June 12, 2026
House Standing Committee on Education
The Group of Eight (Go8) universities provide a high-quality education and are focused on strong student outcomes – ensuring students do not just get a foot in the door but are set up to succeed both during and after university.
Educational attainment is not created at a single point in time. It is shaped progressively – from early childhood through schooling and into post‑school pathways. Universities sit at the end of this pipeline, but we see the cumulative effects of what happens at every earlier stage.
For that reason, the Go8 has a strong interest in the performance of the entire education system – not only to ensure students are prepared for higher education, but to support a system in which every learner, regardless of background, can progress successfully into further education, training or employment.
Improving attainment therefore requires a coordinated, whole‑of‑system effort across early childhood, schools, vocational education and higher education. No single sector can solve this challenge in isolation.
Australia’s capacity to deliver these outcomes depends on the strength of the schooling system that precedes university. Where students experience gaps in school readiness, progression, or achievement, these gaps are carried forward into post-school education and training.
Educational attainment is therefore a cumulative process. Differences in outcomes at school – whether in participation, achievement, or retention – directly shape participation and success in tertiary education.
We also recognise that a university education is not for everyone and it may not suit every person’s preference, circumstance or situation. We value and support alternative pathways to lifting educational attainment outside the university context.
If we can address inequalities and disadvantages in early childhood development, school education and family support then that will provide students with the best preparation for post-school education and training, employment and civic life.
At Go8 universities our primary focus is on ensuring the success and attainment of our students regardless of their educational background, experience or advantage. Engaging with our own students is where we have the greatest opportunity to act and have the largest influence though we naturally also engage in outreach activities to support aspiration and ambition amongst all students.
Excellence and equity in schooling delivers opportunity for young Australians – opportunity that is capitalised on at Go8 universities. It is not acceptable that educational, social and economic disadvantage can persist or be perpetuated through the school system and be left for post-school sectors alone to address.
Changing these circumstances is challenging. It requires partnership from all stakeholders – those across the educational sectors from early childhood through to post-school, business, and all governments in all jurisdictions.
Recommendation
The Committee should consider:
- The cumulative effects of disparities and disadvantage across early childhood development and into school education as a primary factor affecting participation, completion and attainment in tertiary education
- Opportunities for greater cooperation and coordination across various levels of government and sectors in our society to improve attainment
- How equity students are defined and improvements in the use of data to better understand attainment across education sectors and throughout the development of children and young people into adulthood
- The success, longevity, return on investment and evaluation of various Government programs aimed at improving educational attainment for target groups such as women in STEM.
Further information
Education and development throughout our lives
It is important to acknowledge that the differences we see in student access, participation, and success in tertiary education, particularly higher education, are the downstream product of processes that are set in place from birth and exacerbated throughout schooling. There is a long pathway into university and a systems approach to equity, which can capture the cumulative and compounding effects of disadvantage, is necessary if we are ever to improve outcomes.
Inequity in education will never be solved by merely tinkering at the edges. Consideration should be given to a holistic suite of policy changes designed to set all students up for success, including before they reach university, while they attend university, and after they complete their degrees.
This will require coordination across all levels of government and education stakeholders. For example, Federal and state/territory Government departments and agencies, along with community service organisations, local communities, the philanthropic and charitable sectors, industries, business, trade unions, and universities should create targeted, long-term strategies to address systemic barriers to participation, success, and employment that cannot be solved by one sector alone.
The Government should also consider updating the current system of financial support available to students during study to remove material barriers and ensure the benefits of a quality education and lifelong learning can be shared by all.
Disparities in attainment at school
There are significant disparities in the proportion of students completing secondary school between our cities, regions and remote areas:
- 79 per cent of metropolitan students complete their Year 12 certificate
- 68 per cent of inner regional students complete their Year 12 certificate
- 69 per cent of outer regional students complete their Year 12 certificate
- 56 per cent of remote and very remote students complete their Year 12 certificate.[1]
Apparent retention rate between Year 10 and Year 12 for Indigenous students is 60 per cent, while it is 83 per cent for non-Indigenous students.[2]
These very significant differences require attention and policy solutions directed at the schools sector. They are, however, issues that also flow directly to successful post-school participation including university. The real and significant differences in university participation between metropolitan and regional areas cannot be solved by policy prescriptions that are focused on universities only.
Measuring attainment
It is often said that what you measure is what you get. The existing higher education equity categories have been in place since the early 1990s, so it is time to review them to ensure that they still represent the areas we need to focus on and that they are effective measures.
The six equity groups were identified in the A Fair Chance for All report from the Australian Government in 1990 and remain to do this:
- Students from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB)
- Students with disability
- Women in non-traditional areas (WINTA)
- Indigenous students (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students)
- Students from low socioeconomic status (SES) locations
- Students from regional and remote locations.
Other groups not officially recognised, but frequently referred to include:
- Students who are the first in their family to attend university
- Students who are carers
- Mature-aged students
- Students from refugee backgrounds
- Students who identify as LGBTQI+
- Students who are veterans.
Targeted, long-term solutions and strategies developed to ensure equity of access and success must be research and data driven. We must know what works, what hasn’t worked and why, if we are to evolve our education system and maximise access across the population. It is data and data systems that will help the sector know what success looks like, track progress and measure it.
The Go8 has previously recommended the creation of a new national agency or network of research centres and institutes to drive a data driven approach to equity and excellence in the tertiary sector. At the time Go8 suggested that such an agency could bring together, in a single or federated structure, the research and evidence remits of the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO), the National Centre for Vocational Educational Research (NCVER) and the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE).
Along similar lines, Australia’s Education Ministers have agreed in principle to establish a new Australian Teaching and Learning Commission which would bring under one roof:
- the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)
- the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL)
- the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO)
- Education Services Australia (ESA).
The Commission is intended to allow for greater co-ordination between curriculum, teaching, assessment, research, and reporting, with the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.
We may want to revisit what a similar agency would look like in the tertiary sector, possibly involving collaborations with the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC) and Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA). Such an agency would enable education providers to understand where and how they can have the most impact, and, in collaboration with Government, industry, communities and other sectors create mission relevant targets.
Conclusion
Improving educational attainment will require a sustained and coordinated effort across the entire education system. The foundations laid in early childhood development and school have a profound influence on the opportunities available later in life, and it is these foundations that must be strengthened if Australia is to genuinely deliver both excellence and equity.
While universities, particularly Go8 universities, play a critical role in supporting student success and enabling graduates to thrive, they alone cannot be expected to overcome barriers embedded earlier in the system.
The Go8 is ready to contribute to a collective effort. Through our teaching and research, we will continue to support students to succeed regardless of their starting point, while advocating for policies that strengthen fairness and excellence across the system. By working together to lift outcomes at every stage, Australia can ensure that opportunity is not determined by circumstance, but realised through capability, ambition and support.
[1] https://www.acara.edu.au/reporting/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia/year-12-certification-rates
[2] https://www.acara.edu.au/reporting/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia/apparent-retention
