Budget Resources
Carol Ey and Shannon Clark
Unless otherwise indicated, all page numbers refer to Budget
measures: budget paper no. 2: 2023–24.
Higher education
There are limited measures in the Education portfolio
relating to higher education in this Budget, as the sector is currently being
reviewed (see below). However, there are a number of measures in other areas,
such as the Defence and Health portfolios, which are relevant to the sector.
Budget initiatives
The most significant new higher education funding in this
Budget is $127.3 million over 4 years from 2023–24 for 4,000 additional
commencing Commonwealth
supported places at universities for courses supporting the skills
requirements of the nuclear-powered submarine program, including in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields and in management (p.
94). At least 800 of these places will be allocated to South Australian
universities, with the remainder allocated through a competitive process. For
further detail, see Budget review 2023–24 article ‘Nuclear’.
In addition, there is increased funding for some higher
education student support programs including:
This measure will be funded through
savings within the Education portfolio (p. 101).
There are also several measures in
the Health portfolio to improve the training of health professionals,
including:
- $91.3 million over 5 years from 2022–23 for additional psychology
placements, including 500 psychology post-graduate placements (p. 139)
- $17.8 million over 5 years from 2022–23 to improve the mental
health capabilities of the broader health care workforce including through the
review of undergraduate curricula for nursing, midwifery and allied health to
ensure students are receiving contemporary training in mental health (p. 139)
- $50.2 million over 4 years from 2023–24 to establish a
scholarship program to support registered nurses and midwives to undertake
post-graduate study (p. 149)
- $31.6 million over 2 years from 2023–24 to trial enhanced
training arrangements to support international medical students working in
rural and remote locations (p. 150)
- $10.7 million over 4 years to create 6,000 primary care clinical
placements for nurses (p. 150)
- $4.2 million over 2 years from 2022–23 to support James Cook
University to deliver the Australian General Practice Training program (p. 150).
Three higher education programs are ceasing under the
‘Education – reprioritisation’ measure, resulting in savings of $39.9 million
over 5 years from 2022–23, and $2.7 million ongoing (p. 100). These are:
- the Strategic
University Reform Fund, which was funded over 4 years from 2020–21 to ‘encourage
universities to undertake novel reform in areas of Government priority and
enable universities to develop targeted and innovative solutions that are
focused on local communities’
- the Regional
Research Collaboration Program, which provides funding to support research
collaboration in regional institutions
- the Quality Initiatives Program, which funds the Australian
Mathematical Sciences Institute for programs such as summer
schools to promote the study of mathematics.
The university sector has generally welcomed the budget
initiatives, including the increase in student allowance payments (see Budget
review 2023–24 article ‘Social
security cost of living measures’ for further
detail), while raising concerns about the lack of increased support for
research (see, for example, responses from Universities
Australia and the Group
of Eight).
Australian Universities Accord
While there are limited measures in the higher education
sector in this Budget, further changes are expected in future as the Government
is developing an Australian
Universities Accord through a 12‑month review of Australia’s higher
education system.
In July 2022, Minister for Education Jason Clare flagged
the accord would be ‘an opportunity to build a long-term plan for our
universities’. It would have a wide scope:
Looking at everything from funding and access, to
affordability, transparency, regulation, employment conditions and also how
universities and TAFEs and other higher education and vocational education
providers and training institutions work together.
Minister Clare announced
the accord’s Expert
Panel and terms
of reference in November 2022. A discussion
paper was released in February 2023, with submissions closing on 11 April
2023. The panel is due to provide an interim report to the Government in June
2023 with the final report due in December 2023.
Vocational education and training
There are limited new measures in the VET sector in this
Budget. While the Treasurer noted in his budget speech that the Government is creating 300,000 fee-free
TAFE places, this measure was initially announced as part of the October 2022–23
Budget (Budget
measures: budget paper no. 2: October 2022–23, p. 104).
The sector is jointly funded by the Commonwealth and the
states and territories. A new National
Skills Agreement is being developed to replace the former National
Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development, which outlines the
responsibilities of governments. This Budget includes $5.5 million to
continue supporting the negotiation of the new agreement, and pending the
outcomes of these negotiations, $3.7 billion has been retained in the
Contingency Reserve for a 5-year agreement expected to commence on 1 January 2024
(p. 107).
The Foundation
Skills for Your Future Program, which provides language, literacy, numeracy
and digital skills training, is to be redesigned, expanding eligibility to
those who are not registered job seekers, and including a specific focus on
First Nations people (p. 107). As part of this process, funding for current
pilot projects in remote communities will be extended by 12 months, to align
with the commencement of the redesigned program. Funding for this measure is to
be met through existing resources.
A new model of non-financial support for apprentices is to
be introduced from 1 July 2024, at a cost of $54.3 million over 5
years from 2022–23 (p. 109). The new model will redesign and refocus existing
support services delivered by the Australian
Apprenticeship Support Network to increase completion rates and the
diversity of the apprentice workforce. In addition, grant funding of $5.0
million over 3 years from 2024–25 will be provided to further support women in
historically male dominated trade apprenticeships. The cost of this measure
will be offset by savings resulting from transferring processing of wage
subsidy claims from Services Australia to the Department of Employment and
Workforce Relations (DEWR).
The Government will also provide $8.6 million over 4 years
from 2023–24 (and $1.5 million ongoing) to ensure 1 in 10 workers on major
Australian Government-funded projects is an apprentice, trainee or paid cadet
(p. 104).
Two programs in the VET field have had funding reduced as
part of the reprioritisation of projects (p. 106):
- $20.0 million over 4 years from 2023–24 will be saved by
temporarily reducing uncommitted funding for the Jobs
and Skills Councils, which are being developed to replace the former
industry engagement arrangements for VET
- a saving of $10.4 million over 2 years from 2022–23 by not proceeding
with the Accelerating Australian Apprenticeships Pilot program, which was
initially announced in the 2021–22
Mid-year economic and fiscal update (p. 226).
There does not appear to have been any response from the
sector to these measures, possibly reflecting the relatively minor changes
proposed.
Student loans
The other major initiative in the tertiary sector, at $87.8
million over 5 years (spread across several agencies), is to improve the
administration of student loans, including enhancing the security and privacy
of data holdings (p. 87). This includes:
- $42.2 million over 4 years for DEWR to implement a new digital
system to support the VET
Student Loans program
- $36.9 million over 5 years (and $2.0 million per year ongoing)
for the Department of Education to improve the data quality, analytic support
and security of records in the Tertiary Collection of Student Information
system
- $8.7 million over 2 years for the Commonwealth Ombudsman and DEWR
to extend the VET
FEE-HELP student redress
measures to 31 December 2023.
All online articles accessed May 2023
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