Nothing to cry or crow about

CHRIS Evans was looking pretty chuffed in budget lock-up yesterday afternoon and he had every reason to.

Doomsayers had been predicting cuts. Most said they'd be in block research grants, but there were mutterings of caps being reintroduced to university places.

Instead, Evans delivered a benign budget that delivered on indexation for teaching and research, and even managed to find an extra $20 million for equity students.

He also found $32m for the promotion of maths and science off the back of chief scientist Ian Chubb's report to Julia Gillard.

Sure, maths and science students lost their HECS discount, but even the Productivity Commission has said discounts are a waste of taxpayers' money and do nothing to drive demand in priority areas.

Indigenous students were brought in line with their peers in eligibility criteria for ABSTUDY. And $10m across four years was redirected from the International Education and Training Program, which does scholarships, fellowships and exchanges.

Murdoch University, being in the minister's own back yard, got $5m for its outreach program.

That's it, pretty well. Nothing to cry about, nothing to crow about.

But universities being what they are, after an initial sigh of relief, they will start banging the funding drum again in the blink of a treasurer's eye.

Yes, universities are better off than they have been for decades. They know that. But better off is not well off, especially at the less selective end of the spectrum.

But the truth is student-to-staff ratios are among the highest in the developed world, and only look like getting worse. Casualisation is rife. The gulf between the haves (research stars in the best universities) and have-nots (teaching only in regional and outer-metropolitan universities) is getting wider.

Even in sandstone universities teaching facilities can be shabby if not downright derelict.

Evans has been true to his aim: holding the Bradley review on course. It's a pretty impressive job given the surplus we had to have.

Penny Wong told him he was the "protected one" and it's good to see Kim Carr's legacy also on the protected list.