Good afternoon

The University of Queensland is aiming to raise $250m to help fund its effort to make higher education “needs blind” for its students, meaning that any qualified potential student should be able to enrol and if they can’t afford to support themselves while studying then the university will help out through scholarships.

It’s an ambitious and worthy goal, part of the university’s Queensland Commitment to achieve a student profile in which 30 per cent of domestic students come from regional, remote and low socio-economic backgrounds by 3032.

In the next few weeks the Albanese government will let us know what they will do with the many recommendations of its Universities Accord review. Sadly for students studying law, business, economics and the humanities, the signs are that the government is unlikely to reduce the high $16,000 plus, HECS fees which they are currently required to pay each year. It’s a disappointing prospect for students who have been lumbered with these high tuition fees since the Morrison government’s ill-fated Job Ready Graduates higher education funding scheme was introduced in 2021.

Finally, Griffith University’s Andrew Harvey tells us why real improvement in higher education needs to start in schools. But “deep collaboration between the sectors remains rare”, he laments.

Until next Wednesday