The government’s funding freeze jeopardises university enrolment growth for Indigenous students, Universities Australia warns. Last year UA committed to a growth rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island students 50 per cent above the figure for all students. ATSI enrolments were then 1.6 per cent of the total, although Indigenous Australians account for 3 per cent of the country’s population.

“We need to ensure that every policy and funding decision is pulling in the right direction to keep making strong progress to close the gaps in both education and employment,” UA president Margaret Gardner says.
“We ask government to reconsider a funding freeze which makes it harder to enrol more students from disadvantaged and under-represented groups – including Indigenous students.”