VC’s corner
campusreview.com.au
Delivering choice
Breaking down the barriers
to a university education.
By Margaret Sheil
I
t is tempting in an environment where
we can easily be consumed with the
day-to-day of dealing with the impact of
Covid-19 on our students, community and
institutions to focus on the short term and
the here and now. Unquestionably, the
virus and its aftermath will be a disrupter
for our sector, and for many other parts of
the economy, and may shape future policy
responses and investments.
Turning back a few short weeks to the
Universities Australia Conference 2020,
22
there were several sessions and many
conversations concerning the impact
of the “demand-driven system”, and the
alternatives for future higher education
policy in a post-demand-driven and
hopefully post-Covid-19 world.
The demand-driven system, which
was in place between 2010 and 2017,
was set up to provide under-represented
groups greater access to higher education
by removing the caps on undergraduate
domestic student enrolment.
It also increased funding aimed at
improving the participation rate of
low-socio-economic-status students
and expanded the eligibility to student
income support.
And it appeared to work. The number
of bachelor degree students increased
between 2009 and 2017 by a third, and a
clear majority of Australians now attend
university at some point by the age of 22,
according to the Productivity Commission’s
2019 paper, ‘The Demand Driven University
System: A Mixed Report Card’.
The national averaging, however,
conceals great variation in uptake. Despite
the progressive policies and programs
of the last decade, there are still parts of
Australia where the rates of participation
and attainment have remained stubbornly
low compared to national figures.
Nationally, about 60 per cent of young
Australians enrol at university within a few
years of leaving school. Yet in remote,
rural and regional Australia, including
the outer metro fringes, the figures tell a
different story.
For example: at the end of 2018, one
school in outer northern Brisbane reported
that only 15.3 per cent of Year 12 students
listed a bachelor degree as their main
destination, while at another school 10km
away, that figure was 19 per cent.
Students face a variety of potential
issues that can ultimately determine their
aspiration, their participation and their level
of educational attainment.
In many communities, particularly
regional and city fringe areas, students face
additional issues on top of low levels of
household income and limited access to
transport, affordable housing and health
care. These are combined with deeper,