Country students are already doing the work. A growing network has their back.

Across 28 Centres in 41 communities, from Norfolk Island to the Tasmanian coast and through Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, thousands of regional students are proving that where you live should not limit your access to tertiary learning. 

They are studying between shifts. Finishing degrees while raising families. Building the workforce their own communities need, without leaving the places they call home. Almost half are the first in their family to access tertiary study, and when they graduate, the overwhelming majority stay within their regional communities. This investment by the Commonwealth Government through the Regional University Study Hub Program returns so much, directly, to their communities and making a difference. 

This month the Country Universities Centre (Country UC Ltd) launched its Strategic Plan 2026-2029, a plan built not in a boardroom but in the conversations where the work happens: with the Centre Managers, local Boards and staff who know their students by name. Every Centre was invited to shape it, and the response was extraordinary. 

The Plan sets out how a collective approach to growing access to tertiary education does its job: enabling, connecting, amplifying and protecting the value each community creates to grow their local talent. Centres ensure each person accesses the learning that is right for them, regardless of tertiary provider. Together we are part of a movement to ensure that opportunity follows talent, and in the regions, it is everywhere and the impact is profound. 

“When country people can access education that’s genuinely fit for purpose, affordable, local, and on their own terms, they don’t just build their own future, they strengthen every part of the community they call home.” 

Alix Greenhill, Chair, Country UC Ltd 

To every student, Manager, board member and community growing this aspiration and action, this is  proof that people from small places do big things.