Spending for success: identifying ‘what works?’ for Indigenous student outcomes in Australian Universities

Shane Hearn,Liam Kenna

doi:10.1017/jie.2020.27

Abstract

Abstract Despite the continued investment in Indigenous support networks and dedicated education units within universities, levels of key performance indicators for Indigenous students—access, participation, success and completion (attainment)—remain below that of the overall domestic student population in most institutions. It remains important to determine what works to achieve Indigenous student success in higher education. This paper proposes that such methods have an integral role to play in providing a holistic view of Indigenous participation and success at university, and are particularly useful in the development and evaluation of strategies and programs. This project found no quantitative correlation between financial investment and success rate for Indigenous students. A negative correlation between access rate and success rate suggests that factors other than those that encourage participation are important in supporting successful outcomes. Those universities that have high success rates have a suite of programs to support Indigenous students, but it is not immediately clear which of these strategies and programs may be most effective to facilitate Indigenous student success rates. In this discussion, we suggest that a multi-layered determinants model is a useful way to conceptualise the many factors that may impact on student success, and how they might intersect.

Highlights

Despite steady increases in Indigenous student access and participation between 2008 and 2017 (McGagh et al 2016; Department of Education and Training, 2016), Indigenous students are still drastically underrepresented at most Australian universities when compared to state and national population parity
Disparity in participation and completion levels in Australia are similar to examples from overseas, for example, Canada where Indigenous people represent approximately 4.3% of the total population; in 2006, only 8% had successfully completed a university degree compared to 23% of the non-Indigenous population (Gallop and Bastien, 2016; Pidgeon, 2016)
There were some years (2012, 2013) where many institutions appeared to have no Indigenous Education Statement (IES) documentation available. This has resulted in a large number of missing data points; of the 11 universities that were approached and invited to provide data, 2009– 2015 (7 years, a total of 77 data points), total Indigenous Support Program (ISP) spending was only available in 41 data points, while non-ISP spending was only available for 33 out of a possible 77 data points

Summary

Introduction

Despite steady increases in Indigenous student access and participation between 2008 and 2017 (McGagh et al 2016; Department of Education and Training, 2016), Indigenous students are still drastically underrepresented at most Australian universities when compared to state and national population parity. Disparity in participation and completion levels in Australia are similar to examples from overseas, for example, Canada where Indigenous people represent approximately 4.3% of the total population; in 2006, only 8% had successfully completed a university degree compared to 23% of the non-Indigenous population (Gallop and Bastien, 2016; Pidgeon, 2016). As access and participation figures have increased in Australia, so too has investment and program funding by the federal government, and by universities themselves. In 2016, Indigenous students represented approximately 1.7% of domestic university students nationally (Australian Federal Government, 2017b)

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