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“[ Meanwhile ], the proportional representation of regional students has gone backwards to just over 21 per cent in 2013, well short of the 27 per cent representation in the population as a whole,” Thomas said.
Whilst the data indicated that the demand-driven system had succeeded at providing opportunities for more people from disadvantaged backgrounds, she said there was a long way to go.
“ The fact that the growth in student enrolments from regional areas is not keeping pace with the sector as a whole is a major concern,” she said.“ There is still a gap between the city and the regions.
“ Study after study indicates the further away you travel from the capitals, the lower the post-school education attainment and the lower the education aspiration rates of school-aged children. This is why whilst 1-in-3 people aged 25 – 64 who live in major cities hold a bachelor degree or above, the equivalent figure in regional Australia is around half that,” she said.
Reforms boost access – for some
The demand-driven system is showing signs of improving enrolment amongst underrepresented groups, but not everybody is seeing gains.
By Dallas Bastian
The university sector is becoming more representative thanks to the demand-driven system, according to Selected Higher Education Statistics 2013 Student Data; however, the gains aren’ t reaching all groups.
Participation amongst low-SES students in the sector has risen from 16 per cent in 2011 to nearly 17 per cent in 2013.
Tim Pitman, senior lecturer at Curtin University, said whilst the increase is slight, it is a good outcome for disadvantaged students, as that is a stubborn area.“ It takes a long time to move,” he said.
University of Southern Queensland vice-chancellor Jan Thomas added,“ Clearly the sector still remains unrepresentative overall but … it is significant that the enrolments by people from low-SES are keeping pace with – and indeed growing a little faster than – the sector as a whole.”
She said, however, that the outcomes are certainly mixed.“ The results for people from non-English speaking backgrounds show a slight increase in proportional participation between 2011 and 2013. However, the fact that 3.8 per cent of the university student population is now made up by this group still falls short of the 4.7 per cent of the Australian population made up by this group,” she said.
The proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders has remained at 1.6 per cent and represents just half of the group’ s percentage of the Australian population.
RESULTS VARY FOR GROUPS Pitman said,“ The whole point of the demand-driven system was very much a focus on low-SES students, and it’ s working.” To him, the results reinforced the need to have targeted approaches to increasing participation amongst underrepresented groups.“[ The demand-driven system ] wasn’ t designed to enhance [ equity ],” he said.“ The positive turn on it is to say this shows that if you have a group in mind you can come up with a strategy to help them, so let’ s now apply that to the other groups as well.”
He also thought it would be interesting to see the results of the plan to link scholarships to fee deregulation processes.
“ There is a great opportunity for universities to develop scholarships to attract regional students,” he said, adding that regional universities have the chance to work together in this area.
Amongst women, the proportion of students who are not in traditionally female areas of study has declined slightly since 2011 – from 17.5 per cent to 17.0 per cent. Pitman said,“[ We need more research ] to establish whether women are moving out of these areas for personal choice reasons or whether they are being excluded.”
He added there also should be more understanding surrounding disabilities.“ There’ s a massive difference between a student with a physical disability, a student
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