Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to be underrepresented in the higher education sector across many indicators, including student access, participation and completion rates, and employment of research staff.
On 14 April 2011, Senator the Hon Chris Evans and Senator the Hon Kim Carr announced a Review that will examine how to ensure Australia has a higher education system in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people share equally in the life and career opportunities that a quality higher education sector can provide.
The Review provides the opportunity to consider new strategies to look at higher education access and outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and redress the current inequality, based upon the best available evidence.
The Review is being directed by a Panel chaired by Professor Larissa Behrendt, Professor of Law and Indigenous Studies and the University of Technology, Sydney. Other Panel members are Professor Steve Larkin, Chair of the Indigenous Higher Education Advisory Council (IHEAC) Robert Griew, Associate Secretary, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and Patricia Kelly, Deputy Secretary, Department of Industry, Innovation, Science and Research.
The Review will report its findings to the Australian Government within 12 months.
For the latest news on the Review, please go to the DEEWR website.
Context: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation and outcomes in higher education
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to be underrepresented in the higher education sector. In spite of increased numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher education students, the gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous students has widened over the past decade across a number of indicators including access, participation and completion rates. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff numbers remain low and continue to be concentrated in non-academic positions in institutions. Increasing the number of academic staff also presents a challenge, due to the relatively low number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and staff undertaking research.
Action must be taken to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have access to the life chances that a quality university education provides to ensure equal participation in Australia’s economic and social progress. University students and staff should also benefit from the knowledge and perspectives Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people bring.
The Australian Government recognises the need to transform participation and outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and staff in higher education. This commitment was evident in the Government’s support of the Bradley Review of Higher Education’s recommendation:
‘That the Australian Government regularly review the effectiveness of measures to improve higher education access and outcomes for Indigenous people in consultation with the Indigenous Higher Education Advisory Council (IHEAC).’ Recommendation 30
Increased access and outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in higher education will also contribute to reaching COAG Closing the Gap target to ‘halve the gap in employment outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a decade’ and to support the new generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to succeed in higher education.
Terms of Reference
The Review will deliver on the Government’s commitment to Recommendation 30 of the Bradley Review and contribute to the Government’s achievement of the COAG target.
The Review is to provide advice and make recommendations in relation to:
- achieving parity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, researchers, academic and non-academic staff;
- best practice and opportunities for change inside universities and other higher education providers (spanning both Indigenous specific units and whole-of-university culture, policies, activities, and programs);
- the effectiveness of existing Commonwealth Government programs that aim to encourage better outcomes for Indigenous Australians in higher education; and
- the recognition and equivalence of Indigenous knowledge in the higher education sector.
The Review will propose a strategic framework to enable the Government and the higher education sector to collectively address higher education access and outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to ensure parity in the sector.
The strategic framework will identify key priorities and actions/opportunities for consideration by the Government and the higher education sector to reduce the gaps between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous university students and staff across a range of outcomes.
The Review Panel
The Review will be directed by a Panel of experts, chaired by Professor Larissa Behrendt, Professor of Law and Indigenous Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney. The Panel Members will be the Chair of the Indigenous Higher Education Advisory Council, Professor Steven Larkin, and senior executive representatives from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) and the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science and Research (DIISR). The Panel will consider and incorporate the advice of key stakeholders, especially IHEAC, and will be supported by a joint DEEWR/DIISR Secretariat.
Completion of Review
The Review Panel will report to the Minister for Tertiary Education and the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research within 12 months of its appointment. The Review will produce a strategic framework that will be informed by targeted research and stakeholder consultations and will contain practical recommendations for implementation by the Government and the sector.
Professor Larissa Behrendt
Professor Larissa Behrendt is a Eualeyai/Kamillaroi woman. She was appointed as a Professor of Law and Indigenous Studies in 2001 and was the Director of the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at University of Technology, Sydney, where she now holds the Chair of Indigenous Research.
Larissa is admitted to the Supreme Court of the ACT and NSW as a barrister. She graduated with a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Jurisprudence from the University of New South Wales and a was the first Aboriginal Australian to graduate from Harvard Law School when she gained her Master of Laws and Senior Doctorate of Jurisprudence.
She is a member of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia and of the Australian Academy of Law. She has been the Chair of the College of Experts (Humanities and Creative Arts) of the Australian Research Council and is currently on the Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Committee.
Larissa is a Commissioner at the Land and Environment Court and the Alternate Chair of the Serious Offenders Review Board.
She is the author of several books on Indigenous legal issues. She won the 2002 David Uniapon Award and a 2005 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for her novel Home. Her latest novel, Legacy, was released in 2009 and won a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award.
Larissa is a Board Member of the Museum of Contemporary Art and Chair of the Bangarra Dance Theatre. She was the inaugural chair of National Indigenous Television Ltd. and has been a Director of the Sydney Writers Festival. Larissa is the Ambassador of the Gawura Aboriginal campus at St Andrew’s Cathedral School.
She was named as 2009 NAIDOC Person of the Year and 2011 NSW Australian of the Year.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PhD and Professional Doctorate Graduates Conference
The Indigenous Higher Education Advisory Council (IHEAC) is holding an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PhD and Professional Doctorates Graduates Conference to enable participants to contribute to the current Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People.
The Conference will be held in Canberra 7-8 November and we are inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PhD and Professional Doctorate graduates to attend. If you wish to register for the conference please contact lukas.young@innovation.gov.au for further information.