'Pension to PhD': How uni inspired minister's bridging course policy

But, late into his first year at university, he veered off that path and spiralled into drug abuse.

He spent the next few years trying "everything I could" to beat the addiction.

"I found myself at a particularly low point and I attempted to take my own life," the 28-year-old said on Friday at a media conference in Newcastle with federal Education Minister Jason Clare.

"I was fortunate to be saved by some amazing paramedic staff and some nurses."

After a stint in rehab and two years working out what to do with his life, Mr Gleeson is heading back to university via its Open Foundation program with the goal of becoming a paramedic.

"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for those paramedics, and I'd like to go into that to help people in the same situation," he said.

Mr Clare said during a visit to the University of Newcastle's NUspace campus that stories like Mr Gleeson's had inspired him to expand free university bridging courses across the nation.

Last week's budget removed the funding cap for fee-free enabling courses like the one pioneered in Newcastle. The move aims to increase the ratio of workers with a TAFE or university qualification from 60 to 80 per cent by 2050.

The Newcastle Herald reported in February that only 54.9 per cent of high school students in Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the Central Coast were completing year 12.

Mr Clare said more young people needed to "get a crack" at going to university in regions and the outer suburbs of major cities.

"I got a chance, brand new into the job just over a year and a half ago, to come to Newcastle University and see what Open Foundation was doing," he said.

"I was struck immediately that this is the way to do it.

"These fee-free courses that give people the kills they need to succeed at university are really the bridge between school and uni.

"It's a bridge for people who may not have finished school. It's for young people; it's for older people.

"I'm convinced this is the way to build a better country and a fairer country."

Zee Johnson turned to Open Foundation at the age of 48 after her husband had a stroke in 2013 and their youngest son was diagnosed with autism.

Ms Johnson found herself on a carer's pension, her comfortable middle-class life turned upside down.

"From the sales and marketing background I had and the financial security we had, overnight that was gone," she said.

In a life chapter she describes as "pension to PhD", she completed the Open Foundation course in 2019, graduated with a distinction in biomedical sciences and is on track to complete her honours degree in ovarian cancer research at the Hunter Medical Research Institute this year.

"I didn't struggle academically; it was what life was throwing at me that was making it very, very difficult," she said.

"The program gave me the support I needed, the start I needed, to enter into my undergrad degree.

"There were numerous scholarships that were available."

Ms Johnson now lectures in the university's School of Health Sciences and helps coordinate Open Foundation, which will be 50 years old this year.

"There's a whole bunch of universities that do this. I think it's fair to say no one does it better than Newcastle," Mr Clare said.

"Newcastle's been doing it longer than anyone else. Newcastle educates more students and provides this foundation course to more students than anyone else.

"What we're saying we'll do in the budget is uncapped funding, so that there's more funding for more universities to do this and to fund it at the proper level.

"By doing that we'll encourage more universities to replicate the secret sauce that you find here in Newcastle."