Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Higher Education and Research Reform Bill 2014 contains a range of measures designed to improve the quality of education delivered at Australian universities, TAFEs and colleges to make them competitive with the best institutions in the world. The reforms also aim to promote research and innovation in a way that achieves greater commercialisation of Australian intellectual property, which is critical for the economic development of our nation.

Another key objective is maintaining accessibility and affordability for students through the Higher Education Loan Program and Commonwealth scholarships. The aim is to make our higher education sector less institutionalised and more collaborative with industry. We need practical graduates who are in tune with commercial reality through their education and ready for employment.

The university sector is generally supportive of the government's reforms. The Commonwealth will provide approximately $15.6 billion to universities this year and it will continue to increase each year. Universities Australia issued a media release on 28 January 2015 stating:

Our appeal to Senators as they return to Canberra is not to ignore the opportunity they have to negotiate with the Government in amending and passing a legislative package that will position Australia's universities to compete with the world's best.

In my electorate of Moore the package of reforms presents a unique opportunity for Edith Cowan University. As the cornerstone of the Joondalup learning precinct, our local university is the main hub for 24,000 students and is the leading institution in the field of research, innovation and enterprise initiatives, working closely with the private sector in delivering a number of practical, real-world solutions.

I have been kept informed of the university's programs by Professor Margaret Jones, Director of Research and Innovation, and Mr Neil Butler, community engagement and partnerships adviser. Edith Cowan University has developed a reputation for its emphasis on supporting new and established researchers and is currently developing a number of innovations that are helping shape our community. One innovation is a heart rate monitor that operates under the same principles as noise-cancelling headphones.

Traditional heart rate monitors or electrocardiograms work by measuring the electrical impulses generated by a human heart through a series of electrodes placed on a patient's body. The heart rate monitor under development at the Electron Science Research Institute at ECU works by isolating the magnetic field generated by a heart, which provides more detailed information than from an ECG. As well as providing more information about the heart for doctors, the magnetic heart rate monitor also has the advantage of not needing to be in contact with the patient's skin to work.

Another innovation is in the form of a smartphone application being developed by students which aims to help people with disabilities to contact their families or carers when they find themselves in distressing situations. Using the Please Help application disabled people can automatically dial nominated contacts for assistance and, if there is no answer, an SMS with the user's current GPS location and the nearest address is sent to an emergency contact. The idea for the app came from the WA Police in conjunction with Therapy Focus and was developed by the ECU School of Computer and Security Science students.

Three Edith Cowan University research projects have been named as finalists in the Western Australian Information and Telecommunications Alliance awards for undergraduate information, communications and technology projects: the Please Help app; an application aimed at improving diagnosis of hearing loss in children; and FireWatch, a bushfire monitoring tool developed in partnership with the state government land agency Landgate.

At a national level the work of up to 35,000 researchers and some 1,700 technical and support staff is dependent on this reform package, as are the Australian Research Council future fellowships. If funding were withheld, top researchers would be likely to abandon research careers and possibly seek positions overseas, leading to a loss of intellectual assets.

Improving access to higher education remains an important priority for the government. The bill will expand opportunities to more than 80,000 students a year to study for diplomas and pathway courses by 2018. For the first time in history direct Commonwealth financial assistance will be provided to support students studying higher education diplomas, advanced diplomas and associate and bachelor degrees enrolled in registered higher education institutions.

Graduates, on average, earn 75 per cent more over their lifetime than those who just complete year 12. The new Commonwealth scholarships, which are part of the reform package, represent the most comprehensive scholarship scheme in Australia’s history. Students from low socio-economic status backgrounds will be provided with more opportunities to participate in higher education, providing improved access to education for the most talented students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In addition to Commonwealth scholarships, there will be a dedicated scholarship fund for universities with high proportions of low-SES students that will be funded directly by the Commonwealth on top of university based scholarships.

Furthermore, to maintain the affordability and accessibility of higher education, the Higher Education Loan Program will continue taxpayer support for all students’ tuition fees up-front, ensuring that repayments are due only when a student enters the workforce and earns in excess of $50,000. The proposed reforms introduce an interest rate pause on debts for primary carers of children aged less than five years and who are earning less than the minimum repayment threshold. In addition, the bill abolishes the existing 25 per cent loan fee for FEE-HELP and the 20 per cent loan fee for VET FEE-HELP from 1 January 2016. These fees currently apply to students enrolled in TAFE colleges, vocational training organisations and private colleges, bringing arrangements in line with universities.

Developing quality Australian universities that are competitive internationally remains an important objective of the higher education reforms. Currently, our universities have limited prospects of competing with the best in Europe, North America and the emerging universities of Asia. Only seven Australian universities are ranked in the top 200 internationally. As someone who has been fortunate enough to have attended Wharton business school at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, I experienced the benefits of studying under world-renowned academic staff in the rarefied environment of an Ivy League university.

International education is worth $15 billion in export revenue to the national economy. It represents Australia’s third-largest export behind iron ore and coal. Under the reforms, universities will be given autonomy to set course fees and attract students. In an article which appeared in The Australian Financial Review on 23 September 2014, Universities Australia said:

It is simply not possible to maintain the standards that students expect or the international reputation that Australia's university system enjoys without full fee deregulation.

Competition will enhance quality and make higher education providers more responsive to the needs of students in the labour market. The government will also direct the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to monitor university fees. Domestic fees will be required to be lower than the international student fees minus the Commonwealth subsidy.

Under the reform package, the Abbott government will invest $11 billion over four years into university research to attract and retain some of the world’s top researchers in Australia. This includes $150 million which has been allocated over the next two financial years to fund the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy, and a further $139.5 million to deliver 100 new four-year research positions per year under the Future Fellowships scheme. These measures are designed to secure Australia’s place at the forefront of research.

The package of reforms will provide significant opportunities for Edith Cowan University to expand the work of its on-campus research institutes, which are already achieving at a high level. For example, Edith Cowan University’s Security Research Institute is one of the leading cybersecurity and digital forensic groups in the world, recognised for its expertise in human security, physical security and aviation security. The institute consistently delivers high-impact outcomes in computer and digital forensics, network and wireless security, information warfare, physical security and risk management. The institute's other achievements include a digital forensics tool developed in conjunction with the Western Australia Police to assist with cybercrime, preliminary crime scene investigation, disaster victim identification and evidence tracking. This collaborative effort between ECU staff, students and the Western Australia Police is an example of innovation and effective community engagement at work.

Similarly, Edith Cowan University's Health and Wellness Institute houses an innovative multidisciplinary research team in exercise medicine, dedicated to investigating the extent of how exercise can be employed in cancer management to materially improve patient outcomes, thereby providing a steady stream of patients and medical, health and research personnel necessary to support the research program. To cite an example, there is an article on page 17 of today's The West Australian about the university's research into mitigating the progress of Huntington's disease.

The proposed higher education reforms are designed to make universities, such as Edith Cowan University, less institutionalised and more innovative in terms of industry collaboration, delivering tangible results for the community. Another example of innovative applied research based at the local university campus is the Vario Wellness Clinic, which is a commercial entity that delivers best-practice wellness programs, integrated consulting, and assessment services to the community. The clinic offers specialised programs that have been developed for people with existing chronic conditions in the areas of exercise physiology, dietetics, physiotherapy, and psychology, including the Life Now program, which consists of specialised exercise for people with cancer.

In summary, the Higher Education and Research Reform Bill 2014 contains a range of measures designed to improve the quality of education delivered at Australian institutions to compete with the best in the world. The reforms also aim to promote research and innovation. Another key objective is maintaining accessibility and affordability for students through Commonwealth scholarships and the Higher Education Loan Program. These higher education reforms will provide a wide array of career pathways for my constituents, particularly our youth, and provide the highly skilled workforce we need to build a stronger economy.

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