Nelson: A University Education is a Privilege. The AVCC Sees it as a Right. (June 30, 2005)

    Ticky Fullerton asked the Minister for Education, Science and Training, Brendan Nelson, in the ABC Four Corners program The Degree Factories (June 27) as to how he viewed a university education:

Q. So do you see university education as a right or a privilege?

 

A. I think that it’s a privilege. I think I think all of us need to appreciate that having university education is not something that any of us should ever take for granted, and one of our failings as a country of course is we’ve created this culture in which young people feel that if they don’t get a university education that in some way they’re not as good as someone who does, and that’s that’s at the heart of many of the problems we’ve got in terms of unacceptably high drop out rates from university, skill shortages in key areas and disengagement by young people in their secondary education.

The same day the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee issued a statement in contradiction: "A university education: an individual right and a national benefit" and summed up its viewpoint "People should have the opportunity to access a university education if they wish to do so, have the capability to complete a course, and are accepted."

In addition the most prestigious of American private universities appear to subscribe to the AVCC's view. For example the US' Ivy League universities which count Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Columbia among its members have policies that any individual that passes their entrance criteria shall not be prevented from undertaking study because of a lack of means. And the universities undertake to provide funding to supplement the difference between what the student and his family can be reasonably expected to provide and the cost of the student's education. It was Harold Shapiro, the emeritus president of Princeton University, who instituted the initiative. Perhaps Dr Nelson might like to seek his views on the matter.

The AVCC also took the opportunity in its statement to enunciate that

the AVCC’s vision for Australian university education in 2020 has five defining features:

• effective national investment in higher education and research and development will underpin the international quality of Australia’s universities. By 2020 Australian investment in higher education should be at 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and investment in research and development should be at 3% of GDP;
• all Australians will access post-school education or training, with choice across a diverse range of universities;
• research excellence will be found across the Australian university system, with a focus on agreed key priority areas, extending basic knowledge, and innovative research and development;
• Australia's universities will meet the needs of Australia’s Indigenous peoples through education, research and community service comparable to the support provided to all Australians; and
• Australia will have a pre-eminent place in global education. Educational exports will be one of the top three Australian value-adding exports.

Nice dream.