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There remains significant under representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australian higher education systems. A number of strategies have been implemented by governments and universities to best support Indigenous students within higher education that have produced varying levels of success in increasing participation, retention and completions. One key strategy is the inclusion of Aboriginal Education Units within universities.

The current study aimed to examine students experience and engagement with a range of support services across university, in particular with an Aboriginal Education Unit. Utilising a mixed-method approach, data were collected from 103 students who identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander at The University of Adelaide. Overall, students were most satisfied with support provided by family (70 per cent) and the Aboriginal Education Unit (61 per cent), followed by support provided by university faculties (49 per cent), and the wider university (43 per cent). The main reasons students were accessing the Unit was for academic and tutoring purposes, also rating tutoring as the most beneficial service provided by the Unit. This study highlights the importance of examining and evaluating enablers such as support mechanisms from the student perspective and has demonstrated the significant role Aboriginal Education Units play in the student experience, laying a crucial foundation for targeted support initiatives.

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Despite the continued investment in Indigenous support networks and dedicated education units within universities, levels of key performance indicators for Indigenous students - access, participation, success and completion (attainment) - remain below that of the overall domestic student population in most institutions. It remains important to determine what works to achieve Indigenous student success in higher education. This paper proposes that such methods have an integral role to play in providing a holistic view of Indigenous participation and success at university, and are particularly useful in the development and evaluation of strategies and programs.

This project found no quantitative correlation between financial investment and success rate for Indigenous students. A negative correlation between access rate and success rate suggests that factors other than those that encourage participation are important in supporting successful outcomes. Those universities that have high success rates have a suite of programs to support Indigenous students, but it is not immediately clear which of these strategies and programs may be most effective to facilitate Indigenous student success rates. In this discussion, we suggest that a multi-layered determinants model is a useful way to conceptualise the many factors that may impact on student success, and how they might intersect.

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Issue addressed: This paper reports on the evaluation of a culturally specific smoking cessation training program (SmokeCheck) for health professionals working in Aboriginal health in [New South Wales] NSW. Training aimed to increase professionals' knowledge, skills and confidence to offer an evidence-based quit smoking brief intervention to Aboriginal clients.

Methods: Using a quasi-experimental pre-post with 165 matched intervention participants, surveys were completed immediately before (baseline) and 6-months post training. The control group were on a waiting list for 6 months before receiving the intervention, and completed surveys at baseline, immediately before training and 3-6 months following training. Surveys assessed knowledge, skills and confidence to deliver the intervention, availability of resources, and smoke-free status of homes.

Results: Post training, a higher proportion of intervention group participants were more confident talking about health effects (22 per cent, p=0.001), offering quit advice (27 per cent, p=0.001), assessing readiness to quit (31per cent, p=0.001) and initiating a conversation about smoking (24 per cent, p=0.001). After training, more participants reported providing advice about NRT (15 per cent, p=0.001), ETS (12 per cent, p=0.006), and reducing tobacco use (10 per cent, p=0.034), but no changes were reported in smoking or intention to quit. Conversely, the control group showed no significant changes.

Conclusions: SmokeCheck training strengthened participants' knowledge, skills and confidence to deliver a smoking cessation intervention to Aboriginal clients.

So what?: Building the capacity of health professionals to deliver a culturally specific smoking cessation intervention potentially improves opportunities for Aboriginal clients to make a quit attempt.

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Increasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation in higher education can play a critical role in transforming lives and is the trajectory to closing the gap and reducing disadvantage. Despite recent progress, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples remain significantly under-represented in higher education. Poor retention and high attrition rates of these students come at significant financial cost for the individual, community, university and government. Wirltu Yarlu, the Indigenous Education Unit at the University of Adelaide has reviewed the role student support services play in improving retention and completion rates, with an aim to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student retention and completion.

The newly developed Student Success Strategy is an innovative approach to student support that aims to identify and respond to individual student needs in a more effective and efficient manner. The model encompasses a self-assessment tool designed to measure progress across several domains. Self-assessments are used to inform student specific support needs which in turn enable support staff to personalise future interventions for each student and respond accordingly in an attempt to reduce and prevent student attrition.

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples remain significantly under-represented in higher education systems. There are significant disparities in university completion rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students compared with their non-Indigenous counterparts. The poor-retention and high-attrition rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students come at significant financial and personal cost for the individual, families, community, universities and governments. Existing evidence in relation to attrition has identified complex and multifaceted reasons including ill health, family and community responsibilities, financial difficulties, lack of social support, academic disadvantage and issues surrounding personal well-being. The current study aimed to add to evidence of the academic, financial, social support and well-being factors affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student's decision to continue or withdraw from their university studies. Contrary to expectation, students' decision to withdraw was not related to academic and social factors. It was found that students between 22 and 25 years old strongly agreed they were likely to withdraw from studies. There was a significant association between withdrawal and type of enrolment. This study provided important insights into the factors that contribute to a students' decision to withdraw from their university studies, with implications for future educational interventions.

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