Let Them Eat Spaghetti -- No Sauce. (March 15, 2007)

Professor Tatum waiting for the photographer to finish his shoot.

    It was some time ago, so long ago in fact that Stanford's Edward Tatum had still a few years to wait before he would travel to Stockholm with George Beadle and Joshua Lederberg to receive his Nobel Prize (1958).

One of his graduate students was awarded a bursary by the university elders which was so low it was far below the minimum wage.

Ed Tatum wasn't having it and was in no mood to mince words. Storming into the meeting he told the "old farts" what he thought of them, and that they had no idea of the cost of living.

"With what you're awarding him he couldn't subsist on spaghetti with no sauce, why don't you wake up to yourselves."

The bursary was increased to a reasonable amount -- but then the feisty Tatum was a certainty for a Nobel and a force to be reckoned with.

Today Australian university vice-chancellors are demanding that John Howard's Coalition government give students a fair shake as regards income support as their burden of debt escalates while earning tertiary degrees.

Having shot from the hip a couple of days ago indicating that students had a nerve complaining and that the survey tabled by the vice-chancellors in support of the students was based on attitudes but changes to student welfare needed to be based on empirical evidence, the Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop seems to have gotten the message that there's an election in the offing.

"Levels of student support are under constant review, and the Government is already considering a range of issues in this area," Ms Bishop's spokesman told The Australian.

But the more Ms Bishop utters her viewpoints, whether directly or through spokespeople, the more the question may be posed as to whether she is the Minister for or against Education, Science and Training?

And the opposition Labor education shadow minister for education, Steven Smith, decided to have an each way bet, "While students must be willing to put in the hard yards to support themselves, there is a point when the financial and time pressures faced by students becomes simply too great."

Among the recommendations of the vice-chancellors are a 25% increase to the Youth Allowance and free public transport during semesters. Furthermore, the age at which students should be deemed as independent of their parents ought to be lowered from 25 to 18, enabling those still living at home to get the Youth Allowance.

Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee president Gerard Sutton said, "And going into the election, we intend to push that strongly, because the age of independence at 25 years is counter to what anybody in our society would think is the age of independence and is simply a cost-saving measure."

One of the most depressing of the survey's findings was that the biggest losers are indigenous students. A quarter said they go without food and other necessities because they cannot afford them, and one of the recommendations of the vice-chancellors is to award an extra payment for indigenous students to cover textbook, transport and child-care costs.

For anyone deluded enough to question whether education is the ticket to a better life for black boys and men [in the US], consider that a black male who drops out of high school is 60 times more likely to find himself in prison than one with a bachelor’s degree.

No parallel here, Julie?

[Notes added March 21/22: According to The Australian today Richard James, who led the research team in rebuttal to Ms Bishop's denial of the survey's value said, "It is a good, large empirical data set based on students' own account of their financial circumstances. It is deeply quantitative. It seemed a bit of a shame that she reacted that way." He said the researchers were moved by some of the students' descriptions. "When you read these accounts you have no doubt about the financial difficulty of some students."
    The challenge for policy was to target help at the students who truly needed it in a way that was not "captured" by students who were relatively well-off, Professor James said.

Michael Nguyen, the president of the National Union of Students, told The Sydney Morning Herald students were more concerned about income support while they were at university and the large debts they needed to repay on graduation.
    "[Pegging the start of repayment of HECS at $39,825 annual income (up from $38, 149) is] a step in the right direction but the Government needs to address the main issue at the moment - student income support, which is pretty much the main barrier to access to education. I think it's more important to reduce the debt and also to support students who are at uni."]