High Wired update: The budget carve-up continues STRANGE days indeed what with the way money is handed out, enterprise bargaining hots up and typos cost cash. Never let a chance go by: ANU VC Ian Young was quick off the blocks yesterday, setting out the impact of the budget in an all-staff email. The cuts will have a significant impact on the whole sector, but they will hit ANU particularly hard because, as the most research-intensive university in the nation, we cannot simply enrol more undergraduate students - as many larger universities will do - to cover shortfalls. We must now begin estimating in detail the impact of these and other changes on our overall budget. Gosh, they will be estimating in overdrive given the question of a pay rise will come up at Monday's enterprise bargaining meeting. The National Tertiary Education Union says the process has gone well up to now. HW called management's Ron Watts to pass on what appears a compliment but apparently all statements of esteem must go to ANU's corporate affairs team. However the amiable atmosphere could be over now pay is on the agenda. The NTEU says it is sticking to a 28 per cent per annum pay rise over four years. Despite the government funding cuts," ANU maintains a very strong financial position and can afford to offer a decent pay rise for the academic and professional staff from whom it seeks ever greater output," the union says. Good luck convincing management, which responded to HW in writing: "We have been in negotiation with the NTEU and other unions on a regular basis for an extended period. We've come to agreement on a number of issues and continue to negotiate in good faith, however, the quantum of a salary increase has not yet been discussed. Brace yourselves ANUers, it's about to be. Mixed metaphor award of the day: Goes to Professor Greg Barton for his budget assessment. A Swan song it may be but the Treasurer hardly gave it his best shot. Stuff-up or conspiracy: A HW forensic friend pointed to an intriguing anomaly in the budget. The higher education overview cites the "efficiency dividend" as 2 per cent in 2014 and 1.25 per cent in 2015, generating $903 million to fund Gonski. But budget papers appendix F lists them as 1.5 per cent and 1.25 per cent. What gives, HW asked, is the .5 per cent, an efficiency dividend on the efficiency dividend? Sad to relate nothing gives, there is no slush fund secreted away. "It's a typo and it's being fixed," a spokesman for Tertiary Education Minister Craig Emerson said. Given a choice between the former and the latter, go with stuff-up every time. Spell it out first: A correspondent wonders if the marketing mavens at the University of Ballarat have thought through one of the short-listed suggestions for its new name. Certainly, Federation U has a patriotic, present at the creation of the Commonwealth (which it was, sort of) ring to it. Given Deakin (as in Alfred) is already taken and Barton U is no good (what with Edmund being from NSW) it seems to have the field to itself. Except until you consider how it will abbreviate on a t-shirt. FU may not be the image UB wants to present. Deeper in debt: On the Saturday the efficiency dividend was announced HW asked Amanda Vanstone what she thought (the then-senator received the hospital pass of all time back in 1996 when she had to take an axe to university funding). Ms Vanstone replied one sovereign way to save money was to lower the threshold for student debt repayments to the aged pension, $19,000, from nearly $50,000 now. It isn't going to happen. While politicians calculate universities are cloutless there are 600,000 or so student loans and that is a ballot box-busting number of voters - one which will grow as post-school education continues to expand. The forward estimates suggest there will be $42bn in student debt in 2018, which is a thumping big asset on the Government's books. The university policy community is not much bothered by this, after all people repay their debt through the tax system and the ATO has some experience in collecting money - the average time to repay is now 8.4 years. The problem is that not everybody makes enough money to repay what they owe - the 2012-13 estimate of new debt written off is 18 per cent. HW wonders whether there will be estimates in the blue book of what reducing the repayment threshold would do for revenues, if not to the aged pension, say the minimum wage ($31,000). Reads like a rounding error: The Australian Research Council issued a statement last night correcting an earlier media release. The errant announcement welcomed $135.5m in new Future Fellow funding, in fact, the sum is $135.3m. HW assumes responsible officers are now in an ARC re-education camp where they are processing media studies research grant applications. Who gets what: So which universities will get the 1650 new places each year from 2014-2017 in postgraduate (and "sub bachelor") courses in disciplines including (a synonym for "just about all") teacher education and language? HW has no clue - neither it appears does anybody else. Minister Emerson's office referred me to Budget Paper Number 2 which states, "The distribution of places will be negotiated with individual universities in the context of 2014-16 funding agreements." Surely not, this sounds like the sort of deal-making that has created the present mess, where some masters required for professional registration at some universities qualify for public funding and others don't. Sadly, it seems so. According to the higher education media minders, "Universities have been outlining potential plans for additional Commonwealth supported postgraduate and sub-bachelor places as part of compact discussions. (These) are still occurring, and the Department has yet to brief the Minister on universities" requests for additional places." So that is all right then. No it's not. Professional masters is a growth area for universities - especially if the feds can be convinced to keep paying. A policy, not bi-lateral discussion between individual universities and the bureaucracy, is required. A better offer: At the tax summit that dared not speak its name (otherwise known as Treasurer's Tax Forum) in 2011 UNSW's Neil Warren proposed a specialist taxation research institute. The feds thought this was a splendid idea and sought submissions on how to do it - of which there were five. The only one from universities was a combined bid from the universities of NSW, Melbourne, Sydney and Monash, home to many of the best and brightest tax scholars in the country. They submitted it in February last year and heard no more. "The first I learned of the outcome was in the budget," Professor Warren told High Wired last night. The winner of the $3 million endowment for the institute was the Australian National University - which had not even applied. Basically, because Professor Tom Kompas did not know there was anything in the offing. Professor Kompas, director of the Crawford School of Public Policy, told HW he wrote to the feds on spec and they liked his idea for a tax research body. Understandably so, what with the way Crawford includes famous economists Bruce Chapman and Peter Whiteford (ex UNSW). Professor Kompas also brought funding, $500 000 in cash and another $750,000 in cash and kind to the table. Some bloke called Ken Henry is also associated with the school. Good-oh, but what made this strong proposal stronger than the bid from the other universities? HW will let you know when I hear from the assistant Treasurer's people. In the mean time, nobody should listen to cynics who suggest it has something to do with the traditionally close relationship between the Commonwealth and ANU. HW reckons Professor Warren's bid was lost in the mail. So why set them in the first place?: Nadia @Nadz_83 tweets at #UNISA, "Lecturers have kindly separated content into 'must study', 'read through' and 'leave out'. Needless to say, I'm ignoring the last 2.