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Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan will today deliver a higher education relief package for the tertiary education sector which is "unashamedly" focused on domestic students.
Key points:
- There will be 20,000 places available in short-term nursing, teaching, health, IT and science courses
- Universities will retain the $18 billion budgeted this year regardless of any fall in enrolments
- Lobby group Universities Australia had wanted governments to provide hardship payments to international students, but this was rejected
The package includes funding for new short courses for the unemployed, a guaranteed $18 billion for domestic students regardless of enrolment numbers and $100 million in regulatory relief for education providers.
The Government said prices will be slashed for six-month, remotely delivered diplomas and graduate certificates in nursing, teaching, health, IT and science provided by universities and private tertiary educators.
"This plan will help Australians who have lost their job or are looking to retrain to use their time studying nursing, teaching, counselling, allied health or other areas considered national priorities," Mr Tehan said.
The Government said the 20,000 places offered for the first time in these short courses will also offset university losses from international students and allow greater flexibility.
"It will also provide a revenue stream for universities and private providers to assist their financial stability," Mr Tehan said.
"These reforms will help universities pivot towards a closer alignment of domestic industry and student demands through innovative micro-credentials delivered flexibly online."
The Government will also guarantee that $18 billion budgeted to go to universities this year for domestic students will arrive regardless of any fall in enrolments.
"The university sector came to the Government about three weeks ago and said that their number one priority was to be able to get a guarantee for their domestic student load," he said.
"We have done that now, this will put ballast into university funding for the rest of the year," he said.
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International students miss out
Universities Australia, the peak lobby group for Australia's 39 universities, had asked for two other forms of assistance the Government has declined to provide.
It has estimated revenue across Australia's universities will decline by between $3 billion and $4.6 billion.
Universities had wanted governments to provide hardship payments to international students struggling to pay their bills.
Some of these students were paid cash incentives by universities of up to $7,500 to travel to Australia via a third country when the pandemic was at its peak in China.
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Last week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was time for these students and other visa holders who are unable to support themselves to "go home".
Mr Tehan echoed the Prime Minister's message that the Government needs to focus on its own citizens.
"This is unashamedly focused on domestic students. We're going to need our university sector, we're going to need our broader tertiary sector to retrain and reskill Australians to help us emerge from the pandemic even stronger," Mr Tehan said.
Universities Australia was also asking to be able to access the Government's JobKeeper payments when revenue fell by 15 per cent rather than the 50 per cent threshold for universities with revenue over $1 billion.
"The university sector will still be eligible for JobKeeper but they'll have to meet the normal requirements for every other business," Mr Tehan said.
Labor's education spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, had warned universities were facing falling off a fiscal cliff and called for the domestic student funding to be guaranteed for three years.
The Government believes one year is appropriate in a fluid, fast-moving situation.
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"My hope is the university sector will be able to see us through the next six months of educating and reskilling our domestic students but then there might be a need to help even further next year. So we wanted to give them the certainty for this year and then look to see how we will support them in the years ahead," Mr Tehan said.
The third plank of the Government's relief package for the sector is $100 million in relief from government fees and regulations for universities and private tertiary providers.
"For the tertiary sector, over $100 million in fees and regulatory costs will be waived to also assist the sector," Mr Tehan said.
The package will be announced at Parliament House in Canberra later today.
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Topics: covid-19, diseases-and-disorders, respiratory-diseases, infectious-diseases-other, university-and-further-education, education, government-and-politics, federal-government, australia
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