‘Glidepaths’ offer admissions leeway, as Atec allocates places

Australia’s universities have been given considerable latitude over their admissions in the first year of the “managed growth” funding scheme, easing fears that they would be forced to turn students away to avoid financial disadvantage.

However, many universities – particularly in the large cities – will have to accept substantial numbers of unsubsidised students.

The Australian Tertiary Education Commission (Atec) has published the mission-based compacts it negotiated with 42 universities, revealing how many funded places each will be able to offer next year.

Universities will be allowed to exceed these allocations by up to 5 per cent, earning tuition fees – but not teaching subsidies, known as commonwealth-supported places (CSPs) – for the additional enrolments. Students admitted after universities have exhausted their 5 per cent buffers will yield neither CSPs nor tuition fees for their institutions.

However, this rule will be deferred for at least the first year of the new system. Each publicly funded university has been awarded a “transitional commencing places limit” – also known as a “glidepath” – allowing tuition fees to be accepted from students outside the 5 per cent buffer.

These glidepaths are substantial, averaging 43 per cent of each university’s allocation. “Glidepaths were set relatively high…to ensure providers have sufficient flexibility to meet the needs of their communities in 2027,” Atec explained in a summary report. “It is a key priority of the Atec to ensure that student demand [is] not unduly constrained.”

Demand has increased in recent years and now “exceeds the number of funded places available for allocation”, the report acknowledges. “Providers are now experiencing the challenges of marginally funded load. Supporting [them] to transition to the new…funding system will be a key focus over the next few years.”

Monash University policy analyst Andrew Norton, who has warned that the new regime would struggle to accommodate demand, said Atec had “pushed a lot of capacity into the commencing places”. He said prospective students should be able to find berths at university “as long as [they] are willing to accept second or lower preference offers”.

But Norton said Atec appeared to be repeating the Job-ready Graduates “error” of “skewing” the distribution of funded places to regional universities that may be unable to use them. “With demand clearly strong in metropolitan areas, this would be a misallocation of places.”

Norton said that while allocations would rise by an average of 10.7 per cent next year, compared to this year’s “non-binding caps”, the in-demand universities of Sydney and Monash had been granted increases of 3.6 per cent and 2.2 per cent respectively. By contrast, the allocation to James Cook University – “the most under-enrolled university this decade” – had risen by 29 per cent.

James Cook’s enrolments had grown in recent years “but not enough to justify this increase”, Norton said.

Universities Australia (UA) said Atec’s report highlighted “ongoing pressures across the sector, including strong student demand and the need for sustainable funding settings”.

“Achieving national ambitions for higher education participation, skills and productivity will require additional student places, certainty for universities and funding arrangements that adequately support the cost of delivering high-quality education.”

The report singles out the “higher levels of visa refusal rates” as a threat to universities’ financial sustainability. “Addressing these challenges will require coordinated and strategic stewardship of the higher education system,” the report says. “This is why the Australian government established the Atec.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com