Recently, the Universities Accord final report was released. This is the government’s new guiding document for higher education in Australia. It includes key targets for participation in tertiary education, including increasing the proportion of Australians aged between 24 to 35 with a university degree from 45% to 55% by 2050. When I first started my doctorate, the Review of Higher Education Report, more commonly known as the Bradley Review, was the current guiding document at the time. Released in 2008, it recommended that the percentage of the Australian population aged between 24 to 35 years old holding a Bachelor degree should rise to 40% by 2020, compared to 29% at the time of writing the report, and that 20% of these degree holders should be from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds. The Universities Accord builds on and echoes this. It aims to achieve what it terms ‘participation parity’ by 2050 through encouraging people form disadvantaged backgrounds to attend university. I completely support this as an ideal. Everyone deserves the opportunity to attend university no matter what their background is. Yet, too often, I have heard university academics complaining that widening student participation makes their work harder and dumbs down standards. The vital aspect here is that the students from disadvantaged backgrounds – be they first-in-family, low SES, rural and remote, or from society’s marginalised groups – are fully equipped to succeed and thrive in the university environment. The participation of students from disadvantaged backgrounds like these must be celebrated!
Photo by Nicole Baster on Unsplash
Centre for Academic Learning & Communication 