Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I speak today on the Higher Education Legislation Amendment (Provider Category Standards and Other Measures) Bill 2020. I move the following amendment:

That all words after "That" be omitted with a view to substituting the following words:

"whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House notes that the Government has:

(1) damaged the quality of Australia's world-class education system;

(2) abandoned university workers during the pandemic;

(3) cut billions in funding and made it harder and more expensive for students to go to university; and

(4) done nothing that will help young people get into priority courses and jobs".

This bill amends the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency Act 2011, the TEQSA Act, to clarify and streamline the regulatory framework of higher education providers. The amendments seek to give effect to recommendations made in the Coaldrake review of the higher education provider category standards. Emeritus Professor Peter Coaldrake AO completed the review in October 2019. The purpose of the Coaldrake review was to ensure that provider category standards in the national regulatory framework remain fit for purpose. The review made 10 recommendations to simplify and rebalance the current categories of higher education providers, including reducing the overall number of categories from six down to four.

The amendments provided by this bill differ slightly from the recommendations of the Coaldrake review by adopting 'university colleges' as one of the category names rather than, as recommended by Coaldrake, 'institute of higher education'. Labor is concerned that the provisions in this bill do partly ignore Professor Coaldrake's recommendations, and we need to be sure that this change won't jeopardise the reputation of our excellent Australian universities. To that end, Labor has referred this bill to a Senate inquiry.

The bill also allows a decision by TEQSA to refuse to change a provider's category to be reviewed and provides TEQSA with legislative authority to assume control of higher education student records in the unfortunate event that the provider ceases operation. The bill will ensure the protection of the word 'university' from use in internet domain names, by requiring the minister's consent before any such use. I will come back to this aspect of the bill a bit later in the speech, because it's slightly problematic. These amendments are welcome. They will be helpful in simplifying the provider categories of higher education providers.

Currently the threshold standards 2015 determine what criteria are required for an institution to be registered in a provider category. The current threshold standards 2015 provide that institutions who register as Australian universities, Australian university colleges and Australian university of specialisation are currently required to undertake:

… research that leads to the creation of new knowledge and original creative endeavour at least in those broad fields of study in which Masters Degrees (Research) and Doctoral Degrees (Research) are offered

There are no requirements about the volume of research to be undertaken or the quality of the research to be undertaken. The Coaldrake review recommended:

Along with teaching, the undertaking of research is, and should remain, a defining feature of what it means to be a university in Australia; a threshold benchmark of quality and quantity of research should be included in the Higher Education Provider Category Standards. This threshold benchmark for research quality should be augmented over time.

The bill provides that TEQSA have regard to the quality of the research undertaken as part of its consideration of whether a provider meets the threshold standards in relation to the research requirement for the provider category that they have applied for. Labor will always welcome strengthening research requirements for our universities.

In the city and in the bush, universities are pivotal in changing lives and uplifting communities, whether it be in the wonderful Griffith University at Nathan campus or Griffith University down in Logan campus—wherever it is—we know that universities change lives. We have world-class researchers at our universities. We should always be striving to enhance their efforts and increase their endeavours. I'm concerned that other changes made by the government, including recently passed legislation that will reduce the funding that universities have available for research, may impact on this otherwise welcome change. Again, Labor will await the findings of the Senate inquiry.

I'm grateful the minister has responded relatively promptly to the recommendations in the Coaldrake review. This is a refreshing change for the Morrison government. They have not reacted so swiftly to the changing circumstances that smashed into the university sector this year. We know universities have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, universities were one of the first sectors to be hit when international borders were closed, locking international students out. I remember clearly the guy who came up with the 'Where the bloody hell are you?' campaign turned around to international students and said, 'Go home'—incredible damage done to our brand. Obviously, the other factor is the projected revenue cut just from international students being locked out. It's about $16 billion—

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