Repository of effective practice

There is a growing body of Australian-based research, publications, presentations, case studies and other resources focusing on low SES students at university. Awareness of resources aimed specifically at supporting low SES students in higher education is variable, access to them is limited and they are currently not available from one central repository that is easily found by busy practitioners, teachers and leaders.

This project involves the selection and collation of high quality resources available to the higher education sector in Australia that are related to teaching and supporting low SES students. Centralising these materials will enable all stakeholders interested in teaching and supporting low SES students to readily access resources that have been vetted and selected by an expert team. Stakeholders will be able to select resources and materials that are relevant for their context and to develop curriculum and other resources based on existing materials of the highest quality. As new research is conducted and new resources created, the repository will be easily updatable and will therefore be a sustainable resource for the Australian higher education sector.

Practitioners and policy makers successfully engaged in curricular and/or co-curricular initiatives, programs and leadership arrangements that contribute to the effective engagement and learning of students from LSES backgrounds have documented their work to share with the sector.

The project team understand that while it is necessary to define students from low SES backgrounds at a policy level and for measuring performance and allocating funds, it is very difficult, and potentially undesirable, to target students from low SES backgrounds individually for teaching and learning or support purposes. We also recognise that good practice in teaching and supporting LSES students benefits all students, so responses to questions about initiatives recorded here were not necessarily restricted to experience with any particular student cohort.

Those who chose to share details of their work gave informed consent and completed a template designed to summarise key details of initiatives. These details are available via the table below. Click on the hyperlinks to find an outline of each initiative as well as contact details for further information.

If you would like to contribute materials or resources for the repository or project, please do not hesitate to contact a member of the team.

Program/Initiative	University	Category
The “Ask JAN” Project	Deakin University	Policy/Curriculum/Program
COMPASS Program	University of Sydney	Curriculum
CSU Equity Scholarship	Charles Sturt University	Program
Cultural Diversity and Inclusive Practice (CDIP) Toolkit	Flinders University	Policy/Curriculum/Program
Curriculum Development to support widening participation	University of Sydney	Curriculum/Other
Embedding Legal Academic Skills	Victoria University	Curriculum/Program
Embedding PASS Facilitators Program	University of Western Sydney	Curriculum/Program
Financial Assistance Scheme	University of Western Sydney	Policy/Program
First Year Advisor Program	Murdoch University	Policy/Program/Other
First Year Theory Units	University of Tasmania	Curriculum
FYSCO - Partnering with academics to support commencing students	University of Western Sydney	Program
JumpSTART Program	Curtin University	Program
KickSTART Program	Curtin University	Program
Mainstreaming Academic Skills Development	Victoria University	Curriculum
MATES@UWS	University of Western Sydney	Program
Mature Age Student Starting-out and Introduction to e-Learning Workshops	University of Western Sydney	Program
Peer Assisted Tutorials	Victoria University	Curriculum/Program
Postgraduate Meeting Place	University of Queensland	Program/Other
Study Link Program	Charles Sturt University	Curriculum/Program/Other
Student Mentor Program (SMP)	Charles Sturt University	Program
Succeed@Deakin Program	Deakin University	Policy/Curriculum/Program
Team Teaching Literacy and Learning Skills in HE	Victoria University	Curriculum/Program
Transitions Project	University of Queensland	Program/Other
Transition Success Project	University of Western Sydney	Program
Trident	Victoria University	Curriculum/Program
UniPASS Program	Curtin University	Program
Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Support Bursary	Deakin University	Policy
Work Placement Program	Deakin University	Program
The Writing Space	Victoria University	Program