Tougher times ahead, retiring vice-chancellor warns

Australian universities have had a decade of plenty but the next 10 years are going to be tough.

Scott Bowman, vice-chancellor of CQUniversity. Picture: Pete Lawrence

Australian universities have enjoyed a decade of plenty but the next 10 years are going to be tough, according to departing CQUniversity vice-chancellor Scott Bowman.

Professor Bowman, who is retiring later this year, said the last 10 years had been “a golden age” with the unlimited government funding for bachelor degree places that followed the Bradley review of higher education, and other government support such as the Education Investment Fund which has supported new buildings and infrastructure.

However, following the decision by the Turnbull government at the end of 2017 to suspend the demand-driven system, which funded unlimited student places, and put a two-year cap on course funding, universities have felt the pinch.

“I do worry that the next 10 years is going to be tough for universities,” Professor Bowman said last week at a conference on regional issues organised by Higher Ed Services.

He criticised other university leaders who, over the past decade, have complained about government funding cuts.

“Part of the training course we do before we’re allowed to become a VC is you’ve got to moan and whinge about government funding,” he said after his presentation.

“But in fact over the past 10 years we’ve been on a good wicket and we’ve got some really good ­results for Australia.

“Well I don’t think we are going to be on that good wicket going into the future and I think that’s going to lead to some not-so-good outcomes.”

Professor Bowman told the conference that he was worried about what is occurring in Britain, where universities are under ­attack.

“The way that universities have been rubbished — and vice-chancellors in particular — in the UK, has just been terrible,” he said.

“We don’t like to think of it in Australia but often we’re about five to 10 years behind the UK and I think what you’ve seen there will start to come here.”

Another university leader at the conference, Charles Darwin University vice-chancellor Simon Maddocks, agreed that the outlook was challenging and that universities needed to make the government and the community more aware of their role.

“The future is incredibly challenging for all of us. I think the sector is not good at explaining what we do,” he said.

Professor Bowman said, during a break in conference proceedings, that even though the funding outlook for universities was extremely poor, things were much worse in the vocational education sector.

Because CQUniversity was a dual sector institution, incorporating a TAFE college, he said he was very aware of the funding problems in vocational education and training and it should be the first priority in tertiary education funding at the moment.

“Training is in an absolute, total mess,” he said.

Professor Bowman also spoke out against Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s suggestion that international students could be forced to go to regional institutions such as CQUniversity, which is based in Queensland.

“I think it’s absolutely daft,” he said.

Professor Bowman said that nobody argued that international tourists should be told where they could and could not go when they visited Australia. “Why aren’t you saying this about tourism? There’s too many people in Sydney, they’re all here looking at the bloody harbour bridge, let’s all get them to go to Wagga Wagga.”

Tim Dodd travelled to the conference courtesy of Higher Ed Services with support from the Regional Universities Network.