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Major changes are impending
4 April 2009
International and national conferences in Melbourne have occupied most of last week.
The largest conference was principally concerned with the possible outcomes of the Bradley Report on higher education, at which Professor Bradley outlined a revolutionary agenda for change in universities and TAFE organisations.
There appears to be a groundswell of sectoral support for the major recommendations bearing on greater financial support for students, more funding for research and increasing the number and range of backgrounds of students, in particular.
Right across the spectrum there is full acknowledgement of inadequate funding across the last decade.
The major brake on revolutionary change, however, is of course the financial crisis and the likely impact it will have on the May budget. The Federal Government will obviously be much more constrained than it would like to be at this time, and gradual introduction of reforms is appearing more and more likely.
The so-called ‘social inclusion’ agenda, which will encourage more access from disadvantaged groups, supported by a stronger funding regime will benefit us, quite significantly.
For my part, I have stressed the need for greater support for universities like ours in high-growth areas. Just as metropolitan universities have accumulated advantages, the major ones over 150 years, growing regional universities now need to be the focus of much of this ‘social inclusion’ expansion, with funding to match the roles.
An allied conference of business and higher education leaders was concerned with collaboration and engagement activities of universities and TAFE in regional Australia, in concert with schools and businesses.
The linkages between universities and TAFE in particular are to grow, as a response to increasing numbers of students who want the best that both offer.
There is a national consensus on the need for major structural and funding changes, and the Director of SCIT and I are together looking at ways we can optimise them for the advantage of students on the Coast.
We continue to press hard for recognition of the needs of the Sunshine Coast, and hopefully, further growth funding will flow in the not too distant future.
Professor Paul Thomas AM is Vice-Chancellor and President at the University of the Sunshine Coast.