What Effect on Universities :  a true unleashing of market forces? (January 24, 2011)

University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Stephen Parker writing in the latest edition of Monitor, the University of Canberra's newspaper, has taken up the issue of ''a true unleashing of market forces'' with the advent of the 2012 academic year, which is when funding for domestic undergraduate students will be aligned with a student's enrolment, rather than having a disciplinary allocation made to the university.

As he told The Canberra Times' Julieane Strachan: "the volume cap on total Commonwealth-supported places will be lifted in what is the world's first large-scale deregulation of undergraduate university places."

In Professor Parker's view courses in languages, history and classics may be threatened while courses such as law could expand under the new funding model, and he went on to say: "This is regrettable from the point of view of healthy diversity of disciplines in the nation but, if it happens, it will be a consequence of a deliberate shift to a new model."

In rebuttal The Minister for Tertiary Education Chris Evans defended the changes to Ms Strachan, saying they would support research and improvements in the quality of teaching.