In response to the Bradley Review, the Australian Government announced significant reforms to the higher education system. Within this package of reforms the Government announced its intention to improve the participation of students from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds in higher education to 20 per cent of all undergraduate students by 2020. The government also indicated that new measures of SES would be developed.
The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) in consultation with the Indicator Development Group of higher education experts have developed a discussion paper on the measurement of SES.
In response to the feedback received, DEEWR developed an interim indicator of low SES based on
- the ABS Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) Index of Education and Occupation measure at the Census Collection District (CD) level, and
- selected Centrelink student income support data.
The CD component is assigned a weight of 2/3 and the Centrelink component a 1/3 weight. The low SES interim indicator is calculated at the institution level.
The low SES interim indicator is used to allocate funding in the participation component of the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP). The latest statistics can be found at the HEPPP page.
DEEWR is undertaking research into student data such as parental education to inform the development of a final indicator of SES.