Search Results

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.

Excerpt from published document. Show less

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.

Edited excerpts from publisher's website. Show less

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.

Edited excerpts from publication. 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.

Edited excerpts from publication. 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.

Edited excerpt from publisher's website.

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

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.

Edited excerpt from publication.

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

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.

Excerpt from publication. Show less

This study examined low socioeconomic status (SES) students' access to information about higher education study options, pathways, and careers and the efficacy of that information. It reports in the context of a shift in higher education policy towards including outcomes as a key component of institutional performance. The study asked a single research question: How might the information about higher education study options, pathways, and careers available to students from low SES backgrounds be made accessible, equitable, and effective? The research question was answered through three interrelated inquiries. Inquiry 1 sought to better understand study pathways and careers support as experienced by students and influencers within low SES and other secondary schools. This involved a literature review and analysis of data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY). Inquiry 2 employed and analysed data from Bennett's (2019a) social cognitive measure of perceived employability, which encompasses 16 aspects of study and career confidence ranging from academic self-efficacy to communication skills. Data from 6,300 participating students at three Australian universities were linked with institutional and national datasets to compare the confidence of university students from low SES backgrounds with that of their peers.

In the final phase, the themes and issues identified by students were compared with the findings from the LSAY analysis (Inquiry 1) and students' self-assessments of career and study confidence (Inquiry 2). Combined, the study findings informed five elements through which students' career and study decision-making might be understood and enhanced: (1) information and guidance provided to students; (2) students' interpretation of the information and guidance they receive; (3) influence of information and guidance on stakeholders; (4) temporal impacts of information and influence; and (5) improvements to students' access to and use of study and career pathways information.

The study concludes that effective career and study guidance is dependent on students' (unequal) access to qualified career practitioners or, in many cases, to teachers with career guidance duties and little or no career and study guidance training. In cases where there is no qualified practitioner, Australian students are mystified by the multiple, state-based pathways they see online or in generic fliers. The result is that many Australian students base essential career and study decisions on information from parents, peers, and social media. Students from disadvantaged groups experience higher rates of postsecondary attrition and deferral and poorer graduate employment outcomes. Despite considerable attention, we find there to be inequitable provision of careers and study information from the early years of secondary school. The study outcomes have significant potential to improve access to effective careers and study information, with a particular focus on students from disadvantaged groups and those who seek to assist them. We urge policymakers and sector leaders to collaborate on both short-term and longer term bipartisan solutions. We advocate for careers information that introduces multiple study and career pathways and that these pathways be valued equally. A number of recommendations are made to advance these aims.

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less

Australian higher education equity policy focusses mostly on access and participation with the implicit assumption that disadvantage will be ameliorated through educational achievement. Less is known as to whether patterns of disadvantage continue post-completion. In a context in which graduate employability is becoming an important yardstick against which to measure institutional effectiveness, this question is of fundamental importance to higher education equity practitioners and policymakers. This study employed Commonwealth graduate outcome data to investigate relationships between disadvantage and graduate outcomes in Australia, with disadvantage defined as a graduate belonging to one or more of the following groups - low [socio-economic status] SES, Indigenous, regional, with a disability, from a non-English speaking background (NESB), born outside Australia and female in a technical area. The study provided critical insights into how access to higher education does - or does not - lead to improvements in post-graduation equity. The study utilised data from the 2014 Australian Graduate Survey (Department of Education and Training, 2014) which reported information on graduate outcomes from a total of 142,647 graduates who completed their studies in 2013 and 2014.

Abstract from publisher's website. Show less

The present study explored the lived experiences of students with a disability who were enrolled at a regional university in Australia. Within this broad theme, this study had three purposes. First, the study explored the socio-demographics, academic, and disability-related characteristics of the students with a disability in the higher education system. Second, the study examined the relationship between resilience, career optimism, wellbeing, academic satisfaction and academic achievement. Third, the study sought instructive insights from high-achieving students with a disability about their university experiences.

Emphasis was placed on understanding how these high-achieving university students managed their disability and overcame attitudinal, organisational and environmental barriers across a range of university contexts that typically disadvantaged their peers with disabilities. By listening to the voices of these high-achieving students with disabilities, the researchers further explored the perceived usefulness of their personal-social networks and the university's disability-related policies and supports.

Excerpt from publication. Show less