June 16, 2014
The Higher Education reforms: Recovering the lost Government subsidy from students
The Department has released the proposed clusters and funding rates from 2016, which simplify the clusters into five groups but also achieve a 20% reduction overall in funding.
The proposed clusters are based on a 0.6:2:3:4:6 relative distribution across disciplines as shown in Table One. This will finally remove the remnants of the 1990s relative funding model.
The reduction in the funding available per students of 20% is significant, spreading Government support over a large number of students at lower rates. IRU does not support the reduction but foresaw it as a probable Government savings measures and an inevitable consequence of any move to remove controls over student fees. Those who advocated for removing controls over fees can hardly be surprised, albeit some are.
The proposed clusters are based on a 0.6:2:3:4:6 relative distribution across disciplines as shown in Table One. This will finally remove the remnants of the 1990s relative funding model.
The reduction in the funding available per students of 20% is significant, spreading Government support over a large number of students at lower rates. IRU does not support the reduction but foresaw it as a probable Government savings measures and an inevitable consequence of any move to remove controls over student fees. Those who advocated for removing controls over fees can hardly be surprised, albeit some are.
