Many Australian academics urged Prime Minister Julia Gillard not to cut the funding of universities in the May budget in a signed open letter that was published in newspapers across the country on Wednesday.

The federal government said last month it would slash about 2. 38 billion USdollars from universities to fund Labor's Gonski school reforms. According to local media, this is the biggest cut to the sector since John Howard's 1996 budget.

The open letter, initiated by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), said the cuts came after previous decisions to chop research funding and teaching support.

"Universities have made by far and away the largest saving contributions of any federal budget line item," said the letter. " We feel betrayed and taken for granted.

"Your government's cuts fundamentally jeopardize the future of our sector," the letter said. "Our universities are at tipping point, core funding per student and support for basic research continue to decline while Australian students now pay some of the highest public university fees in the world."

The letter acknowledged that Labor has opened up university to more students but said lack of relative funding, coupled with recent cuts, endangers this egalitarian policy. "Your funding cuts will diminish the educational opportunities for our most disadvantaged young people and undermine the quality of their learning experience," it said.

Tertiary Education Minister Emerson said last month the government would place a 2- percent "efficiency dividend" on university funding in 2014 and 1.25 percent for the next year, saving about 931.7 million USdollars. This comes just as universities begin pay negotiations for a 4-percent rise in wages bills.



A further 1.24 billion USdollars will be saved by requiring students to pay back their 2070 USdollars start-up scholarships once they enter the workforce and once an earning threshold is reached. The 80 percent-plus of university undergraduates who rely on government-funded deferred payment of fees will not be affected.

The federal government will also scrap the 10 percent discount given to students who pay their university fees upfront, saving some 238 million USdollars.