Australian unis have a two-track system. One type of student misses out

Some of the nation’s universities are stuck in a negative feedback loop of chasing higher university rankings to lure more international students at the expense of domestic students, a tertiary education chief has said.

Western Sydney University vice chancellor George Williams told The Australian Financial Review’s higher education summit on Tuesday that there was a two-track system in Australia for universities and domestic students were being priced out.

“There are those students who can afford to study at university, and there are a large number of students who cannot, and even if they go to university, they cannot afford to stay the length of their degree,” he said.

He said the Job-ready Graduates program introduced during the Morrison government was “pricing students out of university”. The program resulted in the cost of an arts degree surging to $50,000 and Labor has kept the controversial program since it came to office.

“[The] funding for domestic students has declined by $2 billion in real terms since 2020 so that’s a pretty clear signal about where the priorities of the system are, and it’s not domestic students,” Williams said.

“And that leads us into that dynamic where, if you want to deal with decreasing government funding, it’s about international students, and to get that, it’s about research rankings. And that’s the virtuous circle: big universities, research rankings. International students, back into research, back into rankings.

“And it’s significant that domestic students don’t get a look in.”

In the face of a reduction in international students, numerous Australian universities are facing perilous financial situations and are chasing hundreds of millions of dollars in savings. UTS, Macquarie, Wollongong and Charles Sturt universities have all announced plans in the past 12 months to slash jobs. Meanwhile, other universities that rank highly on international league tables, such as Sydney University and the University of NSW, have posted large surpluses.

A series of university governance failures – including staff underpayment scandals, inaction on antisemitism and gargantuan vice chancellor salaries which now average more than $1 million a year – have rocked wider public confidence in tertiary institutions.

Earlier this year, University of Canberra vice chancellor Bill Shorten said universities were at risk of losing their social licence due to a suite of issues ranging from racism and sexual assault on campus to over-enrolment of overseas students.

On Tuesday, Education Minister Jason Clare announced plans to give the nation’s university regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), more powers to respond to systemic risks, not just the requirements of individual institutions.

“At the moment, TEQSA has a sledgehammer and a feather, and not much in between,” he said.

“There is a good argument that TEQSA needs better tools to be able to step in and act when it’s justified in the public interest.”

Outside the conference held at Martin Place on Tuesday morning, the National Tertiary Education Union held a rally in the rain to protest against the way universities were handling staff cuts, saying it was in dispute with three universities at the Fair Work Commission over failures to consult on restructure plans.

“While staff are losing jobs and students are losing courses, senior executives and consultants are meeting inside the summit to discuss the sector’s future without staff or student voices at the table,” NSW union division secretary Vince Caughley said.

There will also be a NSW parliamentary inquiry into university governance to examine the protocols for addressing poor performance of chancellors and members of university governing bodies.

Labor upper house MP and committee chair Dr Sarah Kaine said: “This is a chance to ask hard questions. Are universities being run in the public interest? Are they accessible, inclusive, and accountable? Are they fulfilling their promise to serve society – not just markets?”

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