Spending for success: identifying ‘what works?’ for Indigenous student outcomes in Australian Universities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/jie.2020.27Keywords:
Benchmarking, Indigenous higher education, Indigenous student success, student supportAbstract
AbstractDespite 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.
Downloads
References
Anderson I and Reich H (2017) Indigenous Higher Education—creating pathways to PhD study for Indigenous Australians. The Global Access to Postsecondary Education (GAPS) Think Piece [Issue 16].
Department of Education and Training (DET) (2016) Australian Federal Government. 2016 First Half Year Student Summary Time Series; Table 9: Domestic onshore students (a) by selected equity group, first half year (b) 2007 to 2016.
Department of Education and Training (DET) (2017a) Australian Federal Government. Higher Education Support Act (2003). Indigenous Student Assistance Grants Guidelines, 2017: ISSP Guidelines.
Department of Education and Training (DET) (2017b) Australian Federal Government. Appendix 5; Institutional Student Equity Performance Data, 2009 to 2016.
Department of Education and Training (DET) (2018) Australian Federal Government. 2018 Student Summary; Section 16: Student Equity Performance Data, 2009 to 2018.
Barney K (2013) ‘Taking your mob with you’: giving voice to the experiences of Indigenous Australian postgraduate students. Higher Education Research and Development 32, 515–528.
Barney K (2016) (Department of Education and Training, Australian Government). Pathways to postgraduate study for Indigenous Australian students: Enhancing the transition to Higher Degrees by Research. Final Report: National Teaching Fellowship, University of Queensland.
Baum F (2007) Social capital (Ch. 6). In Carson B, Dunbar T, Chenhall RD and Bailie R (eds), Social Determinants of Indigenous Health. Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, Sydney, NSW.
Behrendt L, Larkin S, Griew R and Kelly P (2012) (Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education, Australian Government). Review of Higher Education access and outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: Final report.
Budgen F, Main SJ, Callcott D and Hamlett B (2014) The first year at university: giving social capital a sporting chance. Australian Journal of Teacher Education 39, 157–172.
Clapham K, O'Dea K and Chenhall RD (2007) Interventions and sustainable programs (Ch. 13). In Carson B, Dunbar T, Chenhall RD and Bailie R (eds). Social Determinants of Indigenous Health. Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, Sydney, NSW, pp. 271–295.
Commission for the Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) [World Health Organisation] (2010) A Conceptual Framework for Action on the Social Determinants of Health. Discussion paper for the Commission on Social Determinants of Health, April 2007.
Devlin M (2009) Indigenous higher education student equity: focussing on what works. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education 38.
Gallop C and Bastien N (2016) Supporting success: Aboriginal students in higher education. Canadian Journal of Higher Education Revue canadienne d'enseignement supérieur 46, 206–224
IBM Corp (2017) IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 25.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.
Martin D and Kipling A (2006) Factors shaping Aboriginal nursing students’ experiences. Nurse Education Today 26, 688–696
McGagh J, Marsh H, Western M, Thomas P, Hastings A, Mihailandova M, Wenham M (2016) Review of Australia's Research Training System. Report for the Australian Council of Learned Academies, www.acola.org.au.
Nakata M (2007) The cultural interface. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education 36, 7–14. doi: 10.1017/S1326011100004646
Natalier K (2013) Research design (Ch. 2). In Walter M (ed.), Social Research Methods, 3rd Edn. Oxford University Press, Sydney NSW.
New Zealand Ministry of Health/Manatu Hauora (2018) Maori Health Statistics; Demographics; Age Structure. https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/populations/maori-health/tatau-kahukura-maori-health-statistics/tatauranga-taupori-demographics/age-structure. Accessed 20th March 2020.
Pechenkina E and Anderson I (2011) Background paper on Indigenous Australian Higher Education: Trends, Initiatives and Policy Implications. Prepared for The Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People. COMMISSIONED RESEARCH PAPER #1.
Pechenkina E, Kowal E and Paradies Y (2011) Indigenous Australian students’ participation rates in higher education: exploring the role of universities. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 40, 59–68.
Pidgeon M (2016) More than a checklist: meaningful Indigenous inclusion in higher education. Social Inclusion (ISSN: 2183–2803) 4, 77–91.
Rochecouste J, Oliver R, Bennell D, Anderson R, Cooper I and Forrest S (2016) Teaching Australian Aboriginal higher education students: What should universities do? Studies in higher education, DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2015.1134474.
Rose M (2014) Evaluation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Action Plan 2010–2014. Report to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Advisory Group of the Education Council, Nov. 2014. Final Evaluation Report Prepared by ACILL Allen Consulting, PhillipsKPA, La Trobe University.
Rutherford A and Rabovsky T (2014) Evaluating impacts of performance funding policies on student outcomes in higher education. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 655, 185–208. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716214541048.
Smith J, Pollard K, Robertson K and Shalley F (2018) Strengthening evaluation in Indigenous higher education contexts in Australia: 2017 Equity Fellowship Report. Perth: National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education.
Theodore R, Tustin K, Kiro C, Gollop M, Taumoepeau M, Taylor N, Chee K-S, Hunter J and Poulton R (2016) Māori university graduates: Indigenous participation in higher education. Higher Education Research & Development 35, 604–618.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 The Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education is in the process of transitioning to fully Open Access. Most articles are available as Open Access but some are currently Free Access whereby copyright still applies and if you wish to re-use the article permission will need to be sought from the copyright holder. This article's license terms are outlined at the URL above.
