Changes to uni support
I have a suggestion that would change the higher education system.
It would increase the status of university students in the eyes of the public and it would improve the lives of students who are serious about their degrees. It is a plan to give Commonwealth support to students based on performance.
Higher education is something well worth funding with tax payers’ money. There is no better investment than to help somebody become a professional at something that benefits our economy or society. The investment is repaid in monetary terms by big tax bills. Many of us will end up paying the top marginal rate and therefore be members of the top 25% of income earners that finance 65% of the public spending. Those that do not will contribute in other ways, by being teachers, social workers and nurses. Even the students whose degrees don’t relate to any specific occupation will learn how to research and critique ideas and will learn the terms of civilised debate.
Despite the clear benefits of having a society full of highly educated people, university students are perceived by the community to be one small step above heroin addicts- and that’s only on the days when a distinction can be made.
Part of this is due to bad press that we get whenever a student in a white jumpsuit smashes up a police van, or when some lunatic in a Corolla mows down a fence at a detention centre.
Understandably, people who pay tax (like working families on ultra tight budgets) do not like to see their cash being spent subsidising this shit. Accordingly, whenever a politician wants to come along and cut money out of higher education, he is greeted largely by either indifference or praise.
This makes life harder for students who put the work in, only to be sneered at by proles who lump them in with anarchist retards. Every time this motivates them to bugger off overseas, Australia is poorer by one smart person.
Performance based support would turn this around. The students who make a genuine effort and achieve results would be rewarded. Those who choose university as a “Lifestyle” and could not be bothered turning up to class or doing assignments would get nothing.
Hey presto- everybody who thinks smashing the state is more important than coming to class is cut off. Any Young Liberals who get too carried away with their meetings and figure their pappys are going to set them up anyway would suffer a similar fate.
Everybody has freedom of political opinion and expression, but that doesn’t mean the community should have to subsidise it.
There are two basic ways that performance related support could be administered
Through a Centrelink allowance that is universally paid above a P2 Grade Point Average, but falls to zero below this. This would be in addition to current entitlements for those with P2 or above GPA but students with a fail average would lose all education related Centrelink entitlements
and/or:
Each subject would be charged in arrears at
- The full fee paying rate for a failed subject
- The current Commonwealth supported rate for a P2 score
- Half the Commonwealth rate for a credit score
- A quarter of this rate for a distinction or high distinction
The change is designed to make people on a P2 average no worse off than before. A P2 average is deliberately chosen as a soft target for anybody who puts at least a minimal effort into all assessment pieces. Allowances would need to be made for people whose poor performance was a result of illness or family trouble. Those who study part time due to other commitments would be supported in proportion to their study load and performance.
The objective of the change is not to make life difficult for people who work hard, but struggle.
The objective is to stop paying for people who don’t give a damn about studying, and to start rewarding people who do.
If people want to do good in society, that is commendable. They should pick a degree that would get them in a position to do this and study like hell. This change should only encourage them to keep their mind on the job.
It would increase the status of university students in the eyes of the public and it would improve the lives of students who are serious about their degrees. It is a plan to give Commonwealth support to students based on performance.
Higher education is something well worth funding with tax payers’ money. There is no better investment than to help somebody become a professional at something that benefits our economy or society. The investment is repaid in monetary terms by big tax bills. Many of us will end up paying the top marginal rate and therefore be members of the top 25% of income earners that finance 65% of the public spending. Those that do not will contribute in other ways, by being teachers, social workers and nurses. Even the students whose degrees don’t relate to any specific occupation will learn how to research and critique ideas and will learn the terms of civilised debate.
Despite the clear benefits of having a society full of highly educated people, university students are perceived by the community to be one small step above heroin addicts- and that’s only on the days when a distinction can be made.
Part of this is due to bad press that we get whenever a student in a white jumpsuit smashes up a police van, or when some lunatic in a Corolla mows down a fence at a detention centre.
Understandably, people who pay tax (like working families on ultra tight budgets) do not like to see their cash being spent subsidising this shit. Accordingly, whenever a politician wants to come along and cut money out of higher education, he is greeted largely by either indifference or praise.
This makes life harder for students who put the work in, only to be sneered at by proles who lump them in with anarchist retards. Every time this motivates them to bugger off overseas, Australia is poorer by one smart person.
Performance based support would turn this around. The students who make a genuine effort and achieve results would be rewarded. Those who choose university as a “Lifestyle” and could not be bothered turning up to class or doing assignments would get nothing.
Hey presto- everybody who thinks smashing the state is more important than coming to class is cut off. Any Young Liberals who get too carried away with their meetings and figure their pappys are going to set them up anyway would suffer a similar fate.
Everybody has freedom of political opinion and expression, but that doesn’t mean the community should have to subsidise it.
There are two basic ways that performance related support could be administered
Through a Centrelink allowance that is universally paid above a P2 Grade Point Average, but falls to zero below this. This would be in addition to current entitlements for those with P2 or above GPA but students with a fail average would lose all education related Centrelink entitlements
and/or:
Each subject would be charged in arrears at
- The full fee paying rate for a failed subject
- The current Commonwealth supported rate for a P2 score
- Half the Commonwealth rate for a credit score
- A quarter of this rate for a distinction or high distinction
The change is designed to make people on a P2 average no worse off than before. A P2 average is deliberately chosen as a soft target for anybody who puts at least a minimal effort into all assessment pieces. Allowances would need to be made for people whose poor performance was a result of illness or family trouble. Those who study part time due to other commitments would be supported in proportion to their study load and performance.
The objective of the change is not to make life difficult for people who work hard, but struggle.
The objective is to stop paying for people who don’t give a damn about studying, and to start rewarding people who do.
If people want to do good in society, that is commendable. They should pick a degree that would get them in a position to do this and study like hell. This change should only encourage them to keep their mind on the job.
posted by Mr Schrempp @ 7:06 pm
4 Comments:
At 7:41 pm,
Gilganixon said…
The military does something like this with their university students. While you're on the army's dime, you're expected to maintain at least passing grades in your subjects or they politely ask for their money back (or bust you down to other ranks for wasting their time, whichever is more likely).
Centrelink has a policy which allows you to be paid Youth Allowance for the time your course is supposed to run, plus one year. There are, of course, easy ways around this. For instance, a few students I've known simply go on the dole and fudge their way around the looking for work requirements by bullshitting on their dole forms or by throwing interviews when they get them.
At 9:23 pm,
Mr Schrempp said…
Yeah I've heard about that. That's where mutual obligation comes in, or national service, or whatever.
At 10:42 pm,
Gilganixon said…
Yeah, either way. Mutual obligation is a bit pathetic though. You can satisfy mutual obligation by getting a part time job for 15 hours a week (or at least you could). This usually has little or no effect on Centrelink payments.
Bear in mind that a lot of the career protesting types have either finished or dropped out of university, and don't really rely on funding for their courses. They would also make up the minority of students, who seem less and less inclined to get political at all lately, mostly because they're paying a shitload of money (at least in HECs and on Student Services) and it messes with their grades. They don't even vote in student elections. When I was half-arsedly campaigning for Labor Left at Adelaide Uni, we only got 1,200 out of about 16,000 students to vote, and this was with the good looking girls in tight t-shirts really nagging people into those booths. I doubt that a large percentage of these voters would be interested enough to attend most political rallies.
At 2:04 am,
Tristan Miller said…
Your plan fails as far as the Young Liberals are concerned, because generally they are well-fed (and BMWed!) without Government money. Having said that, taxpayer money has already subsidised their pre-University schooling at the most opulent of polo-league education facilities.
This statement is made with a minimum of generalisation.
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