Research Note 21 1999-2000

Higher Education in Regional Australia

Dr Kim Jackson
Social Policy Group
7 December 1999

The purpose of this note is to identify higher education resources in regional Australia and to compare these with those available in the capital cities of the States and Territories.(1) There are about 70 higher education facilities located outside the capital cities. They range from small 'shopfronts', like the Tamworth office of the University of New England, to the Callaghan campus of the University of Newcastle, with an enrolment over 16 000. In 1998 about 176 000 students were undertaking courses at these facilities, with 71 800 of these enrolled externally.(2)

The Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA) has undertaken extensive research on participation in higher education by students from rural and remote areas.(3) This work is largely concerned with where students are from, rather than where they are studying. The focus of this paper is on the latter: it attempts to quantify the actual provision of higher education services in regional areas, both in terms of expenditure and student places. This information has relevance for regional development policies as well as the higher education program.

The importance of local higher education institutions (HEIs) to regional economies has long been recognised. A study commissioned by the Review of Higher Education Financing and Policy suggested that Australia's regional universities contributed over $2 billion to regional output.(4) The viability of regional institutions is an economic as well as an educational issue and, in view of the relative under-provision of higher education resources in regional Australia, it might be considered an equity issue as well.

In terms of higher education policy objectives, the importance of local facilities appears to have been confirmed by the recent DETYA rural participation study. This noted a stronger relationship between higher education provision and participation in regional areas than that applying in metropolitan areas.(5) From this it might be concluded that a significant improvement in regional participation is more likely to flow from the expansion of local facilities, rather than from overall growth in the higher education system. Nor could such an expansion be criticised on efficiency grounds: the average cost of a student place in regional institutions is some $2500 less than the average cost of a capital city place.

Tables 1 and 2(6) clearly indicate that higher education resources (and their associated economic benefits) are directed disproportionately towards the capital cities. As an illustration of the scope of this imbalance, additional expenditure of over $2 billion each year would be required to bring per capita expenditure in regional Australia up to the metropolitan level. In terms of student load, places for students at regional campuses would need to be doubled to achieve parity with the capital cities.

Table 1. Higher Education Institutions Operating Expenditure, 1996

States And Territories	Estimated Operating Expenditure ($ million)			Est. Operating Expenditure per Resident Population ($ per person)
	Capital City	Regional Areas	State/ Territory	Capital City	Regional Areas	State/ Territory
NSW	1690.2	682.2	2372.3	435	294	382
Vic	1709.0	300.6	2009.6	521	235	441
Qld	785.0	385.8	1170.9	516	212	351
WA	712.2	14.2	726.4	550	30	411
SA	593.4	17.2	610.7	550	44	414
Tas	95.0	66.7	161.7	485	239	341
NT	50.9	9.2	60.1	619	92	331
ACT	478.6		478.6	1554		1553
Australia	6114.4	1475.9	7590.3	525	221	415

Sources: DETYA Higher Education Division, Regional Participation in Higher Education and the Distribution of Higher Education Resources across Regions, Occasional Paper Series, 99-B (1999); DETYA, Selected Higher Education Finance Statistics 1996 (November 1997); ABS, Australian Demographic Statistics, September Quarter 1998 (March 1999).

Table 2. Higher Education Student Places, 1996

States And Territories	Higher Education Student Places (EFTSU)			Student Places per Resident Population (EFTSU per 1000 persons)
	Capital City	Regional Areas	State/ Territory	Capital City	Regional Areas	State/ Territory
NSW	101146	49504	150650	26.1	21.3	24.3
Vic	115473	23195	138668	35.2	18.2	30.4
Qld	55277	29216	84493	36.4	16.1	25.3
WA	45675	1086	46761	35.3	2.3	26.5
SA	36904	995	37899	34.2	2.5	25.7
Tas	6612	3968	10580	33.9	14.2	22.3
NT	2894	574	3468	35.2	5.8	19.1
ACT	15277		15277	49.6		49.6
Australia	379258	108538	487796	32.6	16.3	26.6

Sources: see Table 1.

The distribution of higher education facilities is the product of a century of State, Commonwealth and institutional decisions. Most large regional campuses had their origin as small state colleges established between 1870 and 1950. Typically, these were vocational colleges that owed their existence to the political influence of prosperous local communities. Following the recommendations of the Martin Report (1964)(7) and the introduction of Commonwealth funding many colleges broadened their range of courses and became Colleges of Advanced Education (CAEs). These were statutory institutions with a degree of autonomy, but their time in the sun was brief. The financial constraints facing the Federal Government since the mid-1970s produced a constant pressure for institutional rationalisation. This came first with the Review of Commonwealth Functions (1981) and culminated in the introduction of the Unified National System (UNS) in 1989, which abolished the distinction between universities and CAEs. While this resulted in many regional campuses attaining university status, it was often at the expense of their local identity: they were now the offshoots of metropolitan institutions or part of larger regional multi-campus universities. It is interesting to note that at least five regional campuses attached to metropolitan universities now exceed the UNS minimum size criteria: Bendigo, Gippsland, Gold Coast, Gatton and Launceston.(8)

It is apparent from Table 2 that the provision of student places in the capitals is fairly consistent across the States, while there are wide variations in regional provision. This is partly the result of population distribution patterns: the regional population of WA, SA and the NT is very diffuse, with few provincial centres of any size outside of the capital cities. (9)Although there are some HEIs in very low population centres, these tend to be small, specialist colleges with a largely residential student body. It is not practical to construct higher education campuses offering generalist courses in centres much smaller than 25 000, unless they share facilities with other education institutions. Population centres of this size with little or no higher education facilities tend to be isolated communities with a low surrounding population (Alice Springs, Broken Hill, Mt Isa, Mt Gambier, Geraldton), or they are near other regional centres with campuses (the cities of the lower Hunter, Tweed Heads, Burnie-Devonport, Shoalhaven). Inland cities have also tended to be neglected in comparison to more fashionable coastal locations that are more attractive to overseas fee-paying students.(10)

The Commonwealth has sought to redress regional under-provision through the higher education Capital Development Pool, which emphasises new regional facilities and electronic delivery infrastructure projects. Funding for the Pool is around $39 million a year, or less than one per cent of total operating grants.(11) Since the capital roll-in (1994), the responsibility for capital management decisions has rested mainly with the institutions themselves.

Endnotes

1. Regional Australia is here defined as that part of the country outside the Capital City Statistical Divisions of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
2. Estimates derived from D. Ashenden and S. Milligan, The Australian Good Universities Guide (1999); DETYA, Selected Higher Education Student Statistics 1998 (1999) and HEI Internet pages.
3. DETYA Higher Education Division, Regional Participation in Higher Education and the Distribution of Higher Education Resources across Regions (1999). This indicates that in 1996 18.8 per cent of 19–21 year olds from these areas were undertaking higher education courses, compared to 26.6 per cent for the same age group from metropolitan areas. See also DETYA, Equity in Higher Education (March 1999) for a time series and other data on rural participation.
4. Centre for International Economics, Assessing the economic contribution of regional universities. Prepared for Review of Higher Education Financing and Policy (August 1997), p. iii. This issue was first examined in detail in D. S. Anderson and others, Regional Colleges A Study of Non-Metropolitan Colleges of Advanced Education in Australia, Canberra, 1975.
5. DETYA, Regional Participation, ch. 7.
6. Commonwealth-funded HEIs are required to provide annual financial and student statistics, but these relate to the institution as a whole. However, DETYA, Regional Participation contains a 1996 campus breakdown of student places. In the tables, the operating expenses of multi-campus HEIs have been distributed on the basis of this data to obtain aggregates for the capital cities and regional areas of each state and territory. These have been divided by the estimated resident population as at 30 June 1996 to derive per capita figures. It should be noted that while the data in Table 1 refers to the total operating expenses (before abnormal items) of Commonwealth funded HEIs, this is not equivalent to Commonwealth expenditure on higher education. In 1996 Commonwealth grants were equivalent to only 57 per cent of total HEI operating revenue, with the other major sources being HECS (12 per cent) and fees (13 per cent). Similarly, Table 2 refers to total student load, not just Commonwealth funded places. Student load is expressed as equivalent full-time student units (EFTSU). One EFTSU broadly equals one student undertaking an average full-time subject load.
7. Report of the Committee on the Future of Tertiary Education in Australia, Canberra, 1964–65.
8. The requirement that HEIs have at least 2000 EFTSU to receive full funding in the UNS forced many amalgamations.
9. Kalgoorlie/Boulder, which has a campus, is the only regional population centre over 30 000 in WA, SA or NT. Bunbury (28 069) and Whyalla (23 980) also have campuses. Alice Springs (25 522), Mt Gambier (23 055) and Albany (29 186) do not, although Albany and Alice Springs have small HE Centres. See ABS, Australian Demographic Statistics September Quarter 1998, p. 16 and ABS, Regional Population Growth 1997–98 (January 1999) for demographic details.
10. For example, there are new campuses at Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, Cairns and the Sunshine Coast.
11. DETYA, Higher Education Report for the 1999 to 2001 Triennium (March 1999), pp. 11, 101.

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