Renewing University Base Funding: The Priority Issues

There are five key decisions for the Government in response to the Report of the Base Funding Review.

The Government should commit to the Bradley review’s recommendation for a 10 per cent increase in Government base funding to universities as an immediate goal. It has already put in place increases worth 3.5%.
The priority initiatives to achieve this are:
- Contemporary Learning Spaces, a load based infrastructure grant;
- Enhancing programs to support access to university through: o raising and maintain the low SES and enabling loadings; and o creation of an Indigenous access and course completion loading;
- A Course Renewal Innovation Program, building off the flagships proposal to support innovative course redevelopment that over time adds value for all students not a select few; and
- Improvement to base funding rates for the most underfunded discipline areas.
There should be a single maximum rate of student contribution, no higher than the current second band of $8050 a year.
That student load remain the basis for allocating base funding, including any identified research element.
That all Government supported places in a discipline, whether undergraduate or postgraduate, be funded at the same rate.