Minister flags need to ‘future-proof’ university funding against One Nation

Education Minister Jason Clare has warned that contentious new legislation that will effectively cap student numbers at universities must guard against “any future potential of a One Nation government,” in yet another sign of the increasing threat represented by Pauline Hanson and her party.

Launched by the Albanese government this year, so-called managed growth funding centralises student allocations to each university, which critics say will send ATARs skyrocketing and push students away from popular universities in Sydney and Melbourne.

The Herald has previously reported that changes meant the University of NSW was forced to turn away about 1000 prospective students as ATARs rose on various courses, while the University of Sydney disbanded its early entry scheme, and Macquarie University rejected domestic students for the first time in 15 years.

Speaking at The Australian Financial Review ’s Higher Education summit on Tuesday, Clare defended the legislation and said he was taking feedback.

“[People think] that the bill gives too much power to a minister,” he said. “I’m very keen to make sure that this legislation is protected against any potential future of a One Nation government. We do need to future-proof this legislation against a One Nation government that might want to use some of the powers in this bill for the wrong reasons,” he said.

As the legislation stands, “a minister can do anything he or she wants”, higher education expert Andrew Norton warned.

“That really needs to be pulled in,” Norton said. “Because potentially, as the minister said, the One Nation may say no more woke courses. This is a very dangerous path.”

University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott, who has been a vocal opponent of managed growth, said the new model would see funding applied inconsistently.

“It’s not in the interest of the student, not in the interests of the country,” he said. “It’s using students to solve the funding problem for government.”

His counterpart at Queensland University, Margaret Sheil, said the changes could potentially deprive students of choice.

“That was one of the big benefits of the demand-driven system, that students could choose to go where they felt like they had the best opportunities. So that is a constraint.”

Head of the newly formed Australian Tertiary Education Commission Barney Glover will allocate funding to each university, and was insistent that student choice would not suffer.

“We are allocating significantly more places than we would have grown from the system next year … we don’t want stranded load [students who can’t find a place] in the system.”