Who do universities serve?

In "Who do universities serve? Everyone, or just the elite few?"Julia Horne asks the age old question about higher education (June 1, 2015). Horne points out the The Bradley Review reported that remote, indigenous and low socio-economic-status (SES) students were under represented in 2015. How much has this improved and what more can we do? I suggest that designing courses to allow students to study remotely would help, as would more project, and work integrated learning, and authentic assessment. 

As a low SES student I did not really flourish at university, until I discovered online learning. It was not so much being able to study remotely (I live in a capital city a few km from four campuses). It was that the distance education courses were very structured, explaining what I needed to do, and when I needed to do it. The assessment was in gradual steps through the course, based mostly on project work, not a large paper based exam at the end (I have learned from bitter experience to avoid courses with large exams).