Wilkie deal stays ALTC execution

Teaching and learning programs will still be funded but the council has only 16 months ahead of it. The Australian Learning and Teaching Council has been given a reprieve in a deal with the government struck by Independent MP Andrew Wilkie in exchange for his supporting vote on the $1.8 billion flood levy. In an agreement brokered on Friday, Wilkie agreed to support the levy if the Gillard government committed to restoring in full the ALTC grants and awards program, to the value of $50 million over three-and-a-half years. The original budget was $88 million over the same period. The ALTC gets $22 million a year from the government. However, the ALTC as it exists has only been given a six-month stay from its execution date. The original cut-off date for closing the council was December 31 this year. It will now probably operate until the end of June 2012. In the agreement, which will not garner full support across the higher education sector, the government is to become the new administrator of ALTC programs, through DEEWR. The government now has the numbers to get the legislation for the $1.8 billion flood levy passed in the House of Representatives but still needs independent senator Nick Xenophon’s support to get it through the upper house. A supporting vote from one of the independents was still needed after Labor had won support for the flood levy proposal from independent MP Bob Katter late last week. Wilkie’s support means Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott have not had to disclose where they stand on the levy. Before his Hobart announcement, Wilkie confirmed to Campus Review he would not have backed the flood levy unless the proposed cuts to the ALTC were reversed. “A concrete funding commitment for the future of the ALTC’s programs is a condition of my support for the proposed flood reconstruction package,” Wilkie told CR. There has been a growing campaign to oppose the closure, with people across the sector arguing that losing the ALTC would be a devastating blow, equal in impact on teachers and students as dismantling the Australian Research Council would be to researchers. Following the announcement University of New South Wales Emeritus Professor Adrian Lee, who has been campaigning to save the ALTC told CR he feared he had lost the war. “This is good news but leaves a bitter taste as it looks as though the ALTC will be no more. I sense we have won the battle but lost the war. “The ALTC community, who have worked so hard and well with us, do not deserve this. That symmetry of having the Australian Research Council and the ALTC supporting the two major functions of a university has gone and unless we are careful we will return to ‘research rules’”, Lee said. “While I welcome the decision to allocate the $50 million, I make a final plea to the prime minister for the ALTC with all its experience and richness not be disbanded.” Over the past few weeks there was frantic activity as a multitude of professors, students, lecturers, academic developers, fellows and award winners and other voters fought to save the ALTC. Among them were University of Sydney education professor Peter Goodyear and QUT law professor Sally Kift - ALTC fellows who have become unofficial leaders of the campaign to keep the council - and who recently lamented that despite the outcry from a wide swath of the sector, the issue was not getting the traction it warranted. “This isn’t about self-interest; this is about supporting students in higher education,” Kift said. “The ALTC is the funding body that for a miserly $22 million a year supports dedicated university teachers and support staff to do the right thing by students, which is what I think the public has the right to expect of universities.” Last Thursday the Greens struck a deal with government to get behind the flood levy in exchange for a pact that core ALTC functions will be taken over by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations - at least for the short term. The agreement is clear that the government’s intention is “for TEQSA to become the commonwealth agency with primary responsibility for ensuring the quality of university teaching and student learning outcomes in the long term”. Wilkie criticised that contract as “half-hearted” and a missed opportunity to obtain a concrete funding commitment. “When it comes to the future of the ALTC’s programs, the Greens are relying on vague promises from the government, and that’s simply not good enough,” he said in a media release. He added that he was yet to be convinced that the best course of action for handling flood reconstruction “isn’t simply to run the deficit out for an extra 12 months”. The shadow minister for universities and research, Senator Brett Mason, speaking before the Wilkie deal, said the decision to end the ALTC was “bad” and “misguided”, and that “it will certainly have a deleterious effect on the Bradley agenda of higher education reform”. “The abolition of the ALTC sends the signal that, despite its rhetoric, the government does not really care about improving excellence in teaching and learning,” Mason said. Individuals and peak bodies have protested to ever since Prime Minister Julia Gillard made the unexpected announcement about the ALTC’s fate in January. Last week, the protest continued to grow. Nearly 800 people had offered supportive testimonies through an online GetUp! campaign instigated by Goodyear. In addition, respected bodies such as the Australian Councils of Deans, the Australian Council of Engineering Deans, and the Higher Education Research Society of Australasia added their concern. Many of their strongly worded letters to decision-makers contained detailed summaries of the value the ALTC had added to their respective fields. The sector’s protests made no detectable difference to the government, however. Neither Gillard’s nor Evans’ office confirmed to CR how many letters they had received and whether or not the contents were cause for reconsideration. See Related stories Funding through ALTC has long term benefits Floods, cyclones and collateral damage