The Australian tertiary education sector has welcomed the federal government's decision to provide an extra 50,000 university places and significantly boost research funding.
This week's federal budget allocated A$5.3 billion (HK$31.5 billion) to tertiary education, research and innovation over the next six years.
Delivering the budget on Tuesday, Treasurer Wayne Swan said the government would spend A$491 million over four years to remove the cap on university places from 2012, which would allow an extra 50,000 students to attend university. He also pledged A$437 million over four years to help people from disadvantaged backgrounds attend university.
'Australia's recovery depends heavily on the quality of our human capital, on our ability to educate our people and to innovate in business,' he said. 'The government is determined to give opportunities for talented Australians to participate in higher education.'
Simon Marginson, a professor of higher education at the University of Melbourne, said domestic student numbers had been growing slowly since the mid-1990s.
'This allows institutions to expand their domestic student numbers more rapidly, and in a recession there's an increasing demand for tertiary education,' he said. 'It's the right time to expand numbers.'