Australian short course initiative ‘should be properly funded’

Most Australian universities have embraced the short online courses that underpinned the federal government’s relief package for higher education, even though delivering these programmes could further disadvantage institutions facing multibillion-dollar losses because of the pandemic.

Thirty-four universities are among the 50-odd institutions offering more than 320 accredited “undergraduate certificate” and “graduate certificate” courses. They come with tuition fee discounts of up to 90 per cent, backed by federal government subsidies and income-contingent loans, for studies completed this year.

The courses contribute towards full diploma, bachelor’s or master’s degrees, for those who want to continue studying.

But while the package may seem a good deal for students, universities bear the cost of the fee discounts. While the government has allocated A$7 million (£3.9 million) to subsidise about 1,000 short course places at independent colleges, it has not provided any additional funding to support them at universities.

Instead, universities are expected to cover government subsidies from the “funding guarantee” that formed part of the relief package. The guarantee allows universities to retain teaching grants for all the students they expected to attract this year, irrespective of any enrolment shortfalls.

However, some universities have already achieved their enrolment quotas, leaving no extra money to subsidise the short courses. And while other institutions attracted fewer than expected students, partly because the coronavirus temporarily dampened demand, the guarantee leaves them with no financial incentive to run the short courses.

Nevertheless, many universities are delivering them as a community service. The University of Southern Queensland said that it was providing 20 discounted courses as “part of our commitment to our community and our region”.

Western Sydney University, which offers 12 of the courses, said that “answering the government’s call” to help displaced or retraining workers was “a natural extension of our mission”. The University of Newcastle is delivering 21 courses because “the local area really needs it”, deputy vice-chancellor Mark Hoffman said.

“As a publicly funded university, it’s your job to do this sort of thing,” he said. “This is [where] education really needs to go to benefit the country in the short term. We can always educate more people, but if you’re looking for a short-term need, it’s retraining in the post-Covid economy. People don’t want to enrol in longer degrees in the first instance.”

But Professor Hoffman said that the courses offered universities “nothing” financially and the initiative should be “properly funded”.

Sector representatives hope that federal education minister Dan Tehan will announce more support for the short courses when he addresses the National Press Club on 19 June to outline plans to expand university places for domestic students.

Data from tertiary admissions centres suggest that domestic demand has spiked during the pandemic. The Universities Admissions Centre, which mainly serves institutions in New South Wales and Canberra, had received 63 per cent more applications by mid-June than at the same time last year – with school students showing particularly strong interest.

The Victorian and South Australian tertiary admissions centres, which are not yet accepting applications for 2021 courses, have also fielded increased applications for their mid-year intakes.

Mr Tehan has highlighted the short courses as a way of meeting this burgeoning demand. He told Radio National that the initiative “points the way as to the type of direction that we can go…the success has been overwhelming”.

But many universities have been reluctant to reveal how many discounted short course places they are actually offering. While 10 said that they were not limiting numbers, and another nine indicated that they would accept all eligible applicants, 14 either would not say how many places they had allocated or did not respond to Times Higher Education’s questions.

The University of Sydney has capped places on some of its short courses, with applicants who miss out instead encouraged to consider full-fee places at about five times the price. “We are currently reviewing the number of subsidised places being offered due to the high demand,” a spokeswoman said.

Australian National University policy expert Andrew Norton said that institutions faced hard choices about how many discounted places to provide: “If you have to give the discount to everyone who applies, including the people who would have applied anyway, then you’ve probably got a serious loss-making problem.”

He said that universities offering the short courses might hope to “upsell” unsuccessful applicants into more profitable programmes or to persuade students to parlay discounted certificates into full-blown degrees. “Even though the government is not really giving these courses any extra money it has given them a whole lot of publicity,” he said.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com