CQU head slams cuts to funding education

CENTRAL Queensland University vice-chancellor Scott Bowman has come out swinging over proposed funding cuts to higher education, saying the region’s offerings would be compromised.

The Federal Government’s midyear economic update included a decision to freeze the maximum amount of funding provided through the Commonwealth Grant Scheme (CGS) for bachelor degree courses at 2017 funding levels for 2018 and 2019, with CGS funding increases from 2020 onwards to be linked to performance and national growth in the 18 to 64-year-old population.

Universities will continue to receive the indexed student loan component for every student they enrol and the government will not cap student places.

New repayment thresholds for the Higher Education Loan Program will start at $45,000 and there will be a new lifetime limit on how much students can borrow to cover their tuition fees.

Professor Bowman said the changes would discourage growth in the regions.

“We’ve spent millions of dollars of our own money in new courses and programs like the new sport science degree, new aviation course and performing arts and now there is no government funding coming in for those programs,” he said.

“We’re still committed to those programs, committed to regional Australia and committed to Cairns, but we feel very let down by the government.

“We’re going to have to look at these courses very carefully. We’ve just been looking at our new recording studio. We can’t have them sitting there empty, that would be such a waste.

“We’d be cross-subsidising things from other parts of the university but we can’t do that forever. It’s going to really curtail the growth, not just in Cairns, but right across Australia. This is really bad policy for the regions.”