Academic and policy leaders gather in Adelaide to discuss higher education funding

Thursday, 17 July 1997

Education and economics researchers and senior policy administrators from around the world will gather in Adelaide early next week to discuss Australia's hottest education topic-who should pay for tertiary education?

The Funding Higher Education: Performance and Diversity conference has attracted senior representatives of federal government departments, members of the West Committee currently reviewing Australian higher education, the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee, universities, unions and student organisations.

The conference is sponsored by the Universities of Adelaide and Western Australia and the Department for Employment, Training and Youth Affairs.

Organiser Professor Jonathan Pincus of the University of Adelaide says the issue of who should fund higher education is currently one of the most important public debates in Australia. The conference will focus on the policy choices for government about universities and their funding, and on funding strategies available to universities.

Professor Pincus and Professor Paul Miller of the University of Western Australia will present a joint proposal on the funding of undergraduate education in Australia.

Other speakers include Professor David Breneman, the author of six books and numerous reports on higher education funding, on privatising public universities; John Siegfried, Professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University, and David Round, applied economist and Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Adelaide on pricing of courses, and Nicholas Barr of the London School of Economics on market forces in higher education in the United Kingdom.

Media coverage of the conference is welcome.

• Time and date: Tuesday 22 July 1997, 8.45am-6pm
• Venue: Stamford Plaza Hotel, North Terrace, Adelaide
• Further information: Professor Jonathan Pincus, (08) 8303 4664 or Miss Jan Holmes, (08) 8303 4460

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