Date posted: 31/08/2023

Submission on the Australian Universities Accord Discussion Paper

Submission on the Accord Panel’s discussion paper on Australia’s higher education sector.

In brief

  • The higher education sector faces a range of challenges and opportunities
  • Investment and affordability are key areas to be addressed
  • CA ANZ proposes immediate priorities and longer-term reforms for the government

CA ANZ’s submission to the Australian Universities Accord Panel in April 2023 follows our previous submission on priorities for the Accord Terms of Reference in December 2022.

This submission provides an overview of key challenges and opportunities for Australia’s higher education sector and addresses the following Terms of Reference:

  • Meeting Australia’s knowledge and skills needs
  • Creating opportunities for all Australians
  • Investment and affordability (focusing on the Job-ready Graduates package)
  • The connection between the vocational education and training and the higher education systems
  • Quality and sustainability (focusing on the role of international students).

CA ANZ’s immediate and longer-term recommendations for the Government are below.

Immediate priorities

1. Recalibrate student and Commonwealth contributions to ensure that the price signals to students and providers are working in the same desired direction;
2. Make the Australian Skills Classification a living open skills taxonomy that is continuously updated;
3. Make digital capability an integrated endeavour of programs of learning for both young and mature aged students and workers;
4. Reintroduce demand driven funding;
5. Extend Commonwealth support places to all Australian registered higher education providers;
6. Determine student contributions on the basis of early career graduates’ ability to pay, as indicated by graduate salaries;
7. Reduce how much Accounting, Management and Commerce students are expected to contribute towards the cost of their tuition;
8. Increase the Commonwealth’s contribution to the tuition cost of studying degrees in Accounting, Management and Commerce;
9. Index HELP to either CPI or the 10 year government bond rate, whichever is the lesser and consider making the system fairer for people in periods of reduced earnings by applying the loan indexation only when the individual’s taxable income falls on or above the payment threshold;
10. Recognise Accounting amongst identified national priorities for funding purposes;
11. Hasten the implementation of the AQF Review’s recommendations;
12. Recognise micro-credentials and prior learning through independent assessment;
13. Better integrate the operations of post-secondary regulatory bodies, ASQA and TEQSA;
14. Explore with us opportunities to support each others’ initiatives to grow Indigenous enrolments in Accounting, Management and Commerce;
15. Interpret the international education strategy for diversification as meaning towards new source countries and not away from traditional source countries that have, and can continue to, serve Australia well;
16. Ensure clear communication with international students on their eligibility for permanent residency and provide pathways to permanency where appropriate; and
17. Extend the indicative list of eligible occupations for post-study work rights to include accounting and audit and update the list of related qualifications eligible for the extension to include degrees in Accounting before the final list is implemented.

Medium to longer-term

18. Extend funding support to learners to gain credentials of all sizes offered by traditional and non-traditional providers;
19. Provide lifelong learning funded entitlements that learners can draw upon over their lifetimes to fund their continuous learning and credentials approved with an expanded AQF;
20. Make income contingent loans up to a cap available to learners studying towards credentials of all sizes assessed at AQF level 5 and above;
21. Extend the AQF to recognise micro-credentials offered by both traditional and non-traditional providers; and
22. Establish a single national regulator of all forms of post-secondary credentials seeking accreditation, whether short or long.

Australian Universities Accord Discussion Paper

Read the Discussion Paper.

Consultation on priorities for the Australian Universities Accord

Read CA ANZ’s submission on priorities for the Accord.

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