Rorix said:
Education is not a right. You do not have a right to education. That it is subsidised for many is a (much abused) privilege.
cherryblossom said:
Rorix education is a right, it's in the International Covenant of Social, Cultural and Political Rights.
The relevant section from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 26, (1)) says:
"Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. ... higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit".
So while there is no
compulsion for the Government to provide free higher education under the first part, we must consider whether higher education is equally accessible to all. The rise in full fee-paying places and resultant drop in HECS places is reducing the amount of places which are "equally accessible to all on the basis of merit" in favour of those which are accessible only to some, on the basis of wealth.
Higher Education at a Crossroads made it possible to have up to 35% full fee-paying students enrolled in Australian universities. If this level continues to grow, the right of all Australians to education which is equally accessible on the basis of merit will disappear.
Additionally, much of this argument is not solely about whether the Government is breaching human rights obligations or whatever by not sufficiently funding higher education; it is rather about whether a lack of funding is in fact damaging Australia's prospects of moving with the world into the future, and whether better funding would simply be in the best interests of the nation.
rorix said:
A switch to a more user-pays system does not, in itself, constitute our universities "going to shit". Please provide some sort of detail about how Australian graduates are really bad compared to the rest of the world since the time-lag effect of the Howard government before making such a claim.
...
The same goes for the factual basis of any sort of normative claim that Australia is suffering or will suffer from greater education exports.
The title of this thread is taken from a Herald investigation into the declining teaching standards brought about as a result of the lack of Government funding for universities and the resultant need on the part of those universities to accommodate increased quantities of international full-fee paying students to provide them with revenue. While the majority of the "Campus Critical" investigation is only available in the weekend Herald's print version, you can view some pertinent articles online:
Unis dumb down for foreign cash ;
Rescued by foreign fees;
Too many doctors in the house;
In their words.
Some of the problems referred to, as a cause of both the rise in full-fee paying students and/or the general lack of funding from the Government include:
- declining marking standards, often reduced to accommodate foreign students with lower English standards;
- overcrowded tutorials and lectures;
-ongoing cuts to staff levels;
-ongoing cuts to degree programs which have lower levels of enrolment, or are less profitable.
The key problem with Nelson's "enterprise university" concept is that some things which are essential to the functioning of a nation are simply unprofitable and hence cannot be regarded as commodities which a private enterprise can provide.
Even if education is not a national right, it should be a national priority, and the current Government is clearly not treating it as one.
