The head of Tasmania¡¯s only university has backed the Australian government¡¯s overhaul of university fees and subsidies, potentially boosting the reforms¡¯ prospects of winning parliamentary approval.

University of Tasmania (UTas) vice-chancellor Rufus Black recommended that the Senate pass the government¡¯s ¡°Job-ready Graduates¡± legislation in a presentation to a Senate committee that is reviewing the bill.

The recommendation could prove pivotal as cross-bench Senator Jacqui Lambie, whose support would secure the bill¡¯s passage, is a staunch advocate of the island state.

But Professor Black¡¯s intervention puts him at odds with many of his own staff, after the academic union¡¯s Tasmanian division took out a newspaper advertisement imploring senators to block the bill. The government¡¯s funding cuts and tuition fee hikes ¡°will take the fairness out of?uni¡±, the union warned.

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Professor Black argued that the bill was in UTas¡¯ interests because it sought to increase participation in higher education, particularly in regional Australia. He said Tasmania had Australia¡¯s lowest participation rates and its most regionally dispersed population, and had reached its current enrolment cap.

Echoing the university¡¯s to the committee, he said increasing UTas¡¯ capacity to accommodate domestic students was ¡°critical for seeing more Tasmanians in higher education. It¡¯s also critical in seeing us grow domestic load from mainland students in order to be a long-term sustainable university that is not nearly so dependent on international students.¡±

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Professor Black said the university had ¡°concerns¡± about the proposed fee hikes. ¡°That said, we¡¯ve tested the effects of those pricing changes, and we don¡¯t anticipate that they will have a negative effect on students¡¯ choices,¡± he said.

The opposition Labor Party, which opposes the bill, accused him of being ¡°in?cahoots¡± with the government in supporting legislation that lowered government teaching grants and abolished two loadings, with proceeds to be diverted into ¡°largely discretionary¡± funding arrangements.

Labor Senator Kim Carr asked the vice-chancellor if he was comfortable that ¡°specific undertakings¡± from the government had not been guaranteed in the legislation. ¡°I?have confidence that the government will deliver on those commitments,¡± Professor Black said.

He criticised the government¡¯s plan to use ¡°price signals¡± to shepherd students into occupations of perceived employment growth, by lowering tuition fees in disciplines such as science and maths. It would be both fairer and more ¡°economically rational¡± to apportion fees and subsidies according to a ¡°public-private benefits split¡±, Professor Black said.

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He also acknowledged research funding as an unfinished ¡°piece¡± of the reforms, but said current arrangements were far from ideal. ¡°Large metropolitan universities with very large numbers of students effectively get much greater capacity to cross-subsidise their research,¡± he said.

¡°Smaller regional universities don¡¯t get the capacity to do that. We would much prefer a system that supported research excellence and impact based on that research ¨C not student numbers.¡±

In a fiery exchange, Labor Senator Deborah O¡¯Neill asked Professor Black whether he had ¡°at least a skerrick of?concern¡± for Tasmanian school-leavers faced with a 117?per cent hike in humanities degree fees after ¡°one hell of a?year¡± during the coronavirus pandemic.

¡°You may have started your studies at Oxford, but in northern Tasmania the dream of access to a university is a very different thing,¡± Ms O¡¯Neill said.

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¡°I didn¡¯t start in Oxford,¡± Professor Black replied. ¡°I¡¯m a graduate of five humanities degrees. I?care hugely about the humanities.¡±

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com