The Churchill Fellowship began with a visit to Manchester – a city of great tradition and growth having a city scape dotted with building sites and development – not surprisingly Manchester has one of the largest number of cranes (n=64) within a city centre. My two day visit was with Prof Claire Hamshire and colleagues in order to discuss… Read More
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
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
‘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
As part of the Engaging Families to Engage Learners (EFEL) OLT Fellowship, I have been conducting workshops at various universities across Australia. These workshops are designed to both disseminate findings from previous research conducted with first-in-family learners and also, ‘start conversations’ about how this cohort can be best supported as well as how institutions… Read More