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AUR 46-02.Indd AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES REVIEW Under No Circumstances Resolve the Main Problem Higher Education Policy Overview in Australia Tom Clark The perpetual restructuring of the higher education sector has become an industry in itself. Tom Clark argues that the only way forward is a new - and as yet unrealised - policy consensus. If you were to design a future for higher education in Australia, process that has not delivered adequate answers, and which say a 30-year plan to carry the sector through to the next gen- becomes less likely to deliver them with each successive itera- eration, what would it look like? The years since 1996 have tion. Continually activating that process without addressing seen versions of that problem assayed remarkably often at the the reasons for its failure becomes an exercise in bad faith. level of national politics. Comprehensive higher education That is to say, it becomes a wasteful and often a cynically moti- plans in this period have included the 1997–1998 West review vated process. My concern here is with the development of a (Learning for Life), minister David Kemp’s leaked submission self-sustaining policy overview process or cycle, arbitrary to federal cabinet in 1999 (Proposals for reform in higher in its relationship to the needs and aspirations of higher education) combined with his education in Australia. I note 1999 research policy state- the unsustainability of Austral- ment (Knowledge and Innova- Each year, institutions and non- ia’s higher education system tion), the 2001 federal senate government organisations dedicate as presently configured, and inquiry (Universities in Crisis), greater work time and infrastruc- I conclude with a discussion minister Brendan Nelson’s ture to the political process, know- of two interdependent phe- 2002–2003 Crossroads review nomena: a perpetual political of higher education (culminat- ing there is always a major review of cycle and a critically inade- ing in the Backing Australia’s higher education policy on hand to quate policy framework. Future package of reforms), absorb such efforts. The problem remains with and the 2002–2003 ALP policy us largely because the prob- statements on research (Kim lem remains important to us. Carr, Research: Engine Room) and on tertiary education There are at least six grounds for this claim. First, NTEU’s (Simon Crean and Jenny Macklin, Aim Higher). Additionally, national strike last October against Nelson’s Backing Aus- two states have conducted reviews of university governance, tralia’s Future (BAF) package, widely endorsed by student displaying concerns similar to those of the Ministerial Council unions, was effective at every public university in Australia.3 for Employment, Education,Training, and Youth Affairs.1 More- Second, the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee, though over, as most efforts to solve the problem have taken the form widely criticised for the naivety it showed in negotiating the of open consultative processes, thousands of submissions and passage of an amended BAF,4 has clearly shown the despera- responses from hundreds of perspectives have been devel- tion of university managements for short-term growth in cash oped, lodged, and promoted in the course of arriving at these flows. Third, the federal caucus of the Australian Labor Party is ‘higher education policy overviews’. December 2003 seems eager to keep the crisis of higher education finance alive as a to mark the conclusion of the latest overview process, but the political issue (that eagerness has even intensified during the next one may not be far off. This article attempts a critique of time that the Victorian Socialist Left faction, in the persons of the higher education policy overview, with a particular view Jenny Macklin and Kim Carr, have occupied both the relevant to how policy is made through that process.2 portfolio positions in the shadow ministry), as are the Austral- The higher education sector in Australia has become reliant ian Democrats and the Greens. Fourth, state governments, for the answers to its most important policy questions on a their auditors-general, and ombudsmen are increasingly ready 12 vol 46, no 2, 2004 Under No Circumstances Resolve the Main Problem, AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES REVIEW to pursue the accountability of universities within their juris- dictions. Fifth, the federal government shows great tenacity in its campaign for user-pays funding mechanisms – despite the absence of any noticeable support from the general public, weakening support from The Australian, Alan Gilbert’s depar- ture overseas from his influential post at the University of Melbourne, and the intense pressure that BAF reforms have placed on undergraduate admissions in this election year. Finally – and perhaps most importantly – the regularity of the process has encouraged stakeholders to invest recurring funds in the standing workforce and infrastructure required to meet the demands of each new stage in the process. To elaborate on this sixth point, we can by now observe the © Bruce Petty. Reprinted with permission. existence of a ‘policy overview microsector’ in Australia. Each year, institutions and non-government organisations dedicate contradictory to the prevailing policy doctrine, and weaves greater work time and infrastructure to the political process, together all doctrinally amenable policy comment to form a knowing there is always a major review of higher education coherent package of policy recommendations. policy on hand to absorb such efforts. The apparent economic 4. Pass the recommendations of the expert reference group viability of this micro-sector, through the tactical filter of its well-established professional a further political process, to standards, its responsiveness to The constant breathlessness and determine the final character developments in policy, and occasional malice of participants of the policy overview and the the growing political networks cause many policy ideas to be lost ... attendant public relations cam- that its members enjoy are all paign. before they have received a genuine structural reasons that encour- Noting such an exegetical age the policy overview cycle consideration. schema is not original, nor to persist. Furthermore, an is implementing it. Political unintended consequence of satire has outlined the same the microsector’s activities has been to sustain the legitimat- basic process many times in many contexts – it is tempting ing appearance of the policy overview process as a consulta- to believe that is where the conductors of the process learn tive exercise. Policy overviews look like a habit that will be their techniques. Nor is it original to note the inherent short- hard to break. comings of such a process. The constant breathlessness and So we return to the initial question. How do you plan the occasional malice of participants cause many policy ideas next generation’s higher education system in Australia? Such to be lost – for example, the proposal to replace the ‘user a question could be used as the launching point into exten- pays’ Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) with a sive methodological literatures. One remarkable feature of the scheme emphasising ‘beneficiary pays’ – or ritually slaugh- higher education policy overview in Australia is that we see no tered – as happened to the Barry Jones’ Knowledge Nation evidence ‘the future’ has received methodical consideration, report – before they have received a genuine consideration. outside narrow modelling of dollars and of student and staff The fatigue that accompanies this perpetual reviewing means places. Instead, a typical policy overview approach involves commentators generate fewer new policy ideas with each iter- the following steps, not necessarily taken in strict sequence: ation of the process, in turn meaning the policy framework is 1. Sample a wide range of policy comment through a com- deeper in a rut now than it was before the process that drives bination of publicly invited submissions and actively culti- it began to churn so rapidly. The failure of the policy over- vated opinion. views to present any engaging and imaginative account of the 2. Pass all sampled policy comment through the ideolog- future of Australia’s higher education system, meanwhile, has ical filter of a well staffed preview process, involving anno- discouraged imagination from activists and engagement from tation and other editing techniques designed to ensure no the grass roots (again, this observation becomes more true as submissions reach the expert reference group without being the policy overview process works its contributors harder). placed in the context of the prevailing policy doctrine. That is not an argument against the public submissions 3. Pass all previewed policy comment through the prag- approach to policy drafting. It is more that there is a law of matic filter of an expert reference group, which generally diminishing returns to that approach. Through its overuse of provides rationale to reject all sampled policy comment the higher education sector’s policy energies, ‘Canberra’ has Tom Clark vol 46, no 2, 2004 13 AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES REVIEW depleted Australia’s most promising higher education policy Does the cock crow again? How should we design the resources: the ideas of university members and others with an future for higher education in Australia? Sooner or later, this interest in the problem. Given that Australia’s public debate political stability – or stalemate – shall come to an end. That on higher
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