Higher Education Amendment Bill

Extract from Hansard:

HON ALISON XAMON (East Metropolitan) [7.40 pm]: The Higher Education Amendment Bill 2009 has been designed to amend the Higher Education Act and implement the revised national protocols for higher education approval processes. These protocols have been designed to ensure that we have consistent criteria and standards for higher education approval processes across Australia. Those protocols will provide a common framework for regulating the establishment and recognition of new universities, the operation of overseas higher education institutions in Australia, the authorisation of providers of higher education institutions other than universities, and the accreditation of their courses.

The Greens (WA) will support this legislation. We are mindful that this legislation is required to meet Western Australia’s obligations to introduce the revised national protocols. We are aware that the legislation was supposed to be passed by all state and territory governments by the end of 2007. I understand that Western Australia is the last state to pass this legislation, primarily because of the early election, I have been advised. I understand that the other place passed a motion that this bill be considered an urgent bill. I understand that, because of the urgency, the government intends that the bill be passed now, and that the Labor Party also is keen for the bill to be passed expeditiously. The Greens have concerns that this bill perhaps could have been brought on earlier, and that this has left us with not enough time to properly review the bill in the way that we would prefer through the committee system.

We understand that the main reason for the urgent passage of this bill appears to be that institutions that currently intend to make an application to be considered for university status in Western Australia in line with the provisions of these revised national protocols are precluded from doing so until the act is amended. Therefore, the proposed Midland Raffles University, which Hon Ljiljanna Ravlich made reference to, cannot get the necessary accreditation without these amendments being passed. We understand the urgency of the bill on that basis.

Our education industry is highly reliant on our ability to maintain Australia’s reputation for quality. The maintenance of high standards is particularly important in an industry that is growing in size and diversity. These changes have the potential to open up our university sector to greater competition and specialisation. We are aware that we must proceed with some caution. Our education exports are built around the excellent international reputation of our higher education system. Certainly, we in this place must be very careful to make sure that we do not diminish that reputation in any way. This bill, hopefully, will go some way towards ensuring that that does not occur.

Some concerns have been raised about the national protocols, including that they allow for specialized institutions that provide education in only a few narrow fields of study. Those who spoke out against the protocols when they were first drafted include the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations and the National Tertiary Education Union. I am aware that the concern that has been raised about the possibility of specialist institutions is that we may end up reducing the value of an all-round education. I am also aware that there are concerns that the possibility of specialised tertiary institutions proliferating only in areas of highly profitable disciplines could mean that teaching and research in less profitable areas suffer as a result. Clearly, the Greens support a publicly funded and well-funded tertiary system. We need to ensure that within the overall\ scheme of tertiary institutions, the opportunities for well-rounded qualifications still exist. Having said that, I acknowledge that the existence of a diversity of educational institutions is a good thing, provided that access to these institutions is not too restrictive, and by that I mean not restricted simply to the wealthy few. The national protocols allow for rigorous consideration of overseas university standards, provided the higher education advisory committee process is conducted in an adequate way. That is a positive measure. Of course, we must ensure that we maintain adequate commonwealth funding to Western Australian universities to enable them to offer the full elements of a university education. Hopefully, we will be able to ensure that they maintain their positions as the pre-eminent tertiary institutions in our state that we know they are.

These protocols are still relatively new and untested. The review of the national protocols, which will take place before 2012, will allow what we have learnt from the new developments to be applied to further strengthen the protocols if needed. As such, a broad-ranging and rigorous review will be welcomed.

As I have just mentioned, the Greens do not like rushing this kind of legislation and would have liked the government to have introduced it earlier so that we had an opportunity to conduct a proper review. Of course, the role of this place is to ensure that we stringently review legislation. In future we hope that bypassing the processes we have in this place will not become a matter of course.

The legislation is designed to implement protocols which we know have been agreed to by all state and territory education ministers and which have the support of all the state and territory governments, so that has gone some way to assuaging our concerns. It is really important, and we understand this, that we have a unified and strong appropriate national system for the accreditation of higher education providers. We have an enviable higher education system in Australia, and this legislation will go some way towards ensuring that we maintain those high standards. We have certainly seen this year in particular how damaging it can be to our overseas reputation if we have shonky education providers, as well as the detrimental impact that has on the overseas students who come here. On that note, we certainly welcome the focus on high standards and a national framework, as well as the inspection provisions. We look forward to the continuing development of a diverse, world-class and international university education system in Western Australia.

I also note my hope that our higher education system, including new operators, continues to include public no up- front-fee places. Not only is it an important social justice issue, but also it is essential for our economy that as a society we provide fair access to tertiary education. Higher rates of tertiary education will help build the capacity for WA’s workforce to meet diverse future skills needs. We must make sure that we facilitate access to higher education for all, not only private fee-paying international students. I believe that this view is shared by\ my East Metropolitan Region colleagues in this place. I am quite excited about the passage of this legislation because it will allow for the approvals process that will enable the Raffles University to be established in the electorate of the East Metropolitan Region. It has been disappointing to date that such a large electorate—half of the metropolitan landmass, with 25 per cent of the state’s population—has not had the sort of investment of university interest that has arisen in our coastal areas. It is not before time that we are seeing interest in a university in Midland. We welcome the investment that is being shown by the Raffles proposal and the fact that there is increased interest in investment in Western Australia’s higher education system. There will be many positives to this project, including the injection of money in infrastructure and jobs, and not least of all putting vitality back into the Midland area. But most importantly, the Raffles University will fill a higher education gap in the eastern corridor with a campus that has been sorely needed. For the people of Midland, the hills and the surrounding areas, attending university at the moment presents some huge challenges not the least of which, of course, is getting to a campus. The rate of tertiary educated people is lower in the eastern corridor than it is in other areas of the metropolitan area. Hopefully, the presence of a university close to homes and public transport will help reverse these statistics.

On that note, I reiterate that the Greens support this legislation and we look forward to the first incarnation of the university out at Midland that will come as a result.