(en) Australia Anarchist Affinity - The Platform #2 - Attacks on Higher Education, Posted on 26 July 2014 by Mali

The current Liberal government's changes to higher education reflect a neoliberal agenda, 
in that they are attempting to change the entire way that higher education is thought of 
and organised in a 'prosperous' society like Australia. They are positing a series of 
radical right-wing reforms that aim to create a market of universities, this will create a 
class divide, largely excluding the working class. ---- To put it simplistically, the 
previous model worked in the way that once a previous student earned enough, they could 
pay back their loans and pay tax which would pay for the next generation, then that 
generation would pay for the next through their taxes and then it would be paid back, and 
so on. While this system still involved debt and an assumption that all people who have a 
degree will earn more, it was superior to what is suggested through the new system. This 
new system will create an even worse debt burden for students.

However, it is not impossible for education to be free under capitalism. It should be an 
expectation that the government make higher education free. There are any number of fields 
where excessive government spending are prevalent; the military budget is an example. Or 
the excessive funding of the Australian Ballet School. The next obvious answer is tax on 
the ruling class and corporations. The suggested new, de-regulated system assumes that 
people attend university purely to earn more money in their careers. This neoliberal 
conception of the individual pursuit of education is at odds with reality, as people 
attend university for various reasons. It also ignores all the manifold forms of 
oppression that affect outcomes for students, placing all blame, and pressure around 
failing or succeeding upon the individual.

If it is assumed that students only study to earn more, degrees that lead to higher 
earning potential will be prioritised and those which do not will decrease in quality or 
be cut altogether. We have already seen the kind of choices made by universities with this 
in mind, what has been devalued, defunded and threatened to be cut has been units such as 
gender studies and indigenous studies. This is not a coincidence. It is obvious that the 
system this government is working towards is one where all universities are private 
companies with no funding from the government that compete with each other in a market 
system. De-regulation of fees is just the thin edge of the wedge. Supporters of this have, 
and will, continue to argue that this will bring prices down, however, the reality is that 
our university system will divide along class lines. Currently Australian universities are 
of a high standard in world terms, once deregulated, there will be a divide between "good" 
universities and "cheap" universities. The quality of education will decrease at these 
"cheap" universities, yet the quality will not necessarily increase at the "good" 
universities. This is where the class divide will exist.

As we have seen in recent years, all universities will cut costs by mistreating staff; 
they will further casualise positions, keep wages at a minimum and attack working 
conditions. This divide been "good", expensive universities and their "cheap" counterparts 
will create a further class divide where only the rich will be able to afford the "good" 
education. In contrast, the social mobility of those from low and middle-income families 
will continue to be wrecked. The most alarming part of this plan for higher education is 
CSP places for private institutions, it is clear that this government want to make private 
and currently public universities part of the same market. This is more than likely to 
create what they call in the UK "cashpoint" colleges, rather than improving the quality of 
education for the most people. These "cashpoint" colleges take public money and abuse the 
loan system in place to use students like ATMs; the result being empty classrooms in some 
universities and over-crowded ones in others. As once students have taken out loans to 
attend university it is only in the university's interest to keep them so long as they are 
getting fees: there is little incentive for students close to burning out to continue. 
Thus, these institutions value courses that will make money over providing a quality, 
well-rounded education. The current model that is being pursued by the Liberal party, is 
to take us as far down the market route as the American university education system. We do 
not want neoliberal education in Australia. We are all well aware from the American 
system, the cost of higher education in America stops people from attending a quality 
university, or going to university at all.

We reject that this is the best model, that Pyne idealises as the best model for 
Australian higher education. At the moment, according to analysis by the National Tertiary 
Education Union, a medicine degree costs the ridiculous sum of $60,000, however with 
deregulation and interest rates, it could cost up to $200,000. It is hard to work exactly 
how much a degree will cost as it will be up to the discretion of each university, but it 
guaranteed to be to the detriment of university students and staff.

This new model will reinforce the growing disparity between Group of Eight universities, 
and other tertiary institutions. Universities such as those in the Go8 can more readily 
capitalise on a prestigious reputation and will outpace other universities in a price gap, 
narrowing the options low-income students have as prices diverge. This, in turn, will 
cause inequality between universities, not only in what is available to students, but also 
in funding to these universities - universities with higher fees will be better funded, 
however, better resources cannot be promised, as universities will consider themselves 
more of a company, therefore their concern will be in profit not education quality.

There is also a less publicised aspect on the issue of privatising education in Australia, 
that is how women will be affected with these changes. Due to the socialisation of gender 
in relation to work, women currently dominate total enrolments in the humanities compared 
to other degrees such as engineering and the sciences. As outlined above, the systemic 
undermining of less profitable degrees such as the humanities will lead to the 
disproportionate decrease in women who attend university. Plus, as total debt increases 
with time, this will negatively effect women, who are more likely to take time off work 
due family commitments (also due to socialisation), which will increase the amount and 
amount of time to pay off their debts.

The move to this explicitly neoliberal mode of tertiary education may fall under the radar 
of many Australians: this is because changes to student loans are expected, going by 
international trends, the main concern is the privatisation of education. We can see that 
there is an underlying agenda to move to a model which exacerbates unequal opportunities 
for a broad range of students, particularly those who come from low income, rural, 
indigenous backgrounds and international students (who are already treated as "cashpoints" 
and forced to live in poverty). Education needs to be preserved as an opportunity for all. 
Education should be free for all.
www.anarchistaffinity.org