The next federal government can save universities, make undergraduate education free for all Australians and employ tens of thousands of staff securely by lifting the public spend on higher education to just one per cent of GDP, according to a landmark new report.
Following decades of funding cuts, government inaction and the pandemic, more than 40,000 jobs were lost in public tertiary education in the 12 months to May 2021, 35,000 of those at public universities.
“Higher education needs to be made a priority in this election. The future of hundreds of thousands of staff and millions of students depends on it,” said National Tertiary Education Union National President Dr Alison Barnes.
“As devastating as the pandemic has been for Australia’s universities, the sector was being distorted and damaged by corporatisation, casualisation, and privatisation long before COVID arrived,” said Australia Institute economist Eliza Littleton.
The report’s recommendations include:
- Free undergraduate education for Australian students
- Adequate public funding for universities
- Fully-funded research
- Measures to ensure secure employment
- Caps on vice-chancellor salaries and transparency in data collection