Seven of the Group of Eight Amassed a Combined Surplus for the Year of $472.6 Million. (June 5, 2007)

    It's wonderful how certain individuals are predicable to a fault, and the Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop, must come close to the top of the list.

The Financial Review reported yesterday that seven of our eight sandstone universities have a "combined surplus of $472.6 million for 2006 - up $130 million on the previous year".

And as for Ms Bishop?  "The evidence challenges the credibility of claims of under funding."

And as for the chairman of the Go8, Glyn Davis, University of Melbourne V-C? "The operating surplus is the only means of transferring revenue for asset-replacement purposes," and once again made the point that asset replacement costs have now mounted to a staggering $17.1 billion for the Go8 and $35.1 billion for the whole sector.

According to the Fin Review Ms Bishop decried the universities' requests for more funding increases on top of the $5-billion endowment announced last month in the federal budget.

Of course she overlooked her previous public utterances that there would be consequent reductions in block funding grants as the HEEF's interest payments came to fruition, to say nothing of the fact that $472.6 million is about 2.8% of the funds needed for asset replacement for the Go8.