Well, as we see quite often in tertiary education,
governments restrict choices so that business and students have a much
more limited range of options.
For example, the recent Federal Budget restricted
apprenticeship incentives, removing eligibility from businesses
employing more than 200 employees. These businesses employ around 40% of
all apprentices. Measures like this restrict choice for learners, limit
career options and curb national productivity.
Australia’s tertiary education system depends a great deal
on trust. Trust between institutions, students, communities, business
and governments. As governments feel a growing need to intervene across
all aspects of these relationships, the more the trust erodes.
However, it is really important that taxpayers are able to
rely on governments to intercede sparingly as they must so that public
investment delivers genuine outcomes on their behalf.
This trust with institutions is built through strong governance and real accountability.
Independent skills training providers and higher education
institutions operate in one of the most intensely regulated environments
in the country. Every student, every enrolment and every outcome
matters. And every one of these is overseen and factored at multiple
levels. Providers that fail to deliver quality, industry relevance or
student support simply do not survive.
Overwhelmingly, independent tertiary education providers are
unable to compete on price due to the huge subsidies being directed to
public institutions. So, independent institutions compete on quality.
And overwhelmingly they succeed on that basis despite the mass subsidy
program for public institutions.
For example, students across the independent sector enjoy
greater satisfaction and employability despite the 20% tax placed by
government on their student loans under the VET Student Loans and
FEE-HELP loan schemes.
The commercial and regulatory discipline of being in a
business environment creates a culture of responsiveness and
accountability often absent from large public institutions.
Independent providers must constantly prove value to
students and employers alike. That means adapting quickly to changing
workforce and student needs. It also means doing it without the
structural complacency that often stifles heavily subsidised public
systems.
We have seen some recent, very well publicised, instances of
that where institutions operate with scattered accountability and
hampered bureaucratic protections. These don’t support student outcomes,
and deliver poorer course offerings mostly without meaningful
consequence. Governance failures in public institutions are frequently
absorbed through additional taxpayer funding rather than structural
reform.
History shows this type of situation isn’t allowed to embed
itself in independent institutions because it is a regulatory focus when
it has emerged. Rightly so. So why aren’t we seeing strong, robust
quick and transparent action at public institutions?
Because this is what happens when governments prioritise institutions over students.
Investment artificially favours public institutions and
ignores student choice, and this distorts the market to reduce
accountability and transparency. It weakens competition and risks public
investment being directed at the preservation of institutional norms,
rather than at educational quality or workforce outcomes.
Strong governance in tertiary education should not be
measured by the size of an institution or the scale of its public
subsidy. It should be measured by transparency, responsiveness,
financial discipline, student outcomes and alignment with employer
needs.
The independent sector has consistently shown that
high-quality tertiary education can be delivered with agility,
innovation and accountability.
Australia confronts workforce shortages, productivity
challenges and increasing financial pressures. The policy conversation
about tertiary education governance, investment and structure needs to
shift.
Governments must be prepared to back a tertiary education
system where accountability, quality and student outcomes matter more
than institutional status.
Felix Pirie
ITECA Chief Executive Officer
Further Information —
If you have any questions regarding the above, please contact the ITECA team at [email protected].