Federal help required to end two tiers

UNIVERSITIES should get funding to recruit poor students from struggling schools, according to Melbourne University's Richard James.

UNIVERSITIES should get funding to recruit poor students from struggling schools, according to Professor Richard James of Melbourne University's Centre for the Study of Higher Education.

The federal Government should finance a scheme, which would specifically target the sandstone universities, where the proportion of students enrolled from disadvantaged backgrounds is falling.

Professor James called for urgent bold steps to address educational disadvantage in the nation's universities in a speech last night.

Professor James's paper stated universities in Australia disproportionately serve wealthy students. He said there was evidence of an increasing "social polarisation" between universities when it came to the amount of disadvantaged students enrolled.

He said that up to 24 per cent of students at some universities, for example Newcastle and Victoria, were from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. This contrasts with sandstone institutions such as the Australian National University, where the proportion of lower SES students was only 3.5 per cent.

"The Group of Eight universities fall well below the national mean for participation share of people from low socioeconomic backgrounds," he said.

"Between 2001 and 2005, the proportion of low socioeconomic students dropped in all Group of Eight universities with the exception of the University of NSW."

Professor James said that a significant change in "thinking and policy" was needed to tackle the growing problem of inequity at universities. He said the federal Government could set targets for the number of disadvantaged students universities should enrol, with incentives to encourage institutions to meet the targets.

"At the moment we don't have anything to work towards," Professor James said.

"If we want to get serious about it, we need to have a concrete target."

He said that existing initiatives were inadequate.

"The Higher Education Equity Program provides modest financial incentives in return for what has become a ritualised annual reporting of institutional equity plans," Professor James said.

"The Government might employ new policy devices that establish incremental targets and financial incentives."

He said that such a policy should target Go8 institutions, where the amount of poor students is falling.

"These might have a particular focus on the sandstone universities where there is a pressing need to more effectively recruit low SES students, especially from the most under-represented schools," he said.

Professor James also argued that universities need to "reach back" to develop stronger partnerships with schools in struggling areas.

"There is a tendency within universities for equity of access to be perceived primarily as a student selection issue," he said.

"The present participation inequities might be reduced if there was a commitment to focusing more energy on the early stages of the creation of education ambition."