Everyone, or just enough people to fill skilled jobs? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… We have more people going to university in Australia than ever before. In 1971 only 2% of the population over 15 years old held a Bachelor’s degree, in 2013 it was 25%. Last year a whopping 1,149,300 people were enrolled in a Bachelor’s degree or above. However, graduate employment rates are falling. This leads many to ask whether too many people are going to university. Should everyone go to university or just the correct number to be able to fill highly skilled jobs in Australia? asks Leo Goedegebuure (University of Melbourne), writing in The … [Read more...]
The Scan #167 16 April 2015
16/04/2015 by
Student debt growing rapidly as compliance declines 16 April 2015 | With student debt ballooning, reform of the FEE-HELP system (HECS) is now a pressing budget issue with the nation’s second biggest financial asset, after the Future Fund, being eroded as one in five debtors renege on their loans. That figure is expected to rise to 25% by 2017. The government will have more than $70 billion in unpaid university student loans on its books in another two years, double the figure owed in 2013-14. According to researchers Richard Highfield and Neil Warren, the loans system is being compromised by successive governments’ commitment to increasing participation in tertiary education while not … [Read more...]
Who should go to university?
16/04/2015 by
16 April 2015 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… Conor King of the Innovative Research Universities group fears that in the absence of university fee deregulation, the demand driven-system will be dumped. ……………………………………………………………………………………………….......…… Who should go to university, only the select or all who want to? It is the question that ran through the 2015 Universities Australia Conference in March. It is lurking behind the contentious funding and fees debate that has wracked higher education for the past year. It is the issue that determines how well higher education supports Australia’s future. Gary Banks, former Productivity Commissioner, best illustrated the … [Read more...]
NSW university offers 2015
21/01/2015 by
20 January 2015 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… As in Victoria, the traditional January main round of university offers in NSW, through the University Admissions Centre (UAC), is decreasing in prominence in the calendar. Offers through the year and direct offers are becoming increasingly the norm. This year, universities have made 46,507 offers through UAC ‘s main round, down 4,307 (- 9%) on last year. But the total number of offers to date is actually up a little, at 76,339, up 1,542 ( + 2%) from last year’s 74,792. So, main round offers through UAC are now about 62% compared to 68% last year and almost 100% four or five years … [Read more...]
Victorian tertiary offers 2015
20/01/2015 by
20 January 2015 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… Over 69,000 applicants have received an offer, through the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC), for a place at a Victorian university, some private higher education colleges and for some courses at TAFE institutes. .University offers totalled about 57,000 out of about 68,000 applications, meaning a “success rate” of 84%, compared to 85% in 2014 but way ahead of the 75% rate in 2009, the year that places began to be uncapped. The average Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) for entry declined slightly, from 69.3 in 2014 to 68.1 in 2015. ……………………………………………………………………………………………….......…… The data need to be interpreted with … [Read more...]
The Scan | #163 | 25 September 2014
25/09/2014 by
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Vic’s ACFE joins TAFE “in crisis” 24 September 2014 | The travails besetting Victoria’s TAFE sector have spread to its Adult, Community and Further Education (ACFE) sector with the ACFE board 2013-14 annual report showing a $1.1 million loss for the ACFE Board after a $11 million cut in state government funding. ACFE returned a $9.4 million surplus in 2012-13. The sector has had a precipitous drop in government income from its peak in 2011-12 – down 80% – and since 2009-10 – down 40%..... [ MORE ].... UWA sets … [Read more...]
Making a stab at fees poses grave risks: UA
22/05/2014 by
Universities Australia | 21 May 2014 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… With Prime Minister Tony Abbott acknowledging that he can't guarantee that university fees might not double, University Australia chair Sandra Harding says that there are "grave risks" in a precipitate move to fee deregulation, set to take place in 2016. As the new fee regime will apply to all enrolments after 14 May 2014, students enrolling after that date will not know the fees that will apply from 1 January 2016 until such time as universities announce their fees. In order to provide some degree of certainty and inform student choice, some universities, outside the Group of Eight, at least, may be … [Read more...]
