Access to Higher Education - Assignment Example

? Business Report about Access to Higher Education Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Executive summary 3 Discussion of the contributing factors 4 Government causes 5 University causes 6 People cause 6 References 9 Appendices 11 Executive summary The purpose of this report is to investigate access to higher education in Australia; the causes of the problems that are faced in the country, their origin and the solutions that be implemented to improve the accessibility to higher education. The government of Australia has been putting policies to ensure that raises the number of adults who have a university degree to 40 per cent by the year 2025, the government aims to increase this through increasing the number of people that are enrolled in institutions of higher learning. This decision of the government may have been informed by the demand by employers for employees with university degrees. However, several challenges stand in the way of government and attaining this dream of realising the increased number of university graduates. Such problems include the high cost of university education, the attitudes of the people, preferential treatment of some people by the universities, commercialisation of education, which has led to university graduates not being fully equipped to enable work competitively in the job market. In order to deal with these problems in the Australian higher education, this report has given some recommendations that can improve the accessibility of higher education and help the government to attain the target of increasing the number of adult graduates to 40 per cent. The table below shows the slow pace of increase in tertiary education enrolment Location Enrolment Increase 2006-2021 Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Sydney 20,334 12.2 61,212 278 Rest of NSW 3371 4.8 19,399 27.8 Melbourne 21,718 15.1 57,867 40.3 Rest of VIC 483 1.4 7,955 23.6 Brisbane 21,229 25.9 43,810 53.5 Rest of Qld 15,263 25.7 31,570 53.3 Adelaide 3,154 7.0 13,669 30.5 Rest of SA -124 -2.0 1,220 19.5 Perth 155,783 24.8 33,193 52.1 Rest of WA 835 9.0 3,050 32.8 ACT 1207 7.0 5,262 30.4 Tasmania -369 -2.4 2,926 19.0 Northern Territory 1,334 22.9 2900 49.8 Australia Total 104,217 14.5 282,034 39.6 Table 1: Increase in the number of domestic students under two scenarios 2006-2021 by capital city Available at: http://www.universityworldnews.com/filemgmt_data/files/AUR_51-01_Birrell_Edwards.pdf Some of those recommendations include reducing the cost of access to higher education, strengthening the domestic universities to provide quality education to Australian citizens. In addition, due to the inequality level in accessing education especially among people from the lower socio-economic class, the government should aim at empowering these people to enable them compete favourably with the other social classes for positions in the universities. Discussion of the contributing factors Higher education in Australia has been faced with many challenges, these challenges have led to low enrolment in the universities and consequently a small population of the country has graduate qualifications. Some of the factors that have caused the low levels of university enrolments include the following. 1. The high cost of education- One challenge that makes increase in access of higher education hard to achieve is the cost implication that comes with it (Chen & St John, 2011, p23). The cost of acquiring a degree is very high in the country such that not everyone in the society can be able to match. This high cost of acquiring a degree is a challenge especially to individuals in the lower socio-economic class (Harmon 2010, p. 75). Very often, you will find needy students that are very bright but cannot afford to further their studies. The only hope for these students is either to find a sponsor or the government loans and grants provided by governments. The very bright ones are at an advantage because they are likely to receive sponsorship or even get free education from some universities that do this as part of their corporate social responsibility (Harmon 2010, p. 79). 2. Another element is the social-economic injustice that is brought about by Universities-In Australia, the indigenous people and the disabled have not been offered a chance to join universities and colleges. The denial of the chance has not been done deliberately, but rather, the Australian government has not offered that environment that encourages this segment of the population to aspire for higher learning (Rubin 2012, p. 38). 3. The inequality among the citizens of Australia also contributed to the few number of university graduate in the country- studies conducted by the commonwealth department of education science and training showed that the people from the lower socio economic setting had lower chances of participating in higher education compared to those from the higher socio economic settings (Rowan-Kenyon, 2007, p59). The studies, which were carried out in all the geographic and demographic regions in the country showed that 90 per cent of all the students would like to join a tertiary institution, two thirds of the students wanted to join a university while a quarter would prefer a vocational education training (VET). 70 per cent of all the students from higher socio economic setting felt that they were guaranteed of a tertiary education while only 50 per cent of students from the middle and lower socio economic classes felt they were guaranteed of a position in a tertiary institution. Discussion of the problem Government causes The government has caused this crisis by failing to regulate the cost that is associated with pursuing tertiary education. By failing to enact proper policies that would ensure that the cost of higher education is attainable by all the citizens, the government ensured that some students who were willing to pursue tertiary education were locked out of the institutions since they could not afford the prohibitively high costs. In, addition, the ever-increasing inequality levels, which the government has not managed to reduce has led to the more vulnerable groups not being able to access the tertiary education University causes The universities also partly share the blame since they have commercialised education by increasing the fees that a student requires to complete his degree program. This has been driven by the job market condition where the employees prefer to hire students who have a degree or a higher qualification, the demand for degree in the job market has in turn led to the universities increasing their fees due to an influx of students seeking to acquire degrees (Thomson, 2009, p39). Universities have also not been on the forefront to reduce inequality in the education since they do not have programs that ensure students from financially challenged backgrounds get access to education. People cause These problems of access to education in Australia would not have been rampant if the citizens were determined to ensure a large part of the population acquire degrees. The attitude of the people, especially from the lower socio economic classes that higher education is meant for the reach people have made them not put enough efforts to join institutions of higher learning (White, 2008, p57) Discussion of the outcomes (consequences and effects) 1. One of the consequences that is associated with the high cost of tertiary education is the low rate of increase in enrolment levels since the high fees locks out the students who cannot afford to pay. Table 2 below shows the discrepancy in enrolment in various regions in Australia due to the cost of higher education. Non-Overseas Commencing Students 1995 and 2001 State 1995 2001 Change No % New South Wales 71,611 77,884 6,274 8.8 Victoria 58,830 61,192 2,363 4 Queensland 37,689 47,703 10,014 26.6 Western Australia 19,381 21,009 1,628 8.4 Southern Australia 17,065 16,247 -818 -4.8 Tasmania 4,623 4,748 125 2.7 Northern Territory 2,386 2,427 41 1.7 Australia Capital Territory 7,484 6,749 -735 -9.8 Australia 219,066 237,960 18,892 8.6 Non-Overseas Commencing Students 1995 and 2001 Available at: http://www.mceecdya.edu.au/verve/_resources/indep_study_vol_1_file.pdf 2. The levels of inequality is also bound to increase since only the rich citizens who can afford to pay for the tertiary education will benefit while the students from the lower socio economic classes who cannot afford the fees for the tertiary education will not be able to get well paying jobs. 3. Effects of the low enrolment levels in the country will also affect the economic growth of the country since the education of the population will determine how well they will handle economic issues such as planning and other economic growth indicators. Recommendations 1. The government of Australia can improve the accessibility of higher education by increasing the number of domestic training universities that will increase the number of students being enrolled to institutions of higher learning (Birrell & Edwards, 2009, 7). 2. To reduce inequality in education, the government should strive to bridge the economic gap by empowering people from lower socio economic classes through providing them with sources of income. 3. Enact policies that will reduce the cost of education and encourage affirmative action to the financially challenged students (Commonwealth Department of Education Science and Training 2002, p4). References Birrell, B. & Edwards, D. (2009) The Bradley review and access to higher education in Australia, viewed 28 Jul 2013 from . Chen, R., & St. John, E. P. 2011. ?State Financial Policies and College Student Persistence: A National Study. Journal of Higher Education, 82(5), 629-660 Commonwealth Department of Education Science and Training. 2002 Socioeconomic background and higher education participation: An analysis of school students’ aspirations and expectations, viewed 28 Jul 2013 from http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/research/equity/docs/eip02_5.pdf Harmon, C., Carne, G., Lizardy-Hajbi, K., & Wilkerson, E. 2010, April 1. Access to higher education for undocumented students: "Outlaws" of social justice, equity, and equality. Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education, 5(1), 67-82. . Rowan-Kenyon, H. T. 2007. Predictors of Delayed College Enrollment and the Impact of Socioeconomic Status. Journal Of Higher Education, 78(2), 188-214. Rubin, M. 2012. Social class differences in social integration among students in higher education: A meta-analysis and recommendations for future research. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 5, 22-38. Thomson, G. 2009. Thirst for higher education and roles that Universities play: a case study on need versus demand for education. Pearson Publishers, 1, 22-23. White, D. 2008. The complexities of higher education provision in Developing Nations. Journal of higher Education, 3, 15-25. Appendices Non-Overseas Commencing Students 1995 and 2001 State 1995 2001 Change No % New South Wales 71,611 77,884 6,274 8.8 Victoria 58,830 61,192 2,363 4 Queensland 37,689 47,703 10,014 26.6 Western Australia 19,381 21,009 1,628 8.4 Southern Australia 17,065 16,247 -818 -4.8 Tasmania 4,623 4,748 125 2.7 Northern Territory 2,386 2,427 41 1.7 Australia Capital Territory 7,484 6,749 -735 -9.8 Australia 219,066 237,960 18,892 8.6 Non-Overseas Commencing Students 1995 and 2001 Available at: http://www.mceecdya.edu.au/verve/_resources/indep_study_vol_1_file.pdf Read More