The Australian | 20 July 2013
University student places will be reduced under a planned Rudd government reorganisation of Julia Gillard’s $2.8 billion across-the-board higher education cuts to fund the Gonski school reforms, according to The Australian.
Vice-chancellors were given a 72-hour deadline on Monday to put alternative plans to Higher Education Minister Kim Carr to avoid the former prime minister’s 2 per cent efficiency dividend from next January, which was designed to save $900 million.
The universities and the government are now considering plans to save money on government-funded university places by cutting the overall student intake through higher entrance marks and “balancing up the system” to match student demand against available places.
Carr will negotiate any changes to savings plans and student intake on a university-by-university basis, using the existing system of “compacts” the government has with higher education to control quality standards. The government is hoping to avoid the politically sensitive issue of reversing its earlier policy of providing more access to university.
The mix of universities’ proposals does not suggest the re-introduction of a cap on student numbers to save money and Carr wants to protect the viability of smaller regional universities.
Vice-chancellors met Carr in Canberra on Monday(15/7) and, on Thursday (18/7), treasurer Chris Bowen said the government would consider proposals on the Gonski funding.
When both Carr and Bowen previously held the higher education portfolio they had opposed finance department proposed cuts to the sector.
Current estimates for government-funded undergraduate places are for a rise from 512,600, in 2012-13, to 589,000 by 2016-17,