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University of Sydney representatives will head into some of the state’s most disadvantaged primary schools to promote the idea of university education.
Kids from poor backgrounds often miss out on becoming university students because they don’t realise how much fun it can be to slum it, living in poverty.
Under the federally-funded programme, students and academics will share poverty’s rustic charms with underprivileged kids who may not even be aware that such options exist for them.
Sydney Uni’s Annette Cairnduff told The Daily Grind that the idea would expand horizons: “Imagine not knowing you could spend years living in a squalid little flat where the people you’re living with consume too much alcohol or non-prescription drugs.”
“Many of these kids will miss out on that after Year 12.”
A degree from one of the nation’s Arts faculties will give kids from poor families a fresh—perhaps life-changing—perspective on how well-off students and academics view them as incapable of avoiding crime and family breakdown.
The University is hoping that tertiary study will alert disadvantaged kids to a whole new range of government payments rather than restricting them to Newstart and the baby bonus. University entry offers exciting new opportunities to claim money including Austudy, Abstudy, Youth Allowance and HELP.
But would a child who has grown up subsisting on welfare entitlements fit in at university, surrounded by people from privileged backgrounds? Ms Cairnduff is confident, telling The Daily Grind that “until you’ve seen some of these rich uni students, you haven’t seen entitlement.”
A degree from one of the nation's Arts faculties will give kids from poor families a fresh perspective on how well-off students and academics view them as incapable of avoiding crime and family breakdown.
