Emerson gives the PM's student reforms a big tick

Craig Emerson says Australia is on track to have 40 per cent of young people obtaining degrees by 2025.

NEW Tertiary Education Minister Craig Emerson says Australia is on track to have 40 per cent of young people obtaining degrees by 2025 as recommended in the government's Asian century white paper.

Dr Emerson said yesterday Labor had opened up the university gates to greater numbers of people from disadvantaged backgrounds than ever before and rejected as elitist the suggestion that this involved a lowering of standards.

"Gough Whitlam dreamed and hoped that one day there would be a favourable shift in the mix of kids going to university so that more kids from disadvantaged backgrounds do go to university," he told Sky News' Australian Agenda.

"That is happening as a result of Julia Gillard's reforms."

Dr Emerson has argued the move by Ms Gillard to uncap university places had shifted the university sector to a demand-driven model and there would be 190,000 more young Australians at university this year than there were in 2007 when Labor took office.

He said this positioned Australia well to achieve the objectives of the Asian century white paper, which includes having 20 per cent of undergraduate enrolments from people with low socio-economic backgrounds by 2020.

The white paper says 10 Australian universities will be in the top 100 in the world by 2025.

The opposition spokesman for universities Brett Mason has warned that standards are under threat from insufficient resourcing of the sector and has called on the government to ensure its focus on equity does not have an adverse effect on quality.