Uni of Queensland sets $250m fundraising goal to lift equity

The University of Queensland has set itself a $250m fundraising goal to help disadvantaged students get to university.

University of Queensland vice-chancellor Deborah Terry. Photo: Glenn Hunt

The University of Queensland has set itself a philanthropy goal of raising $250m by 2032 to help disadvantaged students get to university.

Vice-chancellor Deborah Terry said the funds would support the university’s Queensland Commitment, announced in 2022, to break down the barriers that hindered potential students wanting a higher education.

It aims to lift to 30 per cent the proportion of domestic students who come to the University of Queensland from regional and remote areas or from a low socio-economic background. Last year only 21.3 per cent of domestic students met those criteria.

The university has set out a road map to help reach its goal and many of its planned actions are in line with recommendations of the Universities Accord review, which the Albanese government will respond to in the next few weeks.

These include partnering with regional study hubs to offer teaching programs in the bush, and expanding affordable on-campus accommodation to students.

The university also wants to double the number of students in existing programs such as Young Achievers – which seeks out high-achieving high school students in under-represented groups – and InspireU, which offers Indigenous high school students from across the state a week-long activity camp as an introduction to higher education.

“It’s building on the programs we know are successful,” Professor Terry said.

Since announcing the Queensland Commitment the university has raised $11m from more than 1600 donors to fund scholarships for needy students, a figure matched by another $11m from the university.

The new push to raise $250m will fund the many objectives of the road map that cover the whole of the student life cycle. The $11m donated so far is included in the $250m fundraising goal.

The road map was research-based, community informed and philanthropy enabled, Professor Terry said. “The road map articulates how we will continue to work in partnership with government, communities and donors to improve access to education over the next decade,” she said.

“It also outlines how we can adapt as an organisation to help more Queensland people access the transformative impact of education over the next decade.”

She said a key objective was for qualified students to be able to accept an enrolment offer without being held back by lack of financial resources.

“I would like to get to a needs-blind environment where people are accepted into university and then we look at what additional support they need,” she said.

Professor Terry said the request to donors was not a broad philanthropic campaign along the lines of the Not If, When campaign – which raised more than $600m for programs across the university – but targeted the specific goals of the Queensland Commitment.