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The Nation

Federal support to help UNDA to grow

By: Tim Wallace

Published: 30 November 2011

With the university sector moving to a full demand-driven funding system in 2012, in which public institutions will be able to leverage their status and scale to chase additional enrolments, the federal government will help level the playing field for the University of Notre Dame Australia through extra Commonwealth-supported places.

The private Catholic university estimates the additional federal funding will provide more than 1,000 new places in health-related courses (including exercise science, preventive health, biomedicine and physiotherapy) over four years.

That extra support comes as part of changes the government expects will enable 50,000 more Australians to participate in higher education.

Notre Dame’s vice-chancellor, Professor Celia Hammond, said the increased support was appreciated; the reforms, rather than a threat, were an opportunity: “The changes are actually going to free up what we can do.”

In the past, public universities were funded by a system that capped the number of publicly funded places. This meant centrally determined restrictions on the courses they could offer and the number of students they could admit. One consequence was a perverse incentive for under-enrolment.

The new system has been likened to a “voucher” system and brings tertiary funding more into line with the approach to funding primary and secondary schools.

UNDA is one of just three “Table B” private tertiary bodies, though only about half its students are fully self-funded. About 80 per cent of places in medicine, and virtually all in nursing and education, as well as at the university’s Broome campus, are Commonwealth-supported. Prof Hammond said the extra funding would enable UNDA to maintain its ratio of Commonwealth supported places as its student body grew to about 10,000 effective full-time places.

UNDA aimed to be Catholic, excellent and small, she said, offering personalised education where students felt part of a community.

“Our tag line, which sounds trite at times but it’s true, is ‘to us you’re a name, not a number,’” she said.

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