by CLAIRE FIELD
Curtin, CQU and U Tas are making big investments
With undergraduate certificates an important element of the Commonwealth government’s COVID-19 response, I am interested in how much funding universities have allocated for short courses (both graduate and undergraduate certificates) in 2021.
The answer is, as with so many things in higher education, it depends…
The Department has published all of the 2021-2023 university funding agreements. To date they show the following:
* nine agreements were signed in December 2020 and do not contain details on short course funding in Table 1a, Appendix 1 of the agreement
* James Cook University’s agreement was signed in 2020 and subsequently updated. It contains funding for 263 undergraduate places but the specific funding allocation for them is not disclosed in Appendix 1 of the agreement
* seven agreements were signed in 2020, subsequently updated and contain specific funding for short courses, and
* 22 were signed in 2021 and contain specific funding for short courses.
Of the latter 29 funding agreements which include short course funding details:
* seven universities have at least $10m allocated for short courses, of which Curtin University has the largest allocation ($27.3m)
* Murdoch U and UWA have no funding specifically allocated for short courses in 2021
* CQU, Curtin U and Uni Tasmania each have more than 10 per cent of their 2021 base funding allocated to short courses
* both Uni Tas and Curtin U are offering many of their short courses through Open Universities Australia – allowing them to compete with these short courses with universities and higher level VET providers (offering diplomas and above) well beyond their traditional geographic reach.
Details of the short course funding for each university is available on my website.
And finally hat tips to Bretlyn Bailey (Deakin U) and Clare Hourigan (Uni Queensland) who were the first in the sector who I saw discussing this funding and whose discussion prompted me to take a deeper look.
Claire Field is an advisor to the tertiary education sector.