A group of universities is ramping up pressure on crossbench senators to pass higher education changes, saying a cut to funding without giving institutions a chance to recoup the money would be disastrous.



A Coalition dominated Senate committee looking at the changes released its report on Tuesday, in which it threw support behind elements of the bill and opened the possibility of negotiating on a few other controversial proposals.

The government announced a decrease in funding for the education sector with a view of offsetting the cuts by removing price caps so universities could set their own fees.

Tertiary education groups have warned Labor and crossbench senators to choose wisely when voting on the bill.

“We urge the Senate to pass these reforms,” John Dewar, the chair of Innovative Research Universities, a network of seven higher education institutions, said.

“Without them, the sector faces a worrying an uncertain future. Our senators face a heavy burden. I hope they choose wisely and choose to leave a lasting legacy for the nation.”

“To have our funding cut by 20%, with no opportunity to make up that loss from other sources would be a disaster, an absolute disaster,” Dewar said. He also said that the funding decrease would impact on both students and staff employment rates.

Ian Young, the chair of the Group of Eight, which represents the elite “sandstone” universities, said it would be the absolute worst case scenario to cut funding but not pass deregulation.

It would be “truly disastrous for our universities. This would place us in a crisis situation,” he said.

The funding cut is linked with other changes, but the tertiary education sector is concerned that the government will carry on with the cut even if the changes aren’t passed.

It has also expressed its concerns on proposed changes to the indexation of the Higher Education Loan Program (Help) debts, sentiments echoed by the education committee.

The report released by the committee on Tuesday said the government should reconsider the indexation of Help debts to the government bond rate rather than the consumer price index.

It said it stakeholders in the sector had “expressed grave and specific concerns about the impact the proposed changes to the indexation of Help debts would have on women”.

The creation of a structural adjustment fund to help ease the transition into deregulation was also proposed in the report.

The committee also recommended that the government look into ways to recover student debt from Australians living abroad.

Labor has rejected the package of changes, and released a dissenting report along with the Greens to counteract the committee report.

Labor’s spokesman for higher education, Kim Carr, said on Wednesday that the committee’s concern about indexation shows the committee “recognised the inherent unfairness of the government’s proposals.”

The fate of the bill will depend on whether the government can negotiate its passage with the crossbench. Labor and the Greens have expressed their opposition to the bill, as has the head of the Palmer United party, Clive Palmer.

“I’ve been very impressed by the arguments of Joe Hockey on YouTube where he said we should have free university fees,” Palmer said, referring to footage of the treasurer as a university student in the 1980s.

“He’s won me over so we’ll have to vote against it.”

Palmer said he was concerned about equity of access to tertiary education for low-income students.

Some in the university sector do not think that increasing fees will lock out poorer students.

David Lloyd, the head of the Australian Technology Network, which represents the five technology universities, said fee deregulation and ongoing equity of access were not mutually exclusive.

Dewar said: “The cost to students of coming to university is supported through an income contingent, government backed loan scheme … we wouldn’t support the package were it not for the government proposing to continue that scheme,”