8 January 2013
Everyone acknowledges that it costs more to teach a more diverse cohort, which is why the Commonwealth tipped in about $433 million in additional “equity funding” over the four years 2010-2013.
The real issue is whether or not funding – base funding and equity funding together – is sufficient to support the needs of teaching a more diverse student cohort.
The report of the review of base funding, released late last year, agreed, albeit in guarded terms, with the Bradley review’s proposition that that university base funding should be increased by 10%:
What is required is an injection of funding into the system that allows universities to improve, not just maintain, their existing funding base. To ensure the improvement in base funding is sufficient to allow class sizes to fall and student engagement to increase, it is recommended there be a 10 per cent increase in total grants for teaching and learning. This would require an additional public investment over four years of close to $1.8 billion.
The Commonwealth minister didn’t warm to this proposal at all, pointing to the “record investment” of the Gillard government in higher education. Indeed, a report commissioned by the government showed that funding for university student places in 2013 will be 10.1% or almost $2,000 higher per student because of the funding reforms. As this precisely accords with the Bradley recommendation, Evans said that the recommendation had been effectively implemented.
Fred Hilmer, vice-chancellor of the University of NSW and chair of the Go8, countered that Ernst & Young’s lack of historical perspective did not take into account “real funding per student”.
The former head of Universities Australia and now economics professor at ANU, Glenn Withers, said both were right with funding per student having risen in nominal terms, but in real terms spending per head not having reached the same level as the last peak, in 1995:
We have Hilmer as a glass-half-empty man and the minister as a glass-half-full person. Each is correct, but selective in the numbers they use to support their view.
Not surprisingly, analysis by the Go8 tended to support the Hilmer view of the world. It acknowledged substantial increased funding under the Gillard government – from $8 billion in 2007 to nearly $12 billion in 2010, to a projected $14 billon by 2013 – but concluded that this increase has been driven by the demand driven system and significantly increased undergraduate enrolments and ignores salary increases and other cost pressures. According to the Go8:
…in real terms funding per student increased by only $90, from $9550 to $9640, between 2004 and 2011, with total resources per individual undergraduate essentially unchanged since 1996.
