The challenge of creating capable students in higher education

Heidi Hutchison

October 2009

2009 HASS on the Hill
Roundtable briefing paper
Work-in-Progress

1. Introduction
   Ross Homel and Heidi Hutchison
2. Defining and evaluating social inclusion
   Merryn Davies and Tim Sealey
3. Early developmental programmes and their impact on educational outcomes
   Ross Homel, Sue Grieshaber, Jennifer Bowes and Jennifer Sumsion
4. The role of university outreach programs
   Trevor Gale and Sam Sellar
5. The Roundtable Agenda: Issues for discussion
6. Appendices

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1. Introduction

In March 2009 the Minister for Education Julia Gillard announced the Government's aim to increase the proportion of students from low socio-economic (SES), rural, regional and Indigenous backgrounds participating in higher education to 20 per cent by 2020. Achieving this target requires a holistic approach to social inclusion policies, with a specific focus on addressing the causes and consequences of educational exclusion of low SES, rural, regional and Indigenous students. This includes tackling the health, financial, cultural and systemic barriers to educational attainment within specific schools, families, and communities; promoting high quality early childhood programs; and improving school retention rates and supporting students through crucial educational transition periods.

If the Australian higher education sector is to achieve another of the Government's targets, which is to have 40 per cent of 25 to 34 year olds holding a bachelor's degree (or above) by 2025, it will need to design and implement outreach programs aimed at enabling and convincing people to seek university entry from among those who currently do not.

In the past, the primary driver for expanding higher education has been the demand for places significantly exceeding their supply. Reforms to Australian higher education under Whitlam and Dawkins are classic examples. But unmet demand for higher education is low, currently at 8 per cent, which suggests there is not a sufficient reserve of applicants ready to take up an increased supply of university places. Without creating student demand, there are presently not enough interested and/or qualified university applicants to enable the sector to deliver on the 40 per cent target.

The proposed expansion of Australian higher education is also like no other because it is required to more than equally benefit people from low socioeconomic backgrounds. In the past when governments have increased the supply of higher education, the absolute number of low SES, rural, regional and Indigenous students has increased but their proportional representation has remained relatively unchanged (at around 15 per cent). Under the current proposal, their undergraduate representation is set to rise in absolute terms and also proportionally, to 20 per cent by 2020.

Purpose of the roundtable briefing paper

Knowledge transfer is a cyclical process of engagement between policy officials and researchers, by which the knowledge needed to enhance material, human, social and environmental wellbeing is developed, exchanged and evaluated. Research shows that what works best in knowledge transfer is "interactive and ongoing processes and relationships between policy and research people."

The roundtable, in which a small group of researchers and policy officials meet to discuss a particular topic, has proven to be an effective method of knowledge transfer. The 'Social inclusion in education' roundtable is an opportunity for policy officials and Australia's social sciences researchers to share knowledge of what we know and don't know about the question of social inclusion in education.

Knowledge transfer through roundtables is most successful when supported by a strong briefing paper. The purpose of the briefing paper is to support the roundtable discussion by providing participants with background to the current policy discussion, a summary of the findings and current research investigations, and to match this information to the primary topics for discussion. The briefing paper is thus a vital tool in outlining a clear agenda for the roundtable.

Background to Creating Capable Students

The Creating Capable Students project began in early 2009, in response to the recommendation in the Bradley Review of Higher Education that "the Australian Government set a national target that, by 2020, 20 per cent of higher education enrolments at undergraduate level are people from low socio-economic status backgrounds." The Rudd government has declared a keen interest in evidence-based policy making. Prime Minister Rudd, in an April 2008 speech to senior executives in the Australian Public Service, noted that "Developing evidence-based policy making processes as part of a robust culture of policy contestability" was one of his Government's visions for the Australian Public Service.

Social sciences researchers have a strong track record on the question of improving the educational achievement of socially marginalised children and young people. We can draw on a large international and Australian evidence base pointing to the importance of early childhood development and primary schooling in improving educational outcomes in the long term. Much is also known about the ways in which our educational systems reproduce advantage and disadvantage, and what can be done to overcome systemic barriers to achievement. In this regard, universities have a distinct role to play in targeting outreach programs at preschools, primary and high schools and at crucial educational transitional periods. What is needed is a co-ordinated approach involving the higher education sector, schools, government departments and non-government organisations, aimed at building capacities in communities, preschools, schools and universities.

The primary focus of this roundtable is to explore the relationship between educational achievement, aspiration and participation in higher education. The Creating Capable Students project has identified the following questions as central to the roundtable discussion:

1. How do children and young people negotiate the Australian education system, particularly the key life transitions of starting school, going to high school, and leaving school?
2. What programs and policies are effective in improving the pathways of socially marginalised children and young people through the school system?
3. What policies and programs are effective at the tertiary level in encouraging participation by marginalised groups in higher education?
4. What are the effective means of evaluating what works and what doesn't in encouraging participation by marginalised groups in higher education?

The future of the Creating Capable Students project

In addition to the Hass on the Hill Roundtable on 'Social inclusion in education', the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations have agreed to a one-day roundtable to facilitate this process. Participating in the roundtable will be leading Australian social science researchers and policy officials from DEEWR, FaHCSIA, Treasury, CHASS, NCSEHE and Universities Australia. It is expected that about 25 researchers, policy officials, and stakeholders will participate in the roundtable.

An extended version of this briefing paper will be prepared for the DEEWR roundtable. It will include a section on 'Supporting students through key educational transition periods', and will be informed by the discussion held at the Hass on the Hill 'Social inclusion in education' roundtable.

About the chairs and their organisations

The roundtable will be chaired by Professor Ross Homel AO and Professor Trevor Gale.

Professor Ross Homel is Foundation Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University, and Director of the University's Strategic Research Program in the Social and Behavioural Sciences. From 2004 till 2007 he was Director of the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance at Griffith, and he also served as Head of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice between 1993 and 96 and 2002 and 2003. He was editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology from 1992 to 1995, and was a part-time Commissioner of the Queensland Criminal Justice Commission from February 1994 to April 1999. In July 2003 he took on a half-time role for 12 months with the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth, to help develop a set of national research priorities to advance the wellbeing of children and young people, and to set up a new Australian Research Council research network on behalf of the Alliance. In 2004 he was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. His career focus is the theoretical analysis of crime and associated problems, and the prevention of these problems through the application of the scientific method to problem analysis and the development, implementation and evaluation of interventions. He is particularly interested in prevention projects implemented through community development methods at the local level, and is co-director of a large project in a disadvantaged area of Brisbane (the Pathways to Prevention Project).

Professor Homel is also Vice-President of the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS). CHASS acts as a co-ordinating forum linking research in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences sector with Government and Industry. With more than 100 member organisations, the Council can bring together Australia's best researchers and specialists to work through pressing public policy issues. CHASS, through the Creating Capable Students project, aims to facilitate the translation of the HASS sector's research knowledge into effective Government policy on social inclusion in higher education, in order to create the capable students of the future.

Professor Trevor Gale is Professor of Education and the founding director of the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education; an Australian Government founded research centre hosted by the University of South Australia. Previously he was Associate Dean (Research Degrees) in the Faculty of Education, Monash University, where he also taught courses in the sociology of teaching, policy sociology, and qualitative research methodology. Trevor has been researching education policy and social justice issues in education for almost two decades, and is author and co-author of over 100 book chapters, journal articles, and conference papers. He is a foundation member of the National VET Equity Advisory Council (NVEAC) reporting to MCTEE, the founding editor of Critical Studies in Education, and on the editorial board of the International Journal of Inclusive Education. From 2000 to 2006, Trevor was an executive member of the Australian Association for Research in Education, the nation's premier association of education researchers. As President of the Association in 2005, he led the discipline's early response when Australia's Research Quality Framework was first mooted. Trevor is author and co-author of 3 books. Just Schooling (OUP 2000) and Engaging Teachers (OUP 2003; translated into Spanish in 2007) are seminal texts in under and post graduate sociology of education courses throughout Australia, New Zealand and Europe. Rough Justice (Peter Lang 2005) is a narrative of youth homelessness and disadvantage in Australia and is used extensively by juvenile justice workers in Victoria's Department of Human Services. Two further books are due for release in 2009: Schooling in Disadvantaged Communities (Springer 2009, in press) with Carmen Mills and Educational Research by Association (Sense 2009, in press), an edited collection with Bob Lingard.

The National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education was established in 2008 by the Australian Government to inform student equity policy and practice in Australian higher education, through the conduct and dissemination of research, the facilitation of discussion and debate, and the provision of advice to practitioners, researchers and policy officials in government and institutions. It has recently completed a major study for Government of university outreach programs operating in schools, particularly aimed at low SES students prior to Year 11, which has produced a Design and Evaluation Matrix for Outreach (DEMO) to inform government policy and university programs. The National Centre is also developing an online website (www.equity101.info) that will act as a repository of national and international research, policy and practice in the field and a forum for discussion and debate and sharing of information about issues of social inclusion in education.

Heidi Hutchison
19 November 2009

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Also see: 2009 HASS on the Hill, Social inclusion in eduction roundtable meeting briefing paper and information.

 

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Research and Policy Officer

Council of the Humanties, Arts and Social Sciences

Phone: +61 2 6201 2559

policy [at] chass.org.au