Source: PA

Advice sought: education minister Christopher Pyne pledges to consult sector

Critics have accused Australia¡¯s new Coalition government of reneging on pre-election promises to preserve the country¡¯s demand-driven university admissions system.

Christopher Pyne, Australia¡¯s education minister, said in his first public comments since the Liberal-led Coalition defeated Labor last month that his top priorities for higher education would include a review of the demand-driven undergraduate system, as well as ¡°repairing¡± international student recruitment and cutting red tape.

Under Labor, Australia began to abolish quotas on domestic undergraduate places in 2010. Since then, an extra 190,000 students have attended the country¡¯s universities.

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Before the election, the Coalition said it had ¡°no plans¡± to reimpose a numbers cap on admissions. But Mr?Pyne ¨C who will also oversee Australian research after it was moved from the Department of Industry to the Department of Education last week ¨C said he needed to ¡°get good advice¡± about whether Australian higher education had reached ¡°saturation point¡± and whether its reputation for quality was under threat.

Some critics have complained that universities have responded to the demand-driven system by recruiting students with lower high school grades than were previously accepted.

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Former Labor higher education minister Kim Carr cited similar concerns when he announced a review of the system when he returned to office earlier this year.

But acting Labor leader Chris Bowen said Mr Pyne¡¯s remarks to Australian media indicated that the government aimed to ¡°set up an excuse to cut university funding¡±.

Jeannie Rea, president of the National Tertiary Education Union, said the minister¡¯s comments confirmed her prediction that a Coalition government ¡°would take an axe¡± to funding and scrap widening participation targets.

Mr?Pyne insisted that a policy review was merely what ¡°any responsible incoming government¡± would do, and pledged to consult the sector over any changes.

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Belinda Robinson, chief executive of Universities Australia, said it was ¡°healthy¡± to review existing policies, but added that it would be premature to draw conclusions about the demand-driven system¡¯s effects on quality before anyone had graduated from it.

Mr Pyne also said he would not continue Labor¡¯s drive for 40 per cent of 25- to 34-year-olds to have degrees by 2025 and for 20 per cent of undergraduates to come from poor backgrounds by 2020.

¡°My aspiration is to get as many people doing university education as want to do it and can do it effectively to maintain quality,¡± he said.

But he ruled out imposing minimum entry standards for undergraduates, a policy previously proposed by Australia¡¯s elite Group of Eight universities.

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On international student recruitment, which has fallen by around 20?per cent in recent years, Mr?Pyne said he would look at streamlining the visa process and increasing post-study work rights.

He also pledged to lighten the load imposed on universities by the?country¡¯s fledgling Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. He said the body had ¡°gone from being a risk-based assessment of higher education institutions into a one-size-fits-all approach¡± that stifled creativity.

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paul.jump@tsleducation.com