Association of Independent Schools of Victoria Inc. A0009210H A.B.N 44 711 074 857 20 Garden Street 17 March 2008 South Yarra Vic 3141 PO Box 2138 Prahran Vic 3181 T: 03 9825 7200 Ms Karen Ellingford F: 03 9826 6066 Executive Officer W: ais.vic.edu.au Education and Training Committee Parliament House Spring Street EAST MELBOURNE VIC 3002 Dear Ms Ellingford We appreciate the opportunity to contribute to the Education and Training Committee’s Parliamentary Inquiry into Geographical Differences in the Rate in which Victoria Students Participate in Higher Education. Please find attached our submission, which responds to Terms of Reference a, b, d and g. Yours sincerely Michelle Green Chief Executive SUBMISSION TO THE PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY INTO GEOGRAPHICAL DIFFERENCES IN THE RATE IN WHICH VICTORIAN STUDENTS PARTICIPATE IN HIGHER EDUCATION 18 MARCH 2008 AISV Submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Geographical Differences in the Rate in which Victorian Students Participate in Higher Education 1 PART 1 - INTRODUCTION Association of Independent Schools of Victoria Incorporated The Association was established in 1949 to represent, to promote the interests of and to provide services to, Victorian independent schools. More than 97 per cent of all independent schools in Victoria are members of the Association and Member Schools enrol more than 99 per cent of all independent school students in Victoria. As such, 210 schools educating almost 122,000 students are members of the Association. As Member Schools are individual legal entities, the Association is not a system authority but is a non-profit service organisation to its membership. As part of this role, the Association represents the interests of its Member Schools to government and the community on a wide range of issues. Background to the Submission 128 independent schools provided education for 11,028 Year 12 students in 2007. Of these schools, 92 were located in metropolitan Melbourne, 33 were in regional Victoria and 3 offered Year 12 education at both metropolitan and regional campuses. The schools deemed to be outside the Melbourne metropolitan area for the purposes of this submission are listed, with their locations, in Appendix A. A total of 2,244 Year 12 students attended independent school campuses in regional Victoria, representing 20.3% of all Victorian Year 12 independent students. 9 campuses of 8 independent schools that offered Year 12 in 2007 were located in towns that both were located more than 100km from Melbourne and had populations of less than 10,000. These schools offered Year 12 education to 238 students in 2007 and were located in Cobram, Hamilton, Leongatha, Maryborough, Nathalia, Newhaven, Portland and Swan Hill. Given the small number of independent schools located outside both metropolitan Melbourne and Victoria’s regional centres, this submission will focus on differences between regional and metropolitan students, and will not focus on rural school students. Guiding Principles Choice (for parents and students), access, equity, diversity Format of the Submission The Association has provided responses to specific questions in the Terms of Reference that are relevant to the Association. These are questions a, b, d and g. AISV Submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Geographical Differences in the Rate in which Victorian Students Participate in Higher Education 2 Summary of Recommendations Recommendation 1: State government support to establish VET clusters in regional areas. VET clusters would enable more students to access VET. Clusters of schools could be set up cross-sectorally within an area. This would reduce staffing and administration costs. Identify employer needs within the local area of the cluster and focus VET offerings accordingly. Recommendation 2: State support for equitable high speed internet access for all schools in all Victorian regional and rural areas. The current metropolitan-regional divide is exacerbating the digital divide within and between communities. Recommendation 3: State encouragement for the development of regional and rural hubs with schools, TAFEs and universities, to allow greater shared access to resources. Recommendation 4: State provided incentives for high-achieving graduates to enter teaching programmes and for teachers to work in regional, rural and remote areas. A number of models are currently being explored. The State government needs to look at the most effective incentive programmes and implement them in partnership with all secondary and tertiary sectors. AISV Submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Geographical Differences in the Rate in which Victorian Students Participate in Higher Education 3 PART 2 – SUBMISSION Terms of Reference a) Variations in the number and type of university applications, offers, acceptances and completions in different metropolitan, rural and regional areas. Applications and offers Destination data provided by the On Track project (DEECD, 2007) are most recently available for students who completed Year 12 in 2006. The number of independent school students making university applications differed only slightly by area, with 95.1 per cent from metropolitan schools applying, and 90.3 per cent from regional schools. Independent school student applications to university are significantly higher than the average across all On Track schools in the 2007 data, as detailed in Box 1. Box 1: Year 12 independent school students – offers On Track data 2007 (2006 Year 12 leavers) Proportion of Year 12 students with tertiary applications: Metro independent schools 95.08% Regional independent schools 90.37% All On Track schools 82.14% Proportion of applying students receiving university offers: Metro independent schools 82.47% Regional independent schools 82.11% All On Track schools 66.07% Proportion of applying students receiving TAFE/VET offers: Metro independent schools 16.95% Regional independent schools 16.45% All On Track schools 28.09% Proportion of applying students receiving tertiary offers: Metro independent schools 95.82% Regional independent schools 94.05% All On Track schools 90.99% The data also show little difference between independent schools in metropolitan and regional schools in offers from university and TAFE (82.5% and 17.0% for metro, 82.1% and 16.5% for regional). Independent school students have a significantly higher percentage of university offers in comparison to the average, and a correspondingly low percentage of TAFE offers. Overall, independent school students in metropolitan areas had a 95.8 per cent rate of tertiary offers compared to 94.1 percent for students in regional areas, significantly higher than students from the government and Catholic sectors. AISV Submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Geographical Differences in the Rate in which Victorian Students Participate in Higher Education 4 Acceptance of offers Independent school student acceptance of offers does show some variation. From metropolitan schools, 69.8 per cent enrolled and 8.8 per cent deferred, as shown in Box 2. From regional schools just 51.3 per cent enrolled while 19.5 per cent deferred. The number of regional students from independent schools remaining in education after Year 12 (88.7%) is only slightly lower than their metropolitan counterparts (93.8%) when deferrals are included (as an intent to continue education). If deferrals are not included the gap widens (85.1% metro to 69.2% regional). In this latter case, regional independent school student rates of continued education are significantly lower than government and Catholic sector students in metropolitan areas, while still significantly higher their counterparts in regional areas. Box 2: Year 12 independent school students – circumstances On Track data 2007 (2006 Year 12 leavers) Proportion of Year 12 students: In Uni In TAFE Apprenticeship Metro independent schools 69.75% 12.21% 3.10% Regional independent schools 51.33% 19.10% 6.99% All On Track schools 47.20% 10.88% 8.15% In Education Employed Looking Metro independent schools 85.06% 5.29% 0.90% Regional independent schools 69.19% 9.80% 1.51% All On Track schools 74.45% 13.62% 2.93% Deferred Metro independent schools 8.75% Regional independent schools 19.49% All On Track schools 9.00% The difference in take up of university places does suggest likely financial hardship for students in regional areas (James, 2007) due to increased university fees, travel and metropolitan accommodation expenses, an issue that has been highlighted recently in the Australian (Rout, 2008) and the Herald Sun (Metlikovec, 2008). Other possible issues are discussed in response to question d. Completion rates by sector Recent research by Marks (2007), based on the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY), looks at completion of university courses by 2004 of students who were in Year 9 in 1995. Without adjusting for any background variables, the study finds that university students who went to Catholic schools were most likely to complete a course with a completion rate of 87.7 per cent. Independent school students were next on 81.4 per cent, followed by government school students on 78.5 per cent. Marks goes on to note that ‘overall, after controlling for background characteristics and ENTER scores, school sector had no impact on expected completion rates’ (2007, p. 20). That is, once students get into university, their school background is not a significant indicator of whether they will finish their university course. AISV Submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Geographical Differences in the Rate in which Victorian Students Participate in Higher Education 5 Completion rates by geographic location Previous LSAY research has found that students from urban areas tend to show higher completion rates than students from non-urban areas. However, these differences are minor: the completion rate for rural students was 63 per cent compared to 65 per cent for urban students (Martin et al. 2001, in Marks, 2007, p. 3). Regional differences were more marked among women, and it was students classified as from ‘isolated’ regions that exhibited the lowest completion rates (Urban et al. 1999, in Marks, 2007, p. 3).