Federation University vice chancellor Professor Helen Bartlett will spearhead the national Regional Universities Network, taking over the role as its new chair on February 1.
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Professor Bartlett said it was an exciting role to step in to, particularly in a federal election year.
“With a federal election looming, this year promises to be an exciting period for higher education, and RUN will continue to be an active player in policy development and funding discussions,” she said.
“We know regional students are disadvantaged compared to students in urban city areas so we want to make sure we obtain the resources that are needed to maximise opportunities for regional students to stay, study and then go to work in regional areas.”
Professor Bartlett said the core goal of the group of six regional universities was to raise the participation rate of regional, rural and remote students in further education. She said regional universities give students the chance to study, work and live in their local communities, helping to create stronger regional economies.
Also critical is to overturn the funding freeze currently affecting many regional universities.
While Prof Bartlett won a thaw of the funding freeze last year for Federation University, other regional universities are still under the cap.
“Universities are still in the middle of a funding freeze set at 2017 levels in terms of additional support provided by the Commonwealth,” she said. “Last year I was able to unlock the freeze for Federation University which was a very important development for us because it means we no longer have to worry about putting a limit on the number of students that can come to our campus … but not all unis were able to unlock that freeze.
“We have more work to do across the sector and for the network we will be continuing to lobby for a lift of that freeze, whatever government is in place, because the freeze really impact on regional universities to a much greater extend because they are smaller, less able to withstand those sort of financial constraints, and we want that to be understood by government and receive greater recognition for the role we play in regional areas.”
She said regional universities were also in the unique position of being able to respond to the needs of the local communities.
“Because proximity is important, the fact is we are able to offer courses that are relevant to the regions we are located in. For us in Ballarat and western Victoria, renewable energy is a huge issue and offers huge potential for us to be involved right across the board as a dual sector university from training technicians through to incorporating research and development, graduate study and the like … to support development of renewables.”
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Also in her sights is expanding the role of international students to regional universities, which add “incredible value to the learning experiences in regional campuses and the communities in which they live and study”.
Prof Bartlett took over the two-year position from Professor Greg Hill, vice chancellor of the University of the Sunshine Coast.
Professor Hill said there were still significant barriers to regional, low socioeconomic status, indigenous and first in family Australians attending university.
“We have a lot of work to do as a network and with Government to reduce educational inequality between regional and metropolitan Australia,” he said.
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