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Media Release
LABOR’S FEE-PAYERS POLICY SHUTS OUT THOUSANDS
26 March, 2004 MIN 656/04
“Well, that’s the thing that I find most objectionable about these full-fee paying places, that in fact you can get a full-fee paying place, so something that costs $144,000 - not going to be available to a lot of students - and you can get in with lower marks.”
Jenny Macklin, interview with David Bevan and Matt Abraham ABC 5AN, 20 May, 2003
Labor says no-one should be in university course if they do not achieve the HECS cut-off mark.
If Labor is consistent it will shut thousands of students out of university forever.
For six years universities have been allowed to create fee paying places for Australians over and above their HECS places. The Government supports the right of Australians to take up these places – as overseas students currently do. Labor supports overseas students taking up these places but not Australians.
If elected, Labor has vowed to remove these fee paying Australians from all universities because they get in with lower marks. Labor must also plan to remove the tens of thousands of students who get in with lower marks but are not paying their own fees.
Many universities have arrangements which provide for thousands of students to get in with lower marks - in some cases up to 9 marks less than the HECS cut off.
Reduced cut-offs (or bonus points) are provided by universities for a range of reasons, including proximity of the school to the university, frequent family relocation, cultural background, educational disadvantage, disruptive environment or for health reasons.
In some universities students who have received a special deal outnumber the fee paying students. Some of these special entry students would have lower cut-off scores than the fee paying students they sit beside in lectures. Labor says the former can stay but the latter must go.
HECS cut off scores reflect supply and demand – not the academic level required to do a course.
Under the higher education reforms universities will be required to publicly provide the academic cut-off score for every course - exposing Labor’s nonsense that students are not capable of doing a course because they have a mark short of the HECS cut off.
The University of Canberra for example has recently announced that all students require an academic cut-off (not the HECS cut-off) of 75 to be accepted into any course.
The Government supports universities offering these schemes but in the interests of transparency I have asked the Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training to ascertain what bonus points schemes are in place. The attached list provides the first iteration of this work.
Media Contact:
Dr Nelson’s Office: Ross Hampton 0419 484 095
AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES WHICH ALLOW STUDENTS IN WITH LOWER MARKS THAN THE HECS CUT OFF
- UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE - 4 bonus points to school students attending one of 254 high schools from Bourke to Tamworth to Gosford
- UNIVERSITY OF CANBERRA - ‘Educational Access Scheme’ provides up to 3 bonus points
- UNIVERSITY OF CANBERRA & THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - students studying with ACT institutions can receive up to 9 additional points through UAC Admissions Centre
- FLINDERS UNIVERSITY - students who attend a rural or isolated school or come from an equity group receive up to 8 bonus points
- UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE - about 1 in 7 students (630 students) enter through discount programs such as the ‘Fairways Scheme’
- UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG - 3 bonus points to students who studied at one of 65 schools from Moss Vale to Cronulla
- SYDNEY UNIVERSITY - around 15% of school leavers obtain ‘special entry’ with lower scores or special consideration
- MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY - under the ‘School Partners Program’ students from 58 schools from receive 5 bonus points
- CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY - student’s score adjusted for ‘Special Access’
- LA TROBE UNIVERSITY - ‘Regional Bonus Scheme’ provides adjustments to ENTER scores for students from regional schools
- UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND - bonus points due to emotional, medical or other disadvantage
- UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA - ‘UWay’ Scheme provides adjustments to disadvantaged students’ entry scores
- MURDOCH UNIVERSITY - up to 180 students enter through discount programs such as ‘UniAccess’ and the ‘Tertiary Options Project’
- UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA – ‘USANET Special Access Scheme’ provides students from disadvantaged schools with bonus points
- MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY – 320 students in 2003 were offered a place under a ‘Targeted Access Program’
- CENTRAL QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY - 10% of offers at the University’s Bundaberg campus are made to students who studied through the University’s ‘STEPS’
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