Ed Affair

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.