Group of Eight slams splitting vocationl education from higher educaiton

The Group of Eight universities has criticised the government’s decision to split vocational education away from higher education.

Minister for Education and Training Dan Tehan is sworn in by Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove in Canberra yesterday. Picture Gary Ramage

The Group of Eight universities have criticised the Morrison government’s decision to split vocational education from higher education in its new ­ministry.

The chief executive of the Group of Eight, Vicki Thomson, said the decision to include ­vocational education in the portfolio of Jobs and Innovation Minister Michaelia Cash, while Education and Training Minister Dan Tehan would be responsible for higher education, was “inexplicable”.

“While (former) minister (Simon) Birmingham had left the education portfolio with a number of important university funding ­issues unresolved, he had understood and worked toward post-secondary education policy and funding being taken as a whole,” she said.

“This is a critical policy requirement. It has been ignored.”

Vocational education has been part of the main education portfolio since 2014, when the Abbott government united the two in a single department.

TAFE Directors Australia, representing TAFE colleges, said it welcomed the fact that vocational education had a voice in the cabinet through Ms Cash and looked forward to working with her.

Ms Thomson said universities needed stability from government, noting that in the past five years there had been three education ministers and six industry ministers.

Peak body Universities Australia welcomed the fact that, in the new cabinet, science was a named portfolio, part of the responsibility of new Industry, Science and Technology Minister Karen ­Andrews.

“Minister Andrews has been a strong ally for vocational education in our country, and she will doubtless bring that same energy to these three crucial new policy areas,” said Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson.

She also welcomed Mr Tehan to the education portfolio. “We urge him and the new cabinet to make it a priority to end the economy-damaging university funding freeze, and its cap on places and opportunities for Australian students,” she said.

The Innovative Research Universities group also welcomed the new ministers, but noted both Mr Tehan and Ms Andrews would “first need to restore coherence to higher education”, and “that should include halting the Turnbull government’s drift towards special deals negotiated with individual universities”.

Many universities were angered when the Turnbull government delivered special funding to the University of Tasmania, the University of the Sunshine Coast and Southern Cross University.

“IRU universities want a fair and transparent system and to make sure no Australians are excluded from university through lack of government funding,” said IRU executive director Conor King.

Mr Tehan, formerly the social services minister, has degrees from Monash and Melbourne universities.

In 2010, in his maiden speech to parliament, he said education was a key reason for his participation in politics.

“Nothing saddens me more than the growing gap between country students who access a tertiary education and their city cousins,” he said.

He later successfully fought to ensure the continued survival of Deakin University’s Warrnambool campus in his electorate of Wannon, winning $14 million in support from the government.

Although universities fought bitterly with former education minister Mr Birmingham over the two-year freeze imposed on course funding last December, Universities Australia thanked him and outgoing industry minister Michaelia Cash for the commitment to spend $1.9 billion on research infrastructure over the next 10 years.

Ms Jackson also thanked outgoing foreign minister Julie Bishop for her conceiving and implementing the New Colombo Plan, which was sending thousands of Australian students overseas for study or work experience in Asia.

“By the end of this year, the New Colombo Plan will have supported more than 30,000 Australians to develop personal connections in our region and support Australia’s soft diplomacy efforts,” Ms Jackson said.