20.
Natasha Tareen
who gets to come to anu? SAI CAMPBELL & ANNA-KATE BRAITHWAITE
ANU proudly presents itself as Australia’s ‘National’ University and the recent unveiling of the ANU 2025 plan declares that its student body will aim to “reflect the full diversity of modern day Australia”. The data, however, presents a different picture. Coming to ANU is contingent on being admitted and, perhaps more significantly, having the financial means to support your study. The National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education reports that presently, around 4% of domestic students come from the lowest socioeconomic quartile, compared to the average of around 10% in the Group of Eight (G8) and 16% nationally. This figure has barely budged for over a decade and consistently puts ANU squarely at the bottom. ANU’s 2020 Access and Participation Plan states that “talent, realised or potential, will be the only threshold for joining our community as a student” yet our talented low-SES students simply aren’t getting here - so who actually gets to come to ANU?
Educational inequalities are evident in
Australia starting from preschooling through to university. Social class and geographical location should have no correlation with innate intelligence, yet in Australia these factors are major determinants of an individuals’ likelihood of attaining a tertiary qualification. Whether it is through accessing ‘better’ schooling, extensive tutoring or having the support to stay in the secondary education system to finish Year 12, socioeconomic status is a major determinant of students’ success. The chance of achieving a higher ATAR falls swiftly with one’s socioeconomic position. In 2019, just 1.3 percent of the lowest SES quartile achieved an ATAR over 90, whilst the top SES quartile saw 9.4 percent of students achieve an ATAR over 90. Examining what we define as ‘talent’ may also reveal subtle obstacles for low-SES students in accessing tertiary education. An interesting question that arises is whether ‘community service’ requirements might quietly complicate applications for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The obvious reasons are that schools in low-SES areas have fewer resources and support available to assist students in extracurricular pursuits.
