Labor promises extensive tertiary education inquiry

Federal Labor’s promised inquiry into tertiary education is set to be bigger and further-reaching than the Bradley review.

Labor education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek will address the Universities Australia annual conference in Canberra today. Picture: Colin Murty

Federal Labor’s promised inquiry into tertiary education is set to be bigger and further-reaching than the Bradley review that revolutionised higher education under the last Labor government, accordin­g to the new review’s terms of reference.

Labor’s inquiry, to be launched within 100 days of taking office should it win the election, will be broader than the Bradley review, specifically including in its terms of reference the apprenticeship system, workplace learning, education in regional and remote Australia, the quality of careers advice, funding for education infrastructure and international education, and regulatory structures.

To be titled the National Inquiry into Post-secondary Education in Australia, the review will have a chief commissioner, supported by a panel of other commissioners including one specifically designated to represent rural and regional Australia.

However, even though the terms of reference ask for ways to ensure “an equitable, sustainable, and transparent funding model” for tertiary education, sources said Labor would fulfil its promise to spend $10 billion over 10 years to restore the demand-driven system without waiting for the review’s findings.

Universities have strongly endorsed the demand-driven funding pledge, which would end the freeze on university course subsidies imposed at the end of 2017 and allow universities to get government funding for an unlimited number of undergraduate students.

Labor’s promise to return to the demand-driven funding system is viewed as “an unequivocal commitment”, Universities Australia chair Margaret Gardner told the National Press Club yesterday.

A key feature of Labor’s new inquiry is that it will look at post-secondary education as a whole without putting special emphasis on higher education.

This is in contrast to the Bradley review, which focused on higher education and looked at vocational education as an ancillary.

But universities fear it will mean money could be taken away from higher education and put into TAFE colleges.

Labor deputy leader and education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek will address the Universities Australia annual conference in Canberra today and is likely to be asked for assurances the review will not disadvantage universities.

The review’s terms of reference also ask the inquiry to make recommendations in other areas including: ensuring public universities and TAFEs are the centre of the post-secondary education system, appropriate linkages between education and work, ensuring increased participation in education by disadvantaged Australians, ensuring institutional accountability, the roles and resourcing of regulatory agencies, the qualifications framework, and consumer protection for students.

In her speech to the press club yesterday, Professor Gardner also cautioned against Labor’s plan to tie some university funding to outcomes in areas such as local labour markets, diversity and participation in education, community engagement, and research excellence.

She said that performance funding was a “highly vexed” ­matter. “It’s not that the topic shouldn’t be explored, but it needs very careful exploration,” Professor Gardner said.

But Professor Gardner said universities wanted to “engage in a really big, robust policy debate”.