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This publication is part of a NCSEHE series identifying trends, issues, challenges and opportunities for student equity groups, informed by NCSEHE funded research. The research collated for this report adds to growing knowledge of the underlying reasons why students from low SES backgrounds struggle on access, participation and outcomes. Collective insights from the NCSEHE reports illustrate how compounding disadvantages limit students' ability to navigate the Australian higher education system as easily as their non-equity group peers.

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The National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education's (NCSEHE) Facilitating an Innovation Future Through Equity Forum, held at the National Press Club in Canberra on 28 November 2016, brought together some of Australia's most prominent researchers, policy analysts and equity practitioners with the goal of advancing equity in higher education. This compendium to the Forum, Facilitating Student Equity in Higher Education, is a summary of relevant research to date. The compendium contains summaries lessons learnt from 24 NCSEFE funded research reports, three inaugural 2016 Equity Fellows' reports and 'Ten conversations', an initiative to develop dialogues to unravel complex and often multifaceted issues.

The lessons from NCSEHE research reports, which have been synthesised into the five areas of low socioeconomic status (SES), Indigenous, disability, scholarships, and graduate outcomes are: Issues and trends for low socioeconomic status background and first-in-family students / Ian Cunninghame, Diane Costello and Sue Trinidad; Indigenous students' higher education outcomes / Ian Cunninghame, Diane Costello, Sue Trinidad and Mike Dockery; Issues and trends for students with disability / Ian Cunninghame, Diane Costello and Sue Trinidad; Equity scholarship provision and impacts / Gail Whiteford and Sue Trinidad; Issues and trends in graduate outcomes in Australia / Paul Koshy and Sylvia Soltyk.

The three inaugural 2016 Equity Fellows reports are: The Australian student equity program and institutional change: paradigm shift or business as usual? / Nadine Zacharias; Opportunity through online learning: improving student access, participation and success in online higher education / Cathy Stone; Fair connection to professional careers: understanding social difference and disadvantage, institutional dynamics and technological opportunities / Erica Southgate.

The 'Ten conversations' are 25 years of equity in Australia; Students from low SES backgrounds; Students from regional and remote areas; Students with disability; Students from Indigenous backgrounds; Scholarships and support systems; Defining success; Evaluating performance of equity programs; Higher education data and equity policy; and Re-defining equity groups.

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This Progress Report conveys something of the life and pace of the first three years (2008-2011) of Australia’s National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education during its establishment phase. The Report is a record of significant activity and influence in student equity research, practice and policy informed by a new agenda for widening participation in Australian higher education. It also provides direction for the sector in pursuing that agenda. The evidence in the pages of this Report suggests that much has been achieved but the task is big and far from complete. Student equity in Australian higher education is still a work in progress. The lesson of the UK’s widening participation agenda is that change occurs slowly and incrementally. Changing entrenched socioeconomic and cultural arrangements requires coordinated commitments of time, funding and informed effort. In these pages you will find an account of the National Centre’s activities to date. However, more importantly we trust you will also get a sense of the way forward and of what can be achieved collaboratively, through informed policy and practice.

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This publication reports on the 12 research projects funded under the 2014 grants program and acts as a conduit for discussion on how the research findings may inform student equity policy and practice. The research reports address different, but related, aspects of higher education student equity and bring evidence-based investigation to the consideration of policy and practice in student equity. This research highlights the complexity of the issues the researchers are attempting to unravel, and that simple statements arising from analysis need to be carefully considered. The results confirm that more needs to be done to ensure that capable people are not prevented from accessing and completing higher education in pursuit of personal and career objectives.

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The research projects are as follows: Out of care, into university: raising higher education access and achievement of care leavers / Andrew Harvey, Patricia McNamara, Lisa Andrewartha and Michael Luckman; Equity groups and predictors of academic success in higher education / Jill Scevak, Erica Southgate, Mark Rubin, Suzanne Macqueen, Heather Douglas, Paul Williams; Choosing university: the impact of schools and schooling / Jenny Gore, Kathryn Holmes, Max Smith, Andrew Lyell, Hywel Ellis, Leanne Fray; Understanding evaluation for equity programs: a guide to effective program evaluation / Ryan Naylor; Are low SES students disadvantaged in the university application process? / Buly Cardak, Mark Bowden and John Bahtsevanoglou; Path+Ways: towards best practice bridging and Indigenous participation through regional dual-sector universities / Bronwyn Fredericks, Susan Kinnear, Carolyn Daniels, Pamela CroftWarcon and Julie Mann; Do individual background characteristics influence tertiary completion rates? / Patrick Lim; Educational outcomes of young Indigenous Australians / Stephane Mahuteau, Tom Karmel, Kostas Mavromaras and Rong Zhu; Student preferences for bachelor degrees at TAFE: the socio-spatial influence of schools / Trevor Gale, Stephen Parker, Tebeje Molla and Kim Findlay with Tim Sealey; Exploring the experience of being first in family at university / Sharron King, Ann Luzeckyj, Ben McCann and Charmaine Graham; Resilience/thriving in post-secondary students with disabilities: An exploratory study / Rahul Ganguly, Charlotte Brownlow, Jan Du Preez, Coralie Graham: Completing university is a growing sector: is equity an issue? / Daniel Edwards and Julie McMillan. Show less

The National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) is building an evidence base to inform decision making in both equity policy and practice in Australian higher education and bridge the gap between the two. The NCSEHE Student Equity in Higher Education Research Grants Program and Equity Fellows Program are important aspects of this work. Since 2014, the NCSEHE Research Grants Program has funded 79 projects, across six rounds, with total expenditure of A$3,020,512. The Equity Fellowship program began in 2016. Since then, 12 Fellowships have been awarded to researchers and practitioners to conduct year-long studies into topics of emerging importance to equity in Australian higher education.

This publication summarises the latest instalments of these two programs over 2019–20. The 2019–20 Research Grants Program funding round focused on the following themes: (1) equity students and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); (2) equity and mature-aged students; (3) digital inclusion and student equity; (4) study-life balance and student equity; (5) 'non-traditional' equity groups (i.e., groups other than low socioeconomic status [low SES]; Indigenous; disability; regional and remote; non-English speaking background [NESB]; women in non-traditional areas [WINTA]; or First-in-Family [FiF] students); and (6) housing and student equity.

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The chapters are: Open textbooks and social justice: a national scoping study / Sarah Lambert and Habiba Fadel; Career guidance for culturally and linguistically diverse migrants and/or refugees / Alexander Newman, Sally Baker, Clemence Due and Karen Dunwoodie; Supporting carers to succeed in Australian higher education / Lisa Andrewartha and Andrew Harvey; Understanding access to higher education amongst humanitarian migrants in Australia / Francisco Perales, Matthias Kubler, Ning Xiang and Wojtek Tomaszewski; STEM pathways: the impact of equity, motivation and prior achievement / Julie McMillan, Sheldon Rothman, Sarah Buckley and Daniel Edwards; Equity through complexity: inside the 'black box' of the Block Model / Jen Jackson, Kathy Tangalakis, Peter Hurley and Ian Solomonides; Australian universities and educational equity for student veterans / Ben Wadham, Melanie Takarangi, Andrew Harvey, Lisa Andrewartha, Brad West, Matthew Wyatt-Smith, Jodie Davis, Elaine Waddell and Ella Moeck.

Housing matters: understanding the housing experiences of undergraduate regional, rural and remote students living outside the family home / Julia Cook, Matthew Bunn, Penny Jane Burke, Hernan Cuervo, Stephanie Hardacre and Jace Blunden; Comfort with discomfort: exploring Wadjella educators' engagement with Indigenous students / Jonathan Bullen, Lynne Roberts, Cheryl Davis, Braden Hill, Tamara Lipscombe and Djandunmarra Cox; Exploring benefits and challenges of online work integrated learning for equity students / Amani Bell, Kathryn Bartimote, Lucy Mercer-Mapstone, Gulwanyang Moran, James Tognolini and Nora Dempsey; Investigating transitions to university from regional South Australian high schools / Sharron King, Cathy Stone and Chris Ronan; A novel approach to mapping changes in student attitudes towards science and mathematics in reaction to changes to their learning environment / John Paul Kennedy, Kate Thompson, Samuel Fowler and Simon N. Leonard; Calculating the costs of supporting people with disability in Australian higher education / Tim Pitman, Katie Ellis, Matt Brett, Elizabeth Knight and Darlene McLennan.

'Ghost student' failure among equity cohorts: towards understanding non-participating enrolments / Bret Stephenson, Beni Cakitaki and Michael Luckman; Higher education aspirations, participation, and achievement of Australian Indigenous males / James A. Smith, Himanshu Gupta, Sam Moore, Jesse Fleay, Garth Stahl, Bep Uink, Andrew Harvey, Peter Radoll, Braden Hill, Rebecca Bennett, Jahdai Vigona and Anthony Merlino; 'On the radar': supporting the mental wellbeing of mature-aged students in regional and remote Australia / Nicole Crawford; 'You going to uni?': exploring how people from regional, rural and remote areas navigate into and through higher education / Janine Delahunty; Supporting persons with disabilities to succeed in higher education / Tim Pitman; Indigenous students' journeys to and through allied healthcare programs / Andrea Simpson; Meaningful jobs for students with disability: from luck to business as usual / David Eckstein; Building a stronger evidence base to support effective outreach strategies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students: increasing impact and university participation / Katelyn Barney. Show less

The number of students with disability in Australian higher education has increased rapidly in the last decade, but educational institutions are often finding it challenging to meet best practice. This is the first in a new series of evidence-based resources collating National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) funded research to inform policy and practice and improve outcomes for equity students in Australian higher education. Recent research by the NCSEHE identifies the issues and challenges facing students with a disability. These relate to retention, success and outcomes, teaching and institutional cultures, and support policies and strategies. Recommendations are made for policy and strategy and for future research. The paper concludes that substantial progress has been made in access, retention and outcomes and, while a lot more remains to be done, the research points to future directions for better outcomes.

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In 2017 the [New South Wales] NSW Department of Education commissioned the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) to find out why high achieving students in regional NSW are transitioning to university at lower rates than students in metropolitan areas. Internal data shows that around 40 per cent of students in regional NSW with an [Australian Tertiary Admission Rank] ATAR of 75 or more are not directly transitioning from school to university, compared with 26 per cent in metropolitan areas. To investigate how these students are making decisions about their post-school options, researchers collected qualitative data through surveys, interviews and focus groups with 632 current and former students, teachers and Careers Advisers from the government and nongovernment sector.

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This report studies the university offers made to a population of students who apply for places through a centralised university admissions system operated by the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC) in Victoria, Australia. The project builds on the work of Cardak et al. (2015) [indexed at TD/TNC 122.723] who concentrate on university applications of students by focusing on who receives an offer and how students respond to offers, particularly whether they accept those offers. The focus of the current analysis is on differences between high and low socioeconomic status (SES) students. After controlling for a range of factors, the authors do not find SES differences in offer received or rejected outcomes. The implication is that SES operates through other mechanisms like the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) and how students negotiate the application process. It was found that high school achievement, measured by ATAR, is an important determinant. The strongest policy implication of the findings is that the allocation of university places works well for students with high ATARs but students with lower ATARs, below 70, seem to struggle with the reality of their achievement and matching that achievement with feasible programs.

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The number of students with disability in higher education is increasing. National data reveal differences in the retention and success of these students across Australian higher education institutions but the reasons for this are not clear. The overarching aim of this study was to explore the relationship between supports and university adjustment for students with disability, and their retention and success. This exploratory study used a mixed methods approach including analysis of institutional level data by total disability students, by disability types and by student disclosed need for services, interview with institutions and study of institutional policy, practice and culture via their disability service websites.

Among the recommendations based on the findings of the study are that: (1) a nationally consistent approach to categorising students with disability is required; in particular, students with mental health disability should be encouraged to identify in a single category; (2) changes to policy and practice would increase enrolment, retention and success rates of students with disability toward the rates for all students; the report provides guiding principles for good practice; and (3) further research is needed to identify appropriate methods of disclosure and data collection, and institutional and other factors that impact on the retention and success of students with disability, particularly for different disability types.

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Australian universities provide equity scholarships to new and continuing students as a standard practice. The equity scholarships that are made available across universities vary in amount and duration and also in stated eligibility criteria. A process through which eligibility is determined and through which the scholarships are administered, also varies significantly from institution to institution. Until relatively recently, there has been little data available which reflects both institutional practice(s) in the provision of equity scholarships and the impacts on the recipients - the students - of these scholarships. This is an issue of concern for funders and providers alike given that the aggregated number of scholarships offered has, in an uncapped and [Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program] HEPPP funded context, raised significantly in the period between 2009 and 2016. Addressing the range of issues associated with an uncapped environment is currently the focus of the newly formed Higher Education Standards Panel (HESP, 2016).

As part of its national mandate to highlight and address issues pertaining to student equity in Australia, the [National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education] NCSEHE has commissioned a review of four recent Australian studies focussed on equity scholarships. The purpose of this review is to: Identify which scholarship architectures are most appropriate; Determine which equity students - relative to need - benefit most from scholarships; What the threshold amounts for scholarships are that have most impact; and Identify best institutional practice for administering scholarships.

Based on this analysis, the review aims to also posit recommendations with respect to: Policy - for funders and providers; Institutional administration of equity scholarships; and Future research priorities.

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