Extra Places for University Students
You will be aware that the University of Sydney has decided to close down its nurse training work. This is not because we do not need more trained nurses, but because each University is being encouraged to concentrate on doing what they can do best, and allow others to build new specialities.
Sometimes it is hard to sort the truth when you see politically inspired student protests. I am sure that most students do not understand some additional benefits being provided for them at University. They take everything for granted and have expectations beyond reality. For example I can guarantee that not one university student listening tonight know some of the changes impacting the funding of Universities recent announced by the Commonwealth.
Dr Brendon Nelson recently announced that approximately $2.6 billion to be allocated to the tertiary education sector over the next five years. Some $11 billion will be delivered to universities over the next decade, providing them with sustainability, the flexibility to diversify, and greater opportunities to promote quality and equity, including access to universities.
There will be a new Commonwealth Grants Scheme involving $838 million to provide funding to institutions according to what they provide. The additional funding represents a 2.5 per cent annual increase between 2005 and 2007.
Universities now determine their own Higher Education Contribution Scheme [HECS] fees from zero to a maximum of 25 per cent. Fees for the 14 per cent of students doing nursing and teaching will be frozen and will not increase.
Institutions will have additional flexibility to increase the number of fee-paying students in their courses from the current maximum of 25 per cent to 35 per cent from 2005. Fee-paying students will now have access to a loan under the FEE-HELP Program-a loan to which students do not have access at the moment.
Additional support is to be provided for students. Commonwealth learning scholarships will involve the expenditure of $327 million over five years. Nearly 40,000 new scholarships will be provided to students over the next five years through two new scholarship programs to assist rural, regional and indigenous students from low socioeconomic backgrounds with costs associated with higher education. The Commonwealth education costs scholarships will provide successful students with $2,000 per year for four years to assist with their educational costs.
The Commonwealth accommodation scholarships will provide successful students with $4,000 per year for four years to assist with the costs of studying away from home.
More than 22,500 of these scholarships will be offered over the next five years with 17,000 being able to access the living away from home allowances..
The Commonwealth research scholarships will involve expenditure of $2 million over 2006 to 2008. The Australian Postgraduates Awards Scheme will be enhanced by providing additional scholarships to match anticipated population growth from 2006. Aboriginal students are not forgotten with additional funding to be provided under the Indigenous Support Fund. There will be more support for disabled students.
The new university places package will provide more than 34,000 new university places by 2008.
That is why I spoke in Parliament opposing a Labor Party motion condemning the Commonwealth Government on its planned changes to higher education funding,
I said,
“I place on record my appreciation because as a post-high school student I was able to access university education through the then Commonwealth scholarship schemes. Over the years I have continued in tertiary education and I am extremely interested in this field.I cannot go along with the motion, nor can the Christian Democratic Party, to condemn the Howard Government for its planned changes to higher education.
I make the point that all of us want to see further tertiary education and further Government funding for education. Earlier this year the Federal Minister for Education, Science and Training announced that approximately 30,000 students who are over enrolled in Australian universities now have some new opportunities.
These students who are over enrolled in Australian universities are receiving about only one-quarter of the public funding the students enrolled up to the benchmark level would expect to receive and attract. As a result of the new formulation, these over enrolled students now have a better opportunity to obtain university education.
You are aware that within Australia’s major universities, not just the elite sandstone universities, students are frequently jammed into lecture theatres and other rooms where there is not enough room. During the past four or five years, universities have been over enrolling students.
More recently, the number of over enrolments has been curtailed because the universities have realised that that has diminished the quality of education. At a cost of $540 million, 25,000 places will be added to Australian universities. Funding for those places will be distributed across Australia and will make a huge difference. I congratulate the Federal Government on the formulation of the new programs.
THSI IS GORDON MOYES.
