Education Minister Simon Birmingham's recent announcement to cut $2.8 billion in university funding has been met with grave concerns from Labor.
The changes to higher education funding were announced on Monday night and include lowering the HECS-loan repayment threshold from $55,000 to a substantially lower $42,000 and increasing student fees by 8%.
Senator Kim Carr, the Shadow Minister for Innovation and Industry said that the University of Newcastle could be one of the "hardest hit" by these proposed changes.
"The university has 31 percent of its population coming from low socio-economic groups ... it's the 8th highest number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds in the country," he said.
"The government's imposition of additional costs will make it more difficult for people to go to university and more difficult for the university to serve the community."
Senator Carr says that the University of Newcastle plays an instrumental role in science and engineering in the Hunter region.
"Industry in the region looks to the university to assist in developing new ideas, new technologies and new ways of thinking... and the government has said nothing about helping universities deal with the research [funding] problem," he said.
He believes that the government is completely overlooking the high cost of running a university and that this will seriously impact the Hunter community and the industrial needs of the region.
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| Senator Kim Carr. Image: senatorkimcarr.com |
