Universities face review

Non-productive research, inflated course offerings, and inefficient bureaucrats in the higher education sector are some of the issues to be addressed in the first of a series of reviews of higher education by the Federal government.

Education Minister Brendan Nelson launched the review last week, asking for universities to increase their output and reduce their cost without compromising quality.

A discussion paper, Higher Education at the Crossroads: an overview, is intended to spark discussion and new ideas that will guide the proposal Nelson takes to Cabinet at the end of the year.

Toss Gascoigne, executive director of the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS), said under the present system things were getting to be unworkable and some changes needed to be made.

"Clearly, in this process a significant amount of funding has to be injected into each of the sectors," he said. Universities have tried in every way to scrape up dollars to make it work, but now it is time for a change, he said.

The review will seek to find ways of making universities more business-like in their operations and help them to become flexible enough to meet changing students and national needs.

"There is an increasing number of universities showing a financial loss and so the system needs to be allowed to diversify and specialise in some areas," said Gascoigne.

One approach is to increase the opportunities for earned income.

"The challenge will be to reconcile the traditions of academic integrity and freedom with the more profit driven demands of the commercial world," according to the government's report.

Maintaining international standards in expertise is another priority area and there are calls to develop a few top quality world class universities that are specialised in research areas.

In addition, there is an initiative to have new academic specialisations in higher education courses rather than spread research and training too thin and compromise on quality and excellence.

Gascoigne pointed out that science had come under pressure in universities because of a funding squeeze, and universities had cut back on science courses. "Science courses are more expensive than others because [funding] needs to cover equipment and laboratories," he said. If universities had a choice they would reduce science intake because they are expensive to run, he said.

There is also a push for academics to make full use of online education and cater to individual needs.

"Online education is not a cheap alternatively, it still needs back-up staff and the costs are about the same as having on the ground students," Gascoigne said.

"But with a new minister who is intent on making a difference there is an opportunity to make some change."