Staid Australian college opens up a little

By Dewi Anggraeni

JAKARTA (JP): Mention "Melbourne University Private" to some alumni of the University of Melbourne and you will see outrage; varying degrees, admittedly, but definite outrage. This is Australia's second oldest, arguably its most prestigious and, more crucially, most conservative university.

The thought of it going private seems to invoke fear in many who are in some ways associated with it, the fear that quality may be compromised in trying to attract the number of paying students required to make the enterprise feasible. Admission to the university, according to these people, should be based on excellence, not affluence.

To say the University of Melbourne is going private, however, is an exaggeration. The truth is the university has established a private wing this year, with two foundation schools.

The Melbourne School of Energy and the Environment, and The Melbourne School of Multimedia and Information Technology, expected to commence operations in 1999, are planning to admit 5,000 or 6,000 graduate students, a 20 percent addition to the present student population of approximately 30,000. And the two graduate courses are not offered in the public part of the university.

At first glance, it appears Alan Gilbert, vice chancellor of the University of Melbourne, has taken a brave, even daring step. How did he react to accusations he sold out to the economic rationalists and compromised the academic excellence of this university? It is also interesting to note that while Melbourne was one of the last universities to begin accepting full tuition- paying overseas students, it is now the first to establish a private wing.

What critics of the project seem to disregard is that with the continuous restructuring of federal funding for higher education institutions, universities have little choice but to be creative and innovative in their fight for survival.

University education in Australia is not free, but it is not entirely inaccessible either. Undergraduate students are required to pay part of the costs of their education, known as the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS), and the federal government pays the rest. Australian students accepted by a university can either pay their HECS up front or defer the payments until they find employment and their taxable income reaches the minimum threshold (US$19,945 for the 1996/1997 income year).

Graduate students must pay up-front. Since there are many more undergraduate than graduate students, and among the undergraduates only a small number opt to pay up-front, universities are mainly dependent on government funding for their day-to-day operations.

Foreign students are not entitled to HECS and must pay in full up-front. At present, 1.3 percent of the student population of the University of Melbourne is from Indonesia. This is relatively small compared to universities who began admitting full paying students much earlier than Melbourne.

When he became vice chancellor at the beginning of 1996, Gilbert discovered the university would lose $70 million by 2001 if it continued along the same path. He knew he would have to make it more internationally competitive. To the administrative board, he made it clear they had the choice of two options: become entrepreneurial or go out of business. Curiously, he did not face strong opposition then.

According to Gilbert, Melbourne University Private will operate differently from the public part of the university.

"In the public part it is based on offers to the students. We offer courses and the students choose the ones suitable for them. In Melbourne University Private, we tailor courses according to demands from the corporate sector," he said.

"For instance, a mining company in the Philippines may want their mining engineers to learn international law, and ask us to run the course for three months each year for five years. We will design the course to suit them."

He agreed that, apart from the existing resources of the university which would no doubt be utilized to the maximum, there would be needs for outside sources, which would be contracted on a consultant basis.

Melbourne University Private, which charges $10,5000 to $15,000 fees for a master's degree program, is planning to offer scholarships for up to 10 percent of the total number of students for those who have the excellence but not necessarily the affluence.

Melbourne University Private was established as an unlisted public company in January this year. The University of Melbourne has contributed $17.5 million toward the initial costs of approximately $105 million to get it off the ground. At present there are four corporate partners committed to the project.

What motivates a private company to become involved?

David Mullaly, executive officer of Grocon, a large Australian construction group and one of the corporate partners, said: "The corporate world sees in this project an opportunity to be involved in research that will shape the policy of the business world. Basically, we want to encourage companies to do business in a sustainable way."

Now businesses in Australia have progressed further. Not only are they more sophisticated in their outlook, they also want to be part of the drive in policy making. One way of realizing this ambition, it appears, is by being involved in the establishment of a private wing of an internationally recognized university.