Minister for Education's Sir Robert Menzies Oration 2008. (November 7, 2008)

Delivering the Sir Robert Menzies Oration yesterday evening at The University of Melbourne the Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Julia Gillard made the point:

The man we’re also honouring tonight, Sir Robert Menzies, demonstrated he understood the power of education as a force for good, a force for equity and a force for change when he said in one of his 1942 radio addresses:

‘In the new world we must seek to develop all the intelligence and strength and character in every child. Each one of them must have his chance. We must spend much more on education; we must show that discipline is not the enemy of freedom but its best friend; we must get to know that at least as much genius is to be found and nurtured in Collingwood and Bankstown as in Toorak or Bellevue Hill.’

But she also told her audience: Thanks to the reforms initiated by Education Minister John Dawkins between 1984 and 1992:

• year-12 retention were increased by 110 percent;

• university enrolments were increased by 57 percent; and

• TAFE enrolments went up by more than 25 percent.

We moved from a minority to a mass higher education and training system in less than a decade.

Ms Gillard chose to ignore the the overall degradation of the university sector instigated by what might be called the blancmange created by John Dawkins, what Labor's Barry Jones referred to, also at The University of Melbourne, in 2002, as:

A turning point in the history of Australia's higher education... the comprehensive reorganisation that was initiated, and indeed imposed, from 1987 by John Dawkins, Bob Hawke's minister for education and training. I have little doubt that Dawkinsisation will prove to have been the greatest single mistake of the Hawke-Keating years.

But we move on. Ms Gillard asked the rhetorical question: What improvement do our universities need?

First, she addresses the issue of quality and public support:

There’s one over-arching problem facing our universities: stagnating levels of public funding.

Between 1995 and 2005 public investment in tertiary education increased by 49.4 percent across the OECD, but in Australia it increased by zero percent. That’s right: zero.

In that time Australia’s share of public expenditure on tertiary institutions fell from nearly two-thirds to less than a half. But while we’re pleased our universities have been able to increase their own sources of funding, this should have enabled them to significantly increase quality not just make up for the public shortfall.

All this makes the last decade of strong economic growth a massive wasted opportunity for Australia’s universities.

As our universities have confronted funding challenges so have our researchers. Our other crucial task is to promote research excellence. The links between knowledge production through research and development and productivity and economic growth are well known. Other nations are leaping ahead of us. China, for instance, has been increasing its investment in Research and Development by more than 20 per cent a year over the last decade, and its output of science publications has increased by 16 percent per year. In the same time Australia’s R&D investment has declined by a quarter as a proportion of GDP and our scientific publications have increased by just 2 percent.

Ms Gillard than turns to the question of equity:

People with disabilities, from regional areas, Indigenous backgrounds and low socio-economic families are all significantly under-represented in our universities and are falling further behind. In fact, as I have mentioned before, the participation rate of students from lower socio-economic status background in higher education, fell from 15.1 per cent to 14.6 per cent between 2001 and 2006.

When she lists what Labor has accomplished so far during their 11 months in government the list is not particularly impressive.

The fruits of the $11 billion Education Investment Fund have yet to be begun to be picked, the $500 million for infrastructure renewal is most welcome but needs marked bulking up if we are to move into the upper echelon of our cohort nations, and the doubling to 88,000 of undergraduate scholarships by 2012 needs the upgrading of the institutions to be attended.

To be fair, 11 months is a very short period to reverse the damage, both active and passive, perpetrated by John Howard Coalition of 11¾ years.

As to the future the Minister says:

The Bradley Review presents us with a unique opportunity to refashion universities and the broader tertiary education system to meet the needs of the future. For too long this nation has lacked a strategic vision of what we want our universities and tertiary education system to look like and achieve in 10 and 20 years time.

[C]learly I want to create a system where there are the right incentives to encourage universities to provide the best possible education to all our young people, and a system which properly supports individuals to study so they are able to invest in their human capital over the course of their life.

And we must deliver equity. Economically, our nation will be the poorer if we do not make the most of the talents and potentials of all our people. Morally, our nation will be the weaker if we leave unanswered for another 60 years Robert Menzies challenge to provide educational equity.

By addressing issues such as these, the Bradley Review will promote substantial change, and a system that meets the needs of the times.

It’s my intention that the improvements it ushers in will make this a worthy successor to the Dawkins era.

Well, look on the bright side Ms Gillard is not forcing the sector to walk the plank, at least not just yet.