Backing The Future

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday September 16, 2004

By Brendan Nelson, Brendan Nelson is the Minister for Education, Science and Training.

The Government is introducing new loan schemes for research students.

The Coalition values the importance of postgraduate education in our universities. Postgraduate training is a critical part of maintaining the competitiveness of the Australian labour force into the future.

In the past 10 years, the number of masters and doctorates being done by coursework in Australia's universities has quadrupled.

The Coalition also values the important role that postgraduate students play in the production of research. Over the past 10 years, Australia's postgraduate research capacity has grown immensely. The Government has rewarded this research output accordingly.

The change in the number of postgraduate students is significantly greater than the change in the overall number of students at universities in Australia, which has, nevertheless, grown by approximately 38 per cent over the past 10 years.

As part of the Our Universities: Backing Australia's Future reforms to higher education, the Coalition has enhanced support for postgraduate education. For example, as part of a new suite of loans known as the Higher Education Loan Program (HELP), from next year, the Postgraduate Education Loans Scheme (PELS) will be replaced by the FEE-HELP scheme. These new loans will ensure that students are not disadvantaged or deterred by a lack of financial means to access their chosen higher-education courses.

FEE-HELP is similar to PELS, but it includes a lifetime limit on the amount a student is able to borrow to pay fees ($50,000 in 2005). The Coalition expects that the introduction of the FEE-HELP loan limit will ensure that postgraduate coursework fees remain at reasonable levels.

As part of the Knowledge and Innovation reforms introduced in 1999, a Research Training Scheme (RTS) was established as a model of performance-based funding to support Australian university research infrastructure and research training. This year, as a result of recommendations made in a review of the Knowledge and Innovation reforms and extensive subsequent consultations by my department, I announced changes that would simplify the $540-million-a-year scheme.

From 2005, RTS allocations will be calculated using a new funding model, proposed by the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee, which will prevent universities from losing money when students discontinue their studies or exceed the number of years they are allowed to study for their degrees. The model will also reward high-performing institutions by increasing their RTS allocation by more than the previously capped amount of 5 per cent.

Labor, by contrast, has already announced that it would abolish this scheme - though it has not yet indicated where it would spend the savings. This is despite the fact that the RTS will benefit well over 22,000 PhD and research masters students a year.

Complementing the RTS are the allocations of Australian Postgraduate Awards (APA) and International Postgraduate Research Scholarships (IPRS). This year, 1550 scholarships were made available to support Australian postgraduate research students and 330 scholarships were made available to support international postgraduate research students.

The APA scheme provides financial support to Australian postgraduate students of exceptional research promise who undertake their higher degrees by research at Australian higher education institutions.

The International Postgraduate Research Scholarships (IPRS) are part of the new Endeavour Program under which high-performing students from around the world are able to study in Australia. The Endeavour Program encompasses both new and existing scholarships, with the Australian Government committing an extra $7.9 million over the next four years.

Education should be a life-long process. If we want world-class universities and a productive workforce, Australia will need to provide continued and sustained investments in postgraduate education. If re-elected, the Howard Government will ensure that these important investments continue to be made.

The gist

? Continued funding for the $540 million Research Training Scheme.

? More HECS places for universities.

? Continued loan support for postgraduate students.

? Additional scholarships through Australian Postgraduate Awards and the Endeavour Program.

? Greater funding certainty for universities.

© 2004 Sydney Morning Herald

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