Hazel Ferguson
This is not a major budget for tertiary education. However
the Government has addressed a number of outstanding issues arising from
earlier announcements in both vocational education and training (VET) and
higher education.
Vocational education and training
The most significant 2018–19 budget measure
in VET addresses the future of the apprenticeship-focused Skilling
Australians Fund (SAF), which was announced in the 2017–18
Budget, but has not yet been implemented.[1]
Skilling Australians Fund
announcement: 2017–18 Budget
In the 2017–18 Budget, the
Government announced a four-year National Partnership Agreement worth
approximately $1.5 billion, to replace the expired National
Partnership Agreement on Skills Reform.[2]
The new Agreement was funded from 2017–18, subject to negotiations with the
states and territories. However, funding for the measure was based on revenue
from a levy on skilled visas from March 2018, which is yet to commence.[3]
The legislation to give effect to the levy passed Parliament on 9 May 2018.[4]
With the National Partnership Agreement on Skills Reform
having expired on 30 June 2017, skills training providers have raised concerns
about the delay in implementing the SAF and uncertainty about the stability of
revenue from the levy.[5] This has been
particularly pressing given declining apprenticeship numbers and trade skill
shortages in recent years.[6]
2018–19 budget measure—‘Managing
the Skilling Australians Fund’
The 2018–19 Budget makes a number of changes to manage the
delayed implementation of the SAF:
-
$250.0 million is provided in 2017–18, to allow the SAF to
commence
-
an additional $50.0 million is available each year from 2017–18
to 2021–22, to be shared between states and territories—the first year is only
available to those that sign on to participate in the SAF by 7 June 2018 and
-
the proposed Agreement with the states and territories will be
delayed by one year, shifting the four-year Agreement from 2017–18 to 2020–21,
to 2018–19 to 2021–22.[7]
The total value of the SAF remains the same as in the
2017–18 budget announcement (although running over five years rather than
four), at approximately $1.5 billion.[8] However, the funding for
2017–18 will not be included in the Agreement, leaving total funding for the
National Partnership on the Skilling Australians Fund at $1.2 billion.[9]
It is not clear what the implementation arrangements for the first year of SAF
funding (2017–18) will be.
While these changes provide some additional certainty to
states and territories being asked to commit to matched funding through a
National Partnership Agreement, levy revenue is also predicted to be lower than
estimated in the 2017–18 Budget, partly due to amendments to its application,
which are discussed elsewhere in the Budget Review 2018–19.[10]
In the 2017–18 Budget, total funding available through the
SAF in 2017–18 was $350.0 million, with only $90.0 million of this coming from
revenue from the levy. [11] Therefore, while the 2018–19 Budget makes available $300 million in 2017–18, it
does not appear that this whole amount is new spending.
The full implementation of the SAF remains subject to
negotiation with the states and territories.
Higher education
The Mid-year
Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2017–18 (MYEFO) addressed the major
outstanding funding issue in higher education by announcing that unlegislated reform
measures from the 2017–18 Budget would not be pursued.[12]
Unlike these recent higher education reform announcements the most significant
MYEFO saving was achieved without legislation through a 2018 and 2019 freeze on
funding for Commonwealth
Supported Places (CSPs).[13] CSPs provide subsidised
higher education courses for domestic students, primarily at undergraduate level.
The challenge in higher education in this budget has therefore been in balancing
between strategic growth in some areas, particularly regional universities,
with the overall pause in demand-driven funding.
Response to the Review into
Regional, Rural and Remote Education
The 2018–19 Budget provides $96.1 million over four years
from 2018–19 to implement the Government’s response to the higher education
components of the Review
into Regional, Rural and Remote Education.[14]
Of this funding, $28.2 million will support an estimated 500
additional sub-bachelor (including enabling) places at higher education
providers in regional areas from the 2019 academic year. Another $14 million is
allocated for 185 additional bachelor CSPs per year for students studying
through a Regional Study Hub (RSH)—funding for up to eight RSHs was included in
the 2017–18 Budget.[15] According to the
Department of Education and Training (DET), RSHs will ‘provide infrastructure
such as study spaces, video conferencing, computing facilities and internet
access, as well as pastoral and academic support for students studying via
distance at partner universities.’[16] The response also
includes $53.9 million for expanded access to Youth Allowance, which is
discussed elsewhere in the Budget Review 2018–19.[17]
The Regional Universities Network has supported the Government’s response but ‘looks
forward to a further Government response to the Halsey review recommendations’.[18]
There is no response, for instance, to the Review’s recommendations to expand
the affordability and availability of VET in the regions.[19]
Other support for regional
universities
Additionally, $123.6 million funding is committed over five
years from 2017–18 for additional CSPs at the University of Sunshine Coast,
University of Tasmania and Southern Cross University. These places were
announced following the MYEFO funding freeze.
Funding of $83.3 million over five years from 2017–18 is
also committed to establish a Murray-Darling medical schools network under the
Stronger Rural Health Strategy.[20] No additional funding for
medical CSPs is committed in the Education and Training Portfolio for this
measure, although a new pool of medical CSPs is being created from 2021.[21]
Instead, places are being made available through partnerships with universities
which already have medical places allocated. More information on the Stronger
Rural Health Strategy, including the Murray-Darling medical schools network, is
available in elsewhere in the Budget Review 2018–19.[22]
Cost recovery and regulation
The Budget includes cost recovery measures in both higher
education and VET.
New charges will apply to higher education providers from 1
January 2019, moving Higher
Education Loans Program (HELP) administration to partial cost recovery and Tertiary Education Quality and Standards
Agency (TEQSA), the higher education regulator, towards full cost recovery.
Consultation will be undertaken on both charges.[23]
The new TEQSA charge offsets the cost of an additional $24.3 million over four
years from 2018–19 for TEQSA to manage increased workload resulting from growth
in provider applications, and to address contract cheating.[24]
Innovative Research Universities, while welcoming the Budget overall, is ‘disappointed
with “pointless” new university charges’.[25]
The Australian Skills
Quality Authority (ASQA), the national VET regulator, already operates on a
partial cost recovery basis and is moving toward full cost recovery in line
with a 2009 Council of Australian Governments (COAG) decision, with provider
application and ongoing charges in place under the VET Student Loans
Act 2016 and VET Student Loans
(Charges) Act 2016.[26] The Budget commits $18.6
million over four years from 2018–19 to support ASQA to move to full cost
recovery. This is estimated to achieve $52.7 million in revenue, or a net
saving of $34.1 million.[27]
An additional $1.0 million in 2018–19 has also been
allocated to the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman to support the workload
of the VET Student Loans
Ombudsman in managing and investigating student complaints about VET
FEE-HELP and VET Student Loans providers.[28]
Legislation would be required to apply new charges to
providers.
[1].
Information on the Skilling Australians Fund (SAF) is available from Department
of Education and Training (DET), ‘Skilling
Australians Fund’, DET website.
[2].
Australian Government, Federal financial
relations: budget paper no. 3: 2017–18, p. 35.
[3].
Migration
Amendment (Skilling Australians Fund) Bill 2018.
[4].
At the time of writing, these bills, the Migration
Amendment (Skilling Australians Fund) Bill 2018, and Migration
(Skilling Australians Fund) Charges Bill 2017, are yet to
receive Royal Assent.
[5].
As examples, Victorian TAFE Association, Submission
to Senate Standing Committee on Education and Employment, Inquiry into the
Migration Amendment (Skilling Australians Fund) Bill 2017, and the Migration
(Skilling Australians Fund) Charges Bill 2017 [provisions], 15 December
2017, p. 3; National Apprentice Employment Network, Submission
to Senate Standing Committee on Education and Employment, Inquiry into the
Migration Amendment (Skilling Australians Fund) Bill 2017, and the Migration
(Skilling Australians Fund) Charges Bill 2017 [provisions], 15 December
2017, p. 3.
[6].
As discussed in C Petrie, H Ferguson and H Sherrell,
Migration Amendment (Skilling Australians Fund) Bill 2017 and Migration
(Skilling Australians Fund) Charges Bill 2017, Bills digest, 76,
2017–18, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2018, pp. 5–6.
[7].
Australian Government, Budget
2018–19: budget overview, 2018, Appendix C: major initiatives, p. 34; Australian
Government, ‘Part
2: expense measures’, Budget measures: budget paper no. 2: 2018–19,
p. 90.
[8].
Australian Government, Federal financial
relations: budget paper no. 3: 2017–18, p. 35; Australian
Government, Federal
financial relations: budget paper no. 3: 2018–19, p. 35.
[9].
Australian Government, Federal financial
relations: budget paper no. 3: 2017–18, p. 35; Australian
Government, Federal
financial relations: budget paper no. 3: 2018–19, ,
p. 35; Department of Education and Training (DET), Skilling
Australians Fund, fact sheet, DET website, 2018.
[10].
H Sherrell, ‘Immigration overview’, Budget Review 2018–19,
Research paper series, 2017–18, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2018.
[11].
Australian Government, Portfolio
budget statements 2017–18: budget related paper no. 1.5: Home Affairs Portfolio, p. 15.
[12].
Australian Government, Mid-year
Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2017–18 (MYEFO),
pp. 143–4.
[13].
Other higher education reform measures announced in MYEFO are still
before Parliament in the Higher
Education Support Legislation Amendment (Student Loan Sustainability) Bill 2018.
Previous higher education reform bills are the Higher
Education Support Legislation Amendment (A More Sustainable, Responsive and
Transparent Higher Education System) Bill 2017 (the HESLA Bill), which was
a post-consultation replacement for the Higher
Education and Research Reform Bill 2014, which was an amended version of
the Higher
Education and Research Reform Amendment Bill 2014, which sought to
legislate the far-reaching 2014–15 Budget reform announcements, including the
deregulation of undergraduate higher education fees and an average 20 per cent
cut to funding for CSPs.
[14].
Australian Government, ‘Part
2: expense measures’, op. cit., p. 94.
[15].
Ibid, pp. 81–82; DET, ‘Access and
Participation’, DET website.
[16].
DET, op. cit.
[17].
M Klapdor, ‘Student payment changes’, Budget Review 2018–19,
Research paper series, 2017–18, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2018.
[18].
Regional Universities Network (RUN), RUN:
budget a step in the right direction for regional students and universities,
media release, 8 May 2018.
[19].
Australian Government, Portfolio
budget statements 2018–19: budget related paper no. 1.5: Education and Training
Portfolio, p. 10; J Halsey, Independent Review into Regional, Rural and Remote Education,
Department of Education and Training, Canberra, 2018, p. 56.
[20].
Australian Government, ‘Part
2: expense measures’, op. cit., p. 106.
[21].
DET, ‘A
pool of medical Commonwealth supported places (CSPs) to support innovative
medical initiatives’, DET website.
[22].
M Biggs, ‘Rural health workforce’, Budget Review 2018–19, Research
paper series, 2017–18, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2018.
[23].
DET, ‘HERI
Budget overview 18–19’, DET website.
[24].
Australian Government, ‘Part
2: expense measures’, op. cit., p. 95.
[25].
Innovative Research Universities, IRU
welcomes budget investment in research but disappointed with 'pointless' new
university charges, media release, 9 May 2018.
[26].
Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), ‘Fees and Charges’,
ASQA website.
[27].
Australian Government, ‘Part
2: expense measures’, op. cit., p. 85.
[28].
Australian Government, ‘Part
2: expense measures’, op. cit., p. 96.
All online articles accessed May 2018.
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