INTERIM REPORT INTO A UNIVERSITIES ACCORD
A panel of experts looking at Australia’s university sector has made five recommendations – which the government will immediately act on – and has flagged 70 other actions for public comment ahead of its final report due by the end of the year.
FIVE INITIAL ACTIONS
* Establish up to 20 additional regional university study hubs and up to 14 suburban hubs, building on the 34 already in place.
* Abolish the 50 per cent pass rule which has had a disproportionately negative impact on students from poor backgrounds and from the regions, and require increased reporting on student progress.
* Extend demand-driven funding to all First Nations students who are eligible for the course they apply for, not just Indigenous students in regional and remote Australia.
* Extend the Higher Education Continuity Guarantee for a further two years to universities as the accord process rolls out.
* Work with state and territory governments to improve university governance.
FUTURE WORK
* A new Tertiary Education Commission.
* First Nations people to be at the heart of higher education.
* Aim of 55 per cent higher education attainment by 2035, with an additional 300,000 Commonwealth supported students in 2035.
* Greater investment in student support and equitable, efficient HELP (student loan) arrangements.
* Research to be reprioritised and steps put in place to encourage its greater use by government, industry and the community.
* Improved connections between higher education and vocational education including a new qualifications framework.
* Greater priority given to online learning and more affordable courses, like microcredentials, tightly tailored to individual student need.
