The Morrison Government has comprehensively failed to deliver anything meaningful for universities, staff or students in its 2022-23 Budget. Instead, it has continued to cut public funding per student in real terms.
Government funding per student has been slashed by 5.4 per cut in real terms in the next year and 3.6 per cent in the following two years. This is a shocking $3 billion lost from 2017-18 to 2025-26.
Despite 35,000 job losses in public universities last year, there are no measures to restore jobs nor rectify the damage inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Morrison Government has also refused to address the proliferation of insecure work, with only one in three university staff in secure, permanent employment.
“The Treasurer claimed this is a ‘budget for all’ but this is certainly not a budget that will benefit the 200,000 people employed in tertiary education nor the 1.6 million students who are taught each year,” said NTEU National President Dr Alison Barnes.
“Tertiary education is Australia’s fourth largest export industry contributing $40 billion to Australia’s total exports, yet this Government largely abandoned public universities during the COVID-19 crisis.
“In fact, the only action the Government took was to reduce the proportion of government funding per student even further and to increase tuition fees for the majority of students.
“Beyond its colossal contribution to the Australian economy, universities are vital institutions that provide critical research and education for the public good.
“Despite this, the Morrison Government has continued to strip funding from blue sky, curiosity driven research while tipping money into narrowly defined areas of research that suit its re-election strategy.
“This Government’s anti-university agenda is incomprehensible and frankly embarrassing. A Government that refuses to recognise the value of tertiary education should not be permitted to govern.
“The spotlight is now firmly on a future Government to deliver the urgent reforms and funding the higher education sector needs to restore jobs and recover from the pandemic.
“We need a higher education funding strategy that includes additional research funding to make up for the millions cut by the Coalition, a strategy to address the proliferation of insecure employment and a unified plan to address sexual harassment at universities.