In a speech quoting Labor icons John Curtin and Paul Keating, Education Minister Jason Clare called for expanding access to education and for job generating research

In his first major address to the higher education community Mr Clare set a national goal of increasing the HE participation rate of low SES Australians to 20 per cent. While the 2008 Bradley Review target of 40 per cent of 18-34 year olds with an UG degree was long met the 20 per cent goal has not been.

“Where you live, how much your parents earn, whether you are Indigenous or not, is still a major factor in whether you are a student or a graduate of an Australian university,” he said.

I don’t want us to be a country where your chances in life depend on your postcode, your parents, or the colour of your skin.  None of us want that. But that’s where we are today,” Mr Clare told the Universities Australia conference last night.

Mr Clare proposed this as part of the government’s long-promised Australian Universities Accord, “looking at everything from funding and access, to affordability, transparency, regulation, employment conditions and also how universities and TAFEs and other higher education and vocational education providers and training institutions work together.”

He said engagement on terms of reference for work on the accord  will start “soon” with appointment of a “small group of eminent Australians” to lead the work.

In an apparent rebuke to the previous government’s interventionist oversight of Australian Research Council funding recommendations Mr Clare also announced an independent review of its governance and reporting.

However he acknowledged  “the former government did some good things to encourage translation and boost commercialisation.”

“I think there is more we can do together here to turn Australian ideas and discoveries into Australian jobs,” he said.