Indigenous Participation In Higher Education Essay

Introduction

Increasing Indigenous participation and achievement in higher education is an issue of global significance. Scholars from Canada, New Zealand, United States and Australia have been particularly vocal about this issue for multiple decades (Kirkness & Barnhardt 1991; Jefferies 1998; Smith 2000; Deloria 2001; Battiste 2002; Guillory & Wolverton 2008; Behrendt et al 2012). Indeed, within Australia, widening participation in the context of Indigenous higher education has been discussed as a policy priority for more than four decades (Behrendt et al 2012; Anderson 2016; Street et al 2017). Indigenous students have long been identified as a priority population, including one of six equity groups within the Australian higher education

The 2016 Census shows that the proportion of the adult working age population in Australia that has achieved a certificate level qualification as the highest post-school qualification is similar between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians (see Figure 1 below). However, as the level of qualification increases into Diploma/Advanced Diploma, Bachelor and postgraduate awards, there is a stark decrease in completions among Indigenous students. Arguably, this represents a significant inequity within the Australian higher education

Different approaches and activities have emerged that respond to evolving Indigenous higher education and equity policy and program contexts (Anderson 2016; Smith et al 2017a). These include the provision of enabling programs, scholarships, tutorial assistance and academic support, community engagement, partnership development, mentoring, and workforce and leadership capacity building initiatives (Wilks and Wilson 2014; Fredericks et al 2015; Fricker 2015; Hall & Wilkes 2015; Priestly et al 2015; Smith et al 2015; Smith et al 2017b; Wilks, Radnidge & Wilson