Are the Government's Education Targets Valid Criteria for Judging Merit? (November 25, 2010)

The Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Jobs and Workplace Relations, Senator Chris Evans, in a media release refers to a new report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics which he states "confirms the Government is on track to meet its education targets and deliver on its commitment to a world class education system for Australia".

Senator Evans goes on to state the following:

This report shows the government’s target that 40 per cent of 25-34 year olds hold a Bachelor-level education by 2025 is well within reach.

Major investments have been made to improve the overall quality of our higher education and vocational education and training (VET) institutions as part of our responses to the Bradley Review of higher education and the global financial crisis.

A strong higher education sector is integral to creating a skilled Australia, ready for the challenges of a modern economy. The greatest investment a government can make to boost productivity is in education.

Importantly, the Government is determined to ensure that our investments lead to improved quality in higher education that will be enjoyed by international and domestic students alike.

And cites as an example the new Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency will oversee registration, standards, performance evaluation and regulatory streamlining that will underpin quality in the higher education sector.

The media release notes that the ABS report "shows the proportion of 25-34 year-olds with at least a Bachelor level qualification is 34.2 per cent – up from 31.9 per cent in 2008... The report also shows that the proportion of people aged 20-64 without a formal qualification at the Certificate III level or above has decreased from 48.1 per cent in 2008 to 45.4 per cent in 2010," and goes on to list: "The Australian Government’s investment in higher education includes:

• A commitment to lift caps on undergraduate university places for domestic students, at an estimated additional cost of $2.1 billion over five years from 2010.

• The introduction of a new indexation approach, giving universities an additional $2.6 billion over five years from 2011 to provide top quality education.

• A substantial investment in higher education infrastructure, with more than $4.1 billion already being committed from the Education Investment Fund for strategic infrastructure in the tertiary and research sectors.

Not to concede that the Rudd/Gillard governments have markedly improved the state of the tertiary education sector following the decimation wrought by the Howard Coalition would be churlish; nevertheless it is misleading for the government not to judge Australia's position relative to its OECD cohort, and to what degree in comparison it has improved, stagnated or retrogressed since the beginning of December 2007.  Jillian Banfield's stinging observation:  "I think that the universities have suffered tremendously from underfunding and defunding in Australia," is difficult to dismiss, and that perceptive comment of Ahmed Zwail's: "...creative minds and bureaucracies do not work harmoniously together" appears to be increasingly cogent as the machinations over the ERA and the TEQSA, compacts and hubs and spokes play out accompanied by the governmental mantra:  "A strong higher education sector is integral to creating a skilled Australia, ready for the challenges of a modern economy".