University Challenged - The Australian Case Study

As in France, investment in higher education in Australia has been declining. In 1990, almost 60% of the University of Sydney’s funding came directly from the federal government. Today, less than 30% does, the gap made up increasingly by tuition fees, industry funding and philanthropy. But each of these alternative sources of funding has its risks and means our business model is more vulnerable than ever before. 

Unlike in France, Australian students pay roughly half of the cost of their education. However, they don’t have to pay any tuition up front and only start to pay it back once they begin earning income above a certain threshold (around €30,000 per year). Australia pioneered this "income-contingent" student loan scheme and it is probably the most just way of supporting access to higher education. The policy has broad community and bipartisan political support. In essence, it is a form of progressive taxation - those who benefit the most from their education are asked to pay back sooner than those who work in less well paying but essential roles. 

When it comes to research, we do not have access to funding at the scale of the European Research Council, and Institut Montaigne’s report makes a strong case for leveraging the contributions France is making much more effectively. This should be a major priority. In Australia, although funding for applied medical research has increased in recent years, funding for basic and non-medical research is declining in real terms. The government has asked Australian universities to seek out greater support from our industry and non-governmental partners, including focusing on the commercialization of research. Australian universities have responded to this challenge and industry funding is at record highs. However, it comes nowhere near plugging the funding gap for research and - for the most part - industry is interested in applied research, which ultimately depends on continuing to conduct the highest quality basic research. 

In fact, one of the major challenges facing Australian higher education at the moment is the future of research funding. Until now, Australia’s leading research-intensive universities - like Sydney - have used the tuition fees earned from international students to cross-subsidise our research efforts. That is now under severe threat due to the closure of our borders and a sense that the international student market is likely to change forever. Australia has been remarkably successful in attracting international students to our universities. At the University of Sydney, they make up almost 42% of our total student population. Higher education has become one of Australia’s leading "export" industries (after iron ore, coal and natural gas). But this now looks extremely precarious given border closures and uncertainty around when they will ever fully reopen. The government, so far, has been unwilling to help - and, in fact, is blaming universities for getting ourselves into this situation!

Although we don’t have the same fragmentation of the higher education system as in France, we do suffer from almost the opposite challenge: a lack of diversification. For a relatively small country, our universities tend to look very similar, without the kind of specialization, for example, between educationally focused and research focused institutions, and a diversity of research focus, that you see in the US or indeed Europe. This can result in already stretched research funding being spread even more thinly, and thus often disastrously low success rates in our major funding schemes. However, at the same time, like France, we also need to pull together our various funding agencies to create a more powerful entity that can drive research excellence across the country. 

There is no question that French universities are subject to even more central control than Australian ones are - which is saying something, as we are subject to over 120 legislative and regulatory regimes of one kind or another. This must be a serious drag on innovation and creativity in the French higher education system. Universities need the ability to play to their strengths, develop their strategies, cultivate an identity and recruit the staff and students that can help realise their ambitions. 

What France still has, though, is extraordinarily talented researchers, high-quality students and a remarkable history of higher education - the Sorbonne is, after all, one of the oldest in Europe. And that is why the University of Sydney has developed a close working relationship with some of France’s leading universities over the past five years, including joint degrees with Sciences Po and a priority research partnership with Sorbonne University. We see enormous opportunities in working more closely with French universities in a post-Brexit world and where Europe is turning towards the Asia-Pacific in new ways - and especially the Indo-pacific. Perhaps we can now also work together on reforming our fragile higher education systems. 

Copyright: PETER PARKS / POOL / AFP