Role of Higher Education In Advancing Economic

Development

Caroline PerkinsAustralia

Higher Education and Economic Development

• What should higher education do to advance economic development?

• How are these roles shared?• Where does this responsibility

end?• Issues

– background– areas of skills need; and– regional issues.

Contribution of education to economic growth

• Estimated long-run effect on economic output of one additional year of education in the OECD area generally lies between 3-6%.

• People with higher educational attainment have higher participation rates, are in the workforce for longer, and have better health.

Australian Population of Working Age

Earnings by Qualification and Labour Force Participation by Age

Australia and Higher Education Attainment

• Higher educational attainment is above average in Australia. In 2004– 22% of Australians aged 25-64 had attained a bachelor

degree or above compared to the OECD country mean of 19%;

– 27% of Australians aged 25-34 had attained a university education.

• 49% of Australians who were in Year 9 in 1995 had attended university at some point before the age of 24.

Australian undergraduate SET enrolment 2001-2005 – 7% decrease

Domestic undergraduate SET enrolment

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Enro

lmen

ts

Natural and PhysicalSciencesInformation Technology

Engineering and RelatedTechnologiesAgriculture and RelatedStudies

Trends in commencements, enrolments and completions in IT

Trends in numbers of commencements, enrolments and completions in IT

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

45000

50000

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Commencements

Enrolments

Completions

Activities to encourage uptake of SET studies

• University initiatives– Science camps– School visits by young science researchers– Joint projects with schools etc

Activities to encourage uptake of SET studies

• Joint activities– Australian Government funding of new

undergraduate places in areas of national skills need e.g. engineering

– ICT Leadership Group, with membership from industry peak bodies, government departments, universities, technical and vocational education bodies and schools

– Careers Advice Australia

Activities to encourage uptake of SET studies

• Australian Government Programmes – to promote student engagement in maths

and science in schools– activities to promote appreciation of SET

careers through activities such as national science week etc

– Research into ways to promote community awareness of SET careers

Role of Higher Education in Regional Economic Development

• Australia large country with a small population (30%) outside cites.

• Relatively lower educational participation rates for students from rural and isolated backgrounds than from metropolitan areas.

• On a per capita basis, for every 10 urban people who attend university, about six Australians from rural or isolated areas do.

Location of universities in Australia

Regional Universities

• Regional university campuses make significant contributions to their host economies– Charles Sturt University and the University

of Ballarat have found that 60-70% of their graduates are initially employed in a regional locations.

Regional issues

• Australian Government initiatives to assist regional universities include:– Collaboration and Structural Reform Fund;– Diversity and Structural Adjustment Fund;– Regional loading;– Capital Development Pool; and– Equity measures.

• Issue getting students to enrol in regional universities