A state Budget that doesn’t make any provision for Higher Education will always be disappointing to a vice-chancellor. On first glance, the latest NSW Budget falls into this category. But step back and look at UNE as part of the wider community, and the Budget’s provisions take on a more positive light.
UNE doesn’t work in isolation. It was established for the benefit of the regions, and our work and people are interwoven with our communities in complex ways. Our institution works best when other areas of society are working at their best.
The Budget allocation of nearly $30 billion towards “rebuilding public education” targets schools, but it addresses a pain-point for UNE, and the region as a whole.
Globally, it is well established that higher levels of education correspond to higher levels of community prosperity and wellbeing. Regional areas are handicapped by lower rates of school completion compared to many urban areas; sometimes much lower. In Tamworth, 44% of the population left school before Year 11, and the city’s school completion rates of 39.7% are several points below the regional NSW average.
If youth are not completing school, they are not – with rare exceptions – going onto university.
This is of direct relevance to UNE. We are building a university campus in Tamworth. One of its purposes will be to help the region’s bright school leavers fulfil their aspirations. We can only do this if ambitious school leavers are there in the first place. This also applies to UNE’s Armidale campus, which has been changing the lives of school leavers for 70 years.
The Minns Government’s investment in the State’s school system is encouraging. It will hopefully lead to more young people finishing school, and having finished, taking the next step into higher education. Those who study here are more likely to stay here and enrich our communities, rather than being lost to a distant city.
The Budget’s provisions for improving TAFE are also promising for the future of higher education.
TAFE and university have been historically positioned as binary choices: you get blue collar skills at TAFE, white collar skills at uni. But in many areas of work, those distinctions are being blurred by technologies and changing ideas about what a tertiary education should deliver. Rather than commit to one big degree, people are seeking to progressively acquire a suite of desirable, transferrable skills.
Some of those skills may be best developed at TAFE, others at university.
From this perspective, TAFE isn’t a fork in the road that takes people away from university: TAFE is on the road to higher education. TAFE training has its own value, but UNE hopes to build new pathways between institutions to support students who, having acquired TAFE skills, are seeking more. The Budget’s focus on fixing the cracks in the TAFE system is an investment in that future.
The Budget also has welcome provision for improving housing and infrastructure development. Along with students who need accommodation outside our colleges, UNE has some 2500 staff. Housing shortages and rental prices in Armidale are an issue for the university, particularly as we strive to bring more people on campus. A better development planning system may help address some of the accommodation-related obstacles that UNE faces.
If the NSW Budget is a bit skinny when it comes to universities, we do well to remind ourselves that direct funding is not the only form of support for Higher Education. The Minns Government is making some necessary investments in the health of our State. If those investments succeed in their aims, UNE will be able to support more people to reach their education goals – and in turn, the State will benefit from higher levels of educational attainment.
It is an interconnected world, after all.
