February Forum: opening remarks

PROFESSOR BARBARA HOLLAND
Pro Vice-Chancellor Engagement, University of Western Sydney

Welcome to the Sydney Widening Participation in Higher Education Forum.  Thank you for taking the time to join us today. We know well that it is early in the 2010 school year and appreciate your presence with us. We will endeavour to make the day productive and valuable, perhaps even energizing and inspiring.

I am Professor Barbara Holland, Pro Vice-Chancellor Engagement for the University of Western Sydney. It is my honour and privilege to welcome you to the day, speaking as a representative of my fellow university colleagues who comprise the Forum organising group.

During the day you will be interacting with all of us as discussion facilitators and session leaders.  So, let me introduce the full group to you now.

Would you each please stand as I read your name, in alphabetical order, and remain standing.

Ms. Annette Cairnduff
Director of Social Inclusion, University of Sydney

Ms Ann Jardine
Director, Student Equity & Disabilities Unit, University of New South Wales

Professor Marea Nicholson
Associate Vice Chancellor Sydney, Australian Catholic University

Ms. Jude Stoddart
Director Equity & Diversity Unit, University of Technology Sydney

Professor Gail Whiteford
Pro Vice-Chancellor, Social Inclusion, Macquarie University

Please join me in acknowledging the contributions of this team to the planning of today’s forum.

This is an extraordinary moment.  Six Universities, often competitive, coming together to act in cooperation on an agenda of such societal and community importance that we have successfully worked in common cause to design today’s forum. 

Our universities are distinctive, one from another, and we have different strengths and goals and strategies in our approaches to this agenda – that’s an invaluable asset to the Sydney region.

We may be distinctive, but we very much share a desire to help Sydney move toward this goal of wider participation in higher education, and we will continue to strive to do so in ways that are complementary and collaborative as much as possible.

So today, I want to take advantage of this moment at the podium to thank my colleagues for their generous and cooperative spirit.

We also have in common our desire to learn from all of you, you who are more directly and daily involved in working with thousands of young people - to help them learn and develop in ways that increase the odds that they will reach their full potential.

All of us in this room have a desire – a passion, to help young people realize their full potential through education and developmental activities.   You are here because of your commitment, your leadership, your achievements in improving educational access and success among young people.

That is the focus of our Forum today… an exploration of what is working and what more can be done to widen participation in higher education including identifying ways we can work together more effectively.

When we talk about widening participation in higher education we are referring to increasing the access of students who currently are less likely to attend higher education.

Students from low socio-economic backgrounds, students from regional areas and Indigenous students, all of which may include students with a disability, students from non-English speaking backgrounds, recently arrived migrants/refugees and mature age students (non-school leavers).

Many students would be the first in their family to attend higher education, they may not know anyone else in their community or social circle who has attended higher education. They face many barriers and obstacles, most not of their own making!

We hope you’ve had the opportunity to take a few minutes to read the excellent short paper prepared for today’s forum by Bob Birrell from the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash University, and we express our sincere thanks to Bob for his significant contribution to the forum.

Just in case some were not able to read the paper, here are just a few key points:

This is the agenda for widening participation.

Given how little that percent has moved in recent years, there is much work to do to reach the targets. The government is backing its commitment with funding for partnerships, loadings to help fund student support services, and funds to reduce cost burdens on LSES university students. But we must use the funds wisely and collaboratively if we are to succeed.

Why is this widening participation agenda important in the Lucky Country?
The impact of the GFC on employment was below projections.  Wealth is increasing.  What’s the problem?

First, Australian employment is changing in its mix.  The growth in new jobs requiring a tertiary qualification has been double that of trades jobs and nearly four times greater than semi-skilled jobs.  We already experience major skills shortages in health, business, engineering and technology.  As the job mix changes, our education system must provide opportunities for mature age students to gain higher learning credentials and retrain for new opportunities.

Simply said for Australia to continue its success in the global economy, which is increasingly driven by knowledge and ideas, it must become a highly educated country. Eventually, minerals won’t be enough.

But there are other factors that should motivate us to widen participation -- Factors that receive less attention but have a big impact on individuals and on our communities.

On average a university graduate will earn twice as much over their lifetime as a high school graduate.

Beyond economic issues, research reveals that a university credential is associated with many personal benefits – better health, a stable family life, fewer risky behaviours.  And, these also confer significant societal benefits such as the reduction in tax dollars spent on health care, addiction services, policing and prisons, domestic violence and delinquency, welfare, housing subsidies, and so on.

All these educational benefits are magnified in the context of Indigenous communities and populations who are first or second generation immigrants and refugees.

Therefore, we who organised this day would argue that the widening participation agenda is a moral agenda as well as an economic agenda.

If we can work together to meet the target increases in overall educational attainment levels, the benefits will include improvements in the social, cultural, environmental, and community fabric of the region and the nation, as well as increase the probability of future economic resilience and opportunity.

To get these gains, we propose to you that one outcome from today’s forum be our collective commitment to working to close the gaps in the way people perceive education and in the way policy manages education.

The spaces between primary, secondary, and tertiary learning present real barriers that many students and families fear they cannot cross.

We must begin to practice thinking of our sectors as a stream and act in partnership across sectors and with communities to help students imagine their future learning experiences and realize them with confidence.

Today we are focusing especially on students from kindergarten through to year nine.  There is quite a bit going on already at the high school level, yet research shows that to have the greatest impact on increasing educational aspirations we must intervene at earlier ages. 

We’ve all seen the new students entering primary in the last couple of weeks. We believe this must be our focus in our discussion today – the young people who are in school now, and those who may have already left school to soon – these must be our focus if we are truly to change the patterns so that the nation can reap the benefits of a higher overall level of educational attainment.

While many of us may not still be working in education in 2021 when this year’s new primary students graduate, what we set in motion today, this year, can shape their future, if we embed good strategies in the systems now.

The work is urgent. There are many good and effective strategies already in operation. There are also communities and schools and individual children who have yet to have access to these kinds of programs that will improve their chances of success.  We must act now to expand opportunities for more young people.

That is our agenda today.  The vast majority of the day is devoted to discussions among you that may facilitate greater networking and collaboration to increase our collective effectiveness.

We can’t predict all the outcomes – that’s largely up to you.

But we do anticipate that our universities will continue to work together and with you. We plan to summarize today’s outcomes, share them with you and others, develop a shared website, and explore other follow up actions that will keep the work moving forward after today.

To achieve the goal of widening participation in higher education there is work to be done in schools, higher education institutions and the community. 

We will succeed through actions driven by collaboration and partnership. No one strategy will ensure we reach the goal. We must work together, build on good practices, replicate models that seem to work, conduct research on barriers and facilitating factors and on the effectiveness of interventions.

So, Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.

Thank you again for your time and commitment. You are the people making the difference every day for young people and we are grateful for the opportunity to meet with you today. Please enjoy the day’s discussions.