Abstract

In a new report from the Higher Education Policy Institute, After demand driven funding in Australia: Competing models for distributing student places to universities, courses and students (HEPI Report 128), Professor Andrew Norton warns against controlling student numbers when the population of young people is rising.

The number of school leavers in the UK, which has been falling for years, will soon start rising again and Australia’s 18-year old population will increase rapidly from the mid-2020s.

The ‘demand driven’ funding system in Australia, which was introduced a decade ago, removed limits on the number of bachelor-degree students in public universities. England followed suit by abolishing student number controls in 2015.

In both England and Australia, universities responded by recruiting more students. The policy achieved many of its objectives, although drop-out rates grew as universities enrolled students who might previously have been shut out.

In late 2017, cost concerns meant the Australian Government froze its bachelor-degree funding for two years. The number of student places is now likely to fall. In England too, there is growing interest in introducing new restrictions on student numbers.

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