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International downturn in post-compulsory education
12 April 2008
The shortfalls of students entering universities is becoming a serious international problem at a time when governments around the globe are intent on building knowledge-driven, regions, cities, states and countries.
Despite the policy commitments to increase the scale of innovation and the generation of knowledge in the U.K., for example, a recent report projected a shortfall of 70,000 university places by 2020 – a fall in demand of nearly 5 percent across a little more than a decade.
Nearer home the situation is currently equally serious. Queensland’s ‘Smart State’ agenda is at risk unless student demand patterns can be turned around. The University of Queensland Vice-Chancellor, for example, has commented that it is a substantial concern that in this growing State, “the number of 18 year olds coming out of high school wishing to gain additional education is dropping”.
The situation is not helped when an artificial duality is created where ‘skills’ are somehow not seen to be acquired through universities, and only through VET and TAFE. For a Smart State, we need people who undertake more post-school education and one or the other sector does not need to be talked down.
There is clear Australian Bureau of Statistics evidence that higher levels of post-compulsory education lead to higher levels of workforce participation, and people with degrees and skills have higher participation rates in every age group, compared with people with no post-school qualifications.
Yet, the seriousness of the current situation is reflected in the figures published nationally this week that show even a major university like the University of Queensland handing back 615 unfilled student places to the Commonwealth, alongside a regional university like CQU handing back a further 524 unfilled places. In such a situation, of course, both courses and staff then come under threat.
At USC we continue to gear our courses to what students and employers overwhelmingly say they want in an undergraduate degree. Workplace experiences and the international GO program are but two of the emphases we place on broadening students learning experiences here and overseas.
It is to be hoped, nevertheless, that the range of national reviews presently underway will result in outcomes that will reverse the worrying international drift away from post-compulsory education. If they do not, then ‘Smart State’, ‘Knowledge Nation’, or other such initiatives will struggle, both in metropolitan and regional areas.
Professor Paul Thomas AM is Vice-Chancellor at the University of the Sunshine Coast.