By Samantha Maiden
As second-round offers in Western Australia and NSW yesterday confirmed unmet demand for places at record levels, John Howard was forced to defend the shortfall of places while appearing on Perth talkback radio.
The unmet demand will mean 30 per cent of applicants in South Australian and Western Australia being turned away, while one in five students who applied have missed out in Queenland. University of Tasmania vice-chancellor Daryl Le Grew said yesterday he expected about 2,000 students applying to his university would miss out on a place.
“We certainly can’t meet demand, and it’s increased since last year,” Professor Le Grew said.
The Prime Minister defended the federal Government’s higher education policies on Radio 6PR, as parents and students raised fears they would be locked out of a university education.
But he slipped up over the number of new university places available in the west, incorrectly claiming they had increase by 17 per cent.
In fact, the state received 17 per cent of the national redistribution of over-enrolled university places.
“I can’t, and no prime minister can guarantee that every person who wants to go to university can go to university,” Mr Howard said.
“What I can guarantee is that we have put a lot of public resource into education ... and we have student loans that will help other people.”
Mr Howard said he expected more final offers to be made to students, despite many universities indicating they could only provide limited places or noone at all.
“They are an incomplete picture because those include double application, they include ineligible application and it won’t be until April this year you get a true measure,” he said.
Opposition education spokeswoman Jenny Macklin criticized the Government’s policy.
“Thousands of students across Australia are about to have their hopes dashed because of the Howard Government is not creating enough places,” Ms Macklin said.
“The only option left for these students by Education Minister Dr Brendan Nelson is to up to $100,000 in full fees to get a university place.”
While final-round offers will be made in NSW this month, only 1000 of the 21,000 students still waiting are expected to secure a place.
In South Australia, nearly 7000, or 30 per cent of applicants, missed out on first and second-round offers but another “extremely limited” round of offers will be made this month. In Queenland, 9000 students, one in every five applicants, did not secure a HECS place.
However, the number of Queenlanders taking up full-fee options this year has almost tripled, jumping from 57 last year to 200 this year.
Queenland’s Tertiary Administrations Center urged students to consider TAFE-bridging courses, sitting the Special Tertiary Admission Test or reapplying mid-year.
Mr Howard denied government policies were forcing students into full-fee courses.
“I don’t pretend to the Australian public that you can have a completely free education, you can’t,” he said. “The days of dreaming that we could have a completely free university education are gone - that was tried by the Whitlam government [and it] didn’t work.”
The Australian
4 February 2004
Questions
1. What is the opportunity cost to the individual student of going to university?
2. What is the opportunity cost to society of providing university places for students?
3. The prime minister, John Howard, argues that you are dreaming if you believe that a completely free university education is possible. What does he mean?
4. Explain, using an appropriate economic model, why nearly 70,000 students have missed out on a university place this year.
5. Give an economic argument for students contributing to the cost of their higher education. How should the level of the student’s contribution be determined?
6. What is your view of HECS from an equity perspective? Is there a case for extra and complementary measure designed to achieve equity objectives?
7. Apart from the equity issues discussed in the previous question, can a case be made for public funding of tertiary education?
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