Education in spotlight
Mallee and Wannon parliamentarians are confident people living in their electorates have been beneficiaries of $1-billion in Federal Government investment in regional higher education since 2016.
Member for Mallee Anne Webster and Member for Wannon and Education Minister Dan Tehan issued identical press statements emphasising their thoughts.
They made the comments following an announcement of an additional $400-million for regional and rural higher-education as part of a ‘Job-ready Graduates’ package.
Dr Webster and Mr Tehan said in an all but wordfor-word statement that students in Mallee and Wannon would benefit from tertiary access payments to reduce the cost of relocating for study, while ‘local’ universities could access funding programs to boost capacity.
They said collectively: “Our government will also provide $145-million to grow the number of university places for domestic students at regional campuses and $49-million to boost the research capacity of regional universities.
“Regionally based universities play a critical role to our local communities because they provide opportunities for regional students to access higher education and students who study in the regions tend to live and work in the regions after they graduate.
“It’s important for our national cohesion and COVID-19 recovery that students from regional Australia get equal opportunity to access a worldclass higher education.
“Under our Job-ready Graduates package, we will provide a one-off $5000 grant to eligible students from an outer regional, remote and very remote community who have to move more than 90 minutes away from their home to engage in fulltime study – Certificate IV qualification or higher – in the year immediately following year-12.”
The Job-ready Graduates measures for regional Australia include: • $159-million for Tertiary Access Payments to help students from outer regional and remote communities relocate to engage in high-level tertiary studies. • $145-million to fuel faster growth in Commonwealth Grant Scheme funding for regional campuses. • $49-million to enhance the research capacity of regional universities. • $21-million to expand and strengthen the Regional University Centres program, adding to the 25 centres funded to date. • $17-million to support an additional 1700 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to go to university by 2024. • $7-million for regional partnerships projects focused on outreach and aspiration as part of reform of equity funding to better support regional and remote students. • $6-million to establish a Regional Education Commissioner with associated projects and support to oversee and co-ordinate the government’s regional education efforts.