Australia: The need for moral wisdom

The dependence on full-fee international students by Australian universities has made a big difference. Competing for foreign students forced universities to become more student focused. But, to quote the old stage adage, you ain't seen nothing yet. Following the recommendations of the Bradley review, we are about to enter a whole new era in Australian higher education, an era in which competition will become more intense than ever. Let me explain why. At present, every university receives a quota of places for domestic undergraduate students and some graduate students as well. Along with these quotas, every university gets a government block teaching grant and the fees that students pay through the Higher Education Contribution Scheme known as HECS. An important fact about quotas is that they have nothing to do with student demand - they are simply historical. The number of domestic quota places that a university gets is determined by the number it received the previous year plus or minus a few. Under this system, students are often turned away from their preferred university - because it has run out of places.

Read this interesting editeed version of speech by Steven , Vice-chancellor of Macquarie University in Sydney, in the July 27, 2009 issue of UNIVERSITY WORLD NEWS by clicking the following link - http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20090724101520645.