At many institutions, these weeks mark the beginning of university for a new cohort of first year students. Orientation Week (or O Week) is when we invite our commencing students onto campus, generally bombard them with lots of information, perhaps even feed them and generally squeeze as much exposure to the institution as is possible… Read More
Welcome to 2018! Following a slight hiatus on the First-in-Family blogs, I have prioritised a regular blog after receiving data on how many people actually read the blogs in 2016-2017 – with just under 2,000 reads I have been inspired to keep writing! One of the reasons the blog entries diminished was due to my… Read More
This week our blog comes from some University of Wollongong and AIME colleagues who are reflecting upon a five-year research partnership that has explored the success of this Indigenous Mentoring program at a national and international level. Warm regards, Sarah The [AIME] program … was definitely something for me that kept me there [attending… Read More
This month marked the end of the OLT Fellowship with the submission of the final report and evaluation. What a journey! Over the last 18 months I have had the pleasure of meeting a diverse range of stakeholders from across Australia and also, visited cities and towns in nearly all states. I also became closely acquainted… Read More
Despite interventions, national departure rates from Australian universities remain consistently high at 18% but if we focus only on figures, we fail to adequately address the personal impacts that leaving university has on those who do depart. In fact, we know that these departing students are often the most vulnerable in our society and… Read More
The Conversations on Engaging and Retaining First-in-Family Learners in Higher Education on Friday 25th November at the University of Wollongong was the finale for this OLT Fellowship – and what a great day it was! We began planning the forum in earnest in March and drew on what we’d done the previous year for the… Read More
I was recently invited to participate in the National Roundtable on Students as Partners organised by Kelly Matthews – this was part of Kelly’s Fellowship work and was held at University of Queensland in September. The Students as Partners approach to curriculum development and university engagement is broadly defined by authentic collaboration between staff and students both within… Read More
‘My higher education journey was facilitated by the encouragement and guidance of the people around me. The support that I received provided me with a sense of purpose in my studies and a sense of belonging to the university community.’ (Lisa, FiF student 2016) Part of my OLT Fellowship is exploring ways to foreground… Read More
‘I have learnt [university] is not as daunting as I thought…’ (Grandmother of School Student, Survey Respondent 2016) The quote above is derived from research that I have been conducting with the parents / caregivers of future university students, concerning respondents’ perceptions and understandings about university. The data from this research, combined with interviews and surveys… Read More
This week we welcome ‘guest blogger’, Dr Cathy Stone who is currently a NCSEHE Equity Fellow exploring institutional factors affecting the academic success and retention of external, fully online undergraduate students, many of whom are first in their families to enrol in university. With Australian university student numbers set to increase as a result of the demand driven system… Read More