scholarly journals Editorial 18:3 Celebrating women in higher education on International Women’s Day

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 2-5
Author(s):  
Kerryn Butler-Henderson ◽  
◽  
Alisa Percy ◽  
Jo-Anne Kelder ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Full Professor ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Education History ◽  
Women In Higher Education ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Bachelor Of Science ◽  
Female Authors ◽  
Vice Chancellor ◽  
Vice Chancellors

We have timed publishing our first standard issue of the year to coincide with International Woman’s Day, 8 March 2021 to celebrate the contribution women have made to higher education. The first woman documented as teaching in a university was more than 800 years ago, and yet it is only the last century that the number of female academics has started to increase (Whaley, 2011). In Australia, the first university was established in 1851, yet it would be another 32 years until Julia Guerin graduated in 1883 from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in 1883 (Women's Museum of Australia, 2020). And another 10 years when Leonora Little graduated from Melbourne University with a Bachelor of Science in 1983. Despite these accomplishments in the late 19th century, it was not until 1959 when the first woman, Dorothy Hill, was awarded a Chair appointment (Chair of Geology) in an Australian university, and nearly a century before Australia has its first female Vice Chancellor, when Dianne Yerbury became the Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University in 1987, a position she held for twenty years. Australia’s higher education history tells a clear story of the slow integration of women in higher education, particularly within the STEM fields. For example, Little graduated in 1893 with a Bachelor of Science, but it was 1928 before the first female Lecturer in Mathematics, Ethel Raybould was appointed, and another 36 years before Hanna Neumann became the first female Professor of Pure Mathematics in 1964. It was just over 60 years ago that Margaret Williams-Weir was the first female Indigenous Australian to graduate with a university qualification in 1959. Female Indigenous Australians remain under-represented in the Australian university graduate population. The current situation for Australian higher education still retains a dominance of males within academic roles, such as 30 percent more men in Associate and Full Professor roles than women (Devlin, 2021). And whilst there has been progress in some jurisdictions, such as the majority of Queensland vice chancellors are women in 2021, these continue to be the exception, for example only 28% of vice chancellors in Australia are women. International Woman’s Day is an opportunity to reflect on the significant contribution women make in higher education in Australia and globally. We celebrate through the publication of this issue, with many female authors from across higher education globally.

Indigenous Studies: Tool of Empowerment Within the Academe

2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (S1) ◽  
pp. 23-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeannie Herbert
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Change Agents ◽  
Indigenous Studies ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Critical Elements ◽  
Australian Community ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The University

AbstractIn this paper, I consider the importance of Indigenous studies programs, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as critical elements in enabling Indigenous Australian students to engage in the academe in ways that not only allow them to empower themselves, but, ultimately, to become effective change agents within both their own and the wider Australian community. While this paper will highlight the challenges that Indigenous Australians face in their engagement within the university learning environment, it will also reveal the increasingly successful outcomes that are being achieved. A particular focus of the paper will be to acknowledge higher education as a tool of empowerment – a process that enables people to identify and address their own issues, and to use such knowledge and understanding as the platform for personal, positive growth. Finally this paper will contextualise higher education from within an Indigenous perspective to demonstrate how Indigenous studies not only contributes to the empowerment of the individual but also has a critical role in ultimately re-positioning Indigenous Australians in the wider Australian society.

scholarly journals Book Review: Higher Education, Leadership and Women Vice Chancellors

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1&2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela L. Eddy
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Leadership Development ◽  
Women Leaders ◽  
The United States ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Doctoral Studies ◽  
Vice Chancellor ◽  
College Leaders ◽  
Underrepresentation Of Women ◽  
Vice Chancellors

The paucity of women leaders in higher education continues despite advancement by women in other fronts of the educational pipeline.  Today, more women are attending and graduating from college in the United States, but something occurs en route to the top-level leadership positions in these same college settings.  The portrait of college leaders continues to consist of White men, as it has since the initial founding of universities.  Paula Burkinshaw analyzes the situation of the missing women leaders in the United Kingdom, specifically in the position of Vice Chancellor.  Burkinshaw’s long career in leadership development in university settings initially provided her with an awareness of the underrepresentation of women in top leadership positions.  As she began her doctoral studies, she had an opportunity to ask “where are the women?”  Her book builds on her dissertation research, which involved one-on-one interviews with 18 women who were vice chancellors.

Queer(y)ing Indigenous Australian higher education student spaces

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corrinne Sullivan ◽  
Madi Day
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Education Student ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Personal Impact ◽  
Gender Diverse ◽  
University Access ◽  
And Gender

AbstractFor many Queer and Gender Diverse (QGD) Indigenous Australian people, there is little to no separation between our queer or gender identity, and our cultural identity. We are increasingly calling upon institutions to consider and cater to our identities and the needs which correlate with such identities. This paper discusses the findings of a project that investigated the ways in which QGD Indigenous Australian students are included, or not, in the Australian higher education space. Our findings suggest QGD Indigenous Australians are often overlooked in these spaces. We explore the consequences for university access, retention and personal impact for this cohort of students.

Brilliant Minds: A Snapshot of Successful Indigenous Australian Doctoral Students

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Trudgett ◽  
Susan Page ◽  
Neil Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Time Basis ◽  
Completion Times

Drawing on demographic data collected from interviews with 50 Indigenous Australians with a doctoral qualification and 33 of their supervisors, this paper provides the first detailed picture of Indigenous doctoral education in Australia, with the focus on study modes, age of candidates, completion times and employment. It also analyses data produced through interviews with supervisors including age, employment levels and academic background. The study confronts a number of common perceptions in the higher education sector, to find that many Indigenous Australians are awarded their doctoral qualification in the middle stages of their career. This particular cohort is more likely to be studying in the arts and humanities, employed in higher education and enrolled on a full-time basis. This Australian Research Council (ARC) funded research provides new and important data to inform government policy, and to allow universities to implement strategies and recommendations arising from the Behrendt Report of 2012.

Peak bodies: Indigenous representation in the Australian higher education sector

2021 ◽  
pp. 000494412110111
Author(s):  
Michelle Trudgett ◽  
Susan Page ◽  
Stacey K Coates
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Indigenous Education ◽  
Education Sector ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Single Group ◽  
Indigenous Leadership ◽  
Indigenous Representation ◽  
Leadership In Higher Education ◽  
Adequate Representation ◽  
Vice Chancellors

The number of Indigenous Australians engaged in the higher education has risen steadily in recent years. Since the 1970s, several groups have been established to represent issues impacting Indigenous staff and students across the Australian higher education sector. Despite the deep passion and commitment by Indigenous leaders to advance Indigenous education in general, no single group currently provides adequate representation and advocacy on these issues. This article reports on findings from an Australian Research Council-funded study on Indigenous leadership in higher education. In doing so, it shares the perspectives of senior Indigenous leaders, university executive such as Vice-Chancellors and Indigenous academics. Ultimately, this article purports that it is necessary for the Federal Government and Universities Australia to work collaboratively with Indigenous People if we are going to see collective advancement across the sector and that this needs to occur in a more meaningful way than currently exercised.

Indigenous higher education sector: the evolution of recognised Indigenous Leaders within Australian Universities

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey Kim Coates ◽  
Michelle Trudgett ◽  
Susan Page
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Indigenous Education ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Access To Higher Education ◽  
Public Schooling ◽  
Indigenous Students ◽  
Early Experiences ◽  
Commonwealth Government ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Over Time

Abstract There is clear evidence that Indigenous education has changed considerably over time. Indigenous Australians' early experiences of ‘colonialised education’ included missionary schools, segregated and mixed public schooling, total exclusion and ‘modified curriculum’ specifically for Indigenous students which focused on teaching manual labour skills (as opposed to literacy and numeracy skills). The historical inequalities left a legacy of educational disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Following activist movements in the 1960s, the Commonwealth Government initiated a number of reviews and forged new policy directions with the aim of achieving parity of participation and outcomes in higher education between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Further reviews in the 1980s through to the new millennium produced recommendations specifically calling for Indigenous Australians to be given equality of access to higher education; for Indigenous Australians to be employed in higher education settings; and to be included in decisions regarding higher education. This paper aims to examine the evolution of Indigenous leaders in higher education from the period when we entered the space through to now. In doing so, it will examine the key documents to explore how the landscape has changed over time, eventually leading to a number of formal reviews, culminating in the Universities Australia 2017–2020 Indigenous Strategy (Universities Australia, 2017).

scholarly journals On ‘being first’: the case for first-generation status in Australian higher education equity policy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Patfield ◽  
Jennifer Gore ◽  
Natasha Weaver
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Low Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Higher Education Policy ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Government Schools ◽  
Generation Status ◽  
Educational Disadvantage ◽  
Equity Policy

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’.

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