Tabris
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New VC to push up HECS charges
Bernard Lane
September 06, 2006
MACQUARIE University will increase HECS fees by 25 per cent next year, leaving the University of Tasmania as the last institution not to take advantage of a partial deregulation of fees.
Macquarie vice-chancellor Steven Schwartz said about 20per cent of the extra money would fund $1 million to $2million in new scholarships for needy students, especially those keen on science, maths or technology.
UTAS said if its healthy finances deteriorated it would push up HECS fees, but imposing this extra burden on students would be "a last resort", according to Paul Barnett, executive director of planning and development.
Professor Schwartz's predecessor at Macquarie, Di Yerbury, had resisted a HECS increase, saying the university was "very conscious at the moment that there's a big burden on students".
But Professor Schwartz said the decision not to lift fees was in effect a "poorly targeted discount" since affluent students, as well as the needy, stood to benefit, and the benefit would not arrive until graduates earned enough to begin paying off their HECS debt.
"For many people, they need the money right now, they need the bursaries and scholarship help to go to university at the moment," he said.
More fee income also would help Macquarie fund 40 new research positions advertised as part of a campaign to make the university more research intensive. Three of the nine fields in which Macquarie is seeking new staff could be classified as humanities and social sciences.
Professor Schwartz said Macquarie had not set out to emphasise science and technology but to identify fields "where we were already strong and could make a reputation for ourselves".
He said 40 staff was "a very large number of people to be looking for all at once", although he understood the campaign, run in July in the HES, had generated "quite a good response".
"I thought perhaps we wouldn't be filling any of those positions until January but now it seems as if we may be filling some this year," he said.
Macquarie also announced that Elizabeth More's portfolio as deputy vice-chancellor would change from administration to development and external relations. Last year, not long before her retirement, Professor Yerbury said Professor Schwartz had asked her to take up a new position as Macquarie's "international ambassador". She agreed at the time this was an unusual position for a former vice-chancellor to occupy.
Yesterday, Professor Schwartz confirmed Professor More would take charge of "all external affairs". Asked to clarify whether this meant Professor Yerbury ceased to be international ambassador, he said: "I am afraid that there is nothing clear about that situation."
Professor Yerbury could not be contacted for comment.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20360283-12332,00.html
Bernard Lane
September 06, 2006
MACQUARIE University will increase HECS fees by 25 per cent next year, leaving the University of Tasmania as the last institution not to take advantage of a partial deregulation of fees.
Macquarie vice-chancellor Steven Schwartz said about 20per cent of the extra money would fund $1 million to $2million in new scholarships for needy students, especially those keen on science, maths or technology.
UTAS said if its healthy finances deteriorated it would push up HECS fees, but imposing this extra burden on students would be "a last resort", according to Paul Barnett, executive director of planning and development.
Professor Schwartz's predecessor at Macquarie, Di Yerbury, had resisted a HECS increase, saying the university was "very conscious at the moment that there's a big burden on students".
But Professor Schwartz said the decision not to lift fees was in effect a "poorly targeted discount" since affluent students, as well as the needy, stood to benefit, and the benefit would not arrive until graduates earned enough to begin paying off their HECS debt.
"For many people, they need the money right now, they need the bursaries and scholarship help to go to university at the moment," he said.
More fee income also would help Macquarie fund 40 new research positions advertised as part of a campaign to make the university more research intensive. Three of the nine fields in which Macquarie is seeking new staff could be classified as humanities and social sciences.
Professor Schwartz said Macquarie had not set out to emphasise science and technology but to identify fields "where we were already strong and could make a reputation for ourselves".
He said 40 staff was "a very large number of people to be looking for all at once", although he understood the campaign, run in July in the HES, had generated "quite a good response".
"I thought perhaps we wouldn't be filling any of those positions until January but now it seems as if we may be filling some this year," he said.
Macquarie also announced that Elizabeth More's portfolio as deputy vice-chancellor would change from administration to development and external relations. Last year, not long before her retirement, Professor Yerbury said Professor Schwartz had asked her to take up a new position as Macquarie's "international ambassador". She agreed at the time this was an unusual position for a former vice-chancellor to occupy.
Yesterday, Professor Schwartz confirmed Professor More would take charge of "all external affairs". Asked to clarify whether this meant Professor Yerbury ceased to be international ambassador, he said: "I am afraid that there is nothing clear about that situation."
Professor Yerbury could not be contacted for comment.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20360283-12332,00.html
