Education Minister Jason Clare has released the final report of the Australian Universities Accord. Led by Dr Mary O’Kane, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Adelaide, the panel included former Nationals Minister Fiona Nash as well as former Labor Minister Jenny Macklin alongside other experts.
The report is the largest review of the sector since 2008, taking into account 820 public submissions, as well as 180 meetings with stakeholders.
The Accord originated as a pre-election promise in 2021 by then-Shadow Minister for Education Tanya Plibersek who wanted “to end some of the political bickering over higher education policy by establishing an Australian University Accord.”
An interim report was released in July 2023, containing 70 policy ideas which ranged from a levy on international students to expanded measures to attract and maintain regional and Indigenous students at university.
O’Kane called on the panel to “be bold. Think big and think beyond the immediate challenges.”
This report outlines numerous policy objectives accompanied by quantifiable targets for 2050. The goals are split into the following categories: increasing skills through equity, improving the student experience, building on quality research and systematic changes.
Some targets for 2050 set by the government include:
Skills and equity
- Lifting the tertiary attainment rate of the working-age population from 60% to 80%
- Increasing the proportion of university-educated Australians aged 25-34 from 45% to 55%
- Students from underrepresented minority backgrounds (First Nations students, students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, disabled students and students from a regional or rural area) must have a university participation rate proportionate to the Australian population
- Establishment of a National Regional University and expansion of the regional Study Hubs program
- Standardising career advice frameworks given to students all over the nation
Student experience
- Replacing the Jobs Ready Graduate package with a student-contribution system based on potential lifetime earnings, and modifying Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) loans to reduce financial burdens of repayment
- Adjusting criteria to student welfare payments to increase access
- Reducing placement poverty by providing financial support
- Establishment of a National Student Charter and National Student Ombudsman for Student Safety
Research
- Establishment of a new research fund for universities
- Planning for government operations and policy to rely more on tertiary-level research
- Increasing the number of doctoral candidates employed in their field of research
Systematic changes
- Establishment of an Australian Tertiary Education Commission to provide leadership for systematic changes
- Establishment of an internal First Nations council to advise ministers
- Developing a new funding model which prices the cost of teaching based on its discipline
Some of the most controversial aspects of the Interim Report like the international student levy which Universities Australia (UA) and the Group of Eight (Go8) called a tax on success have been dropped in the final report. The levy was also expected to reduce the amount of international students studying in Australia.
Clare emphasised in a statement that implementing any of these recommendations would take years: “This is a plan not for one budget, but a blueprint for the next decade and beyond.”
He highlighted that in the future “we will need 80% of the workforce to not just finish high school, we will need them to finish TAFE or university as well.”
This new report does not suggest a direct implementation of its recommendations, but rather it initially calls for a committee to oversee all reforms and explicitly wants a “staged approach.”
Clare has had the report since December and the government is “considering the recommendations.”
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) said in a statement that it welcomed the report, finding that “consistently high rates of casualisation” have negatively impacted the sector.
National NTEU President Dr Alison Barnes called the report “ambitious” and said it “has the potential to create better universities but only if it is implemented correctly and funded properly.”
She also argued that “rolling back the unfair and poorly designed Job Ready Graduates scheme” was an essential part of future reform.
The NTEU also highlighted First Nations equity and funding the Higher Education Future Fund as a core part of the report that needed to be implemented.
UA Chair Professor David Lloyd said in a statement that the report “is an important piece of work coming at a time when our universities require the full support of government to continue delivering for the nation.”
The statement also argued that “a report of this scale, nature, and consequence requires appropriate and thorough interrogation and reflection as we consider what we would like to see prioritised in the government’s response.”
