A report on Australia’s declining higher-education system is recommending sweeping reforms designed to improve quality and ensure that the country’s universities remain viable, the Sydney Morning Herald reported today.

The independent review, which was commissioned by the government and led by Professor Denise Bradley, a former vice chancellor of the University of South Australia, proposes shaking up the higher-education sector by forcing universities to compete for government funds. But it also calls for greater government spending on the country’s 37 public universities.

The 272-page report, which is not yet posted online, suggests moving away from a system of centrally allocated seats, and instead giving students vouchers. The panel that wrote the report, which took nearly a year to complete, said if students could more easily choose where they wanted to study, universities would be forced to not only offer more-popular courses but also improve quality and efficiency in order to attract students. The panel issued a draft report in June.

In some instances, lagging regional and remote campuses may have to merge or close. In anticipation of the report’s release, Southern Cross University and Charles Sturt University announced last week they would merge into a single national institution.

Ms. Bradley said an overhaul of the country’s higher-education system was necessary to prevent Australia from losing any more ground to other countries in the region. Too few Australians are pursuing university degrees, and far too few go on to conduct graduate research, the report concluded.

The authors of the report, which is known as the Bradley Review, estimate that the cost to carry out many of its suggestions, including adopting an independent system of accreditation, would be at least 5.7 billion Australian dollars, or about $3.8-billion, over the next four years. —Martha Ann Overland