Greater support needed for rural students

The Greens spokesperson for Higher Education, Robert Simms, called for greater support for rural students who would like to attend University.

He said that many regional students faced significant structural barriers.

"Many rural students who would like to attend university face numerous structural barriers. For those who would like to move to the city, we need to ensure that Youth Allowance and Austudy provides enough support for them to meet their basic needs without compromising their ability to meet study requirements.

"We need to boost funding to public universities across the board to ensure that they can continue to deliver quality education outcomes for all students.

"I am very concerned about the rise of regional for-profit colleges. I am also concerned about for-profit providers offering online courses, which often charge huge fees and leaves students with large debts and degrees that aren't worth the paper they're written on.

"We need to ensure that regional and rural students don't miss out on getting a quality university education and look forward to participating in discussions around how best to achieve this."