Curtin University is advancing its efforts to promote student equity with the appointment of a new director of the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE).
Professor Sarah O’Shea, an educational equity expert from the University of Wollongong, begins her two-year term this month after replacing Professor Sue Trinidad, who has been NCSEHE director for the last seven years.
Prior to taking up her new post, Professor O’Shea had two decades’ worth of teaching and education equity research experience in the higher education sector.
In the last 10 years, she has received more than $3m in competitive research funding and received the 2019 Research Fellowship to conduct her research on post-graduation outcomes and employment mobility of first-generation college graduates.
This research is being undertaken in partnership with the Centre for Higher Education Equity and Diversity research.
“[Professor O’Shea’s] research advances our understanding of how under-represented student cohorts achieve success at university, manage competing identities and negotiate aspirations for themselves and others,” Curtin University Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Terry said.
“[She will also] provide leadership and managerial support to the running of the NCSEHE and manage research, publishing and administrative functions for the Centre”.
NCSEHE, established in 2013, “plays an important role in strengthening Australia’s higher education through research, collaborations and stakeholder engagement,” Professor O’Shea said.
“I look forward to collaborating with staff, stakeholders and industry partners who are all important contributors to improving the higher education sector for marginalised and disadvantaged people”.
The Centre receives funding from the Federal Government and Training Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program. Aside from hosting the NCSEHE, Curtin University is also considered as a leading university for its efforts to advance diversity and inclusivity within its institution.
More work needed
Despite the racial and cultural diversity in Australia, the education sector is far from inclusive – even when it comes to gender.
Studies show that in the K-12 sector, students from Indigenous as well as disadvantaged backgrounds are behind their wealthier peers between a few months and up to more than a year.
Despite being high-achievers, these students often fail to complete their university degrees or end up not attending university at all.
The same goes for refugees.
In an article published in The Conversation Tebeje Molla – a research fellow at Deakin University – wrote that of the young African refugees with low educational attainments that have arrived in Australia, around only 10% manage to get to university within five years of arrival.
This trend has barely changed in the past 25 years – despite educational attainment being an important factor not only for employment, but also social integration for young refugees (according to a 2008 study published in the Journal of Refugee Studies).
Refugees, like Australians from disadvantaged backgrounds, also face more struggles.
Molla points out that aside from enduring trauma from war, violence, and family separation; they also face high, unrealistic expectations from parents to achieve academic excellence.
To address this, Molla said that equity practitioners in educational institutions also need support from policies to secure needed resources.
“Early intervention is critical. Such intervention can be in the form of expanding tailored educational opportunities at the settlement stage,” Molla wrote.
“These may include intensive lessons on academic skills, information on alternative pathways to university, and supplementary academic support within schools”.