Labor has foreshadowed greater government intervention in the allocation of student places at universities, signalling a shift from the demand-driven funding system it put in place when it was last in power.
With the Coalition government’s package to deregulate university fees still stalled in the Senate, attention has turned to Labor’s alternative policy for the sector.
The education minister, Christopher Pyne, said the opposition was laying the ground to reintroduce caps on the number of student places, a move he said would “dismantle Julia Gillard’s great achievement, the demand-driven system”.
The Gillard government removed previously imposed limits on domestic bachelor-degree student numbers at public universities in 2012, moving to a system where funding was provided to support as many people as institutions enrolled.
This fuelled a 22% increase in student numbers between 2009 and 2013, according to a review commissioned by the Coalition, while the total cost of the commonwealth grant scheme increased from $4.1bn to $6.1bn over the same period.
Labor’s higher education spokesman, Kim Carr, insisted the party would not freeze enrolment at current levels, saying “the number of student places will continue to grow”.
Carr, who has previously ruled out “crude application of caps”, indicated on Thursday that Labor would exercise greater control over the growth than would otherwise occur.
This would take the form of negotiations between the government and each university to ensure a focus on quality and meeting workforce needs.
In prepared remarks to the Universities Australia annual conference, Carr said he would “build on Labor’s record of reform”, but cited increasing concern about completion rates and achievement of satisfactory academic standards, especially among students who entered university with low tertiary admission ranks.
“At present there is a dropout rate across the system of nearly one in seven. In some universities, there is a dropout rate from some courses of more than 20%,” he said.
Carr said the party would take a policy to the next election focused on equity, accessibility, quality and attainment. He said participation was “not enough”.
“In return for public investment, Labor expects universities to work with the commonwealth to help address national and regional priorities in education and the labour market,” he said.
“The key to making this partnership work is to find a balance between institutional autonomy and accountability for the use of taxpayers’ funds.”
Pyne interpreted the latest statements from Carr and the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, as a sign that Labor would take a “command and control” approach.
The minister said a reintroduction of limits on places would amount to an “unfair student lockout that will hurt in the suburbs and regional areas of Australia”.
“These changes will lock out battlers from university forever,” Pyne said.
“It is time to end the ‘Carrmagedon’ – time for Senator Carr and Bill Shorten to listen to those who built the modern Labor party and achieved many great deeds of the past.”
For months, Carr has been flagging the use of “compacts” between universities and the government to address skills shortages in some areas and oversupply of graduates in others.
“There are lots of ways in which governments can influence decision making without crude application of caps,” Carr told Guardian Australia in January.
Carr said on Thursday that a Labor government would provide funding to allow continued growth, but would “focus growth” in areas of unmet need and skills shortages. He said there was a legitimate role for the commonwealth to ensure standards were improving and students were succeeding.
“We don’t want to waste money where we end up with student with a debt and no degree,” he said on Thursday.
The Coalition’s package to deregulate university fees would also extend demand-driven funding to sub-bachelor programs, after a review recommended this step to help prepare struggling students for further study and reduce dropout rates.
There is no sign the legislation will pass the parliament in the next fortnight of sittings, the final session before the May budget.
