Budget offers little relief on university funding
By Shelly Simonds The 1998 Federal Budget released last week, does not restore funding already lost by the higher education sector, but the ANU can take solace in the fact that no new cuts were announced. Operating grants for universities in 1998­1999 will be $3.7 billion as previously announced, compared to $3.85 billion for 1997­1998. Operating grants are set to fall over the next few years to 3.49 billion by 2001. The National Tertiary Education Industry Union (NTEU) said there was nothing to celebrate in the announcement. The Union said there were 4,740 fewer funded Government places in Australian universities in 1998 than in 1996 and participation by mature-age students had fallen by 10 per cent because of fee increases. ANU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deane Terrell, said he was pleased there would be no further cuts to education, but noted there were two areas of financial stress for universities which needed addressing. "In the lead up to the election we must be aware of the difficulties that will face universities in ensuring they properly fund the next round of enterprise bargaining," he said. A second area of concern was for research and research training. Prof Terrell expressed hope that the Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Dr David Kemp, would announce new initiatives and financial commitments in research prior to the election. Dr Peter Pockley, visiting fellow in the ANU's Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, said the budget left science funding in a steady state for 1998­1999, but that there was an overall trend toward decreased funding into the new millennium. He said Australia should take note of other nations which had recently made dramatic increases in their science budgets. The US had raised funding by 6 per cent and Canada by 14 per cent. Future funding cuts for the Australian Research Council would be "catastrophic" Dr Pockley said in a public seminar on "Unravelling Science in the Budget" last week. Dr Kemp said the government's budget provided for around $450 million for university research in 1998-1999. He said he would address the research issue following government consideration of the West Report. "The government is keen to further increase the responsiveness of universities by investigating ways of strengthening the links between student choice and public funding," Dr Kemp said. However, ANU Students' Association president Harry Greenwell expressed concern that Dr Kemp might be signalling he was ready to introduce a controversial voucher method of funding raised in the West Report. "Vouchers will mean higher fees for students and less funding for smaller regional universities. It also would create problems for low demand courses with cultural significance," he said. Mr Greenwell also said he was disappointed that the budget contained nothing to make up for the "savage" cuts of the past two years.