NEW Trials Registry now live | Capacity Building Grants Program open for applications
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Welcome to 2025
Dear colleagues
As we step into the first weeks of 2025, the Australian Centre for Student Equity in Success (ACSES) remains focused on providing robust evidence and insights that support universities in shaping effective student equity strategies and policies.
Our focus in 2025 is squarely on delivery of findings, results, and tools that will underpin positive impacts for Australian universities.
We are pleased to announce the ACSES Trials Registry, a resource designed to enhance access to evidence-informed strategies. Practitioners and sector leaders will be able to learn about equity initiative trials across Australian universities, including evaluation results and methodologies.
Additionally, preparations are well underway for "Student Equity in an Era of Change: The Australian Student Equity Symposium 2025", which will build on the success of last year’s inaugural event. This year’s gathering promises to deliver even greater impact—stay tuned for further details.
Alongside these key initiatives, ACSES will host a variety of events and engagements, release a series of timely reports and publications, and drive many other developments throughout the year.
ACSES is open for business and here to support you. If your team is seeking guidance or would like to learn more about how our evidence can inform your equity strategies, our dedicated experts are here to assist. We look forward to working together to advance equity and success across the sector.
Regards
Professor Shamit Saggar
Executive Director
Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success
“What Works” in student equity: ACSES launches Trials Registry
We are pleased to announce the launch of the Trials Registry—a free resource showcasing innovative, evidence-based initiatives to improve equity outcomes in Australian universities.
The Registry provides universities and education professionals with open access to detailed trial methodologies and outcomes. With a focus on specific outcomes, priority student groups, and different stages of the student lifecycle, the tool is designed to help replicate successful trials and implement effective strategies locally.
As more trials are funded the Registry is set to continue to expand, offering final reports and trial results that contribute to improving university enrolment, retention, and success for equity students. This growing resource is aligned with the ongoing reforms in Australian higher education, such as those introduced in the Australian Universities Accord Report.
“By sharing results and methodologies we’re not just building knowledge, we’re driving change because the Registry gives universities easy access to relevant information that can them make a difference to student outcomes,” ACSES Trials Lead Dr Patricia Vermillion Peirce said.
Explore the ACSES Trials Registry and discover how evidence-based trials are shaping the future of equity in higher education. We will continue to share updates but remember to check in periodically for the latest Registry developments.
We welcome expressions of interest from those interested in undertaking a trial. Contact Patricia at patricia.vermillionpeirce@curtin.edu.au for more details.
Introducing the new ACSES Capacity Building Grants Program
The Capacity Building Grants Program provides support for institutions to develop their internal capacity for engaging in impact evaluations. The grant can be used to develop institutional capacity to implement impact evaluations of equity initiatives. This can be achieved through a variety of means, including, but not limited to:
- engaging internal or external evaluation experts;
- engaging in cross-institutional collaborations to share knowledge/best practices or identify opportunities for scalability (for example, combining data to create greater power); and
- providing professional development/training activities for key staff, in line with the aims of this grant scheme.
The Capacity Building Grants Program is an open and competitive process. The deadline for applying is 28 February 2025.
Find out more about eligibility, available funding levels, and how to apply on the ACSES website.
Capacity Building Grants Information Session
Join ACSES Trials and Evaluation Program Director, Associate Professor Tim Pitman, and ACSES Manager, National Student Equity Evaluation, Dr Patrick Broman, for an information session to learn more about the program, eligibility, levels of funding available, application deadlines, how to apply, and more. There will be time to ask your questions about the program or the application process.
Date: Wednesday, 5 February 2025
Time: 9.30am AWST | 12.30pm AEDT
Mark your calendars!
At ACSES, we are committed to empowering the sector through evidence. Join us on 13 March for the Equity Frontiers Forum, where we will help practitioners use evidence to enhance outcomes for both prospective and current students, while generating further impact evidence for the sector.
Thanks to valuable sector feedback, the Forum will feature practitioner-led presentations, showcasing how practitioners and their teams have implemented impact evaluations of their equity initiatives. Attendees will also take part in hands-on workshops designed to help plan and implement these evaluations. There will also be opportunities to explore culturally relevant practices in randomised evaluations and other evaluation methodologies.
The Forum will be followed by another dynamic day of discussions at the Community of Practice (CoP) on 14 March. Stay tuned for full details of these hybrid events.
Next in our webinar series...
Join Dr Tomasz Zajac for an insightful webinar to discuss the findings of his research project "Investigating relationships between first-in-family status, equity groups, and university access".
Tomasz is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) at the University of Queensland (UQ) and the Deputy Lead of the Opportunities research program at the Life Course Centre. His research explores how first-in-family status intersects with equity groups like low-socioeconomic status background (SES) and Women In Non-Traditional Areas (WINTA), and its impact on higher education access.
Date: Thursday 13 February, 2025 | Time: 11 am (AWST)
Find out more and register here.
Roundtable on "Talking about time and assessment: Ideas to improve equity"
This free event will present data from the ACSES-funded research project "Time for a rethink: Assessment policy to enable equity". In this project, researchers analysed the assessment policies of all Australian universities and investigated how a sample of universities with inclusive policies managed these in practice. The purpose of the roundtable is to open up a dialogue about time and its influence on the Higher Education experiences of students, especially those from equity backgrounds, in a range of university contexts. Educational leaders who oversee policy development and academic staff responsible for implementation of policy through their assessment practices are invited to contribute to this conversation.
The roundtable will be hosted by the research team (Assoc Prof Jo Dargusch, Dr Lois Harris, Prof Margaret Kettle [CQUniversity], Prof Jill Willis, Dr Julie Arnold [QUT]) and include participants from our sample universities and attendees.
Date: Tuesday, 18 February 2025 | Location: Queensland University of Technology (QUT) (and online)
A full event schedule and link to register can be found here.
Equity Frontiers Program: Funding and support for your trials
Our Equity Frontiers Program funds trials to test the effectiveness of programs, activities, or other initiatives designed to improve higher education access and success for students. We fund both small and large-scale trials that are either Sector-led or T&E-led – and applications for funding can be made at any time.
We are accepting Expressions of Interest now. You can find the Equity Frontiers Program Guidelines and an Expression of Interest template for download on the ACSES website.
ACSES in the news
