Opinion
If Australia is to be a more prosperous, productive and socially cohesive nation in the decades to come, the nation needs universities that return students to centre of everything they do.
The system must be built upon providing fair opportunities to all Australians.
This aspiration is the focus of a Senate inquiry beginning today examining the Albanese Government’s Opening the Doors of Opportunity Bill. The Bill brings to life key recommendations from the Australian Universities Accord, by transforming how the sector is funded. It will empower the new sector steward ATEC to cap, allocate and fund domestic and international university students.
The intent is ambitious in laying the foundations to work towards the Accord’s target of having 8 in 10 working age Australians with qualifications from TAFE or university by 2050. Right now, it’s about 60%.
We must meet this target to ensure that Australians are equipped for the future. We know that 9 out of 10 new jobs will require post-secondary education, and that achieving the 80% target will add an extra $240 billion to the national economy by 2050, or $20,000 extra for every household.
This ambition won’t be reached by the current ‘hunger games’ system in which universities compete over a pool of domestic students that has been stagnant for years. Instead, it requires a national effort to stimulate new demand for post-secondary education.
More people from all postcodes and stages of life need to see higher education as a viable option. The doors must be opened to people who have seen higher education as out of reach.
This will require looking beyond school leavers and students with high ATARs. Unlike the rigidity – and sometimes snobbery – of the past, it’s time to recognise that many diverse and innovative doorways exist as pathways into higher education. This means a joined-up system that values all forms of higher education and provides easy pathways between TAFE and university.
If we don’t increase the pool of tertiary students, how do we fill nursing, health and teaching skills shortages in fast growing suburban and regional communities? How do we skill the next generation of aerospace engineers, AI engineers, or climate and food security researchers?
Skills shortages are best addressed by educating students in the regions where these jobs exist. Students that study in an area are more likely to stay and work in that area. About 70% of graduates from Western Sydney University, for example, remain in our region.
The 9 universities that make up the 2050 Alliance are the anchors of their communities. They teach more than 285,000 students across more than 65 campuses in inner city, suburban, regional and remote Australia. They are the institutions that will do the heavy lifting in reaching the Accord targets.
We strongly support the Opening the Doors of Opportunity Bill as a critical step in bringing much-needed reform to the nation’s university system. The current system treats university education as a market, exemplified by the $52,000 arts degrees brought about by the Morrison-era Job-ready Graduates (JRG) scheme. Unsurprisingly, the system has been rife with market failure that shows up in low student satisfaction and outcomes that work against Australians from poorer backgrounds.
The results are damning. Rather than creating opportunities and fostering social mobility for all, a two-track system has emerged. Students from wealthier backgrounds supported by the bank of mum and dad easily transition to university and graduate to secure high-paying jobs.
On the other hand, students and communities most in need of the benefits of higher education are too often missing out. Since the discredited Morrison-era Job-ready Graduates scheme began in 2021, one in 10 students from poorer backgrounds have been lost to university. The current system is failing the very students most in need of the benefits of a university education.
The Opening the Doors of Opportunity Bill promises a new era. It will move the sector away from a market driven approach to a system that better accounts for the mission and sustainability of universities. Growth can be targeted where it is most needed by the nation, in particular to lift university participation for under-represented students and communities. Education must be treated as a public good that benefits the whole nation, not as a transaction.
As with any ambitious change, there are always areas for improvement. One example is to allow universities to use the new pool of Needs-based Funding to support outreach programs. These are vital to open the eyes of school students to the possibilities of higher education, especially students from families with no experience of university.
As Education Minister Jason Clare often says, you can’t be what you can’t see, and school and community outreach programs are the key to expanding educational horizons.
George Williams is Vice-Chancellor of Western Sydney University and chair of the 2050 Alliance