University of Australia Online

It will have the following features:

• The Commonwealth will fund an additional 100,000 university places by 2010 for Australian students who agree to do their degrees online;
• All units undertaken online will attract only half the current rate of HECS;
• Australia's existing universities will receive Commonwealth assistance in converting units and courses into an online format, through the establishment of a Content Development Program;
• Existing students may also choose to do all or part of their degree online;
• The Commonwealth will establish an Institute for Online Teaching to make Australia the world leader in research in this field; and
• Labor's IT and communications policies will ensure that universities and students have access to sufficient capacity to realise the potential of online learning.

The UAO will do two vital things for Australia: it will significantly expand the opportunity to study at university for thousands of Australians who would otherwise miss out; and it will make Australia a world leader in providing online education.

By creating 100,000 additional online university places by 2010, and halving HECS for all units undertaken online, Labor will unlock the door to opportunity for many thousands of Australians talented enough to succeed at University, but locked out by high fees, and the difficulty of fitting study into a busy life.

• foundation courses will be made available free of charge.
• Australians living outside the major cities will have a better opportunity than ever before to study and interact with fellow students and lecturers without having to leave home;
• It will be a boon for the parents wanting to upgrade their skills while raising the kids at home; and
• It will offer new hope for workers at risk in their current jobs to train for a new and more secure job, without having to leave work.
• free pathway courses will be developed to assess potential UAO applicants.
• online degrees will be funded at a level that will provide a strong incentive to the universities participating.
• students studying degrees on campus will be able to undertake part of their degree online, paying only half the rate of HECS for those units.

All of this requires government to help people get access to computers and an Internet connection to make the promise a reality. We will be releasing our detailed IT and communications policies to achieve this later this year.

Australia already has a head start towards becoming the world leader in online education:

• We are the world leader in distance education;
• We have formidable skills in multimedia;
• Between them, Australians speak all the languages of the world; and
• We share the incomparable gift in this globalised age of the English language.

I am committing a Beazley Labor Government to assisting Australian universities to meet the significant up-front costs of moving into online education.

While this policy is aimed at realising the promise of online education, Labor recognises that on-campus education has been badly affected by Howard Government cuts. We will be addressing how we can raise the quality of on-campus education in subsequent policy announcements.

This policy is absolutely essential for our nation's future.

The first reason is that the information revolution is changing the way education is delivered around the world in ways which represent both a threat and an opportunity for Australia.