Back in June, Australia’s group of eight elite universities called on the Government to rein-in the demand-driven university system, claiming that it has been an expensive failure.
This was followed-up by a report released last month for Melbourne University’s LH Martin Institute, which revealed that while the uncapping of university places in 2009 led to a $2.8 billion taxpayer-funded bonanza for universities, teaching standards have fallen and attrition rates have risen, leading to poor educational outcomes.
Today, Vicki Thomson, executive director of the Group of Eight (Go8) universities, will deliver a provocative speech arguing that uncapping university places has damaged the economy, diluted the value of higher education, and created the false perception that anyone without a degree is a “failure”, thus leaving many university graduates with “broken dreams and a large student debt”. From The Canberra Times:
“I doubt it was ever intended that the demand-driven system would set up society to consider the lack of a degree as a failure, but that is what has been occurring,” Ms Thomson says.
“This is is a real issue that requires correcting as quickly as possible.”
Ms Thomson takes aim at employers for demanding a university degree for jobs such as personal assistants or administration co-ordinators that required only high school completion or a TAFE diploma until recently.
“Suggesting a degree for a position that may not need one is an uncomfortable trend that risks diminishing a university education and sends concerning signals to job seekers,” she says.
“This is not being elitist, it is simply fact”…
In the speech Ms Thomson blasts business groups for accusing universities of not producing enough “work ready” graduates. Employers must take more responsibility for providing training and mentoring to new employees, she says.
Ms Thomson makes some strong points. Total outstanding HELP loans have escalated, many of which will never be repaid, putting increasing pressures on the federal Budget:
Meanwhile, university entrance scores have plummeted, suggesting that every person and their dog can now get a degree, devaluing their worth.
Does Australia really need so many people holding expensive degrees, often working in totally unrelated fields? Isn’t this too much of a good thing?
The more people that have a degree, the more this becomes a basic expectation for employers, leaving those without one further behind. Meanwhile, those that do obtain a degree are experiencing a gradual diminution in their pay, with graduate starting salaries for bachelor degree graduates deteriorating steadily since the 1970s, commensurate with the rise in university participation.
In a similar vein, employers in Australia no longer bother to recruit school leavers and train them up. Instead, they tend to recruit university graduates and then whinge when they don’t have the requisite skills. In the meantime, students are forgoing earnings while they study, while sinking tens-of-thousands of dollars of sunk costs into gaining their degree.
The sad truth is that Australia’s universities have morphed from educational institutions providing a public good (boosting the nation’s productivity) into quantity-based degree factories, whereby they teach as many students as possible to accumulate Commonwealth government funding through HELP/HECS debts. Quality of teaching, and students’ ability to secure subsequent employment, remain distant priorities.
