From the Vice-Chancellor: Education evolution

Vice-Chancellor

We've been calling on the Federal Government to put its money where its mouth is.

The Government promised us an "Education Revolution" but as the Budget approached and the fallout from the global financial crisis continued, it looked likely that the revolution might be put on hold.

Pre-Budget predictions and leaks of massive deficits gave plenty of advance warning that we weren't going to be getting the multi-billion-dollar investment university teaching and research needs in this country.

Well, the Budget has arrived and the warnings were partially correct. We didn't get anywhere near the funding we need to put Australian higher education firmly onto the world stage at the highest levels, or to achieve the outcomes identified in the recent Review of Australian Higher Education. However, what we did get was a series of significant initiatives moving in the right direction and promising substantial and real change. There will be extra operational funding but much of it will be delayed until 2012/13. Given the state of the economy, perhaps we couldn't have expected more.

The 2009 Federal Budget gave a very high priority to higher education. It gave a clear indication that universities will play a critical role in the future of Australia and that investment in university teaching and research is vital for our economic recovery. It also includes initiatives to improve access and equity and provides incentives towards greater diversification of the sector.

Increased funding for teaching and research with improved indexation is very welcome, although we will have to wait some years to receive this benefit. The commitment and moves towards meeting the full costs of research is something I, and many others, have been calling for over a long time. These moves will help underpin teaching quality and research capability and competitiveness, and provide much-needed investment in higher education.

I can't pretend we wouldn't have liked to receive additional infrastructure funding from Round 2 of the Education Investment Fund. Indeed, South Australia would have liked some. Our proposals were strong and in areas of State and national priority. But there's no doubt at least, that health and medical research in South Australia stands to benefit from the $200m for the State's new health and medical research institute. That will facilitate significant growth in our world-class medical research activity and bring health benefits to the wider community. And we will certainly be pursuing our own bids in future rounds.

The improvements in student income support - including extending support to all masters by coursework programs and increasing the Australian postgraduate award stipends - are commendable.

There also appear to be plenty of further opportunities for the University of Adelaide within the Budget, with its focus on climate change initiatives and clean and renewable energy. The Regional Partnerships Program will link universities with disadvantaged schools. The proposed Collaborative Research Networks and Cancer Centres to be located in each State are other positive outcomes for the higher education sector.

Some of the new initiatives will need working through - the new performance funding stream and the mission-based compacts, for example - and we look forward to further consultation on these areas. I take heart, though, in Education Minister Julia Gillard's promise that there will be less red tape and micromanagement.

So, it was a pretty good Budget for difficult times. An Education Revolution? Not yet, but certainly the Government has started a process of reform which shows great promise. They have set us in the right direction for global competitiveness in research and innovation, and they have shown that they actually care about such things. That in itself is a big step forward.

PROFESSOR JAMES A. McWHA
Vice-Chancellor and President