Salvatore Babones spoke with Andrew Norton, co-founder of CIS Liberty & Society and Professor of Higher Education at the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods.
New fee reforms are sending mixed signals to students and the universities that are supposed to educate them. Although the government has set clear teaching priorities, universities may be incentivised to forgo government funding altogether for some fields and offer places based solely on students’ contributions. While the coronavirus recession will certainly create more demand for university places, will universities have the right incentives to offer the supply?