here is the article for those interested: (source: SMH, Jan 7, 2004)
Students flocking to private unis
Demand for private universities has surged even as student interest in public institutions has fallen, and is expected to jump higher this year as private fee-paying students become eligible for government loans.
Enrolment in NSW universities dropped by more than 5 per cent from 2003 to 2004 and was static nationwide, but Australia's two main private universities have recorded strong growth.
Student numbers at the University of Notre Dame, which is Fremantle-based but opens next year in Sydney, increased by almost a quarter from 2003 to 2004, adding about 670 students to its books.
Bond University on the Gold Coast experienced an 18 per cent rise, with about 620 more students on campus.
There was a 15 per cent drop in student numbers at the University of Western Sydney, and a 2.5 per cent increase at Macquarie University and the University of Technology, Sydney.
The University of Sydney recorded a 1.6 per cent drop, and enrolment at the University of NSW fell by almost 4 per cent
Many public universities have been reducing their intake to eliminate the widespread practice of enrolling above their funding quotas, but figures released by the Universities Admissions Centre last month show that fewer people are applying for undergraduate study.
Marginally fewer year 12 students applied to enter university in 2005 than did the year before. Mature age applications fell by almost 6 per cent.
However, the executive director of Notre Dame's Sydney campus, Peter Glasson, said the Catholic university's "big growth area" was Australian mature age students.
Notre Dame began in 1992 by offering only diplomas in education, adding programs gradually until 2001 when it began rapidly expanding its course offerings. Medicine will be offered in Fremantle this year, and at the university's planned Sydney campus in 2007.
Next year in Sydney it will offer law, business, teaching, nursing, and arts.
Nevertheless, Notre Dame was committed to a maximum of about 5000 students in Fremantle (up from about 3000 now), with the Sydney campus planned to rise to the same limit over the next 10 to 12 years, Mr Glasson said.
Notre Dame's pay-as-you-go fees are only marginally above the deferrable charges of public universities, but Mr Glasson said the Federal Government's new FEE-HELP scheme this year, which lends private students up to $50,000 towards their fees, is likely to boost demand even more.
The Vice-Chancellor of Bond University, Robert Stable, attributed the private boom to small class sizes, close relations with industry, an emphasis on the quality of undergraduate teaching, and a more flexible approach.
Bond offers a third semester over the summer when the public universities are on holidays, allowing "people who are particularly enthusiastic about getting out into the workforce" to cut a year from what would normally be a three-year degree, Professor Stable said.
A higher education policy analyst at Griffith University, Gavin Moodie, said private universities' strengths were that they were "smaller, they're more nimble, [and] they're more entrepreneurial".
Mr Moodie said their growth was part of "a general change in social views" that matched the increasing demand for private high schools
