Bitter Herbs for the Higher Education Sector. (March 7, 2007)

    With John Howard's continued squeeze on Australia's universities their administrations are beginning to look like a cross between subsistence farmers and the Country Women's Association in the ways they're working to chase revenue -- except that the CWA branches are adept at raising funds through their baking contests and cake sales.

The Australian's Higher Education Section's Bernard Lane first gives us the news that "[u]niversities are embarking on a new generation of property deals to deliver capital for expansion and long-term income at a time of government austerity." And through clever financial management we are told that Peter Wills, chairman of property group CRI Australia says, "There would be 'thousands of hectares of land' across the country capable of generating revenue for institutions which in the past had settled sometimes for selling property 'at the bottom of the value curve. We are talking about a major contribution to their annual revenue - if the deals are structured properly'."

Indeed, according to Mr Wills, in the next decade as much as 10% of the operating incomes of universities could be raised whereas currently it is estimated at well under 5%.

That "as much as" term is always a useful hedge.

And just what the costs will be in chasing that additional $25-50 million a year per university is rarely calculated. In short how much will a university benefit from the effort.

And Mr Lane also reminds us through interviewing Phil Clark, a member of the JP Morgan advisory council and a director of ING Management Ltd, "that with declines in government funding it was much harder for universities to find the 60-odd cents they would need in infrastructure money to match every $1 they won in grants from the Australian Research Council or the National Health and Medical Research Council."

That enormous disparity between the US government research grants, which include very substantial funding for "overheads", compared to ARC and NH&MRC grants is a straight jacket on our researchers' competitiveness.
 

Then Dorothy Illing interviews Tim McLaren, former Director of Coaching  of the University of Technology, Sydney's (UTS) Rowing Club.

Tim McLaren AM, Olympic medallist and   coach.

Ms Illing reports, "After 14 years Mr McLaren, who has taken teams to four Olympics, resigned as director of coaching at UTS to take a job as head coach and director of the California Rowing Club, a high-performance training centre at the University of California, Berkeley. A crucial reason for his departure was that the UTS Union, which has lost an annual $6million in student fees under VSU [voluntary student unionism], could no longer guarantee his funding."

The UTS Union chief executive Tom O'Sullivan said, "We are keeping the rowing program going but the outlook is very difficult because it's an expensive sport. Such a downturn in revenues is pretty hard for any organisation to adjust to."

And speaking to the HES from California, Mr McLaren said VSU was "just another nail in the coffin [of Australian universities]. Between the Government dumbing down the university experience by squeezing funding and now VSU, I think the quality of education and opportunities are deteriorating; it's hard to see a way out of that and I couldn't spend time coaching and hoping that things are going to get better."

Happy power walking, John?