In 2013 Australian universities are still predominately the professional training ground of the middle and upper classes while government schools remain the main education providers. So which level of education is most in need of increased government funding?

Once the Gillard Government had announced funding measures to underpin its policy response to the Review of Funding for Schooling Final Report December 2011 (Gonski Report) there was an immediate and predictable outcry regarding the government’s intention to remove $2.3 billion from direct/indirect tertiary education funding commencing in 2014.

Leaving aside the obvious wealth of some of the older universities, is this outcry justified? Should Australian taxpayer dollars continue to be spent at record levels on higher education or should these be spent in a more immediately equitable manner with the eventual aim of increasing the education standard of the population?

Australian Society

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2009–10 twenty-three per cent of the Australian population lived in low income-low wealth households. With sixty-one per cent of female single parents and forty-nine per cent of single male parents living in low economic resource households.

Economic hardship often means that people experience a relatively low material standard of living. For people who live in economic hardship, access to economic resources that provide for the consumption of goods and services such as food, housing, clothing, medical care and so on are limited Low economic resources can also restrict a person's ability to be included in the society around them, and limit their opportunities to create the life they want.

The Universities

The Higher Education Base Funding Review Final Report (O c t o b e r  2 0 11) states that: In 2007, total government funding to the higher education sector was $8 billion, of which base funding was $6.4 billion. In 2011, total government funding had reached close to $12 billion, of which $8.5 billion is base funding. It is estimated that in 2013, total government funding will be $13.6 billion and total base funding will be $10 billion.

A further $500 million will come from the Education Investment Fund for the tertiary sector over the next five years, although it is not yet known what proportion of these funds will be allocated to universities.

According to the Department of Industry, Innovation, Research and Tertiary Education: From 2012 to 2015 the Gillard Government will invest $58.9 billion in higher education and that funding for university student places in 2013 was 10.1 per cent higher.

The majority of students enrolled at Australian universities still come from middle or high socio-economic status backgrounds.

While university enrolments in Australia have more than doubled in the last two decades, students from low SES backgrounds are three times less likely to enter university than those from high SES backgrounds……

An obvious barrier to a student’s entry into higher education is non-completion of secondary school and general poor academic achievement. As noted above, the literature identifies that secondary education non-completion rates are much higher for low SES, Indigenous, and regional and remote student groups than they are for others. The evidence points to a strong negative correlation between low SES and secondary school completion and thus entry to higher education.

The Australian Council for Education Research media release indicates that in 2013 an estimated 14.3 per cent to 18.5 per cent of domestic university undergraduates in Australian universities in 2013 come from a low socioeconomic background.

Primary and Secondary Schools

Government schools remained the main provider of school education in Australia, with a total of 2,342,379 students, compared with 736,595 students attending Catholic schools, and 511,012 students attending Independent schools…..

..in absolute terms Indigenous student numbers in government schools, 149,307, far exceeded the number in non-government schools, 26,750….

In 2012 the apparent retention rate for all students was 79.9%, with the female rate of 84.3% being 8.5 percentage points higher than the male rate of 75.8%.

In 2012, the rate varied considerably across affiliations: 75.8% in government schools, 82.1% in Catholic schools, and 91.8% in Independent schools, the latter down from a high of 94.9% in 2009…..

Between 2011 and 2012, the apparent retention rate for Indigenous males rose by 3.1 percentage points to 49.2%, and for Indigenous females rose by 1.6 percentage points to 52.9%. The apparent retention rates from Year 7/8 to Year 10 for these students were significantly higher at 96.9% for males and 100.0% for females.