Save the Australian Learning and Teaching Council

The Federal Government decided recently to abolish the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) in order to fund its flood reconstruction package. Following deals with the Greens and Mr Wilkie, the Government performed a half-backflip by restoring $50 million in funding and transferring some as yet unspecified functions of the ALTC to the Department of Education.

This is a solution that satisfies no one. The ALTC plays an extremely valuable role in improving the quality of the learning and teaching experience for one million students and academics in Australian universities. For the sake of “saving” a few million dollars each year, all this work and all the accumulated expertise and corporate knowledge will be lost. Meanwhile the Department of Education is clearly under-resourced and not experienced enough to perform the ALTC’s functions.

The decision to restore the ALTC would not be a difficult one to make. But the window of opportunity is closing, as the 2011/12 Federal Budget approaches. From then on, it will be much more difficult to save the ALTC – it is much easier to ensure that a pot is not broken, than to try to put its shattered pieces back together.

That is why the Government, and Minister Evans in particular, need to be made to understand just how important this issue is to the university sector. Minister Evans has to listen and stand up for the key constituency he is meant to represent.

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