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The challenge of funding a high quality higher education system, ensuring it has the capacity to help meet the increasing demand for high level skills in the economy and the aspirations of students, has been an ongoing concern for successive Australian governments over many years. This paper reviews the findings and recommendations of significant reviews of Australia's higher education funding system from the 1988 Dawkins white paper through to the 2014 'Review of the demand driven funding system'. It summarises the challenges identified and responses proposed across that period as well as some recent international literature about higher education reform. What is clear from the survey of major reviews from 1988 to the present is the similarity of issues that were of concern to governments of the day. Successive governments have sought to build and fund a higher education system to meet the need for high level skills and innovative research for the Australian economy. The challenge for all governments has been how to enable greater numbers of students to access the benefits higher education offers - in terms of employment, earnings, social and cultural opportunities - while ensuring the system remains fair, high quality and affordable for both individuals and taxpayers.

The number of domestic higher education students has more than doubled since 1989 and, as student numbers have grown, they have come from more diverse social, economic and academic backgrounds. The number of providers and their diversity has also grown, with around 20 new public universities since the late 1980s and the emergence of significant numbers of non-university providers. The proportion of the Australian working age population with a bachelor degree or higher qualification has tripled since 1989 to just over 25 per cent. Direct Australian Government funding for teaching, learning and research has grown both in absolute and real terms. The paper concludes that Australia is not unique in facing this growth and higher education systems around the world are increasingly moving from elite to mass systems, and beyond to universal systems.

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In 1988, the then Minister for Employment, Education and Training, the Hon J. S. Dawkins, released a discussion paper, 'Industry training and Australia: the need for change' (indexed at TD/LMR 85.664). The aim of this paper was to provoke debate on measures both to improve the quality of training and to increase the amount of training being undertaken. The Employment and Skills Formation Council (ESFC) of the National Board of Employment, Education and Training (NBEET) was charged with providing an interim report by 5 May 1989 on the outcomes of the consultations to date.

This interim report aims to both summarise the views expressed during the consultation process and highlight the reforms which ESFC believes are required in the training system. The structure of the report is as follows. Chapter two provides a summary of the discussion paper and establishes the context in which the report was written. This includes a discussion of the pressures necessitating reform of the training system. Chapter three summarises the main issues as expressed in the written submissions and discussions, and assesses recent developments in industry training. Chapter four presents ESFC's advice on the direction of future reforms. Issues discussed include measures to improve the quality and responsiveness of the education and training system, measures to improve access to training for women and disadvantaged groups and the funding of an expanded and improved training system. Conclusions are presented in the final chapter.

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In 1986, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) initiated a fact-finding mission to a number of European countries that had addressed similar problems to those being experienced by Australia. In particular, the ACTU was interested in visiting those countries which had overcome balance of payments constraints in ways which produced low unemployment, low inflation and economic growth that was more equitably distributed. The mission's report examined, and made recommendations about, macroeconomic policies, wages, prices and incomes, trade and industrial policy, the labour market, industrial democracy and strategic unionism. The report also made appropriate recommendations for action. The section of the report on 'Labour market and training policies' was of particular importance to education and training. It stated that 'one of Australia's overriding concerns must be its deficient skills base as Australia's future international competitiveness would depend largely on how successful it is in creating advantages based on its ability to exploit up-to-date knowledge and skills-intensive products and processes. Success in a world of rapidly changing technologies will require a constant effort to acquire and develop state-of-the-art skills'. This view underpinned Commonwealth Government policies and programs for the next decade. Show less