This report provides an overview of the key issues, identifies the principal challenges and highlights the major policy responses in view of the findings and recommendations from recent research reports funded by the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE). It also draws on an August 2017 submission from the NCSEHE to the...

Education should be seen as a major lever to drive economic development in regional Australia. Issues, policy and funding around school education and transition to work or further education should not be seen in isolation from other issues around regional economic development.

People from equity groups are underrepresented in university degrees associated with high-status professions. The reasons for this are complex and relate to poverty, familial and community norms and expectations, inequitable access to high quality and adequately resourced schooling which affects achievement, and continuing incorrect deficit assumptions related to people’s socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds The application...

Abstract Completion patterns of cohorts enrolled in Regional University Network (RUN) universities are influenced by the sociocultural, structural and economic implications of equity group membership. This report synthesised prior research on the sociocultural and financial context that students at RUN universities encounter, extending a comparative analysis of completion patterns and informing mitigation strategies to enhance...

A small proportion of Australia’s universities, such as RUN’s members, do the ‘heavy lifting’ in terms of providing access to students from low SES backgrounds.