The NTEU says it is time for universities to receive “reliable public funding”

In a budget week submission, the National Tertiary Education Union calls on government to continue the $1bn research funding injection announced last year and “restore reliable public funding to public universities.”

“The courses you can chose from at university should not be based on the state of the international student market in the years that you go. International students should be treated as an important part of our university communities, not bags of money,” National President Alison Barnes says.

And the union renews its call for a higher education commission “with regulatory and funding responsibilities … at arms-length to political structures.”

The union also calls for “supercharged” COMPACTS, the half-hearted performance agreements Commonwealth officials now strike with each public university.