Unis welcome Pyne's new reform bid
Universities have welcomed signs the Government may back down on slashing higher education funding by 20 per cent as a trade-off for winning Senate support for deregulating tuition fees.
But the move could wipe out any immediate Budget savings and has failed to find favour with key crossbenchers, with one claiming the Government could do nothing to fix a "turd" of a policy.
As part of the Government's higher education reform package, it has proposed cutting course funding to universities by 20 per cent.
The mooted cut though has proved unpopular, with universities arguing they cannot afford to lose money, and given opponents ammunition to argue it would lead to $100,000 degrees because student fees would rocket as institutions tried to make up the funding.
The Government has had its reform package voted down once by the Senate despite offering $3.5 billion of concessions to crossbenchers. The revised package as it stands would save just $451 million over the forward estimates.
Education Minister Christopher Pyne yesterday indicated he was prepared to go further and scale back the 20 per cent cut. "They are part of the negotiation with the crossbenchers because the deregulation is vitally important," Mr Pyne said.
Mr Pyne still faces an uphill battle with crossbenchers unswayed by his latest offering.
The Palmer United Party's two senators are split on the merits of deregulating fees.
WA Senator Dio Wang said he supported deregulation in principle and the backdown over the course fee cut was an improvement in the Government's position.
But he said the Government needed to keep a $100 million adjustment fund for regional universities to help them to adapt to a deregulated environment where universities could set their own fees.
PUP Senate leader Glenn Lazarus said as far as he was concerned he and Senator Wang would vote against deregulation.
"You can polish a turd as long as you want - it's always going to be a turd," Senator Lazarus said.
Murdoch University acting vice-chancellor Andrew Taggart said a 20 per cent cut to course funding would be hard not to pass on to students.
"If they went for a 10 per cent cut, that would give us more flexibility around fees," he said.
