Australia Association for Research in Education
equity in higher education
What happens now to students who are first-in-family to go to university?
Students who are the first in their family to attend university remain severely under-represented, despite policy efforts to …
Education: the five concerns we should debate right now
Meghan Stacey on the trouble with teaching Deb Hayes on making school systems more equitable. Phillip Dawson on how we should treat ChatGPT. Sarah O’Shea on widening participation at university. Scott Eacott on the Productivity Commission’s review of the National School Reform Agreement. The trouble with teaching by Meghan Stacey Last year was a big …
We asked academics to be real about work. Here are our new findings
My children were two and three years old in March of 2020 when Sydney went into its first COVID-19 lockdown. At the time, I was in an education-focussed leadership role but also still teaching and conducting research. I was supporting my colleagues as they pivoted to online learning at the same time as helping implement …
O’Shea: All I want for higher education now and tomorrow
Fresh from delivering a widely-applauded keynote at this year’s HERDSA conference, “Fragility or tenacity? Equity and participation in …
Is this now the Federal government’s most bone-headed idea ever?
Apparently international PhD students in Australia now have to seek ministerial approval to change their thesis topic or …
We struggled to make university more equal. Has that battle for equality worked now?
Australian education policy has really focussed on getting ‘equity groups’ into university and then onto completion with initiatives designed to improve access and participation. That worked. Recent data indicate that there has been growth in the university enrolment of these equity groups in the past ten years. Published studies have also found evidence for comparable …
There are direct actions we can take now to make university access fair
While in recent decades there has been a focus on improving equitable access to higher education, inequalities cannot be overcome by simply exhorting more young people to go to university. Policies must also address the disparities between students that affect their capacity to ‘choose’ higher education. Australia has seen substantial growth in university enrolments since …
COVID-19 has destroyed academic careers & stalled equity in our universities: Death knell or opportunity?
In mid-March, my university sent me and my colleagues home to work remotely for what everyone thought would be a week, maybe ten days. It was meant to be just enough time for Victoria to get on top of the virus that was increasingly in the news. More than 280 days later, most of us …
First in family to attend university: latest Australian research findings
Over the past fifty years there has been a huge increase in enrolments in higher education in many …
Research evidence of issues facing disadvantaged students in higher education
The issues facing disadvantaged students wanting a tertiary education are multi-faceted. Just getting into a course at university …