More Funds Or More Fees, Say Universities

The Age

Thursday June 8, 2006

DAVID ROOD and ADAM MORTON

UNIVERSITY students could pay more for their degrees under a controversial proposal that would see HECS fees jump by 50 per cent.

Faced with a continuing drop in Federal Government funding, Swinburne University vice-chancellor Ian Young said a fee rise was the fairest way to increase university revenue.

Professor Young said an alternative plan to scrap the 35 per cent cap on the number of local students that could be charged full fees would price disadvantaged students out of quality education.

"Although this (50 per cent HECS increase) would place further burden on the user, it would be more equitable than deregulation of the domestic fee-paying system," he told a higher education conference yesterday.

Professor Young said almost all universities increased HECS fees by 25 per cent last year, leaving little differentiation in fee levels.

Melbourne and Monash universities have called for the number of full-fee-paying places to be lifted if Government funding does not increase.

Professor Young's comments came as the Labor Party signalled a significant shift from its one-size-fits-all approach in Australian universities.

Speaking at the conference, Opposition education spokeswoman Jenny Macklin said the system introduced under former Labor minister John Dawkins in the late 1980s no longer reflected the reality of modern universities.

Under Mr Dawkins, the deferred loan HECS was introduced and many TAFEs and colleges of advanced education merged with or became universities.

"Universities are different," Ms Macklin said. "It's time to end the one-size-fits-all approach, to value the individual and divergent missions of each of our universities, allow them to do what they do best."

A further 50 per cent increase in HECS fees would mean the cost of an arts or science degree would rise to $5880 a year, commerce to $8374 and law and medicine to $9802.

Federal Government changes enabled universities to increase HECS fees for all courses except nursing and education by 25 per cent in 2005, as well as to increase the quota of domestic full-fee students to 35 per cent.

Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop said there was already room for universities to charge different HECS levels.

"The Australian Government is not considering increases to HECS at this stage," she said.

Monash University vice-chancellor Richard Larkins said the proposed HECS rise was "tinkering at the edges" and removing the cap on full-fee places, in the absence of more government money, was a better solution.

Australian National University vice-chancellor Ian Chubb said rising wages, and international competition for staff would mean that most universities would charge the full 50 per cent increase if it was introduced.

"The solutions for me have to be much more strategic and longer term than simply saying, let's just keeping whacking the cost onto the student," he said.

© 2006 The Age

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