Australia: Funding Incentives, regulation, markets and the public interest in HE

Prof Roger Dean, Vice-Chancellor

Source:DEST

(Mainly HECS in 1990s)

Australia: Funding Incentives, regulation, markets and the public interest in HE

Prof Roger Dean, Vice-Chancellor

Teaching and learning

Quality: The Institutional Assessment Framework (progress, attrition etc)

The DEST ‘Performance’ fund

Employers’ evaluation and recruitment strategies??

Quantity: Discipline Quotas for loan-supported domestic UG students (who repay later via the Higher Ed Contribution Scheme, HECS, income contingently)

% cohort maxima for domestic UG ‘fee-payers’ (who may also be loan supported)

Scholarships for Equity groups

Collaboration and Structural Reform fund: eg encourage articulation

T&L is a break even or marginally ‘profitable’ activity

Australia: Funding Incentives, regulation, markets and the public interest in HE

Prof Roger Dean, Vice-Chancellor

Research

Quality: An imminent RQF (RAE): publication quality and impact will be key

Infrastructure funds (modest) currently tied mainly to funding, publications. Input biased.

Quantity: Enhanced Research Council funds

In the US, as research intensiveness rises, so do student: staff ratios (Rizzo). Generalisable?

Public funded research is a loss-making activity.

Australia: Funding Incentives, regulation, markets and the public interest in HE

Prof Roger Dean, Vice-Chancellor

Internationalism

Quality of teaching: AUQA, ESOS legislation, competition

Quantity of international students: Historic wish for cash flow (little if any real profit)

Quantity of Australian students taking transnational study (c.0.5% of total)…needs to rise. OS-HELP loans to support introduced 2005 (small amount)

Need for post-colonial, post-national approaches

International students can be profitable, but broadly have not been.

Australia: Funding Incentives, regulation, markets and the public interest in HE

Prof Roger Dean, Vice-Chancellor

Community Engagement and Entrepreneurial Activity

Lack of Federal/State coordation/cohesion has lead to: virtually no support from States

local government and Universities do not have mutual understanding

Possible Third-Stream Funding…but likely to be focused on technology transfer and exploitation in narrow sense: nb income stream will probably never be large

Community Engagement should be a mutual break-even activity; entrepreneurial efforts should be moderately profitable.

Australia: Funding Incentives, regulation, markets and the public interest in HE

Prof Roger Dean, Vice-Chancellor

Eliciting Public Interest: The level of engagement

Public do not understand ROI, social rate of return etc (nor politicians, apparently…)

Public view education still as elitist, and social diversity in HE has not improved in last decade (has HECS ‘enhanced’??)

University academics need to reclaim the public intellectual role

Dominant role of HE in research, and economic innovation not understood (cf this week’s self-justifying Business Council of Australia report)

Australia: Funding Incentives, regulation, markets and the public interest in HE

Prof Roger Dean, Vice-Chancellor

Thanks for your attention.