scholarly journals Practising equity: the activation and appropriation of student equity policy in Queensland higher education

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Peacock
2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Peacock ◽  
Sam Sellar ◽  
Bob Lingard

Author(s):  
Matthew Brett

This chapter explores the role of knowledge within Australian higher education policy with specific emphasis on student equity. The Australian higher education system is designed to pursue teaching-, research-, and equity-related objectives. Teaching- and research-related objectives are broadly and successfully fulfilled through policy and funding, which facilitates these activities. Equity-related objectives are broadly pursued by policy and funding that aims to change the composition of staff and student populations engaged in teaching and research. Progress towards policy objectives of equity of access and participation remains elusive. This chapter examines the prominence of tacit and explicit forms of knowledge within equity policy as a factor in the efficacy of equity policy. Through examining Australian higher education equity policy through a knowledge-centric lens, elements of equity group-specific policy are found to have broader utility, with implications for policy design and reform.


Author(s):  
Sally Patfield ◽  
Jennifer Gore ◽  
Natasha Weaver

AbstractFor more than three decades, Australian higher education policy has been guided by a national equity framework focussed on six underrepresented target groups: Indigenous Australians, people from low socioeconomic status backgrounds, people from regional and remote areas, people with disabilities, people from non-English speaking backgrounds, and women in non-traditional areas of study. Despite bringing equitable access to the forefront of university agendas, this policy framework has fostered a somewhat narrow conceptualisation of how educational disadvantage should be addressed. Responding to calls for reform, this paper draws on survey data from 6492 students in NSW government schools to examine the extent to which a new category warrants inclusion in the national framework: first-generation status. We illustrate how being the first in a family to attend university brings distinct equity status and argue for a revision of the national equity framework to recognise and support students who are ‘first’.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 18-27
Author(s):  
Nicole Crawford ◽  
Sherridan Emery

This article shines a light on a little-known cohort of higher education participants, mature-aged students in, and from, regional and remote Australia – the focus of a National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education mixed-methods study. Notable patterns were found in the quantitative data; for instance, compared to their metropolitan counterparts, higher proportions of regional and remote students were older, female, from low socio-economic status areas, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and studied online and/or part-time. The presentation of four vignettes from the interviews uncovers the stories behind the numbers, revealing students’ diverse and complex circumstances; two of the students shared experiences of facing systemic obstacles, while the other two described receiving invaluable institutional support. The obstacles can be attributed to systems designed for “ideal”, “implied” and “traditional” students, and entrenched attitudes that privilege some “types” of students over others and limit the aim of full participation for all students.


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