Australian universities will need to make far more places available for students from lower socioeconomic and outer suburban areas in coming decades to equip the future labour force with necessary skills, a new report has found.
The Australian Universities Accord Interim Report estimates that 55% of Australian jobs could require a university degree by 2050 and recommends “bold, long-term change” in order to meet the coming challenges.
The education minister, Jason Clare, will discuss the report in a speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday. It recommends changes to ensure the higher education sector can attract and retain staff and making universities more accessible to poorer students and those living outside urban centres.
Among the most immediate actions recommended by the report is abolishing the controversial rule put in place by the Morrison government’s “job ready graduates” scheme that required a pass rate of 50% in order to be eligible for commonwealth assistance, such as the Higher Education Loan Program (Help). It also recommends extending demand-driven funding for Indigenous students to ensure funding for all who want to attend university.
The government has agreed to act on those priorities, as well as committing to establishing more university study hubs around the country, and extending the higher education continuity guarantee for another two years.
“Change in the sector must be significant,” the report says. “Complacency cannot be tolerated.”
Clare agrees. He says while 36% of Australia’s workforce has a university degree, this figure should should increase to 55% over the next 25 years.
“This report makes it clear that more and more jobs will require a university qualification in the future,” Clare will say, according to an advance copy of his speech to the press club.
“That means we are going to need more people to get those qualifications. More young people getting degrees and more people in the workforce up-skilling and re-skilling.
“At the moment, almost one in two Australians in their late 20s have a university degree. But not everywhere.
“Only 15% of young people from poor families have a university degree. And only 18% of young people in the regions do.
“This report makes it clear that this has to change. If we don’t, we won’t have the skills and the economic firepower we need to make Australia everything it can be in the years ahead.”
Regional university centres have been successful in improving student participation, retention and completion rates and a similar concept for suburban and metropolitan locations is designed to extend “visible, local access to tertiary education”.
The accord review panel believes the same strategy could be used to attract more people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to university, as well as give them the support they need to succeed.
Removing the 50% pass rule, which strips students of access to commonwealth tuition funding if they fail more than half their study units, is also expected to help students from diverse backgrounds finish university.
The review wants to ensure that all First Nations students are eligible for a funded place at university by extending the demand-driven funding program available to Indigenous students in remote and regional Australian to those living in urban areas.
The report also recommended urgent funding clarity for universities while the accord process continues. The higher education continuity guarantee will continue into 2024/25 “to minimise the risk of unnecessary structural adjustment” to the sector.
State and territory governments will be asked what they can do to ensure universities are “good employers”, student and staff safety is prioritised and the sector’s governing bodies are led by those with higher education expertise.
A final report, with further recommendations, will be delivered to Clare by the end of the year.
