Children's University

Ms DIGANCE (Elder) (14:53): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. How has the South Australian government supported our higher education sector to contribute meaningfully to the lives of children in South Australia?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (14:53): The other night I attended an event—and I urge any member of parliament who is invited to this in future, if they are available, to go. It was one of the most heartwarming events I have attended, and as you would imagine, in my job I attend many. Earlier this year I was in a position to give a grant to the University of Adelaide to run the Children's University. It was about a $100,000 grant.

The other night was the graduation for those students. I will just read the names of the schools involved. They were Burton Primary School, Ingle Farm East Primary School, Lake Windemere B-7 School, Para Hills West Primary School, Paradise Primary School, Paralowie R-12 School, Riverdale Primary School, Salisbury North Primary School and Salisbury Downs Primary School.

Part of what was so heartwarming about the event and so important about the whole project is that, as you can tell, they are schools in relatively disadvantaged areas. There are lots of hardworking families living there—not particularly affluent, not particularly well-heeled—and not once was that mentioned as part of the graduation.

Those students were treated as they should be, which is that they are entirely entitled to be in the Bonython Hall and receiving a graduation certificate. They wore their mortar boards; in fact I felt terribly underdressed because everyone on the stage was wearing their full academic gowns and hats and I wasn't. All the children looked fantastic. What this program does is it takes primary school children and offers a series of activities that they are able to be involved with that are educational in nature, for example, going to the Art Gallery.

There are a number of organisations that are co-sponsors of this project and they open up their facilities to have the students come in and the University of Adelaide auspices it. So, off they go to a place like the Art Gallery and they undertake some educational exercises while there and they log the number of hours that they are engaged in this project. At the graduation, we were celebrating not only the students who had completed 30, 35 hours but, from the memory, one of the students completed 300 hours of activities they had collected over the last couple of years.

Importantly, the activity that they undertake matters: it's educational and it's good for the students, without question. But, as I alluded to at the beginning, what is particularly important for students in primary schools—where traditionally after going to high school in the same area they are less likely to go on to university than in more affluent areas, although that is changing rapidly—is that those students see that university is part of their future, and if not university then some form of ongoing education.

I commend the University of Adelaide for engaging in this. It is an Australia-wide project. Some 2,000 students graduated this year across Australia. For the University of Adelaide, as the more prestigious of the universities—it certainly has Bonython Hall, which gives a certain aura—to choose to be engaged in such a project was quite magnificent. As you would imagine, the students conducted themselves brilliantly; they were very proud. There were some 600 people there. They were the family and friends of those students, who had shown up to cheer their child going across the stage at the Bonython Hall and, I suggest, for many of those children, not for the last time.