◆ WERTE!
Coalition slashes A&TSI student funding
When compared to the previous year’s Federal Budget and forward estimates, an overall funding decrease of $177,000 (-0.25%) was applied to the ISSP in the 2020-21 financial year, with a further $3.78 million (-5.06%) removed from the forward estimates (see Fig. 1). 2019-20 Budget
2020-21 Budget
23-24 22-23 21-22 20-21 19-20 $70k
$72k
$74k
Fig. 1: ISSP funding, Budget & forward estimates Despite the urgent requirement for greater funding and support for A&TSI students, the Morrison Government has chosen to strip $3.96 million in the current year and forward estimates. This follows the 2019-20 Federal Budget where $10.98 million was also removed under the guise of efficiency dividends and direct funding cuts. Thus, over the past two Budgets brought down by Josh Frydenberg, there has been a total actual and projected loss of $14.94 million. Prior to the consolidation of the three student support programs in January 2017, the projected A&TSI student support funding (from the 201516 Federal Budget and forward estimates) would have seen total projected allocation of approximately $75.7 million in the 2018-19 financial year.
12
15-16
16-17
17-18
18-19
19-20
A&TSI Commencing Students A&TSI All Students A&TSI Staff
20-21
Budget Forward Estimates
80k
1.4% 70k
20 0 20 4 0 20 5 06 20 0 20 7 0 20 8 0 20 9 10 20 1 20 1 1 20 2 1 20 3 1 20 4 1 20 5 16 20 1 20 7 18
0.6% 1516 20 16 -17 20 1718 20 18 -19 20 19 -20 20 20 -2 20 1 2122 20 22 -23 20 23 -24
60k
1.0%
20
The 2020-21 Federal Budget has seen further reductions to the supplementary funding allocation for the current year and forward estimates via the Indigenous Student Assistance Grants (ISAG) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (A&TSI) student support administered through the Indigenous Student Success Program (ISSP).
Fig. 2:Funding allocations across 6 Budgets Fig, 2 details total funding allocations (including forward estimates) across six Budget cycles. The reduced allocations shows a continued lack of commitment to A&TSI peoples, families and their students who are entering or continuing their tertiary education pathway.
A&TSI students and staff Despite successive Coalition Governments applying continuous funding cuts and efficiency dividends to this vital program, the numbers of A&TSI students completing their final year of secondary education continues to increase. In the 2001 Census, 41,923 A&TSI students completed Year 12 or equivalent. At the 2016 Census this number had increased to 123,887: an average of 5,464 per year and an overall 195% increase across the same period. In the 2018 full year data, a total of 8,805 A&TSI students commenced tertiary studies (1.4% of all commencing students), with a total student cohort of 19,981 A&TSI students enrolled in universities across the country (1.3% of all enrolled students). In 2019, fixed-term and ongoing A&TSI staff totalled 1,578 staff and this translates to 1.3% headcount and full-time equivalent (FTE) of all fixed-term and ongoing university staff. As the key funding allocation supporting Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Support Centres and their staff, the ISSP provides funding allocations to all Table A and B higher education providers to provide A&TSI students with culturally appropriate support and places of cultural safety on campus. Figure 3 compares the total national commencing and all A&TSI students, to all A&TSI staff as a percentage of all students and staff. The percentage of students is increasing, while the number of staff is only barely keeping pace.
ADVOCATE VOL. 27 NO. 3 ◆ NOV 2020
Fig. 3: Total A&TSI student and staff (as a percentage of all totals) The need to maintain and grow the number of A&TSI staff employed is paramount, particularly with the ongoing growth of students. While the numbers of A&TSI students continues to increase, the Federal Government has not planned for this increase, and has not examined the needs of A&TSI peoples embarking upon their journey to achieve post-secondary qualifications.
Job-Ready Graduates Bill To add further insult to injury, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students will now face fee hikes across a range of areas of traditional study for them (creative arts, humanities and commerce) of up to 113%. Coupled with an expected reduction in cultural, pastoral and tutorial support, this will see many potential A&TSI students exploring options outside of tertiary education. The Job-Ready Graduates package both incentivises higher education for A&TSI peoples by creating an additional 1,700 Commonwealth Supported Places (CSP) by 2024 for students in regional and remote/very remote areas, while conversely de-incentivising higher education by not making those CSPs available to A&TSI students not residing in priority areas. The 2016 Australian Census reported 37.4% of A&TSI peoples had residence in major cities and therefore almost 40% of potential A&TSI students have been made ineligible for CSPs due to their area of remoteness alone. The Budget strikes yet another devastating blow to A&TSI students, staff and communities and shows the Morrison Government has little interest in supporting A&TSI peoples to achieve greater post school educational outcomes. It shows only tokenistic support for A&TSI continued next page...
