Australia’s great divide: rich universities grow as others falter

Canberra may have chosen the right time to revisit university funding, as institutional accounts suggest a widening divide between the haves and have-nots

Published on
August 24, 2023
Last updated
August 29, 2023
John Ross
People waving off a luxury cruise ship as it leaves Adelaide, Australia. To illustrate the growing divide between rich universities and poorer ones.
Source: Alamy
Far from plain sailing: the Covid-19 pandemic has widened the prosperity gap among Australian universities, and disproportionately affected students from poorer backgrounds
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Reader's comments (4)

#1 Submitted by d.j.... on August 24, 2023 - 9:21am
what factor does geography play? The richer institutions are typically in the large coastal cities. They were founded earlier than regional institutions and are better placed to recruit leading staff and international students. I hypothesise that the "SES communities" tend to be located away from these centres.Funding and policy can only go so far in offsetting geographical reality. The key Q is what roles should the smaller universities play, for whom and what cost is needed to deliver that
#2 Submitted by b.... on August 24, 2023 - 2:31pm
Finally we may be returning to that for which Universities were established- pursuit of knowledge, research in the academic disciplines. The nonsense that has turned Universities into businesses is becoming ever more apparent; the fact the top tier of Australian Universities has survived is because these are the research intensives.
#3 Submitted by d.j.... on August 25, 2023 - 8:13am
chicken or egg. Have the larger institutes survived because they are research intensive, or have they been able to build their research base because thet are large enough to weather changes in govt policy and other external factors e.g. covid. Teaching has always been as much of universities core missino as research, however for a period it got got overlooked in the rush to be doing "world class" research. As govts everywhere cut back on investment in research, Unis have had to rely more heavily on teaching income to carry on in business. Those universities that placed teaching on at leas equal footing with research survives that transition better than those dominated by academics who believe that they are there primarily to undertake research. This is unlikely to change. Govt and Universities need to decode what their[uni[ purpose is and is not and how that is going to be funded.
#4 Submitted by desilva... on September 3, 2023 - 5:57pm
What's wrong with going straight to work after school?

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