Cassandra Fernando (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Education is the key to success, and it has been front and centre among my priorities since being elected as the federal member for Holt. I am proud to support a government that has embarked on the monumental task of fixing Australia's higher education system. This is taking place through several initiatives, including fee-free TAFE; the inquiry into the status and perceptions of vocational education and training by the Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training; and, most importantly, the Australian Universities Accord. The Higher Education Support Amendment (Response to the Australian Universities Accord Interim Report) Bill 2023 implements the priority recommendations of the Australian Universities Accord interim report by amending the Higher Education Support Act 2003.

On 19 July 2023, Minister for Education Jason Clare brought forward a giant leap for the Australian higher education system by releasing the Australian Universities Accord interim report, which is the biggest and broadest review of Australia's higher education system in 15 years. The accord is a result of careful and considered deliberations by a number of pre-eminent Australians.

In particular, the accord team consists of the chair, Professor Mary O'Kane AC, who was formerly the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Adelaide; Professor Barney Glover AO, the Vice-Chancellor of Western Sydney University; Ms Shemara Wikramanayake, the first female Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Macquarie Group; the Hon. Jenny Macklin AC, the former Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs; Professor Larissa Behrendt AO, the first Indigenous Australian to graduate from Harvard Law School, a professor of law, and the Director of Research at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney; and the Hon. Fiona Nash, who was formerly a senator for New South Wales, the Minister for Regional Development, the Minister for Regional Communications and the Minister for Local Government and Territories and is now Australia's first Regional Education Commissioner.

Together, they bring to bear their enormous experience in our universities, business and public policy and a mix of experience in STEM and humanities. From our cities and our regions and across the political divide, their terms of reference are also broad. They have been tasked to look at everything from access to affordability, from teaching quality to research, and from governance and employment conditions to how higher education and vocational education and training can and should work more closely together.

I am proud that the Albanese Labor government is committed to opening the door of opportunity for more Australians to go to university. Thirty-six per cent of the current Australian workforce has a university qualification today. When we narrowed the sample to those in their late 20s and early 30s, this figure jumps to almost one in two. However, this is not the case everywhere. In the outer suburbs of major cities, including the communities I am proud to represent, only 23 per cent of young adults have a university degree. As per the 2021 census, just over 20 per cent of Holt residents have educational attainment at the bachelor's degree level and above, compared to 26 per cent of Australians and 29 per cent of Victorians. That's right, compared to the rest of Victoria, residents in Holt are almost a third less likely to be qualified with a bachelor's degree or more.

I welcome the accord team's recommendations that 'the only way to significantly boost the percentage of the workforce with a university qualification is to significantly increase the number of students who are currently underrepresented in our universities'. This includes students from outer suburbs, like those in my electorate of Holt; students from poorer backgrounds; students with a disability; and Indigenous students. We simply cannot delay action on such a crucial issue. We need to act now, and I am proud that the Albanese Labor government has been firm in doing so since the day we were elected.

The first part of this report makes five recommendations that are prioritised for immediate action ahead of the final report. I am proud the government has confirmed that it will implement each of the five interim recommendations, namely:

1. that we create more university study hubs—not only in the regions but also in our outer suburbs;

2. that we scrap the '50 per cent pass rule' and require better reporting on how students are progressing;

3. that we extend the demand-driven funding currently provided to Indigenous students from regional and remote areas to cover all Indigenous students;

4. that we provide funding certainty during the accord process by extending the Higher Education Continuity Guarantee into 2024 and 2025, with funding arrangements that prioritise support for equity students; and

5. that we work with state and territory governments, through National Cabinet, to improve university governance.

This legislation is necessary to affect two recommendations, 2 and 3, contained in the interim report. Specifically, this bill will amend HESA to remove the pass rate requirements for students to remain eligible for Commonwealth assistance and introduce new requirements on universities and other providers to support students to successfully complete their studies and extend the current demand driven funding for regional and remote First Nations students to all First Nation Australian undergraduate students studying bachelor or bachelor honours level courses other than courses in medicine from 2024.

Students are currently required to pass at least 50 per cent of the units they undertake to maintain eligibility for Commonwealth assistance. The pass rate is assessed after they have completed eight units in a bachelor's degree or higher or four units in a shorter course. Of students who fail, more than half currently lose eligibility for Commonwealth assistance. These pass rates were originally introduced in January 2022 by the former coalition government as a part of its job-ready graduates program to discourage students from continuing courses they are not academically suited for. However, the practical effect of these measures has been overly punitive for students.

The impact of the pass rate requirements has disproportionally affected students from First Nations, low socioeconomic statuses and other underrepresented or educationally disadvantaged cohorts, like those in my electorate of Holt. More than 13,000 students at 27 universities have already been hit by the rule. Removal of the rule has been called for by universities right across the country, like the University of Adelaide, Monash University, the University of Technology Sydney, the University of the Sunshine Coast, the University of New England, the Queensland University of Technology and Western Sydney University. We should be helping students succeed, not forcing them to quit.

The bill introduces requirements on universities and other providers to have policies in place to help students successfully complete their studies. Under these policies, universities and other providers would be required to demonstrate how they will identify students who are struggling and how they will connect those students with support services to help them.

In addition, the department of education will issue a discussion paper to consult with universities and providers on the content of these policies. They are expected to contain measures such as: processes for identifying students who need help; assessing a student's academic and non-academic suitability for continuing study, particularly where they have triggered an alert; connecting students to support and identifying students who have not engaged with support before their census date, whenever possible; providing sufficient non-academic supports for students, such as financial assistance, housing information and mental health supports, which is important as many students struggle because of non-academic issues; having appropriate crisis and crucial harm response arrangements; providing access to trained academic development advisers who can help a student identify what's holding them back and come up with the right response for that student; ensuring that academic and non-academic supports are age and culturally appropriate, including specific arrangements for Indigenous students; proactively offering 'special circumstances' arrangements where a provider is aware of a significant life event for a student; providing access to targeted individual literacy, numeracy and other academic supports; providing provider-driven and evidence based additional support, such as peer support; and targeted course support for academic staff, such as check-ins and flexibility on assessment arrangements.

Compliance with their student support policies will be mandatory for universities and other providers, with civil penalties applicable for breaches. Besides introducing changes that will support more students to continue their education, this bill also makes major changes to ensure Indigenous students are encouraged to study at university. Only seven per cent of young Indigenous Australians possess a bachelor's degree or higher. In fact, the rates of completion among Indigenous students are so low that a young Indigenous man today is more likely to go to jail than university.

The existing demand-driven measure was implemented in 2021 in response to the National Regional, Rural and Remote Education Strategy, the Napthine review. Under the current legislation, only Indigenous students from regional and remote Australia can access demand-driven places. In other words, only First Nations students living in areas like Gippsland are eligible, excluding those in locations like Cranbourne or Hampton Park. The proposal aims to increase First Nations enrolment numbers by expanding the eligibility of demand-driven funding to include metropolitan First Nations students studying bachelor and bachelor honours courses, except courses of study in medicine, at Table A universities.

In other words, this change will ensure all Indigenous students are eligible for a funded place at a public university if they meet the entry requirements for the course. This means that, where a student meets the entry requirements for a course, they are able to access support in the form of a Commonwealth supported place and a HELP loan. It is a proven mechanism to increase access to university for under-represented groups.

This bill means that demand-driven places for bachelor level courses, excluding medicine, will now be available to all Indigenous students regardless of where they live. Consequently, there will be no cap on First Nations students enrolling in Commonwealth supported places. Table A providers will also receive Commonwealth funding for all Indigenous students as outlined in part 2-2 of HESA. This measure directly supports efforts towards achieving Closing the Gap target 6:

By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25-34 years who have completed a tertiary qualification (Certificate III and above) to 70 per cent.

The Department of Education estimates this may double the number of Indigenous students at university within a decade.

Similar to the Jobs and Skills Summit, the Australian Universities Accord represents a landmark review set to influence our country for generations of Australians to come. I support the passage of this bill. I am proud the Albanese Labor government is delivering on its commitment to deliver a better future for every Australian.

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