Page 1968 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 14 May 2013
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Our other universities, the University of Canberra, the Australian Catholic University, the University of New South Wales ADFA campus and Charles Sturt University Canberra campus, located within St Mark’s National Theological Centre, are all well regarded. We have an extremely high performing vocational educational facility in the Canberra Institute of Technology. CIT is a highly regarded player in the vocational education sector and offers over 400 courses to local, national and international students to equip them to work effectively in business and industry or go on to further education at one of Canberra’s universities.
When it comes to the financial and educational status of our tertiary institutions, we have an impressive account. The ANU, the University of Canberra, the Australian Catholic University and the Australian Defence Force Academy have combined budgets of about $2 billion. This is money mostly spent here in the ACT on infrastructure, staffing, contractors and equipment. In fact, after government, universities bring more money into the ACT than any other industry.
We have about 32,000 students in tertiary education, a healthy percentage of which are from interstate or overseas. It needs to be remembered that with the high percentage of interstate and overseas students comes a need for them to pay for accommodation, to buy food and other essentials, to entertain, to invite their families to Canberra. This generates around $500 million a year to the ACT economy and supports the retail, tourism, hospitality, construction and other sectors. These students also find jobs and work in shops and bars, on building sites, in security jobs and as casuals in a myriad of occupations. So the strength of the ACT economy is very closely linked with the growth and viability of our universities.
But it is not only the students who make a contribution to this city. The research and commercialisation of research coming from our universities is also increasing, with real growth in the number of high-tech start-up companies emerging in the ACT. At a recent National Press Club speech, Universities Australia chair and ANU acting vice-chancellor Sandra Harding highlighted the significant impost that funding cuts to universities would have on students themselves. She says changes to the start-up scholarships will put even more pressure on new students to increase their income from outside sources.
A recent Universities Australia survey showed that 80 per cent of full-time students have to find a job and they work an average of 16 hours a week. A third of those surveyed said they regularly miss classes because of employment obligations and about 17 per cent said they regularly went without food or other necessities because they were unable to afford them. The National Union of Students has said the conversion of start-up scholarships to loans would hurt disadvantaged students and put undergraduates under even more pressure. Professor Harding has also warned that the cuts would have a flow-on effect at about $1 billion to universities by 2017.
University of Canberra vice-chancellor Stephen Parker is also worried about the cuts to universities. The University of Canberra has been particularly aggressive in driving up student numbers in recent years and expanding course options in order to attract more students and more overseas students. This year, the University of Canberra had
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