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Attempts to make higher education more equitable more readily succeed at the aggregate (sector) level than at the institutional, with students from disadvantaged groups being overrepresented in low-status institutions. It is suggested that this is because policies of 'fairness' (i.e. proportional representation) dominate the contemporary policy framework and are strongly resisted by elite universities. However, using the Australian higher education sector as an example, this paper argues that equity policy is actually a mix of 'proportional fairness' and 'inclusion' and elite institutions resist not because the policy is deficient but because it might actually work. An alternative approach to higher education equity policy is proposed; one which requires elite institutions to engage meaningfully with disadvantaged students but allows them to retain their status advantage.

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In 2014, the Australian Federal Government attempted to de-regulate higher education fees so as to allow universities to set their own tuition fees. The associated public debate offer critical insights into how the identity of a student as a 'customer' of higher education is understood and deployed when developing higher education policy. This paper uses the 2014 Australian higher education reforms as a lens through which to further scholarly research into the student-as-customer metaphor and to see how it is influenced by the perceptions and understandings of policy actors external to the higher education sector. These include politicians, special interest groups, the students and their parents and prospective employers.

This study reveals that the public/private nexus - both of funding and benefit - problematizes traditional conceptualisations of students and others as higher education customers. In turn, this restricts the ability or desire of policy actors to describe how the student functions as a customer as a consequence of market reform. This inability compromises the development of effective and sustainable higher education policy.

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This report details the findings and recommendations from the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) Research Fellowship entitled 'Supporting persons with disabilities from regional, rural, and remote Australia to succeed in higher education'. The study explored how students with disabilities were supported in their higher education studies by trained, professional disability support officers and the wider institutional community. A key aim of the study was to investigate whether there were any significant differences between the experiences of regional and metropolitan Australia students with disabilities.

The key findings from the study are: (1) Despite increases in participation over the last decade, people with disabilities remain underrepresented in higher education and lag national averages for retention, success and completion. These indicators are generally lower for regional students with disabilities than metropolitan students with disabilities; (2) In the national survey, students with disabilities generally reported high satisfaction levels with disability support. However, there was also evidence that social barriers remain for some students with disabilities regarding: attitudes towards students with disabilities; processes and procedures intended to support students with disabilities; the physical and built environment - in particular, the failure in some cases to follow principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL); communication - particularly how educational content is delivered, both in the classroom and online; and social inclusion in both curricular and extracurricular activities; (3) In terms of satisfaction with support, there was little difference in ratings between regional and metropolitan students. However, regional students with disabilities face issues concerning: access to specialist health services; the digital divide; and the quality of support services at regional institutions; and (4) [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 has had a demonstrable effect on support levels, with both regional and metropolitan students with disabilities experiencing a decline in support in 2020. A number of recommendations are proposed to address these issues.

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This study examines the use of the autobiographical research method, where information is gathered from a participant's largely unstructured construction of narrative. It considers the experiences of three 'miraculous exceptions': university graduates from low socio-economic backgrounds, who are people traditionally under-represented in higher education. The analysis adapts Bourdieuian notions of economic, cultural and social capital to examine the interrelationship between various factors contributing to educational success. Findings from this study suggest that although the relationship between structure, agency and capital is highly complex, there is greater potential for ongoing educational 'outreach' activities to inspire disadvantaged students - and their parents - to consider higher education as an aspiration. The focus of the concluding discussion is on the research method itself.

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This article explores the relationship between mass education, higher education quality and policy development in Australia in the period 2008-2014, during which access to higher education was significantly increased. Over this time, which included a change of national government, the discursive relationship between mass higher education and higher education quality shifted from conceptualising quality as a function of economic productivity, through educational transformation and academic standards, to market competition and efficiency. Throughout, the student was more often positioned as a servant towards higher education quality, rather than its benefactor.

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The Bourdieuian concept of 'position-taking' is applied in this analysis of recognition of prior learning (RPL) policy and practice in Australian higher education. Data from institutional documents and participant interviews indicate that, within RPL policy, the universities selectively employ prevailing discourses of 'quality' and 'equity' to reinforce or potentially improve their reputation and symbolic power in the field of higher education. There is no common consensus about either equity or quality across the sector, as each university interprets the two concepts for its own benefit. The evidence suggests that, despite rhetoric in government policy implying that both are equally important, quality is a far stronger discourse and policy imperative than equity in RPL policy and practice. Also, RPL policies and practices provide an insight into how the key policy priorities of equity and quality are addressed by universities, when applied to a specific educational process or practice.

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Recognition of prior learning (RPL) requires an assessment of the equivalence and transferability of learning acquired in one context to another. However, this study's examination of the institutional policies and practices of three Australian universities reveals that RPL can also be understood as a Bourdieuian process of 'capital conversion', where an individual's economic, social and cultural capital are assessed as being equivalent to 'academic experience'. This approach reveals that, far from being an epistemological assessment of prior learning, universities also consider their organisational identity and status when considering what informal or non-formal learning will be accepted. Ultimately, what counts as prior learning depends as much upon which university is doing the assessment, its motive for doing so and the extent to which it views RPL as a normative threat.

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Ensuring that students of all backgrounds are smoothly transitioned through the stages of access, participation and completion in higher education has been the focus of much public policy and research in recent decades. Subsequently, public policy discourse treats those who do not complete their higher education degrees as unsuccessful, despite a lack of research considering the beneficial outcomes of non-completing students. Evidence of beneficial outcomes of higher education participation without completion has potential to challenge the deficit-centric discourse of completion dependent on a binary view of success and failure. This article details a critical discourse analysis of responses to a 2017 survey of university non-completers asked 'were there any benefits from the time you spent doing an [sic] incomplete degree?'. This study finds that non-completers experience a wide range of benefits from incomplete studies despite the dominant discourse discounting their experiences as unsuccessful. Additionally, this study presents a critique of framing surveys of non-completing students within the normative bounds of success as completion in higher education, and instead calls for a more nuanced construction of success in higher education.

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The concept of lifelong learning implies a cycle where the learner contributes prior learning into a new learning environment and sees that learning upgraded. In recent years, a range of internal and external pressures have encouraged Australian universities to identify the meta or generic skills embedded in tertiary study. Using a content analysis of relevant university policy documents, this study assesses how the Australian higher education sector has presented this discussion through the notion of ‘graduate attributes’ and then analyses the implications of this conceptual transition. This article argues that the shift from a notion of generic skills to graduate attributes both reinforces and encourages universities to concentrate their participation in lifelong learning at one particular end of the cycle. This study suggests that, whilst informal experience is increasingly incorporated into university admission processes and even into credit for courses, progression towards a more equitable and accessible higher education sector remains patchy at best.

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In the pursuit of mass higher education, fears are often expressed that the quality of higher education suffers as access is increased. This quantitative study considers three proxies of educational quality: (1) prior academic achievement of the student, (2) attrition and retention rates and (3) progression rates, to establish whether educational quality suffers when supply is significantly increased. The period of analysis (2009-2011) saw just such an increase in higher education places in Australia, as universities prepared for the removal of all caps on undergraduate domestic student places in 2012. [The] analysis reveals that, whilst widening access results in more students with lower levels of academic achievement entering higher education, this does not necessarily equate to a lowering of educational quality. Furthermore, although on average student progression rates dropped slightly, retention rates actually increased in the majority of universities, suggesting high levels of student perseverance. In addition, there were already wide variations in attrition and progression rates between universities, and the changes observed between 2009 and 2011 did not lead to substantial alterations.

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