Image: Australian Embassy Jakarta [CC BY 2.0], via Flickr
Educational disparity between city and the bush to be targeted by federally backed official
Australia’s first regional education commissioner has been appointed on a three-year term.
Former National Party senator Fiona Nash (pictured), who was shadow parliamentary secretary for regional education when in parliament, will spearhead efforts to increase participation in education outside Australia’s cities.
Her appointment was welcomed by the Regional Universities Network, which said in a statement that it had “long advocated for an independent champion for regional, rural and remote education”.
Napthine review
Nash’s independent, federally funded commission was created as a result of two reviews into regional education, known as the Napthine and Halsey reviews. The 2019 Napthine review recommended that the Australian government should pledge to provide “fair and equal access to high-quality tertiary education, regardless of location or personal circumstances”.
It found that Australians living in regional, rural and remote areas were “40 per cent less likely to gain a higher-level tertiary education qualification” and less than half as likely to gain a bachelor-level qualification by the time they were 35 years old, compared with individuals from metropolitan areas.
Napthine said that Australia needed to increase the research capacity of regional universities, including by identifying opportunities to establish research infrastructure. The country should also continue “to explore strategies to attract domestic and international students” to the regions, the review said.
Regional Universities Network chair Nick Klomp said Nash should advocate for all the recommendations of the Napthine review to be implemented.
“Policy settings in areas such as regional development, health, migration and employment need to work in a complementary way to facilitate positive educational outcomes in the regions,” he said.
Nash’s brief includes working with the federal, state and local governments to “at least halve the disparity in tertiary education outcomes between regional and metropolitan students by 2030”.
Nash’s office will receive A$6 million over the next four years and will report annually. She will also oversee research into improving regional education outcomes, student support and career development.