CHARLES Sturt University has strongly urged the federal government to come up with a workable solution to its higher education reforms.
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That comes after the reforms — including the deregulation of university fees — were killed off in the Senate on Tuesday night.
CSU vice-chancellor Andrew Vann said this was no surprise given comments coming from crossbenchers “and what we’ve heard out of Canberra”.
But Professor Vann said the reforms’ defeat was still disappointing.
“It leaves us in a state of uncertainty,” he said.
“We still don’t know what our budget is going to be next year, we still don’t know what the long-term funding situation is going to be for the university.
“We really would like to see all sides of politics get their heads together and find a solution that is going to work for the sector, is going to work for students and is going to work for the country.”
The government still intends to pursue its reforms, though that is expected to come with more changes.
Universities Australia was pleased the government would persist, but cautioned against making further arbitrary cuts to the sector in the May budget.
Professor Vann said CSU had to assume that funding was going to stay as it had been legislated.
“But the government can change various things without requiring legislation,” he said.
“One of the worries would be that they’re able to apply some sort of cut even without getting the legislation through.”
Professor Vann said that based on what Education Minister Christopher Pyne had done so far, he was hoping it was “unlikely” that would happen.
“I’m really hoping we’ll get some better certainty in fairly short order,” he said.
Professor Vann said the minister had indicated he was going to bring the legislation back again.
“We know that Christopher Pyne is a very determined person so I guess what we’d like some certainty on is what that will mean in terms of 2016 funding,” he said.
“Does it mean if they bring it back that they’d leave things as they are for 2016, or what does it mean?
“That’s what we really want to know next.”
The university is keen for an assistance package that ensures regional communities do not lose access to research.
Professor Vann said the institutions that put up their fees the most, those in the big cities, would have the biggest war chest.
“We want students to have choice,” he said.