ALP eyes more pacts to unlock places

A RE-ELECTED Labor government will make greater use of direct agreements with universities.

A RE-ELECTED Labor government will make greater use of direct agreements with universities, or compacts, with Innovation Minister Kim Carr flagging they would be used to allocate greater numbers of capped sub-degree and postgraduate places.

Amid sector concerns that greater use of compacts could prove code for greater control, Senator Carr said the aim was to give universities more autonomy and that there was no retreat from the demand-driven system of uncapped undergraduate places under which commonwealth-supported places have increased by 190,000 students or 35 per cent.

"We are in the middle of one of the great cultural reforms in our nation's history - nothing less than opening up avenues of opportunity to whole sections of our community for the first time. Labor started that revolution and we are determined to continue it," Labor said in its policy documents.

Just days ahead of the election, Labor yesterday released a swag of policies around research, universities and international education.

Key initiatives include $2.5 million to examine the feasibility of rolling out new pathway college campuses connected to universities, dubbed University Colleges, to be located in areas of low participation.

It would commission chief scientist Ian Chubb to come up with a long-term funding plan for research infrastructure, designed to end the uncertainty every time funding for the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy is up for renewal.

However, the policies were long on reviews and plans but gave few concrete details. And the sector, while acknowledging Labor's increased investments in higher education and research, was disappointed there was no plan to reverse the Gillard government's $2.3 billion in cuts to universities and student support.

The policy puts pressure on the opposition to finally release its higher education and research policies. So far the opposition has committed to continuing the demand-driven system and quarantining medical research from any cuts.

Opposition higher education spokesman Brett Mason yesterday rejected suggestions from Labor that it planned to re-introduce the Howard government's upfront fees for undergraduate places. "The Coalition has no such plan," he said.

UA chief executive Belinda Robinson said: "It is disappointing that neither of the major parties have indicated they would reverse the higher education budget savings announced earlier in the year."

Australian Technology Network executive director Vicki Thomson said Labor's policy "builds on a solid base from the Rudd/Gillard government but the job is far from done and the danger is in believing it is. Funding - and sustainable funding to support and build on this solid base - remains the elephant in the room that neither party is addressing."

Australian Academy of Science policy director Les Field said he was disappointed there was no commitment to ramping up research funding following the decision last year to delay $500m in promised new money to better cover research costs.

"It was a bland exposition with not as much substance as I would have liked," Professor Field said.

The Innovative Research Universities welcomed plans for Professor Chubb to review research infrastructure needs but executive director Conor King said "what we have now is widespread agreement of the need and no party willing to commit the funding."

A spokeswoman for Mr Carr said the move to strengthen compacts wasn't about constraining student growth. "The purpose of the compacts approach is to provide a system in which universities can best deploy the resources available to them under projected growth in the demand-driven system," the spokeswoman said.

"Compacts are about a tailored approach, based on evidence that provides the greatest flexibility for universities to shape their response to prevailing circumstances and the needs of their communities. The number of sub-degree places will be negotiated as part of the compact arrangements."

Grattan Institute higher education expert Andrew Norton welcomed the continuation of the demand-driven system, but is wary that compacts could be used to control universities rather than bring more autonomy. "They are really backdoor regulation in the form of gentleman agreements to constrain what universities are doing, albeit in consultation with them," Mr Norton said.

Ms Robinson said the implications of strengthened compacts for the demand-driven system were "uncertain".

The Group of Eight welcomed Labor's plans to expand pathway colleges, currently limited to proposals on the NSW central coast, Melbourne's outer southeast and eastern Perth.

"Diversification should go further, to give non-university providers, public and private, a bigger role in delivering higher education on the scale that will be needed," Go8 Chairman and UNSW vice-chancellor Fred Hilmer said.