Australia needs a new education revolution, a new approach encompassing the whole of the education system because universities alone cannot solve the nation's educational problems, according to federal Education Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Speaking at the University of Melbourne, Gillard said Australia had to start again with a system-wide approach that would invest in the early years when social inequality was already entrenching itself.

"We know, for instance, that by age three, the average child of a professional couple has a vocabulary of 1,100 words and an IQ of 117, while the average child of parents receiving welfare has a vocabulary of 525 words and an IQ of 79," she said. "So the more we invest early, the greater the educational improvements we can make."

But Gillard said significant reform was needed in the nation's universities and what she called the "one over-arching problem" facing universities was the stagnating levels of public funding. While public investment in tertiary education increased by 49.4% across the OECD in the decade to 2005, in Australia it increased by zero percent.

"In that time, Australia's share of public expenditure on tertiary institutions fell from nearly two-thirds to less than a half. But while we're pleased our universities have been able to increase their own sources of funding, this should have enabled them to significantly increase quality, not just make up for the public shortfall."

Her comments have special relevance as a committee she established to review the higher education system is preparing its final report. That report is expected to call for widespread changes across the entire sector and Gillard appeared to be foreshadowing some of the government's likely responses.

Discussing how universities had been forced to find more money from non-government sources, she said this meant the last decade of strong economic growth had been a massive wasted opportunity for universities. And, as the institutions had confronted funding challenges so had their researchers.

The other crucial task, then, was to promote research excellence. But while the links between knowledge production through research and development and productivity and economic growth were well known, other nations were leaping ahead of Australia. Australia's R&D investment had declined by a quarter as a proportion of GDP over the past 10 years and its scientific publications had increased by just 2%.

"The Bradley review presents us with a unique opportunity to refashion universities and the broader tertiary education system to meet the needs of the future," Gillard said. "For too long this nation has lacked a strategic vision of what we want our universities and tertiary education system to look like and achieve in 10 and 20 years time."

Gillard said she wanted to create a system where the right incentives existed for universities to provide the best possible education to all young people, a system which properly supported individuals to study so they were able to invest in their human capital over the course of their lives.

"But ultimately, achieving change is about more than the actions of government, though the actions of government matter. Valuing our universities, valuing academia, valuing the pursuit of knowledge is about the thoughts, actions and instincts of our whole society," she said.

* See our Features section for an edited version of Gillard's graduation address.

geoff.maslen@uw-news.com


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