Higher Education and Research Reform Amendment Bill 2014
Submission 76
Dear member
I urge you to oppose the proposed changes to higher education in the
budget. These changes amount to a further privatisation of tertiary education and
will be accompanied by both an increase in social inequity and a steady decline in
education standards.
The government's proposals will take Australia further down the path of the US system
which itself has a looming debt crisis. Australia will pay for the inequity as our best
and brightest either postpone their careers to tackle debt, make educational choices
based on earnings potential, or sidestep education all together. Access to university
should be based on merit, not on wealth.
As a university academic, I have witnessed first hand the decline in education standards
brought about by the introduction of popular, low impact courses for
profit and the increased reliance on student (customer) satisfaction as a measure and
determinant of educational standards. If Australia's economic future really does
depend on a highly skilled workforce, then education, like governance itself, must
remain in the safe hands of public conscience and public responsibility.
I strongly urge you and your colleagues to vote against the
legislation when it comes before Parliament.
Yours sincerely
Gerard Borg