Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to get the question from the member for Lindsay, who is the best member for Lindsay yet elected. She is doing a fantastic job and has a fantastic relationship with the University of Western Sydney, through Barney Glover, but also she has focused on jobs in Western Sydney and the transformative impact of higher education on Western Sydney and on the people of Western Sydney.

The University of Western Sydney is a great driver of economic growth in Western Sydney and the chance to give young people, particularly, but also mature-age students who want to reskill, the opportunity to change their skills in Western Sydney. I have been to the University of Western Sydney several times—I opened their university college, in fact—and they are at the cutting edge. They will be one of the very best universities and are well on the way to achieving that status. They are not very old in the process of doing so.

I congratulate the member for Lindsay for jumping right into higher education, training, STEM and the University of Western Sydney and supporting that particular institution. It will have real benefits, both economically and socially. Western Sydney is a very multicultural part of Australia and by mixing together at the University of Western Sydney, by being in the same classes, by breaking down barriers, whether they are cultural or religious barriers, the University of Western Sydney is playing its part in the inclusion, cohesion and harmony of Australian society.

The benefits in the budget for the University of Western Sydney in STEM are, quite clearly, that our higher education reforms will be a massive bonus for universities like UWS. They specialise in giving low-SES or disadvantaged students a pathway into higher education. As part of our higher-education reforms, we will expand the demand-driven system for undergraduate degrees to sub-bachelor degrees, diplomas and associate degrees that are offered by universities and TAFEs and other non-university education providers. This is in those pathways programs that many students in Western Sydney use to get the opportunity to get an undergraduate degree. Our higher-education reform is a social-justice policy. It allows students who would not otherwise have the chance to access a pathways program to access it, to use the Higher Education Contribution Scheme to access it and then go onto university.

The Kemp-Norton report, which I initiated not long after becoming the minister for education, found that students who did a pathways program had a one per cent dropout rate at university in undergraduate degrees. Students from a similar demographic background who did not have a pathways program had a 24 per cent dropout rate. Our higher-education reforms will be a great boon for the University of Western Sydney when they are finally passed by this parliament, because they will be able to expand their pathways programs. This is why Barney Glover is so enthusiastic about my reforms and why, as the new head of UA, he is publicly and strongly supporting them. They will also be able to access the Australian scholarships and HEP scholarships that the government plans to introduce.

The scholarships the university would offer, would be used, I assume, to support disadvantaged students—because the University of Sydney's vice-chancellor has said that if the government's reforms pass he will be able to increase his scholarships from 600 to 9,000. He will be able to change his demographic breakdown from six per cent of the University of Sydney's students being from a low-SES background to 20 per cent of the students at the University of Sydney being from a low-SES background. It is great news. It shocks and surprises me that Labor have so lost their way that they would be opposing what is clearly a good policy for low-SES students.

Through our HECS scholarships, Member for Lindsay, we will be able to focus those on low SES, disadvantaged and mature age students wanting to be reskilled. The University of Western Sydney will win again because they educate a higher percentage of low SES students than many other universities because of where they find themselves. I have not had the opportunity to talk about STEM in schools, because higher education is such a passion for me, but I look forward to the opportunity to do so before half past five.

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