The government’s student funding legislation is designed to achieve what the Senate has stopped in the past, Mark Warburton warns

In anew paper for the Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, Mr Warburton argues the government wants universities to teach students with 94 per cent of the average revenue per student place they received prior to the 2018 funding caps.

In a complex paper that explores deep in the policy weeds Mr Warburton sceptically considers the different funding rates by discipline groups, the government’s assumption that some degrees are better for students and society than others and suggests that an overall purpose of the bill is to save Canberra $1.3bn a year.

He also warns that the process underpinning the policy are not thought through.

“There is no public evidence that the government has considered the many potential implications of its proposed changes or their potential flow-on consequences,” he writes.

Mr Warburton concludes that the government’s promises of a system to suit growing demand are easily made, because, “the increased student places and university revenue required to support them, are beyond the Budget forward estimates period. Governments have a poor record of delivering any promise that is more than four years into the future.”