Regional universities should be favoured in allocation of 20,000 extra places, Andrew Gee says

It comes after Charles Sturt University vice-chancellor Renee Leon warned that metropolitan universities were lining up to gain a large share of the places at the expense of regional universities and regional areas.

Nationals member Andrew Gee said a bidding process for the 20,000 extra places over two years should be weighted in favour of regional universities.

"The big city universities have deeper pockets and greater capacity to put together expansive bids for these places and as Professor Leon has rightly pointed out, there are real fears that the result will be that students will be siphoned out of the regions to the cities," Mr Gee said.

"Once they leave the regions, it can be very hard to get them back to build the country workforce that we so desperately need."

Universities, university colleges and other eligible higher education providers have been invited to apply for an allocation of the extra places which will be assessed through a competitive process.

Institutions must demonstrate demand for the additional places and evidence that places will directly address workforce shortages and increase participation of students from underrepresented groups.

Regional Development Minister Kristy McBain said people in remote and regional areas were less likely to pursue higher education, with 43 per cent of 25 to 34-year-old obtaining a degree compared to 20 per cent in regional areas.

"Our regional universities are key to giving our rural and regional students opportunities to study, train and hopefully one day work in the communities they call home," Ms McBain said.

"I don't want Australia to be a country where your chances in life depend on where you live.

"I will always be a strong advocate for the importance of accessing training and education in our regions."

Mr Gee said the program guidelines for the new places didn't recognise the strong track record that regional universities had in educating disadvantaged students.

"There should be a weighting in the assessment process in favour of the regional universities to account for this and to ensure that they continue to grow and don't lose out.

"We don't want the end result of this initiative to be a comparative loss of capacity at our regional universities and in our regional workforce.

"The warning bells are ringing around our regions. Let's hope they're heeded."

READ MORE:

Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson did not directly respond to questions on whether the scheme could have negative consequences for regional universities or whether they should be favoured in the assessment process.

"We encourage all our members to participate in the government's competitive bidding process for the allocation of additional university places and look forward to learning the outcomes," Ms Jackson said.

Regional Universities Network executive director Alec Webb said there was broad concern about the hollowing out of Australia's regional workforce.

"While we support the ideas of the government and their ambition to enrol greater [numbers of] students from those underrepresented cohorts, we are obviously at the Regional Universities Network, we are concerned that this could potentially see students moving to metropolitan areas and therefore not returning to the regions post graduation and the impact that that will have on our communities."

Mr Webb said students should ultimately be supported to study in the subject area and institution of their choice.

"When you look at indigenous enrolments, low [socioeconomic status] students, for instance, or even students from regional areas, regional universities do the lion's share of that of educating those cohorts in the strange environment," he said.

"But I think it's important here that we acknowledge student agency and student choice."