Source: Murray Darling Basin Authority
G’day everyone.
I start by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which the conference is taking place and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging.
I want to also acknowledge:
- Emeritus Professor Mary O’Kane
- Professor Sarah O’Shea
- And Professor Ruth Wallace
Thank you for the invitation to speak to you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person.
Two and half years ago when I got this job, I said I didn’t want to be the type of Minister that just signed letters.
I wanted to reform our education system.
To make it better and fairer.
And that reform is happening.
The Universities Accord, that Professor O’Kane chaired and crafted, provides us with a blueprint for how to reform higher education over the next decade and beyond.
What it tells us is that by the middle of this century we are going to need a workforce where 80 per cent of people have a university degree or a TAFE qualification.
That’s up from about 60 per cent today.
That’s a big shift. A big change.
Some of this will happen organically.
Think about it. The fastest growing professions all require some sort of tertiary qualification.
But some of it will require us to change what we do and how we do it.
The key message in the Accord is that we are not going to hit that 80 per cent target unless we break that invisible barrier that stops a lot of young people from going to university or TAFE.
The Accord is massive. Implementing it will take more than one budget or one government, but we have bitten off a big chunk this year.
29 of the Accord’s 47 recommendations in full or in part.
And part of that is uncapping funding for enabling courses.
The work you do.
Just one of those places where this happens in Newcastle University.
They have been doing it for 50 years this year.
One in five people who get a degree from Newcastle University today, start with one of these FEE-FREE Uni Ready courses.
And just one of those people is Jennifer Baker.
Jennifer was a mum at 19. She worked in hospitality for 10 years and one day saw an ad for one of these free courses in the local paper.
Now she’s got a science degree. An Honours degree. A PhD. And a Fulbright Scholarship.
She’s a computational medicinal chemist.
That’s what these courses do.
They’re a bridge between school and uni to help you get the skills you need to succeed when you get there.
Mary and the Accord team recommended we significantly increase the availability of these courses and that’s what we are doing.
Last week, we passed legislation to effectively uncap funding for those courses, right across the country.
We’ve committed an additional $350 million over four years to significantly expand these courses.
It’s an ongoing funding commitment.
Universities currently receive as little as $1,286 per place to run these courses.
These changes ensure that universities will receive $18,278 per place next year, which will be tied to CPI increases each year.
It provides funding certainty for universities.
It deals with the disincentives baked into the current system.
And most importantly, it ensures that these courses remain free.
It will help more Australians to get a crack at university and succeed when they get there.
My department estimates that this will increase the number of people doing these free uni ready courses by about 40 per cent by the end of the decade and double the number doing them by 2040.
That strengthens the bridge between school and uni.
Universities have been informed of their initial 2025 Fee-Free Uni Ready places.
And this week, applications have opened where unis can apply for additional places.
But that’s not all the legislation we passed last week does.
It also wipes out $3 billion of HELP debt for more than 3 million Australians.
And it establishes, for the first time, a Commonwealth Prac Payment.
That is, a bit of financial support for teaching students, for nursing students, for midwifery students and for social work students, to help support them while they do the practical part of their degree.
And this is just the start.
We will also establish a new funding system for universities – that guarantees a place in university for everyone from a disadvantaged background who gets the marks to get in.
And needs based funding to support them when they get there.
And a new Australian Tertiary Education Commission to steer reform over the next decade and beyond.
And I hope to have more to say about all of this in the coming weeks.
We have a good higher education system.
But it can be a lot better and a lot fairer.
That’s what these reforms and the work each and every one of you do everyday is all about.
So thank you.
I hope you have a great conference today.