The policy includes a reversal of the current government’s proposed funding cuts and and the abandonment of its fee deregulation plan.

Ms Chesters said the policy would benefit students at La Trobe university’s Bendigo campus through a “student funding guarantee” which would increase funding by $2500 per student each year from 2018.

“La Trobe University was hit hard by the Liberal government’s funding cuts – resulting in a total loss of income of more than $150 million,” she said.

“First of all, immediately upon coming to government, Labor will reverse the Liberal’s cuts to undergraduate student funding.”

La Trobe Bendigo head of campus Rob Stephenson said the vision of a “university city” sat well with La Trobe Bendigo’s recently unveiled master plan, which seeks to integrate the university with the rest of the city.

“Our vision that we developed a couple of years ago certainly talks about integrating the university more with the city and we’ll do that with the sort of things that are in the master plan,” he said.

“From next year we’ll be offering work integrated learning for all of our students who want to participate in that and are eligible at some point during their university studies, so we’re actively building partnerships with local businesses to provide opportunities for those students and also provide businesses with opportunities to have students in placement and get to know them.”

Another focus of Labor’s higher education platform is student retention and Ms Chesters said an unacceptably high number of regional students were dropping out of university.

“I know from talking to local students and their families the enormous pressure they face when making the decision to enrol,” she said.

Mr Stephenson said the number of students entering university was also much lower in regional areas so relieving cost of living pressures was a priority.

“It’s very hard to be a full-time student and be holding down a part-time job that might be 25 or 30 hours a week, so measures that help to reduce the pressure and allow students to focus more on their studies will help address some of those issues around completion,” he said.