The Business Council is please to make a submission to the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee on the Universities Accord (Opening the Doors of Opportunity) Bill 2026 (the Bill).
Australia’s universities are critical national institutions. They help educate the highly skilled workforce needed to drive productivity and innovation, undertake world-leading research and make a significant contribution to the economy. As Australia responds to rapid technological change, an ageing population and growing demand for higher-level skills, the higher education system must remain responsive to the needs of students, employers and the broader economy.
The BCA supports the Government’s objective of building a more accessible, equitable and responsive higher education system. However, the proposed Managed Growth Funding model risks working against that ambition. Institutional enrolment caps and penalties for enrolments above provider allocations could constrain growth, limit student choice and reduce the system’s capacity to respond to workforce demand, making the Government’s target of 80 per cent tertiary attainment by 2050 harder to achieve.
Opening the doors of opportunity requires more than increasing participation. It requires a flexible tertiary system that supports genuine student choice and responds quickly to changing workforce needs. The BCA’s comments focus on ensuring the reforms deliver strong outcomes for students, employers and Australia’s long-term prosperity.
The BCA makes the following recommendations:
- The Managed Growth Funding framework should be revised to preserve flexibility for providers to enrol additional students above their allocation, with providers absorbing the funding shortfall and without triggering a reduction in their existing grant funding. Commonwealth allocations should also give substantial weight to student preference, provider performance and workforce need. Providers should receive indicative Commonwealth supported place allocations over a four-year horizon, with transparent criteria for adjustment.
- Needs-Based Funding should use a more robust individual-level measure of educational disadvantage and be implemented as part of a joined-up tertiary strategy. ATEC should monitor its effects on learner pathways and outcomes, while implementation should be accompanied by stronger credit recognition, recognition of prior learning and meaningful exit qualifications across higher education and VET.
- The Government should not impose caps on international student commencements. If an allocation framework is retained, it should include published criteria, meaningful provider consultation, regular review and sufficient flexibility to respond to changing demand and Australia’s economic and skills needs. The overall allocation pool should be determined by 30 June of the preceding year to provide adequate planning certainty.