Education costs discriminate
A Victorian Government study has found that students from independent schools enrolled at university this year at twice the rate of students from state schools.
The survey of last year’s VCE graduates found that more than 67 percent of students from independent schools took up an offer at university, compared with nearly 34 percent of government school students. In Catholic schools, about 47 percent of students took up a place. Why?
I haven’t read the study, so these are my own conclusions:
Tertiary education has clearly become too expensive for children from ordinary lower/middle class families. Young people from families at the lower end of the income spectrum have to be extremely motivated to pursue a university degree.
This is contrary to past government policies, which effectively encouraged higher education to:
a) Keep the unemployment figures low; and
b) Build a more highly skilled workforce.
Employment today is more abundant, so governments have less incentive to worry about jobless figures. The growth of vocational education in the TAFE sector has also reduced the pressure on universities to fill some gap years.
I look back to my peer group, among the last to benefit from free education, and many went to university because they had no other productive option.
My children won’t have that luxury. I won’t encourage them to pursue higher education unless they show genuine aptitude and interest. We will also consider offshore options that potentially reduce their final debt if quality outcomes can be assured.
The effect of increasing the cost of university is to widen the gap between rich and poor.
That said, I’m not opposed to university fees. They help students to understand the value of education. But I think we need to work harder, as a society, to find solutions that level the playing field for people who don’t have privileged backgrounds.
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