Professor's Guiding Hand Will Shake, And Maybe Shock, Higher Education

17 December 2008

AFTER months scrutinising hundreds of submissions and chairing countless meetings on the state of Australia's higher education system, Denise Bradley admits she's no longer sure about the impact her review might have.

"You get so close to it that, in the end, you don't know whether it's going to shock people, or if people are just going to go 'blah'," she joked yesterday.

But Professor Bradley - the woman appointed by Education Minister Julia Gillard in March to head a sweeping inquiry into the nation's 40 higher education institutions - need not have worried.

When the 272-page Bradley review is officially handed to the Government this morning, the changes are expected to set the scene for a new era in higher education. Now, she says, it is up to the Government to act.

"The panel makes it quite clear in the report that increasing participation, and increasing the quality of the higher education, is a major issue for Australia. That's what every other country is doing, and many of them have moved forward," Professor Bradley told The Age.

As an educator for more than 20 years, few were surprised when Ms Gillard picked Professor Bradley to lead the review, chairing a panel that includes Swinburne chancellor Bill Scales, Monash University associate Peter Noonan, and Macquarie Bank director Helen Nugent.

But analysing the challenges faced by the higher education system hasn't been easy. Over the past nine months, the former University of South Australia vice-chancellor has juggled the job with her role as president of the Australian College of Educators, chairman of the Victorian Education Research Centre, and board chairman of the South Australian Training and Skills Commission. "It's been a bit of a busy few months," she said.

Professor Bradley knows the report - which contains recommendations such as a demand-driven funding model, an overhaul of student income support, and new targets to improve participation among disadvantaged students - is likely to prove challenging for the Rudd Government. And she admits the cost of the 46 recommendations - $5.7billion in total - is "considerable".

"But this review is about the wealth of our nation to respond to the future, and we're only going to do that by having a large level of the population with high-level skills," she said.


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