From the Vice-Chancellor's desk

On Saturday the Government  announced $2.3 billion in cuts to higher education, including university funding and student support. These are the largest cuts to the sector since the Howard Government cuts of 1996.

While investing in school education is to be applauded, I don’t believe it is good policy to make large cuts to part of the sector to fund the other. The two are interlinked. The quality of Australian education and research, and its contribution to the economic growth of this nation, requires investment in the entire sector from kindergarten through to PhD. We can’t be a clever country without excellent education and research. And a changing global economy means we can’t afford not to be the clever country. Short-changing education and research means short-changing Australia’s potential to manage uncertain global times.

The cuts will likely have a significant impact on the ANU budget, and affect many of our students directly. While there is limited information available at the moment, we estimate the direct impact on the ANU budget to be $8 million in 2014 and $5 million in 2015, a total of $13 million. The sector-wide cuts include:

•  Efficiency dividend of 2 per cent for 2014 and 1.25 per cent for 2015 ($900 m for the sector)

•  Conversion of student start-up scholarship to HECS loan ($1.2 b for the sector)

•  Removal of 10 per cent up-front payment HECS discount ($228.5 m for the sector)

Be assured that we will work with our community to ensure that ANU maintains excellence in what will be a difficult financial environment for the whole sector.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Margaret Harding

Acting Vice-Chancellor