A selection of 30 year ten students from NSW Priority Action Schools experienced university for the first time last week building robots with engineers from the UTS Faculty of Engineering and IT. The Make a Real Robot Project is part of an ongoing outreach program run by UTS during the school holidays to grow the aspirations of students who face many challenges to gaining a degree.
The Australian government has adopted a ‘social inclusion agenda’ that aims to bring together social and economic policies in order to reduce disadvantage in the Australian community. Increasing participation and success in education and training is a key aspect of the social inclusion agenda. The government acknowledges that low levels of skill and education attainment contribute to disadvantage because they are associated with poorer labour market experiences and non-participation in the labour force.
In this paper the author provides a broad overview of outreach and student engagement strategies
used in Australian universities and raise key issues in regard to improving access to higher
education for disadvantaged and under-represented students.
This report aims to describe a model of best practice in Australia that will facilitate the transition of people with disabilities from tertiary education and training into their postgraduate careers. A review of the literature and an investigation of strategies currently being utilised in both the United Kingdom and Australia will inform this description.
This resource addresses these challenges for people with disabilities, employers and educators. The website provides substantial information about options and pathways that people with disabilities can use in disclosing their disability in post secondary education and employment environments. The website also articulates the role and responsibilities of employers and educators in relation to disclosure .
The European Access Network encourages wider access to higher education for those who are currently under-represented, whether for reasons of gender, ethnic origin, nationality, age, disability, family background, vocational training, geographic location, or earlier educational disadvantage.
Disabled students pose particular challenges to higher education not only in terms of gaining physical access to buildings, but also in relation to much wider access issues concerning the curriculum, teaching and learning and assessment. For these reasons, they may be seen as a litmus test of the ability of higher education to include a diverse range of learners.
The author argues that Australia needs a tertiary education equity policy, not separate VET & HE policies, and that the diploma is the key qualification for equity in Australia. The presentations addresses questions like: Can pathways be an equity mechanism; Why the diploma is the key; and others.
This paper produces two sets of estimates of future (domestic) student demand for higher education in Australia. The two sets of estimates allow us to consider the capacity of the university sector to accommodate future growth in student numbers (including staff and facilities), and to identify the costs involved, including for the Government which has undertaken to fund student demand at the undergraduate level.
