NEWS, INFORMATION, RESEARCH AND RESOURCES ON STUDENT EQUITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Respected Indigenous education advocate Professor Gary Thomas has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the NCSEHE.

Professor Thomas, Dean of Indigenous Education and Engagement at the University of the Sunshine Coast, will join the Advisory Board alongside other accomplished academics, government representatives and equity advocates, including Chair Ms Erin Watson-Lynn.

Professor Thomas’s extensive experience in advocacy, governance and teaching will complement and extend the objectives of NCSEHE, and we are delighted to welcome him to the Centre.

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A quarter of university fail grades represent "ghost students", who remain enrolled in undergraduate units but show no evidence of participation, new research has shown.

The report recommends improved identification and support for "ghost students", particularly Indigenous students who are at a high risk of ghosting behaviours. 

Funded under the NCSEHE Research Grants Program, the research was led by Dr Bret Stephenson from the Centre for Higher Education Equity and Diversity Research (CHEEDR) at La Trobe University.

Read "Ghost student" failure among equity cohorts: Towards understanding non-participating enrolments 

The NCSEHE will host a webinar on 15 April, presenting new research led by Dr Bret Stephenson on "ghost student" failure in higher education.

The research informed important recommendations for university policy and practice, particularly focusing on students from recognised equity groups, including low socioeconomic status, regional and remote, and non-English speaking backgrounds, as well as Indigenous students.

In this free webinar, lead author Dr Bret Stephenson and colleagues from CHEEDR will present key findings and recommendations from the research. This will be followed by a live Q and A session.

More information and registration

A second report published in March recommends Australian higher education policy and practice recognise humanitarian migrants as a distinct equity group, to address unique areas of disadvantage and disproportionately poor educational outcomes.

The research, led by Associate Professor Francisco Perales from The University of Queensland and funded by the NCSEHE, found refugees and people seeking asylum face multiple and unique barriers to education participation and success, over and above those faced by other migrant groups.

Read Understanding access to higher education amongst humanitarian migrants in Australia 

A new University of Sydney (USYD) website provides valuable insights and practical resources to smooth the transition to university for equity students and their families.

Developed by the USYD Educational Innovation team, in collaboration with university students from diverse backgrounds, Get Prepared takes an innovative approach to supporting and retaining equity students. Open-access content includes text and videos created by equity students, active learning tasks and interactive forums.

We invited Dashiell Moore, Samantha Clarke and Michael Warren from the development team to discuss the site’s key features and share their reflections on the co-creation process.

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In another NCSEHE feature article this month, Dr Sally Patfield, Laureate Professor Jenny Gore and Dr Natasha Weaver call for official recognition and tailored support for students who are the first in their families to go to university.

Drawing upon their recent paper in The Australian Educational Researcher, the authors make the case for this equity category being included in a revised national equity framework.

"Arguably, First-in-Family status represents everything that the higher education equity agenda espouses — opening the doors to those who are truly 'newcomers'."

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One of 17 projects funded under the 2020/21 round of the NCSEHE Research Grants Program, this research aims to identify best practices for universities to support the careers of LGBTQIA+ students, particularly during COVID-19.

This month, Chief Investigator Dr Zhou Jiang from Flinders University provides a progress update, including preliminary findings from 25 student interviews conducted under Stage 1 of the project.

Read the project update and preliminary findings

Applications are invited for a 2021 PhD scholarship with the NCSEHE at Curtin University.

The successful candidate will have a passion for social justice and equity issues, with a commitment to, or involvement in, activities related to this area.

Given the Centre’s equity agenda, we welcome applicants from more diverse backgrounds who may have taken more circuitous routes through higher education due to financial, employment or caring responsibilities.

More information and applications

It is a great pleasure to welcome doctoral student Jaimey Faccin, who will be co-supervised by Professor Sarah O'Shea and Dr Nicole Crawford from the NCSEHE.

Jaimey’s research will focus broadly on how higher education participation is understood by the caregivers of First-in-Family learners, specifically those students and caregivers in regional locations.

As the Manager of the University of Wollongong’s regional campus in Batemans Bay, Jaimey is passionate about regional higher education and equity and currently oversees a growing campus with 200 students. Jaimey has previously coordinated both the Batemans Bay In2Uni Outreach and Community Engagement programs, receiving multiple awards and recognition for her work in the Indigenous community engagement space.

Jaimey has been an executive member of the Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia (SPERA) since 2019, and has presented at national and international conferences.

On 9 December 2020, the Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training (ADCET) invited university and TAFE students with disability to participate in a student forum, supported by the NCSEHE, entitled Thriving through COVID-19.

ADCET’s earlier scoping survey on the impact of COVID-19 on the tertiary education sector found that while some students struggled with the COVID-19 disruptions, others coped well.

This forum aimed to establish the critical success factors that enabled some students to thrive through the disruptions and online learning environments and look at how these might be taught or shared with other students.

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