Turnbull government to rethink university deregulation policy

Malcolm Turnbull may be dumping the university deregulation scheme, one of the most controversial proposals by Tony Abbott’s government.

The university deregulation plan aimed at allowing universities to decide on their own fees and charge accordingly.

Current education Minister Simon Birmingham said that he never acknowledged the scheme. “We must make sure that we progress with reforms that are possible and so my approach will be to sit down, talk to the crossbenchers as well as the university sector, business and industry and see what they all accept as being priorities,” he said via ABC .

When the Abbott-led government announced the deregulation policy in 2014 in its budget, students took to the streets protesting throughout the country. The opposition Labor Party and crossbench also criticised the scheme, saying students from financially poorer backgrounds will not be able to enrol for university courses because of higher fees. Birmingham pointed out the unpopularity and dismissal of the policy by the public and Senate crossbench.

The education minister specified that deregulated fees is one of the options that was put forth by the former government, and that Turnbull’s team is open to explore various other models. “As a Coalition government under Malcolm Turnbull we will be true to our values but ... we shouldn’t let what we think is the ideal to be the enemy of the good if we can make progress in other ways,” Birmingham was quoted by the SMH as saying.

The deregulation of university fees had been scheduled to start in 2016, and Birmingham assured he would be talking to higher education stakeholders as soon as possible to make a quick decision on the scheme currently stalled in Parliament. Until then, he told Sky News to let “policies remain policies”.

Contact the writer at feedback@ibtimes.com.au, or let us know what you think below.