Increasing participation of rural and regional students in higher education

Abstract

Regional and rural students in Australia face unique challenges when aspiring to higher education. These challenges reflect systematic disadvantage experienced by rural and regional populations as a whole. In an effort to redress these inequities, and aided by the Australian Government's Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP), the University of Canberra's flagship Aspire UC Schools Outreach Program involves multiple in-school sessions for students in years 7-10. This article presents findings from the delivery of this program to nearly 3000 students in 2012. Increased considerations of post-school study and work options were seen across all year levels and across all options, with greatest increases evident for university aspirations, and by Year 10 students. Moreover, girls exhibited greater positive changes in post-program aspirations than did boys. The program's success is attributed to its depth and intensity and the concomitant recognition of the distinctive nature of rural and regional communities.

Influences on the intention to enter higher education: the importance of expected returns

“…The lower participation rate of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds is commonly attributed to lower levels of parental education and to an associated deficit in the aspirations and motivations of lower SES families (Albert 2000;Archer and Yamashita 2003;Petrongolo and San Segundo 2002). Social class disadvantage is often linked to other factors acting as barriers to tertiary education entry such as low grades and rural residence (Fleming and Grace 2014;Weiss and Steininger 2013). In addition to familial variables, social influences on the demand for higher education include peers and friends (Barber and Olsen 1997;Connor 2001;Forste, Heaton, and Haas 2004).…”

“…Moreover, individual characteristics such as gender, race and ethnic origin are also important influences on the decisions of prospective students. In many cases, women are more likely to attend university even though they tend to be over-represented in vocational and/or less competitive subjects and university types (Coffield and Vignoles 1997;Fleming and Grace 2014;Ioakimidis and Hartog 2014). Research has also identified major differences in demand patterns between whites and other groups (Borus and Carpenter 1984;Ordovensky 1995;Tolley and Rundle 2006).…”

Aspiration, achievement and access: The ACT-Indigenous Success pathway to university

“…Each program has a specific focus (e.g., in-class schools outreach program, university campus visits, and educational camps) but all work to achieve the ultimate goal of increasing participation in higher education by students who might not consider this option. These programs have already demonstrated considerable success in raising aspirations e.g., increased interest in higher education in general (Fleming & Grace, 2014a), in university specifically (Fleming & Grace, 2015a), in changing views, to be more positive, about university (Fleming & Grace, in press), and in breaking down barriers to higher education (Fleming & Grace, 2014b;2015b) An important feature of these and many other widening participation programs is that they are explicitly designed to provide information and guidance to students that will help them consider their full range of post-school options and to enhance students' educational outcomes. Together, this has the effect of potentially raising students' aspirations and improving the possibility of those aspirations being realised.…”

Are university widening participation activities just-in-time or just-out-of-time? Exploring the (mis)alignment between the timing of widening participation activities and university decision-making among students from low socioeconomic backgrounds

“…For example, interests in science were highest during middle high school, whereas interests in education and engineering became more prevalent towards the end of senior high school. However, Fleming and Grace (2014) found that student aspirations were highest during Year 7 (junior high school) but steadily dropped because of the influence of LSES and associated social capital. Furthermore, career interests also differed by gender.…”

“…Gore et al (2017b) found that both males and females develop interests in careers typical of their gender stereotypes. Boys were found to prefer science, mathematics and computing, while girls favoured humanities, social sciences and home sciences (Fleming & Grace, 2014).…”