UPDATED 10.15AM: University loans may attract interest fees, and targets for students from disadvantaged backgrounds may be scrapped, in a move Greens senator Lee Rhiannon has labelled an "enormous setback" to institutions such as the University of Wollongong.
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The Kemp Norton report into university funding, released on Sunday, recommends the government discontinue HECS-HELP benefits to graduates in nursing, education, maths and science; tinker with student contributions; and fund private education institutions.
"This review would ... [allow] private institutions to access public funding," said Senator Rhiannon, Greens spokeswoman for higher education.
"The only way to fund this would be to charge students higher fees."
Senator Rhiannon said this move would particularly impact regional universities such as UOW.
"The University of Wollongong is already facing a period of extreme uncertainty with chronic underfunding for courses, teachers and students," Senator Rhiannon said.
But UOW vice-chancellor Professor Paul Wellings refuted Senator Rhiannon's claims that the university is in funding trouble.
“The University of Wollongong is far from struggling. We have just had substantial growth in the enrolment of Australian undergraduate students, and are performing extremely well in a range of indices,” Professor Wellings said in a statement Monday evening.
“Last year we gained record Australian Research Council funding, and we remain in a strong financial position.
“It seems the Greens were trying to score some political points at our expense, which is very disappointing.”
Recent UOW stats show 16.2 per cent of the 2191 student body came from a low socio-economic background, above the national and NSW averages of 14 per cent.
Current targets aim for students from low socio-economic backgrounds to make up 20 per cent of enrolments by 2020, but the Kemp Norton review recommends abolishing such targets, as well as suggesting loan fees on currently interest-free HECS and OS-HELP loans.
Mitchell Bresser, Wollongong Undergraduate Student Association president, slammed the recommendations as "elitist."
"Students look at course fees before picking a degree, and already can graduate with a debt of $30,000 or more," Mr Bresser said.
"Successive governments have looked at ways to incentivise education, we shouldn't be making disincentives. These suggestions would make universities elitist institutions again."
The Mercury will be speaking with Professor Wellings later on Tuesday on the Kemp-Norton review and the Greens' claims UOW was "facing a period of extreme uncertainty with chronic underfunding for courses, teachers and students”.
