Too rapid a move in the right direction

The core national target, which essentially sets the size of the system, is that 40 per cent of Australians aged 25 to 34 should attain a degree by 2020.

In 2006 about 29 per cent of this population group held a degree, so there has to be significant growth in enrolments to achieve the target.

Some of this growth will be supplied by the increasing numbers of private providers entering the market.

The regulatory environment needed to ensure that their degrees are of the same standard as others is addressed through a recommendation that the Commonwealth assume full responsibility for tertiary education and training.

Most of the growth will, of course, come through the expansion of the present universities.

The Bradley report proposes that this be achieved through a student-driven entitlement or "voucher" system.

What this really means is that each university can decide how many students it wants to enrol in various disciplines, and it can then seek to attract those students.

Each student attracted then brings to the university the Commonwealth grant plus the student contribution needed to fund the place that the student occupies.

The only difference from the current funding approach is that universities would no longer be constrained to keep their enrolments below the present cap of 5 per cent above their base, Commonwealth-agreed figure student load.

This sudden removal of a cap, allowing immediate unfettered growth for those universities that can grow, and a possible contraction for others, is too rapid a move in the right direction.

It is likely to destabilise universities that operate in smaller or constrained markets, and will not best serve regional Australia.

But it does not have to be all or nothing.

If the Commonwealth were to continue allowing universities to enrol above their base level up to a designated cap, and then increase that cap each year, we would see orderly but meaningful growth.

As is the case at present, those who wish to enrol up to the cap could do so, others could remain at the base level of enrolments that would provide them with an assured base level of funding.

Over the next decade or so as the cap increased we would see changes in the university sector.

We would meet the national enrolment target by 2020 and we would see a balancing between student preferences and national needs.

And we would have got there without damaging any of our fine universities along the way.

Professor Paul Clark is vice-chancellor of Southern Cross University