Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The bill before the House, the Higher Education Support Amendment (Response to the Australian Universities Accord Interim Report) Bill 2023, is really important. It is really significant to my electorate of Chisholm, which has two universities. There has been so much interest in the work of the Australian Universities Accord. We did a local survey in Chisholm and received over 400 responses. Higher education is a really significant issue. I'm really pleased that our government is undertaking this reform process so as to ensure that we have the best university system that we possibly can.

The Australian government has committed to the Australian Universities Accord in order to drive a lasting and transformative reform in Australia's higher education system. This really is an incredible opportunity to build a visionary plan for Australia's universities and higher education sector. In November last year the Minister for Education, Jason Clare, appointed Professor Mary O'Kane to lead the biggest and broadest review of Australia's higher education system in 15 years. The accord panel, led by Professor O'Kane, brought together experience from a wide range of places—the university sector, the business sector and experts in public policy. The combined experience of the panel from across STEM and the humanities, from our cities and regions and from across the political divide has informed the interim report, whose recommendations form the basis of this bill.

The objective of the accord is to devise recommendations and performance targets that will improve the quality, accessibility, affordability and sustainability of higher education in order to achieve long-term security and prosperity for the sector and the nation. The minister has also tasked the accord panel with looking at how higher education and vocational education and training can and should work more closely together. I've had conversations locally with vice-chancellors and directors of local TAFEs about this very issue, amongst others. Our government has invested $2.7 million over two years to deliver the Australian Universities Accord. This is a really exciting process and opportunity for our nation in order to open the door of opportunity for more Australians to go to university.

Three weeks ago the interim report, from which the items in this bill were drawn as recommendations, was released. This is an important first step. I note also that in the interim report a range of questions and issues were raised by the expert panel with an invitation for people right across Australia to make their own submissions, which close on 1 September. I know that people in my electorate, certainly, are taking advantage of that. This is a really consultative process which really demonstrates the seriousness with which our government is approaching the necessary reforms to a higher education sector.

We read in the report that in the decades ahead more jobs will require a university qualification, so we need to make sure that more people are able to access university in order for them to be able to secure those jobs of the future. What the accord team has suggested and the minister has reiterated is that, in order to significantly boost the percentage of the workforce with a university qualification, we need to significantly increase the number of students from cohorts that are currently underrepresented in our universities—that is, students from the outer suburbs of our cities, students from the regions, students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds, students with a disability and Indigenous students.

The risk of not significantly increasing the number of students from these groups will result in a shortage of the skills we need for Australia to take advantage of the decades ahead. It will also mean that we won't have an equal society where everybody is able to aspire to the opportunity of a university education and the good, secure, well-paid jobs that come with that. Without a skilled workforce, we leave opportunity on the table.

The report is set out in two parts. The first part sets out priorities for immediate action. By standing in the House today, we are taking that immediate action by implementing those recommendations. In the first part of the report, five recommendations set out our priorities for immediate action: we are taking action by creating more university study hubs, not only in the regions but also in our outer suburbs; we are scrapping the 50 per cent pass rule and requiring better reporting on how students are progressing; we are extending the demand driven funding currently provided to Indigenous students from regional and remote areas to cover all Indigenous students so that Indigenous students from the cities as well as from the regions are able to get a place in university if they meet the criteria for entry; we are providing funding certainty during this accord process by extending the Higher Education Continuity Guarantee into 2024 and 25, with funding arrangements that prioritise support for equity students; and we're also working with state and territory governments, through national cabinet, to improve university governance.

I was especially pleased to see the response yesterday from Minister Clare around the importance of improving student safety on campuses and convening a working group to be responsible for helping us navigate work in this important area. We need to make sure that universities are good employers and provide a supportive workplace and a workplace where staff can have confidence that they will not be underpaid for the important work they do.

We need to make sure that governing bodies have the right expertise, including in the business of running universities and—going back to the safety issue—making sure campuses are safe. Alarmingly, we know from the National Student Safety Survey that one in 20 students has been sexually assaulted since starting university and that one in six has been sexually harassed. These figures are awful. They show just how widespread this issue of unsafe campuses is in this country and the need for us as a government to take urgent action in partnership with advocates, students and universities, alongside states and territories.

The actions that universities have taken to address this have clearly not been good enough. We have the research and evidence and know the scope of the problem. I myself know from archival research in my former career as an academic that students not being safe on campuses is something that has been reported for many decades, and little action has been taken. We're really at a very significant moment in history where we are finally listening as a nation and taking action to make sure that students are safe on campus.

I was so pleased to hear the minister's statement in the House yesterday regarding this issue and the appointment of Patty Kinnersly, the CEO of Our Watch, who will be part of the process to take meaningful action in this area as part of the working group. The first meeting of that working group is slated for next week. It will consult with groups like their STOP, End Rape on Campus and Fair Agenda. I've met with some of those groups and will continue to meet with them. With two university campuses in my electorate, I have spoken to students on campuses and know just how important this issue is. This is an area we have to finally get right. Unfortunately, during my undergraduate and postgraduate studies, I witnessed and experienced some of the things we need to ensure don't happen. I've watched people disconnect with study as a result of experiencing sexual violence on campus, and it's very devastating to think about all of those bright futures that aren't able to be realised because of the assaults, the abuse that happened to them on campus, and the academic careers that were cut too short.

There is clearly more to be done to ensure that we have a consistent model around reporting sexual violence and that the problem can be tackled in a comprehensive and consistent manner across Australian campuses. Our government is ambitious in pursuing a safer country for all, and we have made that clear in a number of ways, including in our National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children, which seeks to eliminate gender-based violence in one generation. That is a very ambitious goal, but it is a goal that we must aim for. Improving safety on campus and engaging educational institutions is a vital part of achieving that goal. As someone who has spent significant time within the higher education sector as both a student and an academic, I stand here as a passionate advocate for the sector, particularly with the number of students and academics that live in my electorate and the campuses in my electorate.

I was really pleased to see that in response to recommendation 2 of the accord interim report, the recommendation to remove the requirement that students pass 50 per cent of the units they study to remain eligible for a Commonwealth-supported place when FEE-HELP assistance is there. The former government introduced this rule is part of its Job-ready Graduates Package, which still necessitates some examination, and it has seen a disproportionate number of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds being forced to leave university. This bill requires universities and other providers to have a dedicated plan in place—a support for students policy, essentially—under which they will be required to proactively identify students who are at risk of falling behind and set out what they will do to help them succeed. We are putting forward a plan here to make sure people don't drop out, that they don't fail, that they don't get left behind, but where we can help people stay in university and improve retention rates and completion rates, particularly from the students from more disadvantaged backgrounds. Under the current arrangements, students are required to pass at least 50 per cent of the units they study to continue eligibility for Commonwealth assistance. This pass rate is assessed after they have completed eight units of a bachelor degree or higher, or four units of a shorter one.

As mentioned, the students who fail more than half their subjects currently lose eligibility for Commonwealth assistance. Those pass rate requirements were originally introduced in January 2022 by the former coalition government as part of the Job-ready Graduates Program. I think it was designed to dissuade students from continuing in courses they were not academically suited for, but the impact has really been disproportionate for students from First Nations, low socioeconomic backgrounds, and other underrepresented cohorts or disadvantaged cohorts. This recommendation has been welcomed by the higher education sector, who don't want to see students fail—they want to see improved equity and to see students succeed.

More than 13,000 students at 27 universities have already been hit by this rule—that's 13,000 students who are potentially now disengaged from the higher education system. The practical effect of these measures has been really punitive for students, and we should be helping students to succeed, not forcing them to quit their degrees. Universities right across the country have called for the removal of this rule. Helping students to succeed is now going to be the focus of this government's higher education policy, rather than forcing students to quit, which was the policy under the previous government.

This measure also directly supports efforts towards achieving Closing the Gap outcome 6, to increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 25-34 years who have completed a tertiary qualification to 70 per cent by 2031. One of the other important element of this bill looks to increase First Nations enrolment numbers through the expansion of the eligibility of demand-driven funding. We will now include First Nations students who are living in metropolitan areas in Australia to study bachelor and bachelor-honours courses. This means, effectively, that there is no cap on the numbers of First Nations students that can enrol in Commonwealth-supported places. The Department of Education has estimated that this may in fact double the number of Indigenous students at university within a decade, which is quite remarkable. This measure builds on our government's election commitment to deliver up to 20,000 Commonwealth supported places and fee-free TAFE. Again, this is a measure that has strong support from the sector.

This bill and the recommendations outlined in the interim report represent a landmark moment for higher education and for our nation. It's a pivotal step to ensuring the continued excellence, accessibility and sustainability of Australian universities. Our universities have long been the bedrock of innovation, research and the cultivation of young minds. This bill responds to the concerns raised in the interim report with a comprehensive approach that will not only address existing problems but also lay the foundation for a brighter, better educational future for Australia. I commend the bill to the House.

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