Ed Affair

In a follow-up to an earlier post about the decline in university enrolments, there has been more written about this trend in today’s broadsheet newspapers. The Australian has reported that it is the regional universities that are experiencing under-enrolments and are consequently needing to lower entry scores for courses in order to meet federal government quotas. As The Age stated

“If universities fail to meet student quotas, they face the prospect of losing financing.”

Entrance scores for some courses have now dropped to the 50s across NSW, Victoria and Western Australia at smaller universities as students listed metropolitan universities as their first preference. In Western Australia, the strong employment market in the resources sector has led to many students not re-enrolling in favour of high salary packages being offered. The drop in entrance scores has been criticised by Brendan Nelson, who feels it is compromising the standard levels of universities.

This is a dilemma for universities as they struggle to comply with government regulations

“The mixed messages are confusing, not least for university managers as they grapple with the new regime and try to second guess the commonwealth’s response to non-compliance.”

This shift away from regional universities may lead to Nelson proposing to put in place an American-style structure where students enrol in general undergraduate courses conducted at smaller universities and then move to the sandstone universities to complete postgraduate professional courses. This move has already been undertaken by the University of Melbourne as the South China Morning Post (3/12/05) reports. As it is mainly undergraduate courses that are HECS funded, this seems like an attractive solution to cash-strapped universities as post-graduates have to pay full fees which in some cases mean outlays of up to $100,000.

There is opposition to such a move:

“The Melbourne announcement was attacked by academic and student groups as well as professional organisations worried the extra time needed to complete two degrees would worsen Australia’s skills shortage.”

and

“Labour Party said it was very concerned that further Americanisation of the university sector would put a high-quality education out of the reach of many Australians.”

It seems that Brendan Nelson needs to take another look at the direction of Australian universities and devise policies that keep universities sustainable without compromising standards. Did the passing of VSU do that?

It seems that when there is a slow news week in education, the rise in school fees - especially in private school fees - always guarantees some noise in the media. An article by SMH (31/12/05) called “School fees lock in the smartest”, reported that some private schools are asking parents to

“pay huge, non-refundable enrolment fees more than a year in advance, in a move critics say is aimed at keeping the smartest students away from selective public schools.”

With the number of year 6 students sitting for the selective high school exams increasing and becoming more competitive, private schools are resorting to this method in an effort to lock in the more academically-gifted students that have private schools as their alternative choice. This in turn reflects well on the school when these students perform well in state-wide exams such as the HSC.

As well as asking for high enrolment fees, annual fees have also risen at Sydney’s top private schools with Shore passing the $20,000 a year mark and The King’s School and Sydney Grammar close behind. The schools cite building repairs and salary costs of additional teachers to reduce class sizes as the main reasons for the increase.

An article by the Guardian late last year stated that Australia was the country of choice for Asian international students due to cheaper fees, cheaper cost of living and their desire to settle here after they had finished studying. The US and UK in the meantime experienced a drop in applications because of the London bombings and the US clampdown on foreign students after September 11.

But in a few short months this sentiment has changed, as The Australian reports.

“The boom in overseas students studying in Australian universities appears to be at an end as global security fears and the rising dollar make this country less appealing internationally”

Another factor is that Asian countries in the Asia-Pacific region are starting to invest more into universities, making it more attractive for students to study locally. This is a concerning factor for Australian universities as international students have become a critical source of income, especially as government funding has declined. The passing of VSU legislation will mean that many of the services offered by universities will cease, making them even less attractive to foreign students.

The US on the otherhand, has just announced a review of the number of student visas issued as well as a new language initiative for schools to teach “non-traditional” languages such as Chinese, Arabic, Hindi and Farsi. This is new initiative is being undertaken in the interest of national security as the Bush government has discovered there is a shortage of Americans who speak these languages. In the words of Bush

“Learning somebody else’s language is a kind gesture, and a gesture of interest. It is a fundamental way to reach out to somebody and say, ‘I care about you.’ I want you to know that I’m interested in not only how you talk but how you live.”

Already, Chinese language centres called the Confucius Institute, are aligning themselves with US universities such as the University of Maryland with five others expected to open soon and twelve more are under discussion.

It is quite astounding to note that while the US has a higher number of immigrants from many more countries than Australia, it is only now that they are providing resources and programs to educate people about different nationalities. Obviously Hispanic culture is the most dominant in the US but for a country that prides itself on being ahead of everyone else, they seem a bit slow on the uptake in this case.

The push for more students into full-fee paying university courses by the Federal Government does not seem to be working as The Australian reported last week. The number of students applying for tertiary education courses has dropped since last year and the number of students enrolling in full-fee courses has plateaued. The drop can also be attributed to an increase in the cost of university courses, even through HECs and any financial assistance from the Government simply does not cover the cost of attending university especially for those that also need to pay rent and other expenses.

The increase in the cost of tertiary education is being felt overseas as well, as the The Guardian and The Times report. The Blair Government has introduced top-up fees of £3000, up from £1,700 which has led to a drop in the number of applicants to universities, especially the smaller ones. Although they have a similar HECs style repayment system, i.e. paying off uni fees after starting full-time work, the initial layout is providing a deterrant to recent high school graduates.

It is possible that this drop off in university enrolments could continue into the next decade, as an article in The Australian predicts.

“Young adults, impatient with school dependency, rejecting more years of “just learning”, headed to flexible employers anxious for their services. University enrolments dropped; creative work-based edu-ventures emerged.”

With the competition for graduate positions in certain fields such as law and business growing fiercer, it is possible that there may be more students studying part-time, while working full time in order to tailor their educational qualifications to meet employer expectations. This in turn will change the structure of the university system, especially if the trend towards overseas universities establishing campuses in Australia and vice-versa becomes a policy of the universities and government

“Born global” high-achiever Australians are enrolling in Asian or US enterprises, over there or at branches here. They will pay for international education that gives them an edge in networking and career. By 2010, our new elite seven universities noticed many bright and young students heading overseas for first degrees (with travel deals keeping family close) rather than spend three years in a “local”.

If education policy continues in the same direction it seems to be headed, it seems that the gap between the well-off and the not-so well-off will widen in terms of the number of opportunities that are available to university students.