With the ATEC Bill introduced to Parliament last week, sector analysts have been scrutinising how the new regulator will work and who will control it – with Jason Clare poised to be puppet master under the legislation put forward.
The Australian Tertiary Education Commission was originally proposed in the Accord as an independent statutory authority, but HE policy guru, Monash University Professor Andrew Norton points out in his latest analysis that the new entity that is far from independent.
ATEC will take the lead on administering mission-based compacts with individual institutions, and is required through the legislation to take the Minister’s priorities into account when developing its own strategy.
Staff supporting ATEC will be departmental employees and the Minister will have a significant say over the new Commission’s agenda.
“The ATEC will not be some benign ‘buffer body’ between the government and the universities. It is there to implement the government’s agenda,” Professor Norton writes.
“But compared to the current HESA 2003 funding agreements and ESOS rules it puts the minister at a distance from operational details at the provider level.”
Professor Norton also said it appeared unlikely that ATEC would take action to significantly alter the current Job Ready Graduates (JRG) fee structure that Mr Clare has perpetuated after inheriting it from the Morrison Government. He notes that ATEC cannot advise on student contributions without a Government request and the legislation focuses on the Commonwealth’s contribution, rather than the student contribution to study.
“ATEC will not have any independent authority to advise on a new funding system,” Professor Norton notes.
Noting that relative course fees have been set recently according to political judgements, he said the new legislation offered little hope that fees would be independently set.
“We had been led to believe that ATEC would do something about excessively high student contributions. That now seems less likely,” he said