While higher education reform is in the spotlight of the media and the education authorities, the Age has stressed that higher education is not just about filling jobs.
Go8 executive director Vicki Thomson declared that allowing universities to enrol as many students as they wanted was harming the economy, by diminishing the value of higher education and creating a lost generation of graduates with "broken dreams and large student debts" thanks to their near useless qualifications on the jobs market.
Since 2012, Australia's universities have operated under a demand-driven system, introduced by the Rudd and Gillard governments. This system allows for public universities to determine the number of undergraduates they enrol in bachelor degrees.
Demand-driven funding has seen a boom in undergraduate numbers and a corresponding glut in graduates in many professions.
At the same time as Australia's universities have been opened to larger numbers of students, funding for vocational training across the country has been slashed.
The Age fully supports the Go8 in its push for greater numbers of students undertaking vocational training, particularly in TAFE courses. We also support the call from universities to "moderate" the demand-driven system, in order to alleviate a glut of graduates in some professions.
