Universities could soon be facing major funding changes as the biggest review of the sector in decades calls for a radical re-shaping of the tertiary education sector. The Australian University accord has put forward substantial recommendations for reform.
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00:00 The University's Accord lays out a blueprint for the long-term reform the federal government
00:06 is seeking as it tries to tackle skills shortages and make the system fairer.
00:10 The review panel says to do that, funding should be delivered on a needs basis, similar
00:15 to primary and high school funding, where extra loadings would be provided based on
00:18 student and institutional disadvantage to try and make the system more accessible.
00:23 Mary O'Kane led the review panel.
00:25 When you look at who's going to university and who's not going to university, you find
00:29 that students from various equity groups are going to university at much lower percentages
00:35 than other people who don't have those disadvantages.
00:39 So if we're going to have growth, the growth is going to have to rely heavily on equity
00:43 students wanting to go to university, being qualified to go and succeeding at university.
00:50 And that's why we need the needs-based funding to manage that.
00:53 It's also calling to boost tertiary attainment rates nationally to 80% and would effectively
00:58 create a demand-driven system for disadvantaged students.
01:01 The University's Accord said failing to increase student numbers will do lasting damage to
01:05 Australia's prospects of national economic success, as well as damage social cohesion
01:10 by locking out certain groups from higher paid jobs.
01:14 Also among the recommendations are calls to double the number of university places, force
01:18 institutions to pay those doing compulsory placements, and increase the tertiary attainment
01:22 target to 80% and abolish the former coalition government's failed job-ready graduates policy.
01:28 But with reforms this big, the federal government won't be able to do it all at once, says Federal
01:32 Education Minister Jason Clare.
01:34 My job now is to work through that report with my colleagues and identify what are the
01:39 top priorities that we need to implement first that are going to help to make sure that we
01:43 build the skills that we need, that we grow together not apart, that we help more young
01:47 people from poor families and the suburbs and the bush to get a crack at university
01:52 and get a chance to go to TAFE and to make sure that we're also helping students today
01:56 with the cost of living.
01:57 With students, universities and politicians now considering these recommendations for
02:02 change, it's likely we'll need to wait until the federal budget in May to find out just
02:06 how much money the government is willing to put behind these changes.
02:09 [BLANK_AUDIO]