AUSTRALIA: Ministerial mess for higher education

For a brief time last week, Australia was without a federal Minister of Education. It was yet another weird byproduct of the most bizarre election in Australian history and media commentators pointed to the peculiarity of Australia joining Canada as the only two countries that had universities in the top 100 rankings but no education minister with that title.

In drawing up her 30-strong new ministry last weekend, Prime Minister Julia Gillard nominated a former pop star as Minister for Schools but gave no-one responsibility for the entire A$33 billion-a-year (US$31 billion) education system with its vast complex matrix of pre-schools, schools, technical institutes and universities.

Did it slip Gillard's mind when she was working on her ministry line-up that she had failed to nominate anyone to assume her former role as Education Minister?

It seemed unlikely but how else to explain why schools was given its own minister yet post-secondary education ended up with a schizophrenic arrangement in which vocational education and universities were not only divided between two ministers but that higher education itself was split asunder?

Former Immigration Minister Chris Evans was given the Ministry of Jobs, Skills and Workplace Relations that suddenly included vocational education and the undergraduate side of university life.

For his part, Senator Kim Carr retained his old title of Minister for Innovation, Industry and Science which happened to take in postgraduate studies as well.

Administering a unified national system of higher education by two different ministries, each having a mixture of different roles and responsibilities, was a novel approach but it smacked more of carelessness and a rush to allocate tasks.

And it could have had disastrous consequences for a sector that generates up to $12 billion a year for the economy from foreign students alone.

The Gillard government will allocate $8.1 billion this financial year to higher education but even more, $8.8 billion, to private schools and only $7.6 billion to state schools. Yet while schools will have its own minister and ministry, higher education is to be administered by two multi-faceted bureaucracies headed by different politicians.

Who could have believed an entire university sector could be divided into undergraduates and postgraduates, as if they were the equivalent of schools and technical colleges? Who could imagine that, at a time when Australia needs closer links between secondary and postsecondary education, that each could be hived off into separate ministries - or that higher education itself could also be sliced in two?

Problems over who is actually in charge of universities appeared to arise when first Evans and then Carr each said he was the boss. Yet at a time when higher education faces serious challenges - the collapse in the export education market being only one - universities need one guiding hand, not two fighting over the tiller.

The higher education lobby groups could hardly hide their dismay at the ludicrousness of the new bifurcated system. The vice-chancellors' collective, Universities Australia, described its reaction as one of disappointment and mystification that the new ministry did not include a cabinet position with 'education' in its title, "given how front and central the education agenda is for the government".

UA Chief Executive Dr Glen Withers thought that an education revolution which did not use the word 'education' in a ministerial title seemed to miss the point somewhat and "could be seen to devalue the role of our universities in Australian cultural, social and economic life".

Professor Peter Coaldrak, chair of the collective and Vice-chancellor of the Queensland University of Technology, said complaints about the absence of any reference to higher education in the two ministries might be seen to some as merely symbolic "but symbols are powerful in shaping perceptions.

"We are concerned that the omission of a reference to education may signal to the Australian people an inadequate understanding of the wider role of higher education in Australia, and some narrowness of focus from the government," Coaldrake declared.

"Higher education is a significant contributor to skills and jobs but it contributes so much more to the Australian people through wider educational outcomes for the nation. This deserves formal recognition."

Subject to criticism on all sides, Gillard acted and announced that 'Tertiary Education' would be added to the increasingly lengthy title of Evans' ministry. It will now be called the Ministry for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations.

Critics thought that linking tertiary education with skills and jobs implied that that was all universities were good for and were appalled.

Thankful for small mercies, though, Coaldrake applauded the decision, saying it sent "a crystal clear and reinforcing message to Australia that tertiary education is of critical importance to the building of our nation".

The Group of Eight research intensive universities, however, said clarification was needed as to which minister had responsibility for postgraduate coursework policy and funding.

The group noted that under the previous arrangements, Carr had responsibility for research higher degrees but that all undergraduate and postgraduate coursework programmes were Gillard's responsibility. But, after forming her minority government, she had said Evans would be responsible for undergraduate and Carr for postgraduate education.

"Does Senator Carr now have responsibility for policy and funding for postgraduate coursework diplomas and masters degrees? Will domestic postgraduate students studying for a first professional qualification continue to be eligible for funding under the Commonwealth Supported Places scheme? Will postgraduate coursework places continue to be part of the student demand-driven approach adopted by the government following the Bradley Review?" the group asked publicly.

"The answers to these questions are important for student and institutional decision-making."