Abstract
This article examines the narratives that drive university staff understanding of the concerns and experiences of regional and remote students at five universities in Australia. Interviews were conducted with thirty university staff members over a period of three months in 2018. Reflexive thematic analysis of the stories told by staff of supporting regional students found that staff used the lens of access to create meaningful stories for themselves and others in how they supported students. Access is defined as a multi-faceted term encompassing access to people, Internet, study materials and equipment and study environments. Access is facilitated by a sense of belonging or identity as a student and limited by the lack of this. Our analysis of “belongingness” draws on Bourdieu’s concepts of habitas to start to unpick the interactions between higher education institutions and the student that develop student identities as scholars and centres the narrative on the student as a person, wrestling to gain many forms of access within complex social situations.
Highlights
In Australia, equity group students’ participation in higher education has increased markedly between 2008 and 2015, but participation by regional, rural and remote students has not increased at the same rate and has fallen as a proportion of undergraduate enrolments (National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education [NCSEHE], 2017; Vichie, 2017)
The aim of this article is to explore how university staff perceive their role in the provision of education to regional students and to understand university staff perceptions of factors and influences that lead to student success
The aim of this article is to explore through an interpretive lens how regional low-success of regional low-socioeconomic (SES) university students’ study and learning needs are supported by university staff, including any issues or challenges faced, and how university staff perceive their role in the provision of education to regional students and to understand university staff perceptions of factors and influences that lead to student success
Summary
In Australia, equity group students’ participation in higher education has increased markedly between 2008 and 2015, but participation by regional, rural and remote students (hereafter regional) has not increased at the same rate and has fallen as a proportion of undergraduate enrolments (National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education [NCSEHE], 2017; Vichie, 2017). Much work is done at the policy level around measuring participation, but there is less work on how universities as institutions, and the individuals within these institutions, understand and meet the needs of regional students. Assumptions about or perceptions of issues faced by students can lead to a “gap in our ‘diversity response” (NCSEHE, 2017, p.5) that has real impacts on services and support provided by universities to regional students. As an open access journal, articles are free to use with proper attribution.
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