Federal Budget 2015: Teachers, expat Aussies targeted in education revamp

LOW quality teachers and expat Aussies who fail to pay their university debts are the focus of tough new measures revealed in the Budget.

Liverpool Leader - Pictured: Students are given five minutes to read their English examination paper - Students at Holsworthy High School are sitting their HSC today. Holsworthy High is located on Huon Crescent, Holsworthy NSW Australia

LOW quality teachers and expat Aussies with university debts have been targeted in an education budget with few big announcements.

And funding for science research will be paid for by cutbacks to another program which helps universities pay for labs, libraries and research staff.

The federal Budget confirmed that the funding for science research, which was controversially used as leverage during Senate negotiations over university deregulation, will be maintained until 2017.

Losing out ... funding for science research will be paid for by cutbacks to a university program which helps universities pay for libraries.

But the continuation of the science research funding comes at the expense of the Sustainable Research Excellence (SRE) program, which supports Australia’s universities shoulder the indirect costs associated with their competitive research grants.

The SRE which funds university labs, libraries and helps pay the salaries of research staff, will cut by $260 million over the next four years.

Let down ... parents are concerned that many newly qualified teachers are ill-equipped to begin their careers in the classroom.

Despite the Senate twice voting down the Federal Government’s higher education reforms, unveiled in last year’s budget, the government is continuing to bank on the fact that it will win the debate and universities will be able to set their own fees.

The Budget also put universities churning out low quality teaching graduates on notice, with the government committing $16.9 million to improve teacher quality.

Cutting back ... the education bureaucracy will be slimmed down.

The funds will be provided to the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership to ensure that teaching graduates are classroom ready, and universities providing teaching degrees are subject to stronger accreditation processes.

The move is in response to parents’ concerns that many newly-qualified teachers are ill-equipped to begin their careers in the classroom and are letting down their kids.

Australians with HECS debts who move overseas will be forced to continue to make the same repayments on their student loans as they would have been required to do if they stayed in Australia.

The government is expecting to recoup about $140 million from the new arrangements which will come into effect from the middle of next year.

Savings of $130 million are also expected to be netted by a slimming of the education bureaucracy, with seven vocational education and training governance bodies being replaced by a single Australian Industry and Skills Council.