Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Never before has a budget had such an unfair and disproportionate impact on rural and regional communities. The cuts to funding of supported places and the new fee and debt regime will almost inevitably undermine one of Australia's most innovative institutions delivering higher education in regional communities. The Geraldton Universities Centre provides supported online degree programs for universities across Australia. Students from the Mid West are enrolled at remote partner universities but have in-person tutorials, pastoral care and high-speed computing facilities provided by the GUC, providing much higher completion rates than unsupported distance education programs. The partner universities share their course fees with GUC. Courses are available in, inter alia, nursing, education, accounting and engineering.

With the 20 per cent cut in supported places funding, the universities will have to either cut the GUC share of funding or increase fees for a largely mature aged constituency. A cut in GUC's share of fees will undermine their capacity to continue to offer the quality and breadth of service. Increased fees, combined with the aggressive new debt repayment provisions, will undoubtedly drive students in WA's Mid West away from embarking on a university program and undermine this great Western Australian initiative to deliver higher education into our rural communities. (Time expired)