Submission to the Universities Accord Post-Budget Implementation Consultation Papers
ATSE's contribution to the implementation of elements of the Australian Universities Accord (the Accord).
Following the previous release of the Australian Universities Accord Final Report, the Department of Education is consulting on the implementation of three major components of the Accord recommendations. The Government has released three discussion papers on the implementation of an Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC), a managed growth funding system and a needs-based funding system.
In ATSE’s letter submission to the implementation of the Universities Accord, we discuss each of the three consultation areas;
The Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC)
The organisation needs to take an education first focus and reduce administrative burdens. The education of students needs to beat the core of its mission and it should help providers meet their responsibilities to students.
A managed growth funding system
ATSE notes the need for high quality information about courses for students and highlighted the need for safeguards to ensure universities do not enter funding spirals where reduced funding leads to poorer services, leading to less demand that result in lower future funding.
A needs-based funding system.
ATSE argues that the ATAR is an imperfect measure of a student’s need with which high school a student attended often having a significant impact. Instead ATSE supports the use of demographic factors to predict student needs.
