SA universities lead the way for equity, not employment

October 01, 2012

The three South Australian universities are admitting a high proportion of students from equity groups but are not delivering on employment outcomes, according to The Good Universities Guide 2013.

The Guide rates all three universities highly for ‘Access by Equity Groups’, with the University of South Australia and Flinders University achieving five stars and the University of Adelaide receiving four stars.

Equity groups include — among others — students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, students from rural and isolated areas, and students of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent.

Interestingly, the University of Adelaide was the only member of the prestigious Group of Eight to earn a rating for ‘Access by Equity Groups’ that was equal to its rating for ‘Student Demand’, indicating that it admits a high proportion of equity students as well as a high proportion of top ATAR scorers.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Adelaide, Professor Warren Bebbington, agreed that the university’s high proportion of equity students sets it apart from the other Group of Eight institutions.

‘The University of Adelaide has double the number of students from non-traditional backgrounds than any other Group of Eight university because commitment to a truly democratic breadth in its student cohort was a primary principle of its founder, Dr Augustus Short, in the 1870s,’ he said.

Professor Bebbington also noted that South Australia’s demographics might be a factor in the state’s strong ratings for the admission of students from equity groups.
‘South Australia has a significant remote and regional community, and some areas of high unemployment and disadvantage.’

These strong equity findings coincide with the federal government’s push to increase university access for all Australians, with a goal that students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds will make up 20 per cent of undergraduate enrolments by 2020.

Despite admitting a high proportion of equity students, the three South Australian universities did not fare so well in achieving positive outcomes for their graduates, with each of the universities receiving three stars or fewer in the ‘Getting a Full-time Job’ and ‘Positive Graduate Outcomes’ ratings. This indicates that a high proportion of graduates were still seeking full-time employment four months after graduating and that a high proportion were neither finding a job nor enrolling in further study.

This begs the question: could the strong graduate unemployment trend among the South Australian universities be linked to wider factors surrounding South Australia’s economy?
‘South Australia has long-term challenges with a relatively flat local economy and a higher than average youth unemployment rate,’ Professor Bebbington responded.