“That ICPA (Aust) lobbies the Federal Government to prioritise the implementation of the recommendations from the Australian Universities Accord Final Report relating to rural and remote tertiary students.”
While it is pleasing to see in the Australian Universities Accord Final Report recommendations that the specific needs and challenges that rural and remote tertiary students face when accessing a higher education are highlighted and that some of the issues that ICPA members have highlighted are addressed in the recommendations. Now it is imperative that all the recommendations are implemented, with the rural and remote recommendations being prioritised. Included in the recommendations that need prioritising are:
• Expansion of Regional Study hubs for both Vocational Education and Training and Higher education
• Tertiary Access Payment measures – the removal of the requirement to commence study within 12 months of leaving year 12 and to change the timing of TAP payments to provide payment prior to relocation
• Improve the student income support by increasing the Parental Income Free Area for dependent Youth Allowance and further review and monitoring of the student payment system eligibility criteria and payments with focus on students with the most need including for rural and remote students being identified as effectively independent once they leave home therefore should be considered as eligible for independent Youth Allowance
• HELP debt indexation timing - change the timing so that amounts withheld are accounted for before indexation is applied to HELP loans.
The implementation of all the recommendations of this Accord review and the previously mentioned Napthine Review will go a long way to making the choice to go onto tertiary study post-school an affordable and achievable option for our rural and remote students.
