Students in rural and regional areas would receive mentoring to encourage them into tertiary education under a $3.2m plan to be announced by Labor.
The Labor deputy leader and education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek will make the commitment at the Universities Australia conference in Canberra on Thursday, also promising a new commissioner to boost regional participation in tertiary education.
Universities Australia aims to use the conference to renew its attack against $328m of cuts to universities in the government’s December mid-year economic update.
At a speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday the Universities Australia chair, Margaret Gardner, will release the results of a JWS Research poll of 1,500 people which found 66% opposed the cuts and just one in 10 Australians supported them.
In the speech, seen by Guardian Australia, Gardner notes that some regions lag behind the target of 40% of Australians between the ages of 25 to 34 receiving a university education.
“Only 28% of young Queenslanders – those aged 25 to 34 – had a university degree by 2016,” she says. “In Tasmania, it was 24.5%. In South Australia, and in Western Australia, it was just over 30%.”
“Within states, opportunity is also uneven. In Melbourne, university attainment is around 45% – in Mildura, it is just 17.3%.”
Gardner says the statistics are a “powerful reminder” of the need for a demand-driven system of university admissions, a system Plibersek credits with boosting country enrolments by 48% since 2009.
Plibersek will commit the opposition to “take strong action to ensure city kids and country kids have the same opportunity to get a uni education”.
“A young person from the north shore of Sydney is four times more likely to have a degree than someone in [the] outback [Northern Territory].
“Labor will do everything possible to dismantle this education divide.”
Plibersek will commit to $3.2m for mentoring and tutorials to “build confidence and aspiration” in country students to encourage them to go to university or technical and further education.
The program will be delivered in 22 regional study hubs, 16 of which have already been promised by the education minister, Dan Tehan, and a further six are to be created if Labor is elected.
“Labor will also appoint a dedicated regional and remote commissioner to advise our once in a generation national inquiry into post-secondary education,” Plibersek says.
“The commissioner will be responsible for developing strategies and policies to support country students, as well as our regional unis and Tafes.
“That work will include a close look at how funding and regulation can boost participation in post-secondary education in every region of Australia.”
In a review released in January 2018, Prof John Halsey recommended the government do more to help rural, regional and remote students make transitions from school to university, training and employment, including by improving the availability of high-quality work experience placements.
Gardner will also release new statistics that in 2017, 451,263 students took part in 555,403 workplace learning activities as part of their studies, such as work placements (43%) or projects (23%).
In a foreword to the Universities Australia report, Tehan described work-integrated learning as a “win-win for students and employers”.
“The federal government is providing record funding to Australia’s universities, and the return on that investment is job-ready graduates who can take advantage of the employment opportunities our economy is creating.”
In November the Morrison government announced $135m for regional universities, study hubs and scholarships for students in regional and rural areas, but was immediately criticised for taking the money from base research funding.
Labor has promised to restore the demand-driven system, ending the $2.2bn two-year freeze on commonwealth payments to universities and called for an extra $300m spending on university research facilities.
