The Australian | 4 September 2013
A re-elected Labor government will make greater use of direct agreements with universities, or compacts, with Innovation Minister Kim Carr flagging they would be used to allocate greater numbers of capped sub-degree and postgraduate places.
Amid sector concerns that greater use of compacts could prove code for greater control, Carr said the aim would be to give universities more autonomy and that there would be no retreat from the demand-driven system of uncapped undergraduate places under which commonwealth-supported places have increased by 190,000 students or 35%.
“We are in the middle of one of the great cultural reforms in our nation’s history – nothing less than opening up avenues of opportunity to whole sections of our community for the first time. Labor started that revolution and we are determined to continue it,” Labor said in its policy documents.
Just days ahead of the election, Labor released on 3 September a swag of policies around research, universities and international education.
Key initiatives include
- $2.5 million to examine the feasibility of rolling out new pathway college campuses connected to universities, dubbed University Colleges, to be located in areas of low participation.
- commissioning chief scientist Ian Chubb to come up with a long-term funding plan for research infrastructure, designed to end the uncertainty every time funding for the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy is up for renewal.
- a top-level council to devise a new strategy to protect Australia’s $15 billion international education industry from tough new competition overseas.The council would bring ministers and sector representatives together in a move in line with the recommendations of the Chaney report released in February, following complaints from the industry about a lack of policy co-ordination.
- extending ”streamlined visa processing” by the end of the year to TAFE and private providers. The opposition has already promised to extend streamlined processing.
However, commentators suggest the policies are long on reviews and plans but give few concrete details.
