Months ahead of the Universities Accord final report the government is lining up the legislative ducks and political drakes
The Senate Employment and Education Legislation Committee recommends passage of the Bill implementing three recommendations in the Universities Accord Interim Report.
The proposal to extend demand driven funding to Indigenous Australians resident of metro areas (it now applies to rural and regional areas) was never in doubt. “There was overwhelming support,” in hearings and submissions, the Committee report states.
There was also “significant support” for ending the Coalition Government policy of requiring students to pass 50 per cent of subjects to keep their Commonwealth Supported Place.
However, “views were more mixed” on the requirement in the Bill for universities to “enhance” reporting on student progress to focus on those at-risk.
According to the Vommittee, critics focused on the proposed timing for implementation, too little detail on what would be expected from institutions and increased and overlapping admin.
To which the Committee report responds, “on balance, the Committee agrees with those submitters who argued that the requirement is unlikely to be onerous given that monitoring and supporting student success is something that quality higher education providers do already.”
To all of which, Greens committee member Mehreen Faruqi responded that the Bill, “is a missed opportunity to make urgently-needed reforms,” including abolishing the student payment increases and reductions in government contributions to Commonwealth Supported Places in course targeted by the Coalition’s Job Ready Graduates Package.”
As for the Coalition, Senators aren’t supporting an end to the 50 per cent pass requirement, which they argue stops students not suited to HE running up course debt. And they slammed the support for students sections, calling it, “policy on the run. The Parliament is being asked to pass into law a scheme which, in essence, has not been devised.”
They have a point, at least on the basis of the Uni Sydney submission to the inquiry, (“no clear articulation of the policy problem, nor of what a detailed and externally mandated law needs to be applied informally to all providers”, Future Campus, September 6). On Monday the Australian Technology Network supported the Opposition, calling for the student support sections to be deferred.
The pragmatic Mr Clare may defer on points because overall he needs this Bill to pass, as he clears the legislative decks for a smooth adoption of the Accord.
This Bill is part of that, so is the likely Student Ombudsman. Deep in the legislative weeds, he has the Higher Education Standards Panel considering whether the thresholds that TEQSA oversights are sufficient to support students in dealing with universities.
The more Mr Clare does to keep universities under pressure to assist their students, the less VCs can complain about the transformation of post-secondary education the Accord may create. And the less opportunity the Greens will have to present themselves as the sole friend of students. The Greens could combine with the Opposition to demand concessions in the Bill now before the Senate, but choosing to vote with advocates of the 50 per cent pass rule would be a rhetorical gift to the government.
In this case, for Mr Clare, good politics is good policy, and the other way around.
