The proposition by some university vice-chancellors for universities to be allowed to charge extra fees could easily back-fire on them. The Minister for Education, Brendan Nelson, rejects the idea of a funds crisis. The vice-chancellors disagree. Dr Nelson can point to increases in funding over the years of the Howard Government, but those increases might not be enough in an increasingly competitive world.
Much is spoken about the knowledge nation. It is widely recognised that manufacturing jobs are disappearing to cheaper labor markets overseas and that for Australia to maintain its relative standard of living we will have to use our brains, not our brawn. The trouble is, there is less recognition of the need to pay for the knowledge nation – in funding schools, universities and on-the-job training. Governments seem reluctant to pour more money into education because – unfortunately — it is not what the voters seem to want. At the last election Labor promises more spending on higher education, whereas the Coalition spent the surpluses on ad-hoc bribes to voters on whatever hip-pocket nerve issue arose at the time, like petrol prices and border protection. The Coalition got re-elected. The message was as clear as it was sad for the long-term interests of Australia – let’s talk about education and the knowledge nation, but let’s not spend any money on it. Until the lead-up to the last election, the Howard Government had a good record of economic management. Up to a point it still does. But it is not showing the necessary commitment to education, research and training that will lead to greater wealth generation in the future.
The trends are worrying. In 1981, 90 per cent of university funding came from government. A decade later it was below 70 per cent and a decade after that it was less than 50 per cent. Now universities get more than a third of their income from fees – including the Higher Education Contribution Scheme and 17 per cent from their own commercial and other activity.
The diversification of founding source is fine, provided that government does not use it as an excuse to contribute as much as it should. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that that is what is happening. It does not auger well for schemes by the vice-chancellors to add fees to premium courses on top of the uniform HECS rate and to bring in more full-fee paying students from here and overseas who do not meet the same academic requirements of other place-winners. The likelihood is that the Government will merely reduce its contribution commensurately. If the trend continues, universities will become businesses rather than public institutions committed to education and research as a means of improving the human condition.
Corporate Australia, too, is falling down on the education front. Australia is the sixth lowest at creating high-skilled jobs in the OECD. Training has fallen to a pitiful 4.9 hours a year per employee, and continues to fall. It is an ominous trend for the economic and social well-being of Australia.
Business is extremely short-sighted in Australia. Maybe it is time to look at re-introducing the compulsory training levy requiring business to spend a minimum of 1.5 per cent of their payroll on training. The levy was suspended in 1994. Maybe business should be put on notice that unless it lifts its game voluntarily, it will be forced to lift its game. The trouble, the Government takes the same view a business. Sadly it is a view that ends at the next balance sheet’s bottom line, rather than address the question of where will the high-skill jobs and wealth generation come from if not from increasing what we spend on education, research and training.