Launch of CQUniversity CQUniversity

E&OE TRANSCRIPT Speech - Launch of CQUniversity CQUniversity, Mackay campus 01/07/14 CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Thank you very much Pierre – to you and to Steve, to the elders of the Yuibera people, to the distinguished guests of both the university and the TAFE, to my ministerial colleague John-Paul Langbroek, to my parliamentary colleagues Michelle Landry, Jason Costigan and Ted Malone, members of local government. It is a great pleasure to be here today at the University of Central Queensland to mark the launch of this new merged body. University of Central Queensland has a great opportunity that’s presented to them by the Government’s higher education reforms in Canberra to become one of the great preeminent universities across Australia. Your Vice Chancellor Scott has been at the forefront of innovative thinking about how the university would be placed given the extraordinary competition that already exists with 39 public universities and two or three private institutions at university level. And the federal Government has given your university here the opportunity to build on the forward thinking that was begun by your university council, by your Vice Chancellor, in merging with the TAFE here in central Queensland, but also expanding Central Queensland’s offerings to students right across Australia. I’m sure I’ve got the number wrong because it’s always changing - but last time I heard there were 13 different campuses of Central Queensland University across Australia. And right now it has landed at a time when the Federal Government wants to expand competition across the university sector. So in the budget, what Scott referred to as the most far reaching reforms in higher education probably ever, certainly since the Menzies Government massively expanded higher education, we will be giving a lot more opportunity for students to go to get a higher education qualification at an institution of their choosing. We’re doing that in a couple of ways. For the first time ever we’re expanding the Commonwealth Grants Scheme which is the per student subsidy across non-university higher education providers like TAFES, institutions that offer diplomas, associate degrees, degrees, like many TAFES, but also that will inject about 140 at least, new competitors into the higher education market, driving the price of higher education down, and the University of Central Queensland, I’m sure not by coincidence, is in front of the curve of the market because they have already brought TAFE and the University of Central Queensland together so they will make a full benefit from that expansion of spending by the Commonwealth on students in non-university higher education providers. And in a second way, the University of Central Queensland will be a big winner from the Government’s higher education reforms. Because what’s been called the demand-driven system for undergraduate places – so no cap for undergraduate offerings at university – we are going to extend to sub-bachelor courses. So we’re going to lift the cap on diplomas and associate degrees – pathways into undergraduate degrees, if you like – which will massively benefit low-socioeconomic status students and first generation university goers. This is very important for the University of Central Queensland because, as Scott told me, the university has a high preponderance of first generation university goers and low-SES students. They typically emerge from Year 12 or even Year 11 not thinking that they will have a higher education qualification, not thinking that they will go to university. And what the Government in Canberra wants them to do is to use these diplomas – these associate degrees – to get their start in university and we will fund that by lifting the cap on those places. That again will cost the Commonwealth taxpayer money because we’re expanding enormously the opportunity of those students to go to university and get the chance to earn 75 per cent more over a lifetime because they have a higher education qualification than those without a higher education qualification. So our reforms are about expanding opportunity and secondly, they’re about giving universities the chance to make their own decisions, to chart their own course, which you here at Central Queensland University are already doing, and therefore as first movers, and early movers, will be great beneficiaries. So universities will be able to do the things well, that they do well, even better. They will be able to do the things that they know they can do, and invest in those, in a research sense, in an infrastructure sense, in the getting the academics and the trainers in to those areas they know they’re really good at. And that will breed excellence and diversity across the sector, which can only be good for students. But it also gives our very best universities the chance to compete internationally. International education is a fifteen-billion dollar industry in Australia, as Scott referred to it before, when the big changes to international education came about, many didn’t, many thought Central Queensland University would not benefit. But they have benefitted, 'cause they’ve thought innovatively about how to ride that wave. Our reforms will give an impetus for excellence in universities, which will have a big impact on our reputation internationally, protecting our market for international students. Five years ago there were no Chinese universities at all, in the top 200 in the world. There are now five. So the days when Australia, the US and the UK expected to be the top three countries in terms of places in the top 200 in the world, are gone. It is time to give our universities the chance to reach their best selves again, and compete with the Asian universities, whether it is Singapore, Japan or China for international students. Otherwise those students will stay home. And one thing you might not know. International education is our fourth biggest export industry, after iron ore, coal and gold, and you might know a little bit about coal, around here. So international education is the next one after those three. And I mean as the Minister for Education to protect that vital export market for Australia. I want to give our universities the chance to reach their best selves. And I want to spread opportunity to 80,000 at least, more young people, to get the same chance in life that I got by going to a great university and getting a higher education qualification. So thank you very much for the opportunity to come here today, to support this merger, to launch it if you like, and I have great pleasure in declaring it launched. 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