Uni review chief Mary O’Kane says recommendations will not break the budget

The head of the government’s universities review, Mary O’Kane, says there is a way to implement its costly proposals without breaking the budget.

Mary O’Kane. Photo: Hollie Adams

The key figure in the federal ­government’s proposed university shake-up says there is a way for Education ­Minister Jason Clare to set in motion a plan to send hundreds of thousands more students to university every year without breaking the budget.

Mary O’Kane, who chaired the government’s Universities ­Accord review released at the weekend, said the weak demand for university places from domestic students means that growth in new university places would not be strong in the early period of the 25-year plan to reform universities.

Her accord review calls for doubling of the number of domestic students to 1.8 million by 2050, meaning that by then 55 per cent of 25- to 34-year-olds will have at least a bachelor degree.

Demand from domestic students for university places is weak, caused by the buoyant jobs market that attracts school leavers away from education, and high inflation, which has driven up HECS debt.

Professor O’Kane said the ­enrolment weakness meant that the accord’s plan to expand university student numbers could have a “soft ramp-up” and government could use the breathing space to set up a new university funding system and establish the proposed Australian Tertiary Education Commission to oversee and manage the new structure.  “The first years up to 2030 can be about that ramp-up and the restructure of the back office, if you like,” Professor O’Kane told The Australian. “And then as the (student) numbers take off in the universities, you can grow the funds”.

She said this could be done without undue pressure on the federal budget.

“Even within the current envelope, you can restructure the funding arrangements because you’ve got that soft ramp-up,” she said.

Neither Professor O’Kane’s ­review, nor the Albanese government, has release a costing of the Universities Accord recommendations, which also include new assigning extra “needs-based” funding to university students with disadvantaged backgrounds, growth of students in vocational education, a boost to research funding, and free preparatory courses to help students get ready for university.

It is clear it will cost tens of billions of dollars, which raises questions on how the government will fund it in the current tight budgetary environment.

Professor O’Kane earlier told the Universities Australia conference in Canberra on Tuesday that the government had found money for other priority programs.

“There’s a few billion in the submarines. There’s a few billion in solving a lot of Australia’s problems,” she said.

Professor O’Kane told The Australian that the massive planned increase in university student numbers did not mean academic standards for university entry would fall.

She said the review contained many recommendations to support commencing students, including free preparatory courses, and extra support for students from disadvantaged backgrounds when they were at university.

She said that the quality of schooling was also very important to ensuring success at university. “And that’s a case of ever vigilance because we need our schooling to be very good,” she said.