Gillard's Higher Education Cuts

[sharplittlteeth]

I wasn't really paying attention to the news on the weekend, so I'm only just reading up on this.

Labor has announced a $2.8 billion cut to tertiary education in order to pay for the Gonksi report recommendations for primary and secondary education.

The cuts are:

• $1.2 billion - students will have to repay Student Start up Scholarships
• $900 million - 2

Comments

[greylock]

I don't much care about Gonski*, but I am all for reducing funding to private schools towards state schools

[sharplittlteeth]

I haven't read enough to really get to grips with Gonski. The theory seems to be that more funding for schools = better resources = better results.

The abolition of the up-front HECS discount will just mean those who could pay will just invest it for the duration of their degrees. I assume Treasury have crunched the numbers here.

[redcountess]

My thoughts have been similar, without reforms at the primary and secondary level, there won't be that many attending universities in the future.

[sharplittlteeth]

Of the proposed cuts, only the 2% efficiency drive really hits universities directly. The rest affect students and the affordability of tertiary education.

[meleah]

I don't really understand the first two cuts. But I have to say, 3 and 4 don't bother me at all.

Primary and secondary education is much more important than tertiary education. It reaches more people and is a strong predictor of health, employment, non-deliquency, etc etc. tertiary education is important for the country's economic prosperity and so forth, but if I had to choose one, I'd choose primary/secondary.

That said, and noting I don't get 1 and 2, this doesn't seem like a massive round of cuts to the tertiary sector. How many people use that option on HECS anyway? And you can't get more than $2k off your tax for studying. Oh noes.

[sharplittlteeth]

All but one of those cuts will actually affect students more than universities.

#1 means they're turning scholarships into loans.

#2 is, I suspect, government speak for "we're cutting your budget by 2%, and it's up to you to deal with it".

The Parliament House website has a briefing paper on what the "efficiency dividend" means for the public service. I assume this is the same deal.