|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Combined Courses of StudyEquity group access and participation at the bachelor (honours/pass) level4.4 Combined course students from low SES backgroundsDespite concerted efforts to attract students from low socio-economic status backgrounds into the higher education sector, Postle et al’s (1996) analysis of enrolment data for the 1991-1995 period confirmed that their access and participation remained unacceptably low. Relative to students with other equity characteristics, this analysis revealed that those from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds not only continued to experience the lowest level of access, but also participated at a rate that was only marginally higher than that of isolated students. Armed with such data, and cognizant of the potential effect of ‘multiple disadvantage’, the National Board of Employment, Education and Training asserted that ‘perhaps … the major factor influencing educational disadvantage is socio-economic disadvantage, and the lack of financial and cultural capital which accompany it’ (1996, p. 63). Subsequently, Dobson, Sharma and Ramsay (1998) have shed further light on the representation of students with one or more equity characteristics in the higher education sector. Their analysis of the 1996 national commencing undergraduate population showed, for example, that approximately 86% of commencing Indigenous students had two or more equity characteristics, as did the majority of low SES students (77%) and rural and isolated students (59%). Significantly, Dobson, Sharma and Ramsay further observed that almost half of the low SES students who commenced undergraduate studies in 1996 were also from rural or isolated locations. As noted in section 4.3, recent research has confirmed that socio-economic factors exert a strong influence on students’ aspirations and attitudes toward higher education. When James et al (1999) asked students what they intended to do when they completed school, 70% of higher SES students indicated that they definitely planned to enter university, compared with 42% of lower SES students. Lower SES students were also far more likely to believe that they might not be able to pursue higher education despite their interest, indicating access issues beyond their aspirations. In the qualitative component of this research, James et al (1999) noted high agreement amongst lower SES students and rural students with respect to numerous factors that discouraged participation, including the relevance and cost of a higher education. Relative to others, lower SES students were also more inclined to agree that their results would not get them into university and that their subject choices would preclude entry into courses of interest. 4.4.1 Background dataStudents from low SES backgrounds comprised 15.1% of all domestic Australian students in the higher education sector in 1997 (90,155 students) and 15.4% in 1999 (92,779 students). In the latter year, the majority of low SES students in higher education were located in Queensland (26,260 students or 28%), New South Wales (22,481 students or 24%) and Victoria (18,252 students or 20%). Across the institutions included in this study, low SES students in combined courses at the bachelor (honours/pass) level accounted for approximately 6.8% of all low SES enrolments. In 1997, the national access rate for low SES students under the age of twenty-five was 16.0%, relative to the national reference value of 25% (DETYA, 1999).15 Access rates at the state/territory level varied from 2.8% in the Northern Territory to 31.7% in Tasmania. Also in this year, the participation ratio for low SES students in the same age bracket was 0.42, relative to the reference value of 1. Thus, the representation of low SES students in higher education was well under half of what could be expected on the basis of national population share. At the state/ territory level, the all-course level participation ratios for low SES students under twenty-five years of age ranged in 1997 from 0.03 in the Northern Territory, through 0.29 (New South Wales and Victoria) to 1.12 in Queensland. Controversy surrounding the use of students’ permanent home address postcodes to measure their socio-economic status has grown over recent years and alternative methods for identifying low SES students, as well as rural and isolated students, have been the subject of recent investigations (Western, McMillan & Durrington, 1998). In view of the perceived unreliability of the current measure, and the impending implementation of an alternative one, access and participation indicators for students from low SES backgrounds in combined courses at the bachelor (honours/pass) level have been calculated here at the national and state/ territory levels only. 4.4.2 Access to combined courses for students from low SES backgroundsIn total, 1,677 students from low socio-economic backgrounds commenced a combined course of study at the bachelor (honours/pass) level in 1997. By 1999, combined course commencements had risen to 2,263 and females accounted for 60.4% of these. Overall, combined course enrolments in 1999 accounted for 8.4% of all bachelor level commencing enrolments by students from low socio-economic backgrounds. The national and state/territory combined course access averages for students from low SES backgrounds between 1997 and 1999 are reported in Table 13. Bearing in mind that the current national reference value for low SES students is 25%, the national combined course averages in the table clearly indicate that both genders have consistently experienced low levels of access to combined courses at the bachelor (honours/pass) level. On closer inspection of the figures, however, it is also apparent that there has been a steady increase in access to combined courses for both genders since 1997 and that, concurrently, the gender gap in access has marginally closed over time. Given that commencing students from low socio-economic backgrounds are obviously significantly under-represented in combined courses, the access rate for all low SES commencers at the bachelor level in 1999 (14.7%) provides another important point of comparison. Using this access indicator as a benchmark, it is noteworthy that females from low SES backgrounds who commenced a combined course at the bachelor (honours/pass) level in 1999 experienced a marginally higher rate of access (15.2%) than did low SES commencers in general. In contrast, males from low SES backgrounds experienced a rate of access to combined courses that was some distance below this benchmark figure (13.1%). Table 13 Commencing combined course students from low SES backgrounds at the bachelor level (Access)
1 Access is the percentage of students from low SES backgrounds in the
combined course commencing student population at the bachelor level. The access
reference value at the Australian level of postcodes is 25.0%. At the state
(general) postcode level, access reference values (1991 census) are as
follows: NSW (20%), VIC (18%), QLD (37%), WA (31%), SA (37%), TAS (37%), NT
(8%) and ACT (0%). From Table 13, it is also apparent that students from low SES backgrounds had variable access to bachelor level combined courses at the state/territory level. Access was highest for both low SES females and males in South Australia, where the 1999 rates were 30.6% and 29.7% respectively. Importantly, these rates not only exceeded the current national reference value but also bore some comparison with the representation rate for low SES people in South Australia’s population (37%). In all other states and territories, low SES students in combined courses were clearly and substantially under-represented in commencing student populations, relative to population share. 4.4.3 Participation in combined courses for students from low SES backgroundsIn 1997, there were a total of 3,883 students from low socio-economic backgrounds participating in combined courses at the bachelor (honours/pass) level. From this base, low SES student enrolments increased to 4,638 in 1998 and, by 1999, totalled 5,917. Between 1997 and 1999, females accounted for an average 59% of low SES student enrolments in combined courses at the bachelor level. The participation indicators for students from low socio-economic backgrounds are presented in Table 14. At the national level, it is evident that the representation of both low SES females and males has increased in a linear fashion since combined course data was first collected in 1997. These gains, however, have been relatively small and thus by 1999 both genders were still a long way from achieving an equitable share of combined course enrolments at the bachelor (honours/pass) level. Given the representation of students from high socio-economic backgrounds in 1999, for example, an improvement of almost 70% would need to be achieved in the participation rate for females from low SES backgrounds before their representation in the combined course student population at the bachelor level could be considered equitable. With an even lower participation rate in 1999 (0.24), a still larger increase in the participation rate for males from low SES backgrounds would be required to achieve parity. Table 14 All combined course students from low SES backgrounds at the bachelor level (Participation)
1 Participation is the proportion of students from low SES backgrounds in
the total combined course student population at the bachelor level, relative
to the proportion of students from high SES backgrounds in the same
population. The participation reference value is 1. Comparing the national combined course participation ratios for low SES students during the 1997ř1999 period with the across-course level ratio obtained in 1997 (under 25 years = 0.42) it is also apparent that low SES students have, at no point in time, participated in bachelor level combined courses at a rate that bears any comparison with their participation in the sector generally. Moreover, if the participation rate for all low SES students at the bachelor level (0.44) is utilised as a benchmark, the extent of their under-representation is further emphasised. Table 14 also points to variability in combined course participation rates for females and males from low socio-economic backgrounds at the state/ territory level. Importantly, no state/ territory had a representation rate for males from low SES backgrounds that approached population equivalence in 1999, with South Australia’s ratio of 0.83 being closest to the reference value of 1. Females from low SES backgrounds were well represented in combined courses at the bachelor level in South Australia (1.04) and their representation rate in Queensland (0.92) also approached the reference value. The 1999 participation ratios for low SES females elsewhere, as with low SES males, point to the conclusion that students from high socio-economic backgrounds are massively over-represented in combined courses at the bachelor (honours/pass) level at the current point in time. 15As 90% or more of all domestic Australian students enrolled in combined courses at the bachelor level during 1997 – 1999 were under 25 years of age, only the 1997 all-course level indicators for low SES background students in the same age group are given here.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
contact
details | search |
archive search | publications
| site map | subscribe Any comments or queries should be sent to: wwweditor@dest.gov.au This page was
last updated on
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
