Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I want to talk about barriers to access to excellent higher education for regional students. As a former teacher and university lecturer, I understand the importance of higher education. Graduates earn more over the life of their careers, more doors open up in the workforce and they grow our nation's skill base, learning the jobs of tomorrow. But for many students from regional Australia and their families, the costs associated with securing a tertiary degree are prohibitive.

What are the results of these prohibitive costs? We know that they mean young people miss out on higher education, families suffer an incredible cost burden in an attempt to send their children to university or young people are forced to defer their degree for years to claim independence under the Youth Allowance scheme or save up enough to fund it. Even worse, some students are being forced to cheat the welfare system to attend university—something that should not happen but which many are forced to do. Many are silent about the fact that they make certain choices about what they do post-school as a result of their situation. Forcing them to work for 18 months ultimately means many of these students are held back from a higher education course for two years before they are able to receive any government support.

I recently met with a number of students at Charles Sturt University in Wangaratta and the message was loud and clear—the 18-month work period to qualify for Youth Allowance independence is not working. These students told me stories of their friends, family, even their own experiences, where two years in the workforce gave them a taste for money, however meagre, which they were not willing to give up to return to study. For others circumstances may change—they lose interest in studying, their motivation wanes or they build a new life, new relationships, friendships and community associations they choose not to give up in order to pursue their dream of higher education. Having a young person remain in the local community keeps communities intact; however, we know that a university degree provides lifelong opportunities. Some may say the system is not broken and their parents should pay if they want to attend university straight after school. But the reality is for many this is not an option. The simple fact is the cost of higher education is becoming more and more prohibitive for students from rural and regional communities.

In the communities I represent, young people just cannot live at home and still receive a higher education. There needs to be a suite of opportunities for students from across the nation—online opportunities, opportunities to attend physical campuses and indeed support to move to where those courses that they want to do actually exist. To earn a degree students from regional communities in the most part have to pack their bags and head off to Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra or one of our other major cities. Having to pack up and move away from your home town when you are 17 or 18 may seem like an exciting adventure, but the reality is it poses many challenges for students and their families—none bigger than the financial challenge. For regional students the costs can range from $15,000 and $20,000 a year to study away from home. There is also the added cost of getting home for the weekend or during semester breaks. Students have to pay for petrol or train, bus or plane tickets home as well as for phone calls. For families with multiple children wanting to access higher education in successive years, these cost burdens are heavy, they are unrealistic, and they act as a significant barrier that numerous reports have outlined over recent years.

A postcode should not be a barrier to higher education—but it is and this is a clear failure and a key flaw in our system. It is a flaw that so many rural and regional senators and members over the years have fought hard to overcome. The 2011 ABS census found that, while 27 per cent of Australians aged 15-64 live in regional Australia, they make up only 21 per cent of undergraduate enrolments. Regional students should make up 27 per cent or more of the university population. As I have outlined earlier, financial barriers are a significant hurdle for regional students and their families. Regional students experience cultural barriers as well, as the community often is loud in their angst about the youth of their region moving away and not returning. At an individual level, many regional students may prefer to relocate to attend a university in a metropolitan area that will provide them better work or course options, but we know at a community level there are concerns about depleting populations as younger members move away from regional areas—and this pressure forces some of them to stay.

While we must accept some of our successful students may remain in metropolitan areas where career prospects are higher—and I do not think there is anything wrong with having more and more of that country-mindedness on the boards of our national and international organisations and amongst business leaders, because that tenacity and resilience that you get from growing up in the country is always useful—we do hope that many of them will choose to return home or to another regional area, bringing with them significant skills which regional communities desperately need such as doctors, dentists, lawyers, teachers, accountants, engineers et cetera. To get this balance right, more needs to be done to support regional and rural students to access higher education. Governments of all persuasions must do more to assist regional students to participate in higher ed if and when they choose to participate. We must look at these issues and start to break them down.

Over the coming months I will be travelling the country hosting meetings and forums right across the country and forums as part of an interdepartmental committee on access to higher education for regional and remote students to look at barriers to higher education. From Tasmania to Far North Queensland, from Tamworth to Port Augusta, over to Western Australia—I am looking forward to spending time with three local members over there—up to the Northern Territory and even down to my home state of Victoria, meeting with students, parents, teachers and community members, stakeholders, to talk about how, together, we can better support regional and rural students and hence our communities and long-term regional economies. Thanks to support from ministers Pyne and Morrison we have recently completed an interim report which will form the basis for my conversations with local members and their community stakeholders over the coming months. I thank them both for their support.

The data contained in the interim advice backs up what those of us out in the regions already know about the inequity that exists, and we are committed as a group to doing something about that. There are six interim findings. The first was that regional and remote students remain underrepresented in higher education, despite the Bradley reforms. So the rate of increase of students from metropolitan areas due to the implementation of the demand-driven system was significant. And, yes, there was an increase in rural and regional students in higher education, but at nowhere near the same rate, which remains a concern.

There are significant barriers, the report found, to regional and remote students, including cost, school experiences, attainment of their ATAR, aspiration, preparedness, distance et cetera. So this issue is multifaceted. The government provides some financial support to help overcome these barriers, but I know we can do more.

The report also found that the receipt of student income support for regional and remote students has grown following the Bradley and Lee Dow reviews, but not at the same rate as for metropolitan recipients. The explanation for this difference requires further investigation but may be linked to the higher likelihood of regional and remote students needing to move away from home in order to undertake study. That is a key finding. That is why we are heading out into the regions, right across the country, over the winter break, to actually have those conversations and put a little bit more flesh on the bones of the numbers and gain a little more understanding of what the numbers are telling us.

Another finding was that there are concerns around the adequacy of student assistance. The issue of adequacy has been highlighted by previous reviews, which have noted issues such as the costs of moving away from home to study and the pressure to supplement student payments with earnings, which can also have flow-on effects for academic achievement.

Also, inequalities in parental means tests create difficulties for some regional and remote families, and I do note that, in our budget, the Minister for Social Services made some significant changes to ensure that the family farm is no longer considered an asset, which means that thousands more young people from regional areas will be able to access youth allowance. As those who represent rural and regional parents, communities and, indeed, students, we know that this particular issue is much more than getting the parameters of the youth allowance right. It is an ongoing issue. We have got to come up with a new and creative way to solve the problem, and we are committed to doing that.

That is why I, along with my Coalition colleagues, want to hear from people on the ground in our communities who have been struggling with this issue for a long, long time. We want to hear their ideas and concerns and to hear about the issues, and that is what I will be doing, right across the country, over the winter break.

Our young people are our future. They are the keys to unlocking regional Australia's economic potential even further. This issue is too important not to get right, and I, along with my colleagues, will be working hard over the coming months to put forward a plan which will ensure our young are no longer disadvantaged when it comes to securing a degree simply because of where they were born and where they choose to live. And that fabulous tenacity and resilience of regional youth will be able to be harnessed and they will be able to choose, like their metropolitan cousins, the right course for them and their future, and to follow their dreams and aspirations as they should be able to.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator McKenzie. The Senate stands adjourned and will meet again on the sixth birthday of my grandson Remy, that being Monday, 10 August 2015 at 10 am.

Senate adjourned at 18 : 40