Canberra university students would be better off under a Federal Labor Government to the tune of $18 million, ACT Senator Kate Lundy said today.
Speaking today at the Australian National University’s National Day of Action Rally, Senator Lundy announced that a Crean Labor Government would provide an extra $312 million in additional funding across Australia’s tertiary education system as just one of the measures in the Aim Higher Higher Education Policy.
This would mean that ACT universities would get more – the ANU would receive an extra $14 million, the University of Canberra, $4 million.
“This package will begin to reverse the Howard Government’s disgraceful record of under-funding our universities,” Senator Lundy said.
“The Howard Government has cut $5 billion from Australian universities since 1996, including over $190 million from the ANU and the University of Canberra.
“The ratio of students to teaching staff has also increased under the Howard Government – blown out by over 24 per cent in the ACT between 1996 and 2002.”
Other sources of new funding that will benefit ACT universities under Labor’s $2.34 billion Aim Higher package include:
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·21,000 more full and part-time commencing university places to be distributed across Australia; |
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$312 million to improve the quality of university education through a new indexation measure to maintain the value of university funding; |
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a $450 million Universities of the 21st Century fund for university reform; |
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a $150 million Community Engagement fund to support regional, rural and outer-suburban universities’ leadership role in local communities; |
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$150 million to reward excellence in teaching and learning; and |
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$347 million to properly fund all university places at the full Commonwealth rate including 25,000 places that the Coalition currently funds on the cheap. |
“It is time for students and the broader ACT community to reject the Howard Government’s inequitable and unfair treatment of Higher Education in Australia, and embrace Labor’s alternative,” Senator Lundy concluded.
Media contact: Jason Ives – (02) 6277 3334 or 0411 237 683
