South Australia universities worried over Funds cut

National Tertiary Education Union

In South Australia, the Gonski education changes will see an extra $600 million spent, which is far less than for the eastern states. SA universities say they will be hit hard by a $2 billion reduction across the nation in tertiary education funding, a cut which will help meet the costs of the changes.

Flinders University vice-chancellor Michael Barber said one arm of education should not be paying for another. “We need better schools, but at the same time Australia if it wishes to be the nation that I think most of us aspire to it needs a globally-competitive higher education system,” he said.

Mr Barber said Flinders remained committed to its $120 million expansion plan for Tonsley Park in Adelaide and was hopeful the funding cutbacks would not force a delay.

“It certainly to me would be very regrettable if this cut was to impact significantly on what I believe is one of the most vital developments not just for Flinders University, not just for southern Adelaide, but for South Australia,” he said.

Adelaide University vice-chancellor, Professor Warren Bebbington, said the university recognised there were budgetary pressures, but it seemed universities had been used as an easy target.

“If they include research in this they could go all the way up to all kinds of funds that universities receive and in our case that would be $8 million,” he said.

Jobs risk
The National Tertiary Education Union said funding increases in recent years had failed to keep up with student growth, and cutting back funding could see jobs go. Australian Education Union SA president Correna Haythorpe said the union was concerned about money being taken from universities for another sector.

“Whilst we support extra funding for our public schools we don’t believe that the funding for universities should be cut to make that contribution because fundamentally the provision of high-quality education at all levels should be a top priority for the Government and we believe the Federal Government should reconsider those cuts,” she said.

SA Premier Jay Weatherill defended the relatively-small sum South Australia would get from the Federal Government’s plan to overhaul schools funding compared with eastern states.

“They have a lot further to go because South Australia’s done so much better over the years in funding its education system,” he said.

“We support a strong tertiary sector but it’s a matter for the Commonwealth about how it chooses to fund the tertiary sector here.”

The Premier will head to COAG talks late this week, where the education deal will be discussed further