The Inspired Futures Initiative targets the difference between the number of people in regional areas who have a university degree compared with those living in Melbourne.

Features of the initiative include career counselling, having a fellow mature-aged student as a mentor and a fee guarantee to ensure financial security. 

To qualify for the Inspired Futures Initiative, students must be 21 years or older, have lived in a regional centre for at least one year and must study at one of La Trobe’s four regional campuses. 

The fee guarantee will be limited to the first 500 students who apply, but every mature-aged student will receive career counselling and a mentor.

La Trobe University Vice-Chancellor John Dewar said the federal government's university deregulation policy could mean fees rise by 25 to 30 per cent.

Professor Dewar said the university aimed to remove uncertainty and offer a limited number of mature age students a fee guarantee, requiring them to pay just 10 per cent above the regulated fee.

“We know that the cost of study is a huge factor and right now mature-aged students just don’t know the impact potential university deregulation will have on fees in 2016 when changes could take effect."

Professor Dewar said Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed only half the number of regional Victorians had a university education compared to their city counterparts. 

Alice Dawson, 24, is a mature-aged student at La Trobe University's Bendigo campus. 

Before she started her bachelor of physical and health education, Ms Dawson said she was unprepared for university life. 

"I didn’t know how to write an essay properly to an academic level," she said.

Ms Dawson said the new scheme was a good idea because many people found the idea of university socially and financially daunting.