Higher Education Makes the National Affairs Section of The Australian. (August 5, 2010)

The soft spoken federal Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations; Minister for Education; Minister for Social Inclusion, Simon Crean has raised the matter of higher education half way into the election campaign as reported by The Australian's Patricia Karvelas -- and under National Affairs/Education rather than in the Higher Education Supplement.

Agreeing that a deregulated system would work only if substantial investments were made in higher education the minister also indicated to Ms Karvelas that funding per student would be maintained at current levels: "We want to finish the job. We want to tell the story that this is a benefit for the nation as well as the individual, and it's an investment the nation must make."

The minister went on to avow that the universities would be a second term priority were Labor to be re-elected: "Nation building [is about empowerment] through productivity... through a better values set that comes from education -- tolerance and understanding and reaching out and social inclusion," and Ms Karvelas writes: "Mr Crean said the government would fully meet the rising costs imposed by a jump in student places."

Unfortunately the matter of providing resources for future university staffing from the viewpoint of learning and research, as well as teaching, have yet to be satisfactorily addressed by Labor, Liberal, National or Green representatives.

Of course if the universities dug or pumped resources out from under our feet, and had powerful means of lobbying,  matters might be different.