Poor universities 'complete nonsense', says Chris Evans

UNIVERSITIES have been accused of being disingenuous by claiming to be broke as part of their campaign to deregulate student fees.

UNIVERSITIES have been accused of being disingenuous by claiming to be broke as part of their campaign to deregulate student fees and be allowed to charge market price for degrees.

Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans said university vice-chancellors were promoting increases in student fees to pre-empt a Coalition government mounting "a major attack on their funding".

Weighing in to the escalating debate between university vice-chancellors and the government on deregulated HECS fees, Senator Evans described universities as ungrateful and disingenuous.

Deregulating university fees would particularly advantage the elite Group of Eight universities such as Melbourne and Sydney, which had the status and high-visibility brands to back big price hikes. "It's complete nonsense that universities are doing it hard," Senator Evans told The Australian.

"They've had their funding increased by 50 per cent since 2007. They are positioning themselves for what they see as a Liberal government attack on university funding and they are attempting to mount an argument to increase the cost borne by students."

Led by University of NSW's Fred Hilmer, some vice-chancellors have been vocal in calling for fees to be deregulated.

Professor Hilmer told the National Press Club last month that costs were outstripping revenue and fee flexibility was also "the only economically feasible way to bring funding to more appropriate levels".

"I wouldn't be doing my job as a vice-chancellor if I didn't plead for more funds. But every review of universities in recent years has found that we are underfunded and overly dependent on international-student income."

Senator Evans said that, since Labor came to power, UNSW had seen a 73.2 per cent increase in funding for teaching and learning. "I absolutely reject the idea that they haven't received massive additional funding out of this government."

Gavin Moodie, a policy expert from RMIT, said Senator Evans had every right to be angry with vice-chancellors crying poor. "While per-student funding hasn't returned to the peak of 1994, it has increased significantly from the trough of 2003," Dr Moodie said.

"While we accept that university vice-chancellors are strong advocates for their institutions, they are wrong to criticise Labor."

Dr Moodie said the restoration of proper indexation under Labor, which this year rose to 3.8 per cent, was a "great long-term benefit".

Senator Evans said indexation would put an extra $3 billion into university coffers over four years.

Universities are not united on fee deregulation. Many vice-chancellors say higher fees would give the government room to withdraw funding commitments.

Macquarie University vice-chancellor Steven Schwartz said universities did need more money and higher fees should be in the mix. But he said there was plenty of room for more efficiencies to be made.