The government will spend $14 million to open up 185 places for students studying at a bachelor’s degree at a regional university, which was announced in the recent federal budget. 

Stawell Secondary College’s principal Kevin O’Neil said “I believe that increasing the number of places available regional universities would greatly benefit students in rural areas.

“Our students are faced with financial pressures associated with living away from home or travelling large distances to study at university.

“Students in rural areas are much less likely to obtain a university qualification than students in major cities.

“By making more places available to rural students, closer to their families, this will help to address this inequity.” 

The closest universities to the Northern Grampians are Federation Universities Horsham and Ballarat campuses, and Australian Catholic Unviersity’s Ballarat campus.

Mallee MP Andrew Broad said “it is vital that if students across the Wimmera, Mallee and Mildura regions want to study at university locally then we have spot for them, and we do everything we can to support that”. 

The government will also make Youth Allowance to regional students more accessible by changing the threshold for parental income. 

The new income criteria for independence will be increase to $160,000, with a further $10,000 increase for each additional child who wishes to go on to higher education.