Media releases

Federation University Australia welcomes the Australian Government’s announcement of extra support for higher education and vocational education and training students taking placements in critical occupations and managing higher education loan repayments.

Students in regional and peri-urban areas are more likely to need to travel long distances to attend placements and have carer responsibilities than their urban counterparts, making the announcement of a weekly payment during clinical and professional placement periods particularly welcome for students at Federation.

Once in place, the Commonwealth Prac Payment will make education more accessible by supporting teaching, nursing, midwifery and social work students during their mandatory work placements and is expected to benefit 68,000 eligible higher education students and over 5,000 VET students each year.

The Commonwealth Prac Payments will complement Federation’s Co-operative Education Model, which aims to provide students with paid industry placements in other programs.

Federation also works to ease the financial burden on students through its Foundation scholarship program, through which a record 254 scholarships, worth over $850,000, are being offered in 2024.

The Australian Government also announced plans to the reduction of $3 billion in student debt.  by capping the HELP indexation rate to be the lower of either the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the Wage Price Index (WPI) with effect from 1 June 2023.

Federation University welcomes these early reforms to start implementing the recommendations in Australian Universities Accord Final Report.

Federation University’s Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Duncan Bentley, has written to the Commonwealth Government outlining where the university’s work aligns with, and can maximise support for, recommendations that improve access to post-secondary education and the positive impact it can have on regional and peri-urban students and communities.

Quotes attributable to Federation University Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Duncan Bentley     

“Federation University Australia welcomes the government’s announcement of additional support for students, which will help bridge the education gap between those studying in regional and per-urban areas and those in major metropolitan centres.”

“I would like to thank Education Minister Jason Clare and Skills and Training Minister Brendan O’Connor for announcing these initiatives to help ease the financial burden on students while they complete their mandatory work placements.”

“Federation will continue to advocate strongly for equitable access to post-secondary education and for more support for the wellbeing of students. We look forward to working with the Commonwealth Government on implementing further Universities Accord Final Report Recommendations.”