Western Sydney students to lose millions of dollars from university funding reforms

Sydney universities will lose millions of dollars in funding for students from disadvantaged backgrounds under proposed federal government changes.

The Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program was introduced by the Rudd government 10 years ago to boost university participation by allocating funding to institutions with the highest number of underprivileged students.

Wendy San studied at UTS and now works at Deloitte after taking part in an outreach program for school students living in disadvantaged areas.
Wendy San studied at UTS and now works at Deloitte after taking part in an outreach program for school students living in disadvantaged areas.Credit:Peter rae

The federal government now plans to give almost half of these funds to universities in regional and remote areas. Regional universities in NSW and the University of Tasmania in Hobart, which is classified as regional, have welcomed the changes. The reforms also include doubling fees for humanities courses and reducing fees for science-related courses.

The Senate will vote on the bill next week and its success depends on the votes of Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie and South Australia’s Stirling Griff.

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Sydney universities claim they will lose millions of dollars in funding while delivering these regional universities a windfall.

Western Sydney University is among city institutions facing the biggest funding cut under the proposed changes, despite supporting students who live in disadvantaged areas, including Sydney’s west and south-west.

Vice Chancellor Barney Glover said 31 per cent of his students come from poorer suburbs.

“We are, by far, the biggest university in the country for supporting educational pathways for students from a disadvantaged background,” he said.

Professor Glover said his university had received about $100 million in funding under the program since it was introduced, but calculated its funding would drop from $11.2 million this year to $6.9 million in 2024 when a new formula has been fully phased in.

“Beyond 2024, the impact will be quite significant,” Professor Glover said. “For us it has always been a very valuable funding source from the Commonwealth to widen participation in higher education in our region.”

Former NSW Labor Minister for Education Verity Firth, who heads the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion, said the new funding formula did not appear to distinguish between poor and wealthy rural and regional students. HEPPP funding is currently allocated to universities based on the numbers of students of low socioeconomic status (SES) at their institution. Under the changes, 45 per cent of the money would be allocated for low SES students, 45 per cent for the university’s proportion of students from rural and regional areas and 10 per cent for its Indigenous students.

“The worst hit university in the country in terms of their equity funding is Western Sydney University. And the second worst hit is us,” Ms Firth said. “What about the kids of western Sydney?”.

UTS student equity manager Sonol Singh said the program had helped many students from western Sydney become the first in their family to access university.

“We estimate at UTS with this formula over the next three years we are going to lose over $1 million,” she said.

Wendy San, 24 was a beneficiary of the UTS equity program called U@Uni.
Wendy San, 24 was a beneficiary of the UTS equity program called U@Uni.Credit:Peter Rae

Beneficiaries of the UTS equity program called U@Uni include Wendy San, 24, who now works as a consultant with Deloitte.

The daughter of migrants from Vietnam, she completed a double degree in visual communications and international studies after taking part in a two-year outreach program at UTS when she was at Canley Vale High School in Sydney’s south-west.

“None of us would be confidently where we are now without that program,” she said. “Because we didn’t have parents who speak English as a first language we needed more assistance to get into university.”

Mary Teague, director of the University of NSW Access and Equity program for students said the federal government was “prioritising regional communities and short changing schools and communities in western Sydney”.

Labor’s education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said that, as the children of migrants living in the suburbs of Sydney, “this is exactly the kind of unfair government policy that might have stopped me and my brothers getting a degree”. “If they are prepared to work and study hard, I want every Australian to have the opportunity to go to uni, no matter their circumstances or where they live,” she said.

A spokesman from Charles Sturt University said it supports the funding increase for rural universities which would mean “125,000 additional students of Indigenous, regional or remote background would be eligible for support”.

Professor Todd Walker, Provost and Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of New England (UNE) said the policy recognised the contribution regional universities make “to shape the regional and national workforce”. He said 47 per cent of his students are from regional Australia and 20 per cent are low socioeconomic suburbs.

“There has been a lot of focus and debate on the fee reform elements of the package, but most importantly for UNE it includes a redistribution of federal funding towards regional universities and more opportunity for regional students,” he said.

Labor education spokesperson Tanya  Plibersek said this type of policy might have prevented her from going to university.
Labor education spokesperson Tanya Plibersek said this type of policy might have prevented her from going to university. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

University of Tasmania vice-chancellor Rufus Black has welcomed the federal government higher education reform package saying it would “enable us to increase the number of Tasmanians in higher education, attract more students to Tasmania from interstate and improve access for lower underprivileged regional and rural students through increased financial support”.

The federal Department of Education said funding for universities will grow by $2 billion by 2024 under the Job-ready Graduates package.

“A transition fund will be established to ensure that each university does not receive a dollar less in funding under JRG than they would have received under the current arrangements, including any effects of the new Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP) funding methodology,” a department spokeswoman said.

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Source: Thanks smh.com