< For my part the announcement is another genuinely abysmal decision by the Labor Government. You don't aid the education sector by shifting large amounts of money within it. >

Agreed Don.

.

<< The Government could solve this funding problem without touching the Universities >>

YES Jayb, but I wouldn’t touch international aid. I’d abolish the despicable baby bonus, and have a good hard look at other financial advantages people get for having kids.

And I’d make an all-out effort to STOP onshore asylum seeking and redirect part of the enormous expense associated with it into education.

That would do it!

I’m NOT with you GYM-FISH, Foyle or Jayb!

As a past university student of two unis, member of staff, guest lecturer and long-time professional associate, I agree that there is scope for the improvement in efficiencies, as there is in all sectors. But a huge reduction in funding, just out of the blue, is extremely bad and counterproductive to the improvement or maintenance of a decent tertiary education sector.

The problems with university education that you elucidate GYM-FISH, in a somewhat overstated manner but certainly with a modicum of truth, are not going to be improved by the simple act of slashing the budget.

As you say; << Fat chance >>.

I agree with David Gonski that this funding should not have come at the expense of another education sector.

And I agree with Tony Windsor that abolishing the baby bonus would have been a much better source of funding.

I also agree with funding cuts to private schools that pay no tax and to school chaplains.

To Ludwig:

The great mistake, the mistake that tippytoes past the elephant in the loungeroom, is to regard the managerial colossus astride the universities as "education", tertiary or otherwise. They don't teach, they don't learn, they don't do research, they don't do the
n e c e s s a r y administrative work of "keeping the show on the road" - instead they impede all these functions while consuming the lion's share of the education budget. Dumping them could free up universities to focus on real university work, with oodles of cash left over to fund the Gonski reforms in the primary and secondary sectors.

Well, all I can say is that we'd better get used to it, because in just a little over five years, this wasteful mob have put us into a position where we simply can't afford the basics anymore.

If only these fools realized, five years ago, that money is something that can only be spent once and, you can't spend it until you have it, eg, the MRRT flop.

Any voter who supported Julia Gillard, and voted against John Howard in the 96 election has blood on their hands, as they have knowingly supported this gross incompetence.

In any case, Tony Abbotts main challenge will be to stop the boats, as this alone will solve many of the problems, going forward.

As for here and now, even they will have to cause pain in order to balance the books, as step one is to stop the waste.

EmperorJulian, methinks you have overstated your case a tad. If we were to ‘dump’ the management sector of our universities, there would complete mayhem!

Sure, there is plenty of scope for increasing efficiency and cutting costs in that department. But simply ripping a huge amount out of the university budget is not going to improve that situation one iota, while it WILL worsen the core purpose of tertiary education.

On the other hand, killing off the god-awful baby bonus would be an immediate clear advantage to the country!

And I’m sure that if our government was genuine in their desire to stop onshore asylum seeking, they could cut a huge amount out of the associated costs of accommodating them very easily.

I actually agree with cutting university payments. I honestly believe universities have become so disconnected with our economy that we are doing far too much high high level scientific research that no-one here can commercialise. This is basically a subsidy to multinationals. Most of the growth companies in Australia use existing technology in new ways. They dont commercialise research. New business models are teh key. So, I believe we need whole new ways of delivering business education and new ways of conecting universities with companies.