ACSES is excited to announce the release of the final report submitted for the Small Grants Research Program: "Investigating the relationships between First-in-Family status, equity groups, and university access"
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ACSES Small Grants Research Program Report Published
Dear colleagues,
The Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success (ACSES) is excited to announce the release of the final report submitted for the ACSES Small Grants Research Program project: Investigating the relationships between First-in-Family status, equity groups, and university access by Tomasz Zając, Garth Stahl, Wojtek Tomaszewski, and Ning Xiang (The University of Queensland)
Drawing on data from 443,609 young people, this study compares university enrolment patterns of
First-in-Family (FiF) students—those without university-educated parents—with their peers.
Key findings of the report include:
- FiF students make up more than two-thirds of the student population—yet they are not officially recognised as an equity group.
- FiF students are 23 percentage points less likely to enrol in university compared to non-FiF students—a gap larger than most recognised equity groups (except students with disability).
- Only 39% of FiF students who enrol attend selective universities (defined as those with higher entry requirements), compared with more than half of non-FiF students.
- FiF students are more likely to study education or health (excluding medicine) and less likely to pursue sciences, engineering, or medical studies.
The authors recommend recognising FiF status (parental education) as a key equity factor, building stronger data on educational pathways, funding further research into aspirations, and expanding outreach and career counselling programs.
Read the full report here.
Kind regards,
Professor Ian Li SFHEA
Director of Research and Policy Program Director
Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success
ACSES Symposium 2025 recordings now available
We are happy to announce that all recordings for Student Equity in an Era of Change 2025: The Australian Student Equity Symposium are now available on our YouTube channel: @acsesedu.
We hope the availability of these recordings will provide further insights and reflections to what were a remarkable two days of thought-provoking ideas, dialogue, and questions on student equity across various areas of higher education.
Successful projects announced for Small Grants Research Program 2025
ACSES is pleased to announce 10 proposals have been selected for funding as part of ACSES’s Small Grants Research Program, for a total funding amount of AUD493,426.
This year, the Centre received 19 applications in total, which were assessed by ACSES’s Grants and Fellowships Committee and Dr Francis Markham (ANU), who served on the small grants selection panel.
ACSES is pleased to announce the successful projects and recipients:
📰 Predicting health and wellbeing effects on Indigenous students' completion rates
Lead Institution: Griffith University
Lead Researcher: Dr Thu Dinh Xuan Pham
📰 Counting the costs: Investigating how low SES students make financial decisions about study
Lead institution: Charles Sturt University
Lead researcher: Dr Maree Martinussen
📰 Enhancing regional First Nations researcher development through the Manna Institute First Nations Network
Lead institution: Manna Institute, University of New England
Lead researcher: Ms Kisani Upward
📰 Setbacks, challenges, and attrition: Understanding student progress in FFUR programs
Lead institution: James Cook University
Lead researcher: Dr Matthew Bunn
📰 Wellbeing, coping, and supports among low SES students during placement
Lead institution: Griffith University
Lead researcher: Dr Lauren Terzis
📰 Does the Commonwealth Prac Payment meet its equity aims?
Lead institution: The University of Newcastle
Lead researcher: Dr Julia Cook
📰 Low SES students' non-ATAR access: Barriers in VIC and WA
Lead institution: Victoria University
Lead researchers: Dr Binh Ta and Dr Sam Hoang
📰 Exploring equity students’ use of AI in higher education
Lead institution: Deakin University
Lead researcher: Dr Reza Kachouie
📰 Widening participation in undergraduate fieldwork through equitable design
Lead institution: University of Tasmania
Lead researcher: Dr Lizzie Wandrag
You can read more details about each project here.
ACSES thanks all the applicants for their research proposals and the Grants and Fellowships Committee for its work.
We're hiring!
Communication Officer (Publishing)
At ACSES, we believe in the power of education to change lives, and we’re committed to making higher education fairer, more inclusive, and accessible for all.
Are you a proactive, detail-oriented communicator with strong editing and publishing skills? Do you have experience in editing, digital publishing, and communicating complex research in plain English? Then this could be the role for you.
Join our fantastic team at ACSES and help us produce high-quality publications that make a real impact in higher education equity.
This is a full-time, fixed term role. Apply via:
Applications close: Monday, 20 October 2025.
Impact Evaluation for Equity workshop
Join us on Thursday, 30 October at the Australian National University (ANU Acton Campus) for our in-person workshop: "Impact Evaluation for Equity".
In this hands-on event, we’ll dive into:
- How to assess whether your program is "evaluability" ready
- Different questions that the different impact evaluation approaches can (and cannot) answer
- Common beliefs (and misbeliefs) in relation to impact evaluations
- Real examples from equity/education settings
Facilitated by Dr Patricia Vermillion Peirce (ACSES Trials Lead), this workshop offers a chance to engage with peers, get feedback, and help you identify programs that may benefit from different types of impact evaluation approaches.
📅 Thursday, 30 October 2025
⏰ 10:00 am – 3:00 pm (AEDT)
📍 ANU Acton Campus (in-person only)
Seats are limited. Register today to secure your place. A light lunch will be provided.
This event is kindly hosted by ANU's Inclusive and Respectful Communities team.
BCEC Research Development Series | HEARIA: Forming a New Measure of Higher Education Accessibility in Australia
On Wednesday 8 October, ACSES staff, Professor Ian Li (Director of Research and Policy) and Vince Gingoyon (Research Assistant), delivered a Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) Research Development seminar on their topic, "HEARIA: Forming a New Measure of Higher Education Accessibility in Australia".
Their research proposes HEARIA, a new way of measuring geographic remoteness in the higher education context. HEARIA applies the concept of the ARIA+ to the higher education environment by measuring road distances to higher education institutions to determine an area’s remoteness. Ian and Vince conclude that HEARIA is a more effective measure than the current ARIA+ based classification, allowing for more accurately targeted policy.
Evaluation Learning Program & PLM Tool Information Session recording now available
Last week ACSES held the "Evaluation Learning Program & PLM Tool Information Session". This session focused on the ACSES Evaluation Learning Program, which provides accessible training modules for equity practitioners in higher education, and the ACSES Program Logic Model (PLM) Tool, which has a critical role in visualising and sharing program plans and outcomes.
The recording for this session is now available on our YouTube channel.
ACSES in the news
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