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News
Welcome to the news section. This page includes the five most recent pieces of news whether it be a Media Release - Executive Director's Comment - Article - or Update.
Visit the specific page for a complete listing.
Media Release
14 May 2013
Government risks undermining its achievements
The 2013 Budget confirms the Government's cuts to higher education investment. These put at risk the success of its higher education reforms through reducing the value of funding for university education, turning a payment to students eligible for Youth Allowance into a loan that will add to their debts at graduation, and discouraging professionals from up-skilling.
Executive Director's Comment
13 May 2013
An efficient equity framework?
Sharon Bird the Minister for Higher Education and Skills has announced a new look at equity policy and revised arrangements for allocating the funding from the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP).
So what do these announcements mean in the age of efficiency, given the speech does not mention the Government efficiency dividend and the transformation of equity scholarships into equity debt? Will the Government now remove program acquittals and reduce project reporting to let universities exploit the Bradley policy settings as originally proposed?
Executive Director's Comment
7 May 2013
Government changes to future higher education funding
Government changes to future higher education funding
The IRU understands the fiscal challenge the Government faces. It has accepted the array of modifications to the Government's higher education reforms announced in each budget and mid-year review since 2011, as necessary to assist with restraint in budget outlays without undermining the thrust of the reforms flowing form the Bradley report and Senator Carr's additional research investment.
The Government's 2013 changes will serve to hamper severely the success of the Government reforms through reducing revenue per student and the bad policy in transforming a grant to students eligible for Youth Allowance into further graduate debt.
The tie to school funding is particularly galling.
Media Release
15 April 2013
IRU network calls for Government action after university funding cuts
The Innovative Research Universities (IRU) network is calling on the Australian Government to reduce the financial burden on universities through costly bureaucratic red tape following Saturday's announcement that $2.3 billion will be cut from the university system over the next four years.
The Chair of the IRU, Professor Barney Glover, said the magnitude of the changes to university funding announced by the Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills, Science and Research, Dr Craig Emerson, was "regrettable".
"While the indexation has not been affected, the productivity dividend announced by the Minister is essentially a temporary cut in indexation," Professor Glover said.
Executive Director's Comment
18 March 2013
Demand driven system fuels growth in science and technology students
It is going unnoticed that the demand driven expansion of universities places is raising the number of students studying science and technology degrees and health profession degrees at a much higher rate than the growth in business, law and arts degrees.
Newsletter
October 2011
The past three months have seen further development of the Government's reform program across many areas...
Newsletter
June 2011
IRU, established in 2003, is a group of universities sharing common origins as research intensive universities, most of which were established during the 1960s and 1970s a previous period of expansion in Australian Higher Education.
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