding Review, Andrew Norton, is concerned that the removal of the price gap could result in excessive fee hikes. More...
By Jeannie Rea (NTEU National Office). Increasing the cost of getting a university degree through increasing HELP fees plus deregulating fees is not the way to ensure Australia has a robust and internationally reputable higher education system, claimed the National Tertiary Education Union today.
“The Abbott Government’s Commission of Audit recommendations on higher education arrangements slide in too neatly with Minister of Education Pyne’s recent speech in England and the recommendations from the Kemp-Norton Review of the Demand Driven Funding System,” said National President Jeannie Rea.
“You could be excused for thinking they have all just developed the same script. There is agreement that universities are critical to Australia’s economic and social development, yet also the view that government can abrogate responsibility to adequately fund our public universities to meet these challenges.”
The Commission of Audit recommends that students pay a significantly higher proportion of the costs of their education, increasing the student’s component of a Commonwealth supported place from 41% to 55%. Additionally, it is recommended that the repayment interest rate is increased, and the repayment kicks in at the minimum wage level.
“This recommendation is introduced with the statement: “Commonwealth funding of higher education promotes quality and equity of access, while contributing to a more skilled and productive workforce.
“The NTEU agrees, but the Commission’s recommendations if implemented will backfire. There is a level at which concern about accumulating debt and earlier repayment will be a deterrent for both school leavers and mature age potential students taking on a degree program. Fear of accumulating debt is likely to lead to poorer performance and greater attrition leaving people without a degree, but still a debt to repay on the minimum wage”, explained Rea.
“The Commission also calls for options to be developed “to increase competition in Australia's education system through a partial or full deregulation of fees for bachelor degrees”. This recommendation is based upon blind faith in market solutions to improve quality and innovation. However, the more likely outcome is some universities and courses competing to see just how high a fee they can get away with, while others whither as they undermine one another competing to offer the cheapest option.
“Public universities funded by government are accountable to their students, staff and the broader community. They are founded by Acts of Parliament and have missions to serve the public interest. Universities play a critical role in the economy and society, and are far too important to be set adrift in the market,” said Rea. More...
“I think they are better off than they were 15 years ago," education consultant says. With news that some Canadian university students are turning to "sugar daddies and mommies" to help pay off their debts, and reports that some are working more than twice the amount of hours to afford tuition costs compared to 40 years ago, it certainly doesn’t sound like it’s a good time to be a young person going to school. But not everyone is convinced that today’s students are facing a tuition crisis. And some, like Alex Usher, president of Higher Education Strategy Associates, a consultancy that advises universities and governments, believes today's students actually have it better than some in the past. More...
/https%3A%2F%2Fprofilepics.canalblog.com%2Fprofilepics%2F1%2F0%2F1076071.jpg)
