The Federal government has set a goal of forty percent of Australians in the age group 25 to 34 holding a degree from a university by 2025.
To achieve this, student places at Australian universities will be deregulated from 2012.
What that means is universities will have the say on how many students they will accept for each course, but the fees to be charged will rest with the government.
Some critics see this as delivering a serious down grading in course standards. Cramming more students into existing courses without any degree of control over income is a sure way of fragmenting the ideals of higher education.
What is does illustrate is the absolute necessity of every young person to get the best possible education if they hope to survive in the future business world.
The day is long gone when it was possible to leave school at fourteen or fifteen years of age, find a labouring job with the local council - and go on to own a home, have a family and live a fairly prosperous lifestyle.
The children of Aboriginal families living in remote locations, children from homes affected by drug addiction, crime and poverty who are not encouraged to even attend school face a bleak future in the workforce. Their prospect of attaining that university degree can only be an illusion.
The magic of automated production machinery and the age of the computer have created an imbalance. We are destined to have too many people and too few jobs in the future world knocking on our door.
Society seems destined to become even more fragmented with a permanent underclass of those who lack the education to compete for a way of earning a decent living.
It is a sobering thought - and something which should encourage all parents to make every effort to encourage their children to stick it out at school. Those that don't will not be thanked in later life !
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