A one-size-fits-all strategy towards higher education is not working and risks putting regional Australia at a disadvantage, a federal independent MP says.
Cathy McGowan is lobbying the government and opposition to require a specific national regional higher education strategy.
She wants the tyranny of distance and other problems impeding regional Australians' access to university to be addressed in their own right, separately from the issues facing metropolitan students and schools.
Ms McGowan says regional universities play a unique role in economic development, given three-quarters of people who study at those campuses stay in regional cities.
The greatest threat to the regions is people moving to the cities.
"The consequence is that regional Australia gets left behind, we fall into a deficit model and we are not able to take our place, our rightful place, in developing this whole country because one size does not fit all," Ms McGowan told parliament on Monday.
Nick Xenophon Team MP Rebekha Sharkie said regional universities provided immense benefits to local communities from employment to research collaboration with local business.
