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Media Release
Socio-economic background no barrier to completing university
18 April 2007
The Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, today welcomed a new report released by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), which shows that students from disadvantaged backgrounds are just as likely as other students to complete their university course.
The report Completing university: Characteristics and outcomes of completing and non-completing students examined completion rates among young people who had commenced a university course in the period 1998 to 2001.
The report was based on data from over 3400 university commencing students from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) still in the survey in 2004 when they were aged 23 years.
The report estimated the expected completion rate of young Australians from a university course is around 80%. However, the expected completion rates ranged from 73%, for those with tertiary entry scores of 60-69, to 94% for those with scores of 90 and over.
“This report showed that the tertiary entry score is the strongest influence on completion, followed by gender,” Minister Bishop said.
“It also showed that course completion is not affected by students’ socio-economic background and school sector or, generally, by the field of study of their course.”
Minister Bishop said while attending university but not completing did have benefits in terms of very low unemployment amongst university non-completers, they tended to be in lower status jobs than other Year 12 completers at the same age, which is related to their later entry into careers.
“Information from this report will be important to career advisers and to supporting agencies associated with Career Advice Australia,” Minister Bishop said. Career Advice Australia was established in 2006 and is funded at $143.2 million from 2005-06 to 2008-09.
The study uses data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY), which is jointly managed by the Government and the ACER, is available at http://www.acer.edu.au/.
Media Contacts:
Minister Bishop’s Office: Tory Vidler 0414 228 727
Dept of Education, Science & Training: Media Unit 02 6240 7300
Non-media queries: 1300 363 079
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