“There’s a myth that universities are awash with money,” Universities Australia chief Luke Sheehy says. A new UA statement sets out how dire things are.
A third of public universities are running at a loss and collectively, their capacity to invest in teaching and research is “constrained,” according to UA, in its financial state of the system report at its annual conference, yesterday.
UA warns members face an “elevated risk” of job losses and were forced to face government and community expectations “with shrinking discretionary resources.” And it lays the blame squarely at the feet of the Commonwealth Government; reporting that supported student places (623,500) are up 2% on 2017, while funding on each place is down 6% “in real terms.” They project funding growth by CSP to mainly cover inflation only.
But sector-wide funding will disguise the impact on universities which will lose places as the Government “rebalances” allocations to meet equity targets. There is also “substantial institutional variation” in international student income post-COVID. “What is clear is
that for the past three decades, growth in international enrolments has supported unfunded and underfunded expenses, including research, digital and physical infrastructure, less in demand discipline teaching and compliance costs,” UA states.
The lobby also laments what it warns is real dollar flat funding for both research support and training since 2014; apart from a government COVID emergency injection of $1bn to block grants. Overall, UA argues fields covered by the Australian Research Council have taken the hit; down 18%; while combined NHMRC and Medical Research Future Fund grants grew 65%, 2014-24.
“As revenues from both domestic and international students tighten, universities’ ability to sustain Australia’s research effort from general funds is likely to diminish further,” UA warns.
The lobby also reports EFT staffing is marginally down on its pre-pandemic peak; 137,000 in 2019. However, there is no mention of the impact on the new round of enterprise bargaining; with the National Tertiary Education Union asking for a 20% (flat) payrise across the system over three years and extending 17% super to casuals.
Overall, UA argues, “the message is clear — universities face ongoing financial constraint and uncertainty. A realistic understanding of these pressures is essential if the sector is to emerge from this turbulent period and continue to deliver for the nation and the growth ambitions of the Universities Accord.”
That maybe UA-speak for telling journalists who report headline earning to shut the EFT up.
The HE convention is to strip out one-off earnings and income tied to specific programs in stating results. However, this creates another media opportunity – asking if university managements are incompetent. In 2023 the University of Sydney reported a $9m underlying loss on $3.4bn earnings.
In a bright budget note, Education Minister Jason Clare used the Universities Australia conference to announce a UA-Department of Education working group “to reduce red tape and improve efficiency.” This is perhaps the lowest-cost announcement at a major event he has ever made. Except, that is, for the price to hire the MCG to accommodate meetings of agencies, from ATEC to WEGA which will have a patch to protect.
In exchange for allowing bureaucracy to be occasionally streamlined, Minister Clare has extracted a quid pro quo, requiring transparency around VC pay and money spent on consultants, as well as a national code to prevent and respond to sexual violence at unis. It says a lot about the power of the public poll that VC pay is scrutinised, but other executives can pocket stunning paypackets without any hint of scrutiny or transparency.