A recent report on higher education in Australia that proposes a dramatic reduction in the role of the government is encountering a storm of criticism from students, professors, and researchers. The aim of the report, submitted by the Higher Education Review Committee to the education ministry, was to point the way to broadening the availability of higher education in the face of recent heavy funding cuts. But no one seems happy with the result.
"We told the government that if you adopt any of this, you'll have outright war," says John Carey, president of the National Union of Students. A central proposal of the report would involve replacing government grants to colleges, universities, and technical colleges with a system of student vouchers. Australian students, accustomed to heavily subsidized education, might have to ante up about two-thirds of the money for their education under the proposal, according to Jason Wood, general secretary of the Australian National University's Students Union.
University administrators aren't happy either, according to Fay Gale, vice chancellor of the University of Western Australia and president of the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee. Their biggest concern is increased uncertainty about their income from year to year.
Researchers, too, are upset. While the report says that university research needs "bolstering," it offers no strategy for doing this. Instead, Gale worries that "too much emphasis on market forces"--meaning the amount of government money that goes to schools will depend on how many students they have--will be detrimental. "All of this country's research is done through academia. There is virtually no private industry funding for basic research," she says. Physicist Erich Weigold, director of the Australian National University's Research School of Physical Science and Engineering, worries that the government "is attempting to get rid of its responsibility."
Education Minister David Kemp has already distanced himself from the voucher proposal. At a 19 November conference at the University of New South Wales, committee chair Roderick West said the revised version of the report, due in March, will address issues raised by critics and devote more attention to research.
