Universities aren’t to blame for undergraduate attrition, its high schools which tell students that higher education is the only option, Brody Hannan writes.

He should know, “it wasn’t too long ago that I went through the university application process,” Mr Hannan writes in a considered essay for the Asia and the Pacific Policy Society, at ANU’s Policy Forum.

So what’s to be done? “Teachers and careers advisors could more actively encourage the value of vocational education, instead of insisting on alternate pathways into university. Admission centres that look solely at ATARs without considering the motivations of students applying to university also bear responsibility. Finally, the government should work hard to make non-university options more appealing.”

Smart piece and a sign of the times. A policy consensus is coming that voced and higher ed are equally indispensable.