The Mitchell Institute monitors the performance of Australia's education system, with a specific focus on developing and advocating for policies that reduce inequality.

Our work identifies who is experiencing reduced opportunities in education, the factors driving inequality and the policy solutions that will provide greater opportunities for all young people to succeed in education and their life beyond.

Key contacts

Peter Hurley
Director, Mitchell Institute
Opinion

VET FEE-HELP reforms will merely paper over the cracks of a system prone to abuse

26 August 2016

Education Minister Simon Birmingham has foreshadowed further major changes to the troubled VET FEE-HELP loan scheme to rein in costs and tackle widespread abuse by unscrupulous providers.

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Opinion

What role should universities play in today’s society?

22 August 2016

Universities historically exist as institutions for the creation and dispersion of knowledge. But today, many young people enter university solely to prepare for careers.

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Opinion

Educating for high performance

12 August 2016

While Australia’s performance on the world’s sporting stage is generating passionate discussion, our international performance in education is left outside of the spotlight.

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Opinion

Explainer: How student fees are set for different university courses

4 August 2016

The issue of how universities are funded across their different courses has been an ongoing but unresolved debate over the past decade.

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Opinion

NAPLAN results don’t tell the full story behind Australia’s lack of education progress

3 August 2016

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results released on Wednesday show Australian students are making few gains in literacy and numeracy.

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Paper

Response to Commonwealth Government's discussion paper: Redesigning VET FEE-HELP

21 July 2016

This submission to the Commonwealth's Redesigning VET FEE-HELP discussion paper finds that poor design and oversight of VET FEE-HELP has led to students paying more for some VET qualifications.

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Opinion

Can the government realistically cut funding by 20% for each student in higher education?

13 July 2016

Higher education policy is one of the biggest challenges facing the new federal government.

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Opinion

High-quality, affordable education at the heart of Labor’s new early years policy

7 June 2016

For too long, early years education policy has focused on the money, pigeonholed into a debate about “child care” and “mums getting back to work”

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Opinion

Is Revolution the solution?

6 June 2016

We congratulate Kambrya College on inviting us all to share in their journey of creating a world class school.

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