Minister: Get Rid of General Staff!

Education Minister Julie Bishop advocates General Staff job cuts

AAP 29 October 2007

Universities do not need more funding but rather better management practices, more lecturers and fewer administrators, federal Education Minister Julie Bishop has said.

A group of vice-chancellors from Australia's top eight universities has called for more funding for universities and reduced government control on where the money is spent.

The vice-chancellors say university funding has fallen by 20 per cent in the past decade while, at the same time, students are getting less for their money.

Ms Bishop says universities do not deserve any more money because they already mismanage what they are given.

"The administration costs of universities are increasing at the expense of teaching and research," Ms Bishop said on ABC radio today.

"I believe the universities should be employing more lecturers and fewer administrators - they should be changing that balance."

She said universities were not-for-profit institutions that must focus on their management processes and be more efficient in their use of public funds.

"I believe that the university sector ought be more deregulated, but first the universities must show that they are efficient and productive."

Labor's education spokesman Stephen Smith said an ALP government would increase funding to universities, but he wouldn't say by how much.

"What we need is a long-term enduring commitment which understands that investing in our universities, investing in higher education, investing in teaching and learning and research are absolutely essential to our economic and social prosperity," he said.