Federal Member for Hume Angus Taylor has welcomed a package of measures to help regional tertiary students access youth allowance and further support toward their studies.

A re-elected Coalition Government would reduce the period of time that students need to be self-employed, from 18 months to 14 months, to access Youth Allowance and ABSTUDY living allowance, for regional and remote students.

This will mean that a student is able to meet the relevant earnings criteria to prove independence within one GAP year, as opposed to having to work for longer and delay their university commencement.  The longer a student is not engaged in further study after university, the less likely it is that they will re-engage.

A re-elected Coalition Government would also provide 1,200 new Rural and Regional Enterprise scholarships for undergraduate, postgraduate and vocational education students to undertake STEM studies.

The scholarships will be valued at up to $20,000 each.

There will also be additional funding for Assistance for Isolated Children’s (AIC) Additional Boarding Allowance.

“Students from regional and remote Australia remain under-represented at universities. While a quarter of the general community lives in regional and remote areas, they represent only one in five students at university,” Angus Taylor said.

“This is all about recognising that the big problem for regional people when they go off to university is the cost of relocating. It’s an issue that many of my constituents have contacted me about over the past couple of years and I’m delighted with these new measures,” he said.