(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)
But for many, others especially those with parents on low incomes, or who have a poor grasp of English, thinking or applying for university can seem like a distant dream - something other people do.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
And those working in the area of educational disadvantage say you're less likely to participate in higher education, if no one in your immediate family has ever been to university.
The University of Technology in Sydney is one of many tertiary institutions across the country seeking to change that by giving a group of school students from disadvantaged areas a taste of university life.
"No one in my family has gone to university before and I have 58 cousins on the one side of my family. A big bogan family. But it was a big thing for me and my family to go to university. A lot of my family still call it school, just because they don't know too much about it. So for me to be able to break out and to actually go to university was a big deal."
Bradley Birnie grew up in Liverpool in Sydney's western suburbs.
2011 figures released by Liverpool City Council show just over 12 percent of people living in the local government area had a bachelor degree or higher qualification, while the Sydney average is double that.
Bradley Birnie went to one the local public high schools in the area which was targeted for the University of Technology's Summer School Program.
The summer school led to further study and he has now completed a journalism degree, becoming the first in his extended family to finish university.
"I was lucky enough to have a good friendship group. In my school we only had 50 people sit the HSC and that was from a group of 200 students in Year 7 and from 50 people only about 15 went to University which isn't a lot but in comparison to a lot of other years that's quite a good group."
That's the sound of a mock forensic investigation into the death of a man found on the side of the road.
The group is trying to figure out if his death is the result of a car accident or perhaps something more sinister.
There's fake blood splattered on the class room floor, and footprints in an area that's cordoned off with black and yellow crime scene tape.
On the day SBS visits there are around a dozen students in the class, participating in the forensic investigation as part of the university's Summer School Program in Science.
They're part of a group of 160 students, many from indigenous, migrant and refugee backgrounds participating in the summer program aiming to give students a taste of tertiary study.
The program which runs for two-weeks introduces students to subjects in the areas of Science, Health, Design, Engineering, Information Technology and Film.
The University of Technology in Sydney isn't the only university in Australia running such courses - all Australian universities have special entry programs for students from low socio-economic backgrounds.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics says that around 22 percent of Australians are both income and asset poor.
These are some of the factors that Lisa Aitken says contribute to educational disadvantage.
She's the Widening Participation Coordinator at the University of Technology in Sydney.
The program she says is competitive and it isn't necessarily the most academically gifted students who are selected.
"We work really closely with our schools, we call them our uni-schools. And there are about 14 of them that come to this program, and we work with the Year 10 advisors because they students are at year 10 at the time when we go out to the school. We try to look at students who may be the first in their family to come to university, or students who may not be getting all A-pluses. They might just be doing middle of the range and have huge potential, but they need a little bit more motivation. So we try to look at those kind of kids to come to the program."
In 2009 the Federal Government asked universities to implement recommendations that were made in the Bradley Review of Higher Education.
One of the key recommendations was for all Australian universities to increase the number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds to 20 percent.
About 11 percent of students enrolled at the University of Technology are from such a background.
Like all Australian universities, UTS receives federal government funding for programs targeting these students.
Indigenous student Wendy Roberts is in Year 11. She's just completed a midwifery subject in the health course offered by the summer school.
Wendy's mother has Torres Strait Islander ancestry and has always encouraged her daughter to aim high.
But Wendy Roberts says her mother's encouragement can only go so far.
"Mum wasn't really supportive at the start because she wanted me to become something more higher than that. And I said that I wanted to become a mid-wife when I was about 10, and now she's gotten used to it and she's really proud that I'm going towards that. Mum quit school when she was in Year 8, so she doesn't know how to read or write, I've come a long way compared to her. So it's really hard, she can't help me along the way so I have to do it myself."
Mohamed Hesari is 16, and arrived from Afghanistan seven years ago. He's a student from Merrylands High School in Sydney's South-West and recently finished the summer program's film-making course, but he sees his life going in another direction.
Mohamed says his school has a mixture of students, with some aspiring to higher education after completing Year 12, with others leaving school early to join the workforce.
"They think university is just a waste of time, so they just drop out at the end of Year 10 and start work, but for me I don't think it's a waste of time, the more education you get the better for your life. If I could I would love to go to uni, there is more opportunity like if you finish university. I thought of doing business, making my own business or company like the manager of a big company."
The need to earn money can override aspirations for higher-education.
For some students, committing to three of four years of extra study when they could be earning to support themselves and their families, can be just too hard.
Universities offer incentives for these students, including lower entry scores and alternative methods of entry, and some may be eligible for government financial support such as the Youth Allowance and a start-up scholarship.
Vietnamese-Australian Ben Ho, is the first in his family to think about applying for university. He didn't expect to get into the summer program in Health, but once he did has discovered he has an interest as well as the stomach for a career in medicine.
Simulated exercises performed during the Summer Program like taking blood or analysing urine didn't faze him at all.
"They've been teaching me how to take someone's pulse, how to measure blood pressure, how to examine somebody's urine, and a lot more. It's easy, we have a stick and we dip it in and we get it out, and then we have the colours and you look at how the normal should be like, how the range is. Either too much blood or too much glucose or sugar, because it's pretty bad if you have too much sugar in your urine, we can't really use real urine, so basically we use orange juice and lemonade, yeah. "
Bradley Birnie who attended the first summer program in 2009, and has now finished his first degree, encourages students who may not be sure what to do, to take a chance.
I would say don't doubt yourself. You live in an environment or study in an environment where people continuously are doubting themselves, and who go well I go to this type of school so I can't do it then. It doesn't work like that. In the end if you want to learn you can learn. You need to take initiative, do something for yourself, think about your future.
