Luke Mansillo theguardian.com, Thursday 26 September 2013
The Abbott opposition repeatedly claimed there would be no changes to higher education; the government is now considering reintroducing a cap on university places. Australians should be appalled
'Just as the Greeks gave the city of Troy a wooden horse as a gift, the Opposition claimed repeatedly there would be no changes to higher education'. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/Warner
The gates of mercy have been all shut up on Australian students. The tory Trojan horse has opened.
Just as the Greeks gave the city of Troy a wooden horse as a gift, the Abbott Opposition claimed repeatedly there would be no changes to higher education. Australians accepted this as a gift, and on that proviso elected the Coalition.
Night time fell; the Greeks came out of the horse and butchered the city of Troy. Abbott won, and now ignobly reveals his true intentions: leaving higher education in waste and desolation, maiming Australian students in the process.
It’s not as if we did not have a clue: in August 2012, a remarkably similar policy was leaked from the Coalition’s “policy development” discussions. This included the cap on university places – an unbearable idea for everyone caring about equity and ending entrenched access to education.
The Coalition cites the quality of degrees as the rationale for capping places. But if they were serious about the quality of undergraduate degrees, they would end the corporatised model of the university. There is no question that education quality is declining, but that decline is a result of the federal government's cuts. Tutorial sizes have doubled in the last 22 years. When the Liberals came to power in 1996 the student to teacher ratio in universities was 15 to 1, when the Liberals left government it was 21 to 1.
The cuts to education are not to preserve the quality of education; Christopher Pyne’s statements saying that any loss of quality would “poison” the sector's international reputation and that “quality is our watchword” is mere rhetorical guff. The Liberals' history of inflicting wounds on higher education speaks volumes on their commitment to maintain standards. If you are under any doubt, watch the documentary Facing the Music detailing the collapse in education standards at the University of Sydney’s School of Music after Howard decided to be the universities’ vivisectionist.
It is pure and simple: the less government money, the lower the quality of higher education. When students use private money through HECS debts they are buying a commodity; something universities in their present economic relationship with students are not inclined to withhold. If the Coalition were serious about improving standards, they would give universities appropriate public monies to support their staff, regardless of how many students they fail.
It was Abbott himself who said the Coalition needed to “purposefully, calmly and methodically” deliver on their election promises now that the Coalition has “won the trust of the Australian people.” The Coalition denied there would be a cap on university places in 2012; blatantly lied to the public on ABC’s 730: “We have no plans to restore the cap. We do believe that the more students who are doing university, the better”. Their Real Solutions manifesto stated: “we will strengthen higher education and encourage Australian of all ages to further their education.” Those newly announced plans prove otherwise.
Abbott accused Julia Gillard of being a liar by endlessly squawking her “there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead” quote, conveniently cutting off her repeated statements about carbon pricing. Funny, then, that the Coalition repeatedly lied to the Australian public , leading us to this Trojan horse surprise.
Australia should be bubbling with rage.
