Coalition denies change in position over caps on university places

Updated

Education Minister Christopher Pyne has denied he is planning to renege on a promise not to restore limits on university places, but has ordered a review because he says evidence suggests "quality is suffering to achieve quantity".

Labor abolished the cap on university places in 2007 to boost access to higher education, especially for people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

But Mr Pyne says the change has led to an "exponential" growth in student numbers and consequent concerns about quality in the sector.

"You must be living in a bubble ... if you think that there is not an issue in universities about whether there are quality issues about the extraordinary number of students being enrolled," he told ABC Local Radio in Adelaide.

Key points Pyne denies he is planning to break his promise not to restore caps on uni places

Labor removed caps in 2007 and said it would help disadvantaged students

Pyne says Coalition will review if uncapped places impact on uni "quality"

He says Coalition is opposed to compulsory student service fees, but they are "not a priority"

The Minister says Australia is at risk of losing its international reputation as a provider of high-standard university education.

"I've said that we will put quality in tertiary education as our number one priority, and that means we need to review the demand-driven system of university places because there is some evidence ... that quality is suffering to achieve quantity," he said.

"It would be madness for us to throw away our international reputation by lessening quality."

And he says there are concerns that students are not doing the right courses.

"There's certainly a lot of evidence that the number of students enrolled has grown exponentially, and whether they have grown in the courses that have a career path is one of the things that we need to carefully consider," he said.

"It would be wrong of the universities and the Commonwealth Government to simply be training people for careers that don't exist."

Opposition says groundwork being laid for funding cuts

But regional universities argue that the system has allowed them to do the opposite.

"The participation in higher education in regional Australia - that is anywhere outside a capital city - is about half that in the capitals," Regional Universities Network executive director Caroline Perkins said.

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Dr Perkins argues University caps will be bad for Australia (ABC News)

"So the uncapped system has enabled universities to put on new courses, particularly in professions where graduates are needed such in allied health, engineering."

Acting Opposition Leader Chris Bowen says the Government is laying the groundwork for funding cuts.

"What the Government is trying to do here is setting up an excuse to cut university funding," he said.

"If you abolish the demand-driven system, you are cutting university funding.

"That clearly wasn't in their savings pre-election, and in fact we were told time and time again that education wouldn't be cut."

Labor says any move to reinstate caps would be a broken promise.

Universities call for full consultation

In an interview with the ABC's 7.30 in July, Mr Pyne said the Coalition had "no plans to restore the cap".

And in a media release in August 2012 Mr Pyne said the Coalition strongly supported the removal of limits on student numbers.

"Reports that this (capping places) is being considered are wrong," Mr Pyne says in the statement.

But the new Minister insists he has not decided to bring back caps and accused the Opposition MP of living in "complete la la land" for arguing against a review.

"I've said that we'll look at whether they're having an impact on quality," Mr Pyne repeated.

Universities Australia (UA) chief executive Belinda Robinson has called for full consultation with the sector but is not yet ready to form a view on whether quality is being compromised by the new system.

"I think it's probably a little bit early to be drawing conclusions about the impact of the demand-driven system on quality, given ... we still have not graduated any of the students from the demand-driven system," she said.

The first students enrolled under the new system are set to graduate next year.

Reports Coalition may scrap compulsory student service fees

The Education Minister has also been fending off questions about whether he intends to scrap compulsory student service fees.

Student union fees were scrapped under the Howard government in 2005 but a "student amenities fee" was brought in by the Gillard government in 2012.

There are reports today that Mr Pyne plans to abolish the fees, but he told ABC Radio it was not a priority.

"We opposed the student amenities fee," he said.

"Is it a priority for the Government? No it's not a priority, but we still remain opposed to the student amenities fee."

Is it a priority for the Government? No it's not a priority, but we still remain opposed to the student amenities fee Education Minister Christopher Pyne

The fee is collected by universities who then pass on the money to student unions to provide various services on campus, including recreation and sporting facilities, subsidised childcare and student welfare and career advice.

The UA's Ms Robinson says the services are "incredibly important" to domestic and international students.

"If they're not paid for through this fee then there will be a question mark as to how these services are to continue to be provided," she said.

National Union of Students President Jade Tyrell says scrapping the fee would devastate university life.

"Students, whether they're distance or local students or students that use services on campus, do actually derive benefits from the fee, the student services and amenity fee - whether its advocacy, legal advice or student media, there's so many ways that they benefit from this fee," she said.

Topics: education, education-industry, educational-resources, university-and-further-education, federal-government, australia

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